514 
SUPPLEMENT TO THE TEXT OF 
1 148 j The occasion which the Mogol had for calling the Fathers, was the follow* 
ing: — Though King Equebar was a Moor by profession, as all the Mogols are, 
the sect of Muhammad ( Mafamede ) did not satisfy him, and he felt inclined towards the 
Eaw of Christ on account of the information given him by some Portuguese ; he rever- 
enced the cross and sacred images, especially those of Christ Our Ford and of His holy 
Mother, and so did many grandees of his Court. Once he asked a renegade Christian 
what miracles he had seen Muhammad perform that he should have become a Moor ; 
and he ordered him to take off his turban and live like a Christian. That he might 
have a living, he gave him an honourable position. He banished from the Court a 
certain Caciz who thought ill of the purity of the Queen of Angels. These good 
dispositions of Equebar were greatly increased by the action of two Fathers of the 
Society, who had gone on a mission to Bengala. Adopting the safer and more 
probable opinion, where perchance the contrary opinion is probable, they refused 
absolution to the Christian merchants who did not pay the taxes justly due to 
the Mogol. Fr. Antonio Vaz, one of the two Missionaries, sought to exonerate 
the consciences of the Portuguese in the matter of these restitutions. Through Pero 
Tavares he obtained from the King a deed condoning to our merchants all the taxes 
of which they had defrauded the exchequer up to the present year 1579, an d he 
wrote to this effect to the Viceroy of India. It was a case for applying our proverb: 
Moor, what thou hast not rightly got, 
Do give it us for love of God. 
From the uprightness of the two Missionaries in Bengala, and the petition of Pero 
Tavares, his favourite, the King concluded to the purity and truth of the Law of 
Christ; and, wishing to be more fully instructed in it, he summoned a virtuous 
priest called Gileanes Pereyra, to know from him what he had still to learn. Pereyra 
possessed more virtue than letters; hence, after answering what he knew, he said to 
the King that he was a dunce compared with the men of letters to be found in Goa, 
and that His Majesty might call for some to be fully informed of all the mysteries of 
the Gospel. And as [149 ] the fame of the Fathers of St. Paul was flying on broad wings 
all over Industan, this was the reason why we were chosen to go to Equebar. We 
speak the truth, and do not boast of the choice. Some suspected, with much founda- 
tion, that Equebar’s wish was to make a compromise between Christ and Muhammad, 
to devise a new law, — a compromise between the falsehoods of the Alcoran and the 
truths of the Gospel, — and thus obtain from the world the title of Lawgiver; that for 
this he sought the aid of the Fathers, just as Muhammad helped himself with the Monk 
Sergius, a Nestorian heretic. But, if such was the King’s intention, he did not 
choose the right secretaries. 
l5 When the Ambassador’s proposal was known, great difficulties came in 
the way of the Fathers’ going. The Count Viceroy, who had much ex- 
perience of India, was of opinion that the Fathers should not go to the Mogol. He 
feared that Equebar sought to keep them as hostages, and thus oblige the Captains of 
Damao, Dio, and of the armadas of the North to overlook his encroachments 
