Storia do Mogor 265.8.4

265.8.4

Since I have spoken of the town of Sao Thome, I will relate some things that happened there. I was told these stories by various old inhabitants, natives of the place. Formerly it was richer than all the other towns held by the Portuguese in India, owing to its great trade with China, Java, Malacca, et cetera. The merchants gained more than a thousand per cent. ; but this was before the Dutch came out to India. They received goods and paid for them by the para, which is a measure used in Europe to measure corn and vegetables. Nowadays they measure in those measures rice, lime, and other products. The coins for which these goods were exchanged are called pagodas, which are still current. These coins, which are of gold and weigh a drachm, are small and circular, stamped only on one side with the symbol of some idol. The ancients must have thought little of gold from the way they used it in painting and adorning various unnecessary places, such as beams, doorways, windows in their houses ; and for various purposes, such as on chests, escritoires, chests of drawers, benches, chairs, et cetera, adding nails and fastenings of gold and silver, or putting gold feet and other ornaments to their bedsteads of aloes-wood or of sandal-wood, also to the chairs and benches of the same woods.