Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/157

Rh the side of the Portuguese, whose fleet was almost entirely annihilated. The principal ship, in which about two thousand men, women, and children had taken refuge, with all their treasure, was blown up by her captain sooner than surrender to the Moguls. From the prisoners five hundred young persons of both sexes, with some of the priests, were sent to Agra. The girls were divided among the harems of the court and nobles, the boys circumcised, and the priests and Jesuits threatened with torture if they refused to accept the Koran. After some months of imprisonment, however, they were liberated and sent off to Goa, and the pictures and images, which had excited the ire of the Empress, were all destroyed by her orders. Such wrong did Romanism do Christianity in India, and the name of our God and Saviour was blasphemed among the heathen through its idolatry.

The Empress Moomtaj, even in death, could not forget her enmity to every form of Christianity, and secured that it should be expressed upon her very tomb, and there it remains to-day, and will remain while the world stands or the Taj exists. The inscription on the tomb, translated, is as follows: “Moomtaj-i-Mahal, Ranee Begum, died 1631:” and on the end of the tomb which faces the entrance, so that all may see it as they approach, are these words: “And defend us from the tribe of unbelievers”—Kafirs; the word “Kafirs” being a bitter term of contempt for Christians and all who lack faith in Mohammed and the Koran.

Heaven would not answer the fanatical prayer of this mistaken woman; but, instead, has placed even her shrine in the custody of those she hated; and that very “tribe” now gather from all parts of the civilized world, to enter freely and admire the splendors of the tomb which was raised over her remains, and smile with pity at the impotent bigotry which asked Heaven to forbid their approach! The writer had the privilege, with a band of Christian missionaries, of standing around her tomb, and, in the presence of these words, of joining heartily in singing the Christian Doxology over her moldering remains, while the echo above sweetly repeated the praise to “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”