_ 87 _ ever. There was much discussion about this, and everyone had a different opinion. Some said he should ask for much, so that it would be uncertain, others that he should ask for little, so that it would be a bad arrangement. The Captain-in-Chief listened to it all the dissembled, and after much debate he said that his opinion was that he should settle for little so that it was easier to pay and he would not seem to be grasping; and the agreement he made would have regard to what the King or his Governor of India would approve; and so he would ask for other things that would be worth double. He thought it fair that he should pay fifteen thousand xerafins a year in cash as tribute, and that the King’s merchandise brought there traded there by a factor, buying and selling, should be free of all duty, and that goods from Portugal, when traded there should free of duty on entry and those, they took away should be paid for. These dues could amount to more than another fifteen thousand xerafins a year, and what they gave them in cash would be enough to maintain a fortress with captain and officers and four hundred men with their pay and maintenance, three hundred on land and a hundred at sea. When everyone heard this, they were not confident that things would happen as the Captain-in-Chief described, but they said that it seemed well to them.
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