178 H. HOSTEN ON 



also obvious reasons against supposing that J. P. de Bourbon was the father of Mlrza 

 Sikandar senior by a Syrian woman from Aleppo. Yet, one • of the versions of the 

 Bourbon story gives one Alexander as the son of J. P. de Bourbon. 1 Was de Bour- 

 bon perhaps the father of f Abdu-l-Hayy and 'Abdu-llah ? How is it possible ? 



The version recorded by Rousselet in India and its Native Princes, p. 428 sqq., 

 seems to bring us close to our own story of Mlrza Zu-1-Qarnain and his father. 

 Prince J. P. de Bourbon, it says, after long serving Akbar, would have died at Agra, 

 leaving two sons, whom he had by a Georgian slave of the palace, and the eldest of 

 these two sons, Alexander de Bourbon, as Sikandar de Bourbon, became the favourite 

 of Jahanglr, who granted him the hereditary office of Governor of the Palace of the 

 Begams, beside the important fief of Sirgarh (Shergarh). Georgian and Armenian are 

 practically interchangeable. 



These coincidences notwithstanding, we cannot suppose that there were at the 

 same time about Akbar 's seraglio two Julianas alike in description, the one known 

 through the Jesuits, the other only through the hereto obscure family traditions of 

 the Bourbons of Bhopal, and we must conclude that J. P. de Bourbon's wife was not 

 a Juliana. 



If some papers now in the possession of the Rev. Father S. Noti, S.J., formerly 

 of St. Xavier's College, Bombay, can be relied on, J. P. de Bourbon's wife was an 

 Abyssinian princess by the name of Magdalena, and he remained faithful to her till the 

 end. 2 These papers show that Akbar had made him Raja of Shergarh near Narwar,and 

 that he was still alive in 1606, when he was either 85 or 89 years old. By his wife 

 Magdalena he had two sons : Alexander, born in about 1550 when he was Governor 

 of Diu, and Saveil (Charles?), born to him at Shergarh, about 1560, i.e., after the 

 capture of Chitor (sic). 3 More I cannot say in this direction without violating 

 another's literary property. Wonderfully enough, J. P. de Bourbon's name and his 

 titles never come under the pen of the Jesuits. 



The only story of a Frenchman which has some resemblance with the adventures 

 of J. P. de Bourbon is the following in the Jesuit letters of 1608-09. It agrees a 

 great deal with the Bourbon story in Father Noti's hands. 



' ' A Frenchman of good talent (de bo entendimento) , a great workman at casting 

 artillery, was taken by the Turks in the Mediterranean Sea in front of Marseilles and 

 taken to Algiers, where they made him by force a Moar. While going as a soldier in 

 the galleys of Algiers, he was taken by the Christians and kept in prison in the 

 monastery of St. Francis of Valenca in Aragao [Aragon]. Wishing to lead a free 

 life (co as saudades da vida larga), he fled from there, travelled through Spain, Italy, 

 Egypt, Ethiopia, and parts of India, and finally came to L,ahor and Agra with his 

 wife and children (filhos). The King made him Captain of 200 horse. He related 

 many things of the Christians, chiefly about the many miracles of Our Lady of 

 Monserrate. He fell ill, and, as he already knew Father Xavier, he called him, and, 



1 Sir J. Malcolm, A Memoir of Central India, III. 341 n. 



2 Is it a mere coincidence that the nurse of Zu-1-Qarnain's children also bore the name of Magdalen ? 



3 Chitor was taken in Feb. 1568. 



