_ 157 _ as there were few of them and they were often attacked by pirates, they made a pact that anyone who wished to come and live in the island would be given land on condition that he served and helped the original inhabitants on their lands on three days of the year. Many Albanians and Greeks, poor people, went to the island and multiplied; but all of them remained in that state of subjection to the original inhabitants and their descendants, and this has lasted up to the present. The lords of the villages give nothing to many of these Paricos for their work and little to others. They employ them and those who are born to them and sell them to other lords with their consent because they have no alternative. Many free them because they serve well for four or five years and cost little, for the best does not cost more than twenty cruzados. Of these, there are some who serve only fifty days and pay a certain tribute to the others in accordance with the pact they made. Item: The free Matos came to stay after these on condition that they should not be slaves but were obliged only to chop wood for the fortresses of Famagusta and Salines, which is another very strong fortress found by the sea, five leagues from Nicosia, and to work there for four days a year, to pay for their keep five bisantes per head each
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