"He gave the Hindus entire freedom of worship; though far in advance of his successors, he prohibited cruel customs, such as the burning of widows, and other barbarous practices. He founded schools and encouraged literature. He inquired into the various forms of religion, and even sent for Portuguese missionaries at Goa to explain the Christian faith to him. From the various beliefs he made up a kind of eclectic religion; but it was not a success outside of his palace. A history of his reign of fifty years was written by his chief minister. Akbar died in 1605, and was interred in a beautiful mausoleum, near the city. "With the ordinary sights of India you are already somewhat familiar; and, aside from what you may see in any city here, there is not much to interest you, with the grand exception of the Taj, and some of the mausoleums, of which I will say nothing, as we are now to visit them." The company retired early, and after breakfast the next morning the carriages were at the door. In the first one were Captain Ringgold, Mrs. Belgrave, and Sir Modava. Lord Tremlyn had more than once manifested a desire to be in the same carriage with Miss Blanche; and he went with her and Louis on this occasion, while Mr. and Mrs. Woolridge invited General Noury to accompany them. "Akbar made Agra the capital of the Mogul Empire," said Sir Modava, as the carriage started. "He changed its old name to Akbarabad, and the natives call it so to this day." "The termination of that name seems to be very common in India, as Allahabad, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad," added the commander. "In the Hindu, _abad_ means a town or a village; and if you cut off that ending you will find the person or place for whom it was named, as Akbar-abad." "Precisely as it is in our country, where we have Morris-town, Allen-town, Morgan-town, and a thousand others," added the captain. "After the death of Akbar his successors reigned in Delhi. The Mogul Empire came to an end in 1761; and Agra was sacked by the Jats, and later the Mahrattas completed the destruction they had begun. It was captured from Scindia in 1803 by the English under Lord Lake, and has since remained in their possession. In all these disasters its population, which had been seven hundred thousand, dropped to ten thousand; but under British rule it recovered some of its former prosperity, and it is now about one hundred and seventy thousand." "If a man wants to build a house here he has only to dig for the material, for not far down he will find the stone and brick of the structures that crumbled into the earth after the death of the great emperor. We are now approaching the fortress, or the citadel as it is oftener called. It is a sort of acropolis, for it contains palaces, mosques, halls of justice, and other buildings."