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pinch of extreme poverty, he provided him liberally with the means of subsistence, 
and made him resume the dress and profession of a Christian. He kept a devout 
image of the Queen of Heaven with the Infant Jesus in her arms, and bowed to it 
and worshipped it before the Barons of his Court. A coarse and impious Mulasso, 
who had dared to blaspheme the perpetual [ 1 * 2 ] virginity of Mary, had been banished 
from the Court, and had been within an ace of having not only his tongue pulled 
out, but his throat cut. Finally, he had not unfrequently said that he wished to 
erect for the Fathers, either in Agra or in Fahor, or in his own city of Fatipur, a 
church which would eclipse in size and magnificence our St. Paul’s at Goa. In 
addition to those more proximate dispositions preparing him to receive from God 
the light of Faith and the grace of salvation, Achabar possessed other excellent 
natural qualities, a keen intellect, earnestness in searching after the truth, sagacity 
in discerning falsehood, and those moral virtues which every Christian ought to 
pride on. He had a tender love for the poor, and did good to whoever had recourse 
to him. He was upright and impartial in the administration of justice, and when he 
wanted, he was so terrible that a mere glance of his eye lighting on any one meant for 
his attendants that they must cut him down. Withal, he was so circumspect and 
slow in dealing with criminals, that the death -sentence was not executed against 
any condemned person , until his royal ‘‘Maitredes requetes” had asked his leave 
three times the same day. A great admirer of all noble virtues, he was ready to 
honour with dignities and wealth, and admit to his familiarity and intimacy, any 
man, [ 13 ] even of the lowest pedigree, who possessed in a more than ordinary degree 
accomplishments for peace or war. Still, in this he took the useful precaution that 
those whom he raised to such eminence should have no cause for pride, as is but too 
often the case with such as rise from a low degree to high estate. For this, he 
ordained that, whatever the dignity to which any of them had been raised, some 
instrument of his former office should be carried before him in public. There was 
one distinguished for his valour; but, as he was born a poor labourer, a squire 
was always carrying before him on top of a lance a golden hoe, both to recall him 
to a sense of modesty at the thought of his humble extraction, and of gratitude for 
one who, in his case, had changed a peasant’s hoe into a general’s staff, and from 
a rustic had set him in command . 1 These, with not a few others of the same kind, 
were the worthy considerations then made in praise of Achabar. 
“The Ambassador, conducted from the S. Iago, which lay two or three nautical 
miles off Goa, made his solemn entrance, the whole of the Portuguese nobility 
welcoming him. A part of them met him as he alighted on the shore; the rest 
expected him at the palace. [ 14 ] A great train of cavaliers then accompanied 
him to our College of St. Paul, where he presented to the Provincial the letters 
of his King with the amplest patents, so that, from their first entrance into the 
states of his Crown up to their arrival at his Court of Fatipur, the Fathers who 
were to be sent might be received, provided for and, if need be, protected, as persons 
i Qaslru Khan, Akbar’s chief engineer, is meant. Cf. J.A.S.B., 1912 , P- 201 n - 4- 
