Christ's followers, which her race has now forever lost the power to enforce, and which God Almighty has taken providential care shall not only remain unanswered, but be reversed to the very letter.
The circumstances were these: Prior to the days of Shah Jehan and his wife, the Portuguese, attracted by the fame and the wealth of the great Akbar and his sons, had found their way to India, establishing themselves as traders and merchants, on the west coast at Goa and on the east at Hooghly, near the present Calcutta. Some, who were artisans, reached Agra, the imperial city, where they were employed by the Government chiefly in the duties of the artillery, the arsenals and founderies, and a few as artists. The emoluments of office, for arts which they were thus introducing, were very large, and soon attracted great numbers to Agra, so that Monsieur Thevenot, who visited Agra in 1666, tells us that the Christian families there were estimated to have been about twenty-five thousand—an exaggeration doubtless. Still their number must have been large; and among them were some Italians and Frenchmen, as is evident from their tombs, which are still extant in the Roman Catholic cemetery at Agra, where the dates of several are still visible on the head-stones, ranging from the year 1600 to 1650.
Akbar and Shah Jehan allowed these people the free exercise of their religion. Indeed, the former built them a church, and used to take pleasure in presiding at discussions where he matched the Romanist priests against his Pundits and Moulvies, and seemed to enjoy the theological battles between them. Feeble as the light was which thus penetrated the imperial household, it did not shine in vain, for some of Akbar's household were actually baptized and professed the Christian faith.
Roman Catholicism never had a grander opportunity than it enjoyed at Agra during those sixty years. Had it been a pure Christianity it might have won over the house of Tamerlane to the faith, and perhaps have saved all India long since. But it failed utterly, and won only a grave-yard at Agra. These thousands
