The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c5.41

c5.41

² J. Garson da Cunha, *Notes on the History and Antiquities of Chaul and Bassein*, p. 69. The pay of the Portuguese soldiers continued to be poor when Hamilton visited the west coast of India in the second decade of the 18th century. He wrote: ‘Their soldiers’ pay is very small and ill paid. They have but six Xerapheens per month and two suits of calico, stript or chequered in a year. Their two suits may amount to forty Xerapheens; and a Xerapheen is worth about sixteen pence half peny ster. Out of their six Xerapheens in money that they are to receive, their Captain who is Barrack-Master and Victualler to his Company detains five, and the other one is paid in small money to discharge the Accounts of the Shoemaker, Tailor, Barber, Washerman and Tobacconist.’ *A New Account of the East Indies*, Vol. I, pp. 249-50.