_ 474 _ from the revenues of this customs house are to be given as payment to the Kings and Lords of states bordering the kingdom of Ormuz, and their ambassadors who come here to collect these gifts, and the expenses they incur when they come to collect. These do not include the King of Basra(A) because he does not receive any(B). I have been informed that a large part of these mocarrarias were given by the royal treasury unnecessarily and can be avoided, and I ordered Gaspar Pires de Matos, as chief treasury officer of the fortress of Ormuz to investigate this in detail and to do everything possible to discover the real situation and to arrange the payment that should really be made, as this is of great importance to the royal treasury. He did this and sent me reports on his inquiries with statements, copies of standing orders and the evidence of witnesses and everything else that was useful in this matter. I examined these with the persons and officials whom I have said I consulted about these standing orders. (A) The first Portuguese expedition against Basra was led by Belchior de Sousa Tavares in 1529, described by João de Barros in Dec. IV, bk.III, chap. 13. (B) Mocarraria, from Arabic muqarrari, ‘fixed tax’. An amount fixed by law or usage paid to a foreign King, especially or the free transit of caravans (Dalgado, Glossarios.v. Mocarraria).
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