138 H. HOSTEN ON 



" ' The foundation of the Prince Mirza is accepted with the gratitude due to one 

 so great and so devoted to the Society and to the Christian weal ; and the examples 

 of his life, which your Reverence described, well show how much God has imparted 

 Himself to him. Doubtless, He has chosen him to be the pillar of that small church, 

 and the foundation of the great one we hope to see raised in those Provinces. Let 

 your Reverence assist him and try to serve him in everything, as is due to so noble a 

 heart in return for the favours he bestows on us.' 



" After this announcement and good news, we hoped that the [diploma of the[ 

 foundation would come at once from Rome; but, in the year 1625, seeing that it 

 was so long delayed, I, being again Superior of the Mission, 1 wrote lengthily about 

 this affair to the Fr. Visitor, Andre Palmeiro, 2 and complained lovingly that there 

 should have been so much forgetfulness in a matter of such moment. The Father 

 answered me by the present letter here appended : — 



" ' To Fr. Francisco Corsi of the Society of Jesus. 

 Foi. G 7 6r. " ' With regard to making Mirza Founder j| of a College, which Your Reverence 



spoke to me about, this matter was referred to Our Reverend Father General years ago, 

 and it was done also at the last Congregration, [the proceedings of] which Fr. 

 Manoel Mendez has now brought us with its answers. 3 There is a special answer to 

 your Reverence's petition. I shall put it down here, both the application and the 

 answer to it. 



c( ' It was represented on behalf of the Mogol Mission that the noble Mirza 

 Zulcarnen — such is his devotion and charity towards the Society and the whole of that 

 Mission — was offering willingly to invest the sum of money required for a yearly revenue 

 of one thousand five hundred xerafins/ a sum sufficient for maintaining the labourers 

 of that Mission and supporting the poor Christians. This had been done heretofore 

 with the King's alms, now greatly reduced. It is asked that he be received as founder 

 of a Collegium inchoatum for that Mission. The whole Congregation therefore petitions 

 Our Reverend Father to comply with the wishes of so great a man, one who has so well 

 deserved of the Society, and to have regard to the interests of that Mission.' 



" ' The answer is as follows : — 



" 'We complied long ago with the pious wishes of that excellent gentleman. 

 May the All-Good God increase the growth of the fruits of his justice 6 and finish what 

 He has begun in him and through him. The interests of the Mogol Mission, one of 



1 Fr. Corsi must have succeeded as Superior of the Mission to Fr. Antonio d' Andrade, who went a first time to 

 Tibet in 1624 and returned thither in 1625. 



2 He had come to India in 1617. 



8 Fr. Mflnoel Mendez came to India in 1625 with eleven companions : ten Portuguese, and one a Pole. The date of their 

 embarking at Lisbon and of their arrival at Goa is not stated in A. Franco, S.J., Op. cit. 



* The xerafin is calculated as equivalent to somewhat less than 15. 6d. in Hobson-Jobson Its value has varied. In 

 one of the quotations of Hobson-Jobson (1st edn. , p. 743) it is equal at Bombay to 5 tangas (a.d. 1675) ; (ibid,, p. 867) 

 it is equal to a cruzado (a.d. 1540); in 1653, at Goa, it represents 6 tangas; and I find in Faria y Souza, Asia 

 Portnguesa, III, 363, No. 12, that it was equal to about a real of eight in 1636. Now a real of eight or a peso was worth 

 Rs. 2 of the then currency. 



& 2 Cor. ix. 10. 



