_ 45 _ bring authority to take the King one hundred cruzados when he deserved them Bribery causes so much harm and ruin. In the fashion men come to the point where they do not want to do anything except for a bribe, and them for a further bribe, so that we old ones say that it oils the wheels. Last year the Marchal [i.e. D. Fernando Coutinho] gave two hundred cruzados to the King of Cochin for giving him early dispatch of a cargo, because it was going from your merchandise. On the other hand, he threw Mathias out. to ruination for having taken by force his copper, when he could not pay the debt he owed in your factory. The details of matters concerning the merchandise of Your Highness, in which wrongs are committed and a great many errors, and which many know were previously not made, Your Highness will know of through his officials who are responsible here. I neither know nor wish to know of them, because I only find grief and unhappiness when I see men and captains who owe so much to Your Highness behaving so disloyally in your service. Seems to me, Sir, that one may have justice with your servants and the local people if there is good faith, but they must be sure of their sailings and departures, and if your
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