_ 171 _ In the matter of hostages, it was already laid down in Fragment 19 that only persons of rank would be acceptable and that the Portuguese should seek to ensure this when they disembarked so that people of no significance were not handed over instead of dignitaries. But in Document III, it is directed that Cabral himself should specify the hostages, naming them So-and-so, Such-and-such which was deleted because the naming of individuals involved identification. After discussion, however, it was considered more appropriate to prescribe that the seamen who went ashore with the Indians should then pick out dignitaries of the country. The corresponding passage in the text of the earlier document was then replaced in the margin of the later document. This is the explanation that occurred to me as appropriate to the obvious priority of Fragment 19, where the problem of India is posed giving prevalence to the economic aspect. Even if this was the case, what is true is that it was modified, as emerges from the King's letter to the Samorin of Calicut, and this Standing Order which is one among several had to be altered to this extent. I believe that a more leisurely and careful search among the Fragmentos of the Corpo Cronológico by researchers familiar with the period, the personalities, the problems,
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