_ 157 _ Each clerkship will bring in two thousand cruzados. I have been informed that it will be in the king’s interest that when these Moorish clerks die they will be reduced to two clerks only, with equal salaries, and the other two will be abolished because they are no longer needed. The Juiz do peso [Customshouse weights officer] has fifty thousand reis salary a year. It is an important post usually held by long-serving men, and in three years it brings in two thousand cruzados net. The chief porter and customshouse chapa is an office which used to be held by Moors for life. Dom Sebatião appointed a Moor who came to Portugal on business of the King of Ormuz, who was later found guilty of treason with soldiers of fortune in Dabhol, and was sentenced to death with the loss of his office and possessions. Since then Moors are no longer appointed to it, and several Portuguese have held the office. The salary is twenty-eight thousand eight hundred reis a year, and in three years it brings in about three thousand cruzados net. The function of the clerk of the Bandeis [foreign quarters] in Persian territory opposite Ormuz is to take note of property going from the mainland for customshouse clearance. His salary is thirty thousand reis. It is not a very important post, to which the Viceroys
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