MIRZA ZU-L-QARNAIN, A CHRISTIAN GRANDEE. 129 



" An old woman had for more than sixty years remained stubborn in her 

 idolatry. She followed the superstitious sect of what they call here Jogin.' Hearing 

 Prince Mirza's preaching and his pious exhortations, she resolved to become a 

 Christian. And so, after a year's trial — in order to confirm her in the Faith, — she 

 was solemnly baptized, to the great satisfaction of all, and with the hope of con- 

 verting others. Another, a lady of rank, wished to become a Christian, chiefly, she 

 said, because the religion of that Father of ours, whom she saw daily assisting 

 people in dying well and burying the poor, could not be false. Such then is the power, 

 even on the heart of Barbarians, of the example of Christian piety and mercy. 



" Last June one of our priests 2 was sent to Goa in order to negotiate with the 

 Superiors the foundation of a College of the Society [170] at Agra, the capital of 

 Mogor, which Prince Mirza wishes to found on a yearly revenue of fifteen hundred 

 scudi. 



"During his journey, the Father did not neglect to labour for Christ and make 

 himself useful to the souls of the Barbarians among whom he passed. God grant 

 for His glory, for the confusion of Maomettan obduracy, and the good of those 

 idolaters, that the affairs of the Agra College may go on improving." 



Mission of Mogor and its Residences. 3 — [P. 336] " We continue cultivating the [ad. 1624] 

 Christianity of this great Empire. It grows and would grow still more, if we had 

 labourers, the want of them being greatly felt in this premier Province of the East. 4 

 For just reasons, a Father has again been stationed in the Residence of Laor 

 [Lahore]. At Sambar and at Agra they have laboured as much as these places 



admit of 



' Last year two sons of the Seraphic Father St. Francis came to Sambar 

 [Sambhar], and this year two others came with their Commissary, a Religious of 

 great talents, and one who has well merited of his office 6 



[341] ' Mirza Zulcarnen continues to give much edification, and to show much 

 zeal for the cause of Christianity. We hope of him that he will promote much the 

 new Christianity of this country, and that of [Portuguese] India." 



Michel Angelo Lualdi's account in U India Orientate soggettata at Vangelo, Roma, 



1 Was she a jogin or merely a Hindu, devout to some jogi, or did slie belong to a caste of Hindus, called jogi, who 

 are commonly weavers ? The word jogi was used very loosely by the old authors. 2 June 1620. Fr. J. de Castro. 



5 The Annual Letter of Goa for 1622 is missing in Lettere Annve d' Etiopia, Malabar, Brasil, e Goa, daW Anno 1620 



fin' al 1624 Roma, Francisco Corbeletti, MDCXXVII. As for the letter from Mogor for 1623, it is said in the Annual 



letter of Goa for 1623 that a special relation would be sent. We may take it, therefore, that the extracts here given for 

 Mogor from the Letter of Goa, December 15, 1624, refer to 1624. In fact, the information from Mogor finishes with a 

 letter from Father Antonio d' Andrada, Badrinath, May 16, 1624, and it contains a letter about Mogor of July 14, 1624, 

 which relates Fr. Jos. de Castro's return from Ajmer to Agra before Christmas, his visit to Kashmir in J ahangir's 

 company, their return to Agra, and Prince Khurram's defeat near Allahabad. 



* The Province of Goa. 



5 The Commissary's name alone is found— Father Francis of Madrid. In a letter dated 14th July 1624, he writes 

 his impressions of Sambhar and Agra to the Provincial of Goa. " Before penetrating further into the interior," he says 

 (op. cit., p. 337), " I met at Sambar Fr. Francis Corso [Corsi], whose Christian community is so well instructed that one 

 could desire nothing better. The rare virtues displayed by that Father in that ministry drew from my eyes tears of joy 

 and the charity with which he received us was equal to all his other virtues. From there I went to Agra, where I found 



two other Fathers " The object of these five Franciscans in visiting Mogor does not appear; but, we understand 



that, coming to Agra, they would not neglect to pay a visit to Mirza Zu-1-Qarnain at Sambhar and thank him for his 

 liberalities to their Order. 



