of the deceased Khusru.  Shahryar’s troops were defeated; he was taken prisoner, and had his eyes put out forthwith, and the Empress was put into close confinement.  As Shah Jahan approached Lahore with his army, Asaf put his puppet, Bulaki, and his younger brother, with the two young sons of Daniyal, into prison, where they were strangled by a messenger sent on for the purpose by Shah Jahan, with the sanction of Asaf.[22] This measure left no male heir alive of the house of Timur (Tamerlane) in Hindustan, save Shah Jahan himself and his four sons.  Dara was then thirteen years of age, Shuja twelve, Aurangzeb ten, and Murad four;[23] and all were present to learn from their father this sad lesson—­that such of them who might be alive on his death, save one, must, with their sons, be hunted down and destroyed like mad dogs, lest they might get into the hands of the disaffected, and be made the tools of faction.

Monsieur de Thevenot, who visited Agra, as I have before stated, in 1666, says, ’Some affirm that there are twenty-five thousand Christian families in Agra; but all do not agree in that.  The Dutch have a factory in the town, but the English have now none, because it did not turn to account.’  The number must have been great, or so sober a man as Monsieur Thevenot would not have thought such an estimate worthy to be quoted without contradiction.[24] They were all, except those connected with the single Dutch factory, maintained from the salaries of office; and they gradually disappeared as their offices became filled with Muhammadans and Hindoos.  The duties of the artillery, its arsenals, and foundries, were the chief foundation upon which the superstructure of Christianity then stood in India.  These duties were everywhere entrusted exclusively to Europeans, and all Europeans were Christians, and, under Shah Jahan, permitted freely to follow their own modes of worship.  They were, too.  Roman Catholic, and spent the greater part of their incomes in the maintenance of priests.  But they could never forget that they were strangers in the land, and held their offices upon a precarious tenure; and, consequently, they never felt disposed to expend the little wealth they had in raising durable tombs, churches, and other public buildings, to tell posterity who or what they were.  Present physical enjoyment, and the prayers of their priests for a good berth in the next world, were the only objects of their ambition.  Muhammadans and Hindoos soon learned to perform duties which they saw bring to the Christians so much of honour and emolument; and, as they did so, they necessarily sapped the walls of the fabric.  Christianity never became independent of office in India, and, I am afraid, never will; even under our rule, it still mainly rests upon that foundation.[25]

Notes: