For there they are so subject to those mandarins that, unless
they kneel on the ground with both knees, they cannot talk to them; nor
can they build one palmo of a wall, even in their own house, without
the mandarin's license, while [they practice,] besides, innumerable
infamies. [The transfer of] those people will be for the welfare of
the state of Yndia, because its fortresses are without soldiers, by
reason of the lack of dwellers in their ports. For the Portuguese,
being so eager for liberty, go to live in the lands where there is
most liberty, as in that land of China and that of Vengala. There
go most and the best of the soldiers of Yndia, who take service with
infidel kings and fight in their wars. Thence it follows that India
is lost, land and sea, while the Dutch have become masters of it;
and through their efforts much of the commerce between certain ports
has ceased. The consequence of that is that the public storehouses
[at Macao?] have become very poor, on account of the deficiency
in their usual supplies; and they do not possess the means to bear
the expenses, either in war or in peace, for the food of laymen or
ecclesiastics--nearly all of whom live on what is paid to them by
the king. Consequently, were that town of Macan dismantled, at least
that protection would cease; and they would settle in his Majesty's
lands, as is just, since the majority of them have gone to Yndia
at the cost of his royal treasury.
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