An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

14 BENGAL.most plentiful part of the season, no less than twenty may be boughtfor a rupee, about the value of half a crown.The firstplants of this fruit that grew in Hindostan, were broughtinto India, in the reign of the Emperor Akbar, by the priests of thePortugueze mission, who at that period eagerly pursued every methodthey could devise to ingratiate themselves with the court ; indeedthey had so far succeeded, that they began to flatter themselves withhaving gained a complete ascendency over the inquisitive and liberalmind of their patron, and that he was even about to become a convertto their faith ; be this as it may, of all their services, perhaps, thisdelicious gift may deservedly be deemed not the least valuable ; thefruits of which have spread so far, and proved so extensive in theirutility, as well as so permanent in their duration. A part of the originalstock, that is, some plants derived from it in direct descent, waspointed out to me in the garden of Moorteza Zemani, at Delhi, wherethey first grew.The Ayeen Akbari mentions both the time and mannerof their introduction; and I consider it as an additional evidenceof their having been derived from one original stock, that they arecalled, in every part of India which I have visited, by the same commonname of ananas.To account for their appearance in an obscurevillage on the borders of Cooch Bahar, we must have recourse to anevent in the reign of the Emperor Aurungzebe, when the GeneralMoiizzum Khawn commanded an army employed in the reductionof these districts, which had not before submitted to tiie Mogul dominion.In the prosecution of his designs he was detained a considerabletime in this neighbourhood, during which, among the other