32 A. D. 1508'. 



again, and then fhould the king himfelf keep his mint in continual- 

 work.' Of this we have no very diftind; conception in modern times. 



Herrera, the Spanifli-American hiftoriographer, relates, that in or 

 about this year, the gold brought from the ifland of Hifpaniola in one 

 year, amounted to 460,000 pieces of eight ; by which, together with 

 the cotton, fugar, ginger, &c. and the ihipping employed between Spain 

 and America, the Wefl-Indies now began to promife fome recompenfe 

 to Spain for the great charge of the firft fettlement, and the lofs of fo 

 many lives. They had, it feems, by this time found that the miferable 

 Indian natives, whom the Spaniards had compelled to work in their 

 mines and fields, were not fo robufl and proper for thoie purpofes aa 

 negroes brought from Africa ; wherefore they, about the fame time, be- 

 gan to import negroes for that end into Hifpaniola from the Portuguefe 

 fettlements on the Guinea coafts, and alfo afterward for their fugar 

 works, as already obferved. 



The Portuguefe in India, ftill under their great commander Albu- 

 querque, took the town and port of Goa on the coaft of Malabar ; and 

 although its prince Hidalcan foon recovered it, yet Albuquerque retook 

 it in the year 151 o. The commodioufnefs of its fituation, and good^ 

 nefs of the country, induced Albuquerque to fortify it ftrongly, and 

 to make it the capital of the Portuguefe dominions in India, its 

 walls being faid to have been twelve miles in compafs, and many of its 

 ftrudures magnificent ; but it is long fince much decayed, both with 

 refped to wealth and number of inhabitants, which, fome fay, are re- 

 duced to 20,000, of all nations and religions. Albuquerque, in order 

 to breed up foldiers, very wifely got the Indian maids made chriftians, 

 and married them to Portuguefe, that they might not always Hand in 

 need of fre(h fupplies of men from Portugal. 



It is not our province minutely to particularize all the Portuguefe 

 conquefts in India, whereby they gained immenfe riches and great glory 

 to that crown and nation. It is fufhcient for our purpofe in general to 

 obferve, that they went on from year to year in difcovering more coun- 

 tries, even as far eallward as China and Japan ; and fouthward to the 

 great archipelago of iflands in the Indian ocean. They fubdued the 

 kingdoms of Decan, Cambaya, and Guzaratte, with the forts of Diu, 

 Suratte, and Cambaya, and many other places and iflands for 200 miles 

 along the Malabar coaft, and on that of Cormandel, and in the king- 

 dom of Bengal, MacafTar, and Malacca, and alfo the ifles of Timor and 

 Solor, with the famous Molucco and fpice iflands, befide the great ifle 

 of Ceylon already mentioned. Their conquefts and fettlements (already 

 noted) on the north-eaft fliores of Africa, beyond the Cape of Good 

 Hope, were alfo very profitable to them, where they traded with negro 

 nations for much gold, brought from the far inland countries to the 

 Portuguefe fettlements on the coaft. In Arabia Felix they once got pof- 



