MIRZA ZU-L-QARNAIN, A CHRISTIAN GRANDEE 



135 



and gave Fr. Jeronimo Xavier a voucher to the effect that he owed twenty-seven Foi. 673^ 

 thousand Rupees, left by his father for the rest of his soul. 1 And, according as 

 Mirza kept paying, it was noted down in the said voucher, as follows : — 



Cl Memo of payments made by M. Zulcarnen in compliance with his obligation 



towards his father's will. 



We received from M. Zulcarnen six thousand Rupees sent to 



the Armenian Fathers in Jerusalem 

 Other one thousand Rupees sent to the Fathers of St. 



Francis in Jerusalem 

 Other one thousand Rupees, of which Rs. 500 were sent to 



Halepo, and Rs. 500 to Bethlehem, to the Fathers of 



St. Francis 

 We sent to Goa for Masses 

 Mirza gave for sundry marriages 

 He gave again to Fr. Jeronimo Xavier, when he went to Goa 



at the King's order 

 He gave again for his father's tomb and chapel 

 Fr. Jeronimo Xavier also gave Mirza a paper good for one 



thousand Rupees to be spent at [his] discretion on 



pious works, by the terms of the above-said will 

 Fr. Antonio Machado, being Superior, also gave Mirza a 



paper in the said form to the value of 



Total of the above 



Rs. 



6,000 



1,000 



1,000 

 400 



620 



490 

 3,000 



1,000 



500 



14,010 



Fol. 6747. 



" In the year 1614, the Portuguese having seized at Surat a ship belonging to 

 the King's subjects, they ordered us to close our churches in these parts/ and took 

 from us the alms which the King used to give us ; hence, to maintain ourselves and the 

 poor Christians, we were obliged to melt down (desfazer) and sell two gold chalices 

 and the candlesticks and other silver furniture of the church, and we were, so to say, 

 constrained to stop giving the ordinary alms to many widows and poor Christians. 

 M. Zulcarnen, on learning this, said to Fr. Jeronimo Xavier that he would keep on 

 his establishment all the Christians who would be willing (in fact, he kept many, 

 both foot and horse), and that he would give to all the widows and other poor 

 Christians the same alms as they used to receive daily. To this effect, he began 

 from the month of July of the year 1614 to give us every month two hundred rupees 

 deducible from his debt, and we received it monthly and put it down in the aforesaid 



1 i.e., Rs. 20,000, as shown by the total in our list above, and Rs. 7,000 agreed upon between Fr. Jerome Xavier and 

 M. Zu-1-Qarnain as constituting one-fourth of what did not belong to Jahangir. 



2 The Jesuit Letters of the period (MSS.) and the letters of the English factors contain much information on this 

 incident. Cf. e.g., W. XoEL Satnsbury, Calendar of State Papers (1513-1616), London, 1862, pp. 251, 258, 259, 260, 316, 

 321, 327, 331, 333, 334, 346, 349, 357. 



