SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 41 



succeeded in dealing with a total annual output of 

 only 500 pastas of gold, Quelimane shipped no less 

 than a steady 3,000. These figures, so far as can 

 be ascertained, represent the high-water mark of 

 gold export from these coasts, and soon afterwards 

 the quantities commenced to dwindle in import- 

 ance, a circumstance entirely due, as the authorities 

 of the period are agreed, to the enervating influence 

 of the growing traffic in human beings. 



The whole territory was now divided into leased 

 districts, whence originated the Prazo system 

 which we wiU discuss more fully in a succeeding 

 chapter ; but, unlike the present more restricted 

 arrangement, the custom of that time granted a 

 lease, not for a period of years, but for the duration 

 of three generations, passing from father to son. 



The system of government subordinated all 

 administrative officials to the Captain of Sena — the 

 " Chief Captain of the Rivers," as he was at that 

 time picturesquely called — in all matters excepting 

 the trial of offences, or processes regarded as 

 actions of a non-criminal character, which, so far 

 as one can see, had to be remitted for decision 

 to the tribunals of Goa. 



From 1660 to the commencement of the eigh- 

 teenth century, the events which succeeded each 

 other have but little interest for us. Decree after 

 decree was published, each intended to improve 

 existing conditions, but few succeeding by reason 

 of the increasing wealth and consequent inde- 

 pendence of the landholders in the remoter districts. 

 These had now become in many cases so powerful 

 that, surrounded by numerous armed retainers, and 



