The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s8.3

c7.s8.3

In describing the system of government of the Portuguese in the Konkan it is, as may be expected, not possible to make a very accurate distinction between what would now be called the different departments. Although trade was the nominal object of the Portuguese settlements in India, the nature of their schemes, as already described, made it inevitable that at first the persons of the greatest influence should be the military governors. The trade being a royal monopoly, Albuquerque established custom-houses in every port, and later there were in every city factors (veadors) and treasurers.¹ At the same time magistrates (ouvidores) were appointed by Albuquerque, but only apparently at Goa Chaul and Bassein, and these decided all civil and criminal cases. They were subordinate however to the captains of the fortresses, "who often abused their powers and made the ouvidores decide as they liked. History is full of the arbitrary acts of these tyrants in their fortresses, who were nearly all Fidalgos of the highest class."² In case of disagreement between the ouvidor and the captain, the veador was called in, and the majority decided. The appeal from the judgments of this bench was in 1587 to the Supreme Court or Relação at Goa,³ but later to the desembargadores or district judges, of whom there were six or eight, one being at Bassein.⁴ These besides the appeals decided original civil and criminal cases of importance. The desembargador at Bassein in Gemelli's time was a gownsman (probably a doctor of laws), and Gemelli as a doctor of laws himself was asked to remain at Bassein as advocate for the various religious societies there, because the native pleaders in the courts were so ignorant.⁵ The judicial establishment at Bassein in 1552 was one ouvidor, one officer of police (meirinho), one king's solicitor, two administrators of intestates, one sea-bailiff, and ten peons. At Chaul the establishment was smaller, but there was a jailor and presumably a jail,⁶ neither of which are mentioned at Bassein at this time, although in 1674 Dellon, who had tried both, said that the jail at Bassein was larger than that at Daman and then contained a good number of prisoners of the Inquisition.⁷