FATHER A. MONSERRATE’S MONG.OLICAE LEGATIONIS COMMENTARIUS. 
521 
could have introduced into the text, that the Calcutta MS. is not a copy, but Mon- 
serrate’s original MS., such as it came from his pen in his prison of Sanaa. 
This, in brief, is the earlier history of the volume. After his return from 
Fatehpur to Goa, at the end of August (?), 1582, 1 Monserrate prepared to go to 
Portugal and Rome in company with Abdul, Akbar’s Ambassador , 1 the same who 
had come to Goa in 1579 an d invited, the Jesuits in Akbar’s name to Fatehpur. But, 
as only one ship was to set sail for Portugal that year, and it was deemed below the 
dignity of Akbar’s representative to go to Lisbon without a suitable escort, Abdul and 
Monserrate were requested to wait till the next year. Monserrate lost no time in 
sending to Europe a report of his late experiences at Fatehpur and of his journey to 
Kabul. Prince Frederic von Schleswig-Holstein (Graf von Noer) wrote in 1880: 
c< An excellent report (anonymous) dated from Goa, Nov. 26, 1582, is in my hands. 
It describes the state of things at Akbar’s Court, and is a copy from the Spanish 
Archives obtained by the good offices of Don Pascual de Guayangos.” 3 
Count von Noer’s copy may be still in existence ; but, that of the Spanish 
Archives seems to have met with a different fate. When I was at Madrid,” writes 
Clements Markham, Don Pascual de Guayangos gave me a copy of a very interest- 
ing Spanish Manuscript by an anonymous missionary (probably Aquaviva) who des- 
cribes the personal appearance and habits of Akbar. It was left at the Asiatic Society, 
before Mr. Vaux’s time, and was mislaid. Don Pascual has also mislaid the original, 
so that the loss is irremediable.” + 
From the quotations made by Count von Noer regarding the Gujarat and Kabul 
campaigns I concluded in 1907 that the f f excellent anonymous report ’ ’ was the work 
of Monserrate . 6 On better grounds now than then am I justified in concluding the 
same. 
Through the kindness of a confrere in Europe, I received in 1910 a photographic 
facsimile of the cc anonymous report ” from Goa, November 26, 1582. It is in Portu- 
guese, covers pp. 7J foolscap, and was sent ‘ 2 a via,’ i.e., it was a duplicate. How 
many copies were made of it at Goa, or how many in Europe, we do not know. The 
copy before me is not in Monserrate’ s own hand, though evidently it is one of his 
lucubrations. Excellent as it is, it is a very inferior document compared with the 
Calcutta MS. At best, it is a rapid character-sketch of Akbar, an abstract of Monser- 
rate’ s diary. 6 Between September (?) and November 26, 1582, Monserrate had 
little time, and, besides, what he could not write then, he expected to be able to relate 
by word of mouth the next year in Portugal. The next year all was changed. In 
February 1583, Blessed Rudolf Aquaviva left Akbar’s Court. There was no hope 
1 Monserrate had arrived at Surat, on his way back to Goa, on August 4th, 1582. Cf. fob 1036. 3. 
2 Cf. MS. fol. 104&. 1. 
3 Cf. Count von Noer, The Emperor Akbar, translated and in part revised by Annette S. Beveridge, Calcutta, 
Thacker, 1890, vol. I, pp. 331-2. — von Noer’s Kaiser Akbar had appeared in 1880. 
4 Cf. Akbar , An Eastern Romance, by Dr. P. A. S. Van Limburg-Brouwer. Translated from the Dutch by M. M. 
with notes and an introductory life of Akbar by Cl. R. Markham, London, Allen, 1879, p. xxxi. 
6 Cf. VON Noer, Kaiser Akbar (1880), Vol. II, pp. n-12; 77-78; 81-82; 97-98. Cf. also Jesuit Missionsto Emperor 
Akbar, by E. D. MaCEAGAn, C.S., from notes recorded by the late GEnerae Maceagan, R.E., Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng-, 
1896, p. 47. 6 I have published it in J.A.S.B., 1912, pp. 185-221. 
