Muntakhab al-lubab 90: The Portuguese.

90

[Text, vol. ii. p. 400.] It was mentioned in the history of the reign of Shah Jahan that Christian traders had come to India to the ports on the sea-shore. The officers of the King of Portugal occupied several neighbouring ports, and had erected forts in strong positions and under the protection of hills. They built villages, and in all matters acted very kindly towards the people, and did not vex them with oppressive taxes. They allotted a separate quarter for the Musulmans who dwelt with them, and appointed a kazi over them to settle all matters of taxes and marriage. But the call to prayer and public devotion were not permitted in their settlements. If a poor traveller had to pass through their possessions, he would meet with no other trouble; but he would not be able to say his prayers at his ease. On the sea, they are not like the English, and do not attack other ships, except those ships which have not received their pass according to rule, or the ships of Arabia or Maskat, with which two countries they have a long-standing enmity, and they attack each other whenever opportunity offers. If a ship from a distant port is wrecked and falls into their hands, they look upon it as their prize. But their greatest act of tyranny is this. If a subject of these misbelievers dies, leaving young children, and no grown-up son, the children are considered wards of the State. They take them to their places of worship, their churches, which they have built in many places, and the pádris, that is to say the priests, instruct the children in the Christian religion, and bring them up in their own faith, whether the child be a Musulmán saiyid or a Hindu brahman. They also make them serve as slaves. In the 'Adil-Shahi Kokan, close to the sea, in the fine and famous fort of Goa, their governor resides; and there is a captain there who exercises full powers on the part of Portugal. They have also established some other ports and flourishing villages. Besides this, the Portuguese occupy the country from fourteen or fifteen kos south of Surat to the boundaries of the fort of Bombay, which belongs to the English, and to the borders of the territories of the Habshis, which is called the Nizám-Shahi Kokan. In the rear of the hills of Baglana, and in strong positions, difficult of access, near the fort of Gulshanabad, they have built seven or eight other forts, small and great. Two of these, by name Daman and Basi, which they obtained by fraud from Sultan Bahadur of Gujarát, they have made very strong, and the villages around are flourishing. Their possessions measure in length about forty or fifty kos; but they are not more than a kos or a kos and a half in width. They cultivate the skirts of the hills, and grow the best products, such as sugarcane, pine-apples, and rice; and cocoa-nut trees, and betel-nut vines, in vast numbers, from which they derive a very large revenue. They have made for use in their districts a silver coin called ashrafi, worth nine anas. They also use bits of copper which they call huzurg, and four of these huzurgs pass for a fulús. The orders of the King (of India) are not current there. When the people there marry, the girl is given as the dowry, and they leave the management of all affairs, in the house and out of it, to their wives. They have only one wife, and concubinage is not permitted by their religion. * * *