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152 who in his service found wealth and honor. Khwaja Accas was a native of Western Tartary. He had some relations at the Imperial Court of India who encouraged him to join them, under the expectation that they could secure his advancement in life. He was of good ancestry, but of reduced means, and possessed of abilities which needed only a fair opportunity for development to insure his success. He left Tartary for India at the close of the sixteenth century, accompanied by his wife and children; their only means for their journey having been provided by the sale of his little property. The incidents of their long and weary emigration are given with much simplicity. Their stock of money had become exhausted, and, in crossing the Great Desert, they were three days without food, and in danger of perishing. In this fearful emergency, the wife of Khwaja Accas gave birth to a daughter; but, worn out with fatigue and privation, the miserable parents concluded to abandon the poor infant. They covered it over with leaves, and toward evening pursued their journey. One bullock remained to them, and on this the father placed his wife, and tried to support her on their way, in hope to reach the cultivated country and find relief They had gone about a mile, and had just lost sight of the solitary shrub under which they had left their child, when Nature triumphed, and the mother, in an agony of grief, threw herself from the bullock upon the ground, exclaiming, “My child, my child!” Accas could not resist the appeal. He returned to the spot which they had left, took up his infant, and brought it to its mother's breast.

Shortly after a caravan was seen in the distance coming toward them; their circumstances were made known, and a wealthy merchant took compassion upon them, relieved their necessities, and safely conducted them to their destination; he even lent his influence to advance them in life when they reached Lahore, where the Emperor Akbar was then holding his Court.

That little group of five persons, the father and mother, the babe and her two brothers, were destined to fill a place in the page of history more influential than that of any family that ever emigrated