In about A. D. i 600, the learned Fathers at Goa did not know that Cathay and China were two different names for one and the same country, and as they had heard many years before that somewhere in the N.E. of India there existed a vast country, the population of which was nearly entirely Christian, they seriously contemplated the plan to send missionaries thither with the object of »discovering Cathay».' An old Mohammedan merchant who had passed some 13 years at Kambalu or Peking, told Father JEROME XAVIER at Goa, what he had seen and heard of Christianity in those regions. 2 Such rumours had also been heard from Tibet and China and were believed to have some kind of foundation. When Father Xavier, himself, together with BENEDICT GoÊs, accompanied Emperor Akbar on his journey to Kashmir, he heard »that the kingdom of Tebat, which expanded eastwards from Kashmir all the way to Chetai or Catay, contained great; numbers of Christians and many churches with priests and bishops». 3
At about this time Goës happened to be at Goa. Emperor Akbar had, for the third time, invited Jesuit Fathers to come and settle at his court, and the three who went were Jérôme Xavier, Emanuel Pinheiro and Benedict Goës, who arrived at Lahore in May i 594. Akbar had great confidence in Goës, and therefore used him
i Sociorum litteris, qui Mogoris Regiam incolunt, auditum est in India de celeberrimo Regno illo, quod Saraceni Cataium vocant, cuisis iam olim nomen auctore Marco Polo Veneto notû fuerat Europæis, sed aliquot deinde sæculorum memorize ita exciderat, vix vt esse crederetur. scribebant Patres illi Catai Regnum illud ad ortum spectare, Borealiorem aliquanto ipso Mogorum Regno : in eo fidei Christiane cultores reperiri multos, templa, Sacerdotes, ritus, persuadebât. — De Christiana Expeditione apvd Sinas syscepta, ab Societate Jesv. Ex P. Matthaei Ricij eiusdem Societatis Comentarijs. Libri V ... Auctore P. Nicolao Trigavtio Belga ex eadem Societate. Auguste Vind. MDCXV. Lib. V. C. XI. p. 544-
2 ... Xaverius non sine ratione credidit, illud ipsum esse regnum Cataianum, cuius Marcus Paulus Venetus aliique Historici meminere, cuiusque incolas esse Christianos sed labe infectos Nestoriana tradunt ... — R. P. Petri Iarrici Tholosani Societ: Iesv Thesavrvs Rerum Indicarum ... Colonie Agrippine Anno MDCXV. Tomus Tertius, p. 202.
3 Benoit de Goës Missionaire voyageur dans l'Asie Centrale 1603-1607 par Le R. P. J. Brucker de la Compagnie de Jesus. Extrait des Etudes religieuses, Lyon 1879, p. 6 et seq.
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