128 H. HOSTEN ON 



alms of fifteen hundred scudi, and five hundred more for the other Fathers in Mogor. 1 

 But our Fathers are not the only recipients of the liberality of this Christian Prince. 

 He extends it to the rest of the Christians, and even to the poor Gentoos. 



" A Christian, one of the chief citizens, lying near death, wished to make his 

 will ; but he found his debts were so considerable that, if he wanted to satisfy his 

 creditors, he must deprive his children of much which they could not miss. The 

 poor sick man was in sore perplexity. When this most liberal Prince came to hear 

 of it, he went to see him, consoled him and promised that he would pay off his 

 debts, even if he survived. And so he did, thus showing how strong a hold charity 

 and compassion can take of a Christian heart. 



" At this time a great scarcity 1 and penury of food [168] was harassing the 

 Gentoos. For the last five years the rain had failed. The sky had seemed of brass. 

 A great number of people flocked to the city of our Mirza, and the good Prince, 

 moved with pity, ordered a rich Gen too to distribute daily to his people a sufficient 

 quantity of food, with which he would regularly supply him. This man did so for 

 many days, when Mirza began to scruple whether he could in conscience perform, 

 through a barbarian, an enemy of Christ, this pious work of feeding the famished. 

 He sought the advice of the Father who is with him, and was asked on that occasion 

 why he used for so holy an object the services of a Gentoo rather than of a Christian. 

 ' Because, Father,' was the pious Prince's answer, ' there is not a single man among 

 the Christians rich enough to make people believe that he exercises this charity 

 towards the poor at his own expense. If a Christian were to give such alms in this 

 city, all would at once think that evidently I am behind it. Therefore, to avoid 

 vain glory in this matter, I thought of employing this rich Gentoo whom many 

 will probably imagine to be the giver of these alms. 



"At all the most solemn feasts of the year, Mirza sends to the Father a large 

 sum of money to be distributed in alms among the poor Christians. His kindness 

 towards those who come from Paganism is beyond words. [169] He helps and assists 

 them in all their needs, that they may be confirmed in the Holy Faith. He does the 

 same in the case of orphan girls, who otherwise would be in danger. He presents 

 them with dowries, and marries them according to their rank, thus placing their 

 virtue beyond the reach of temptation. In a word, Prince Mirza is among these 

 Mogorese another apostle, a second St. Paul, who becomes omnibus omnia, ut omnes 

 Christo lucrifaciat (all things to all men, that he may save all). 3 Kind to all, the 

 pillar of this Christianity, the only refuge of all the afflicted, he not only procures to 

 all the bodily assistance they may want, but ministers with even greater success to 

 their souls. 



1 The scudo, like the cruzado, was then valued at Rs. 2. In 1633, Mirza Zu-1-Qarnain was made to pay to Shah Jahan 

 R.s. 800,000, and this sum is converted by the Jesuits into 400,000 scudi or cruzados. Hence, the scudo has been 



reckoned too low in Sir R. C Temple's edn. of Travels of Peter Muhdy, II. 379. 



2 •' This apparently refers to some local scarcity of food in the Sambhar district in 1620. There is no other men- 

 tion of it, so far as I know. The great famine in the West of India occurred in 1630 " Sir Richard Carnac Temple, 



op. cit., II, 378 n. 1. 



3 Adapted from 1 Cor. ix. 22. 



