Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.176

c10.176

1508.—"The aljofar and pearls that (your Majesty) orders me to send you I cannot have as they have them in Ceylon and in Caille, which are the sources of them: I would buy them with my blood, and with my money, which I have only from your giving. The Sinabaffs (*sinabafos*), porcelain vases (*porcellanas*), and wares of that sort are further off. If for my sins I stay here longer I will endeavour to get everything. The slave girls that you order me to send you must be taken from prizes,* for the heathen women of this country are black, and are mistresses to everybody by the time they are ten years old."—*Letter of the Viceroy D. Francisco d' Almeida to the King, in Correa*, i. 908-9.