188 COINS. FROM MALACCA. 
1510), Albuquerque ‘“ gave the word to take the royal flag, and 
the trumpets and kettle drums, and assemble all the men in the. 
fleet, and ordered Tristao Déga to go and proclaim it; and he 
went with all this company of people all round the city, and at 
each proclamation that was made they scattered quantities of the 
new money over the heads of the crowds, which were great, 
and they went on proceeding in this manner round the city.” 
Vol itp, toh): 
When a few months afterwards Goa had been retaken by 
the Moors, and Albuquerque had reconquered it, he established 
a new mint at Goa (Vol. III, p. 41). 
Albuquerque arrived before Malacca in the middle of June 
1511, made the first attack on July 25th, conquered it in August, 
and then took speedy measures for restoring order in the place, 
Ninachatu, a rich Hindu merchant, being of the greatest service 
to him in this matter. Ninachatu and some of the ‘ Governors 
of the land” soon approached Albuquerque and told him what 
inconvenience the people suffered from the want of a currency, 
and begged he would give orders for some system of coinage. 
Albuquerque thereupon called together the merchants, govern- 
ors, and principal men of the city, and arranged with them that 
gold, silver, and pewter coins should be struck, substituting thus 
pewter for the copper coins of Goa and utilizing the natural 
wealth of tin in the Malay Peninsula. We saw above that the 
native coinage before the arrival of the Portuguese had been 
pewter, just as now-a-days coins of that metal are current in 
Trengganu and Kelantan. 
The gold coin, called Catholico, should weigh a quarter of 
a tundia which, among'st the Portuguese, was worth a thousand 
reis. The silver coins, called Malaqueses, i.e. Malacca pieces, 
should have the same value of a quarter tundia. The pewter 
coins were to be of three different demoninations, viz : . 
1. dinheiro (i. e. money), the smallest coin, equal to two of 
the previously existing caixes of the ruler of M alacca, bearing 
the sphere of the King D. Manuel, 
2. soldo, equal to ten dinheiros, 
3. bastardo, equal to ten soldos. 
A mint was immediately established, and orders were given 
that under pain of death the old coinage of the King of Malacca 
Jour. Straits Branch 
