CHAPTER IX. the property of deceased individuals; for according to the law of Goa, whenever a man died, from the Viceroy downwards, his goods were sold by outcry at this Exchange, to the utmost farthing, for the benefit of his heirs. But the worse feature of the Exchange was the sale of slaves, male and female. Many were purchased to serve as menial servants. Others, again, were bought to make money for their masters by being hired out for occasional services. Women slaves were taught to make sweetmeats, confections, and wrought muslin handkerchiefs, for sale in the streets. The youngest and fairest were then sent out to offer these things for sale; and at the same time they were expected to earn money for their owner by more objectionable ways.35 Profits of money exchanges. Motley crowd There was another way of making profit at the Exchange, besides mere trading speculations; and one which was supposed to be secretly carried on, not only by gentlemen but by the ecclesiastics. This was money-changing. The Portuguese ships generally arrived at Goa in September, and then sought to exchange their rials for Persian money, which was required for the purchase of pepper and spices at Cochin. Then, again, every April the ships going to China were glad to give Persian money for rials, which were required for the purchase of silks and porcelain. This money-changing involved no risk whatever, and produced a profit of thirty to forty per cent. The crowd that assembled every morning at the Exchange included representatives of every class and nationality,-Jews, Armenians, Banians, Persians, 35 Linschoten, passim. But CHAPTER IX. Arabs, Mussulmans, and Christians generally. Saint days: ladies. On Sundays and Saints days there was no Ex- Sundays and change, and all the Christian population of the city Portuguese attended mass. Indeed on such occasions the churches presented many attractions besides those of religious worship. It was only at church that the Portuguese allowed their wives and daughters to appear, and then they were rigidly watched and guarded. Some were fair and graceful, but all were oriental both in their complexion and attire. At home, in their zenana-like seclusion, they were content to wear muslin jackets and gay cotton clothes after native fashion; but at church they were decked out in all the bravery of velvet, damask, CHAPTER IX. or cloth of gold; and decorated with earrings, bracelets, and bangles of the costliest description, and of the same golden shade of colour as their complexions. Here, again, the Portuguese gentlemen displayed the same courtliness of manner as in the streets; and exchanged the same reverential salutations. Social condition of the Portu Beneath this outward show of religion and guese soldiers. decorum strange social influences were at work, which throw a new light upon the social development in a mixed community of Europeans and orientals. The unmarried men, who came out from Portugal every year as soldiers, were wretchedly poor and absurdly proud, and at the same time lawless and dissolute. Their poverty was unmistakable. When not quartered on board the shipping, they lived together ten or twelve in a house, subsisting as they best could on boiled rice and salt fish, and wearing the meanest attire. Their pride was often very amusing. The inmates of cach house generally managed, in spite of their pauperism, to be provided with one or two suits of silk attire, which they would wear in turns, and in this economical fashion make as brave a show as if their pockets were lined with rials. At such times they were as punctilious as the best gentlemen in Goa on the score of personal dignity and respect. They all claimed to be gentlemen, and to be treated as such; and if this claim were ignored they sought means of revenge, which ensured them a better treatment for the future. If one of them made a salutation which was not returned with equal respect; or paid a visit and was not received at the door by the master of the house hat in hand; or was offered a stool which was of inferior height to the one occupied by the host; the indignant CHAPTER IX. gentleman would collect ten or twelve of his companions, and fall upon the offender at some unguarded moment, and beat him with bamboos, or bags of sand, until he was dangerously wounded, if not brutally murdered. resulting from When mixed mar were riages. From the first foundation of Goa these danger- Demoralization ous bravos had been the pest of the city. expeditions were being undertaken, or reliefs being sent out, the services of such men were of course in great demand; but when not so employed, they were generally idling their way on the island, indulging in theft, debauchery, and outrage, to an extent which made them obnoxious to all classes, and especially to the native population. About 1512 the great Albuquerque had endeavoured to bring this turbulent class to order, and at the same time promote the spread of Christianity amongst the natives, by marrying a number of the soldiers to native female converts, and providing them with permanent posts and employments. The experiment seems to have been a failure from the commencement. A number of native A number of native girls were baptized and married off to a number of drunken soldiers; but this was done with so much precipitation, and amidst so much confusion, that many whimsical mistakes were made as regards the right partners, which under the circumstances were permitted to stand. But these girls were Christian only in name. They still retained their native ideas and usages. They could derive no intellectual or religious advantages from their husbands, whilst bringing them under the influence of their own social ideas, and rendering them as Asiatic CHAPTER IX. as themselves. Within two or three generations the daughters of mixed parentage had become natives in everything except the name; whilst those of pure Portuguese descent, who had been born and bred at Goa, may have been of somewhat lighter complexion, but otherwise were equally native in all their thoughts and ways. They lounged away their lives in their back rooms and gardens, entirely concealed from the society of the other sex; and went about in native attire, eating their curry and rice with their hands, and doing little or nothing beyond chattering to their slaves, chewing betel leaves, rubbing themselves with sandal, smelling perfumes and sweet herbs, and consuming handfulls of cloves, pepper, and ginger, after native fashion. Meantime they were supposed to converse with none of the other sex who had passed their boyhood, excepting their own husbands; and consequently their companionship exercised no refining influence upon the social circle, or kindled any sentiments of chivalry or devotion. Degeneracy of the female population. Before the end of the sixteenth century the whole so-called Portuguese population of Goa had become hopelessly degenerated. The men treated their wives and daughters with all the jealousy of orientals, whilst both sexes were demoralized by their association with their slaves. Meantime, in spite of every precaution, and perhaps as a consequence of these precautions, the wives of the Portuguese were notorious for their amours with the poor but unscrupulous soldiers from Portugal, and would lavish upon them money and favours of every kind. Intrigues were carried on through the medium of the slaves; husbands were drugged; propriety was |