The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s8.32

c7.s8.32

It has been already stated that Albuquerque gave his soldiers wives from the native women whom he caused to be baptised, and land on which they might settle and support families. This was probably the origin of the division of the military forces in India into soldados and cazados, the latter word meaning simply ‘Married.’ Many of the soldados were convicts sent from Portugal for a term of years, and kept in the forts; others were boys enlisted in Lisbon and on their arrival allotted to Fidalgos as pages, but obliged after reaching manhood to do seven years’ service in the army. But all the single men not ecclesiastics in India were liable to military duty and were called soldados, otherwise men of the sword to distinguish them from churchmen. The cazados wore the cloak which the soldados were not allowed to do, and were not generally sent away from their homes for service.² They were in fact a sort of first class reserve and were held in considerable estimation, and the quarters of the cazados within or without the walls are always mentioned in the description of forts. Native soldiers in the Portuguese service are mentioned under the name of Piaes as early as 1534,³ but it is evident that their system made them much less dependent on sepoys as time went on than they would have been under a system more like ours.