_ 156 _ clergy of the church for three or four days to determine whether they wish to become a Christian through devotion and of their own will. During that time, they should be sufficiently instructed in matters of the faith. When they are converted in this way they should be emancipated and free, for that is their right, without any valuation or being evaluated, and their owners should be paid by those who buy them, as it is said is at present the case. In order that they should not return to their former faith by remaining in a place where it is encouraged, they should be sent to India and passed on with a letter from the captain of the fortress where this happened, signed and sealed with my seal, by which it will be known that he has become a Christian and is emancipated and free. The captain is ordered to give him this, for which he need pay no dues either for the writ or the seal. This is how I order you to proceed henceforward, in Ormuz, Malacca and all other places where there are fortresses and factories. This is a copy of a paragraph of a letter written by our lord the King to the late D. Henrique de Meneses concerning the treatment of male and female slaves of Moorish merchants and residents in Ormuz who become Christians. His Highness ordered me to send it to Nuno da Cunha. Commander and Governor of India, including it under my cipher among the letters which he wrote to him about
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