The Principal Ports of Call in the Carreira da India.pdf

The Principal Ports of Call in the Carreira da IndiaAuthor(s): C. R. BoxerSource: Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Summer, 1971), pp. 3-29Published by: University of Wisconsin PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3512700Accessed: 15/10/2008 00:21

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The Principal Ports of Call in the Carreira da India

C. R. Boxer

There are plenty of published materials for the study of this subject, although they are inevitably fuller and more satisfactory for some places and periods than for others. The selection and utilisation of ports of call in the round-voyage between Portugal and India (in practice, between Lisbon and Goa for most of the time that the carreira existed) depended mainly on the navigating conditions in the South Atlantic and in the Indian Ocean. Any study in depth, therefore, must begin with an examina- tion and a comparison of the sailing-instructions (Roteiros) which were used in the carreira, commencing with those attributed to Joao de Lisboa (c. 1521) and ending with the 1819 edition of Manuel Pimentel's Arte de Navegar. Fortunately, we have an admirable bibliographical guide to this branch of nautical literature in the late Cdte. A. Fontoura da Costa's A Marinharia dos Descobrimentos, with its Apdndice. Bibliografia ndutica portuguesa atd 1700 (Lisboa, 1934; reprinted, 1939, 1960). Fontoura da Costa was also responsible for editing the extremely rare 1612 edition of Gaspar Ferreira Reimao's Roteiro da Navegafam e Carreira da India (Lisboa, 1939), and several Roteiros Portugueses ineditos da Carreira da India (Lisboa, 1939), and five Roteiros Portugueses in6ditos da Carreira da India do seculo XVI (Lisboa, 1940). Among those published since 1940, we may note Dois Roteiros do se'culo XVI, de Manuel Monteiro e Gaspar Ferreira Reirnio, atribuidos a Jodo Baptista Lavanha, edited by Cdte. Humberto Leitao (Lisboa, 1963), and Prof.a Dr.a Virginia Rau's communi- cation, "O roteiro in6dito de Vicente de Sintra de Goa para Mogambique," in Studia. Revista Semestral, XI (1963), pp. 257-61.

A natural corollary of the Roteiros is formed by the journals kept by 3

the pilots (didrios de bordo), and by numerous eyewitness descriptions of the voyage as recorded by various voyagers in the carreira, whether professional seamen, missionary-priests, merchants, soldiers, or travellers. A most useful list of such narratives which are available in print in various languages, beginning with Vasco da Gama in 1497 and ending with Moritz Thomas in the fleet of 1753, is given by the erudite Fr. G. Schurhammer, S.J., in Franz Xaver. Sein Leben und sein zeit, II, Asien (1541-1552), Erster Halbband, Indien und Indonesien, 1541-1547 (Freiburg, 1964), pp. 806- 810. To this remarkably comprehensive list (though Fr. Schurhammer modestly disclaims it as such), I would add a very rare little work by Dr. Francisco Raimundo de Morals Pereira, Relaqfo da Viagem, que do porto de Lisboa fizerao a India os Illmos. e Exmos. Senhores Marquezes de Tavora (Lisboa, 1752. In-8?, xx+320 pp.). So far as I am aware, this was the first time that a published account of this voyage by a Portuguese was described on a day-by-day basis.1

Of the published diarios de bordo, particular mention may be made of those edited by Quirino da Fonseca, Didrios da Navegaifo da Carreira da India nos anos de 1595,1596, 1597, 1600 e 1603 (Lisboa, 1938), and by Cdte. Humberto Leitao, Viagens do Reino para a India e da India para o Reino, 1608-1612: Diarios de Navegadao coligidos por D. Antonio de Ataide no seculo XVII (3 vols., Lisboa, 1957-58). The value of the accounts by missionaries is evidenced by Padre Ant6nio da Silva Rego's admirable synthesis of several of them in "Viagens Portuguesas i India em meados do s6culo XVI" (Anais da Academia Portuguesa da Historia, II Series, Vol. V, pp. 77-142, Lisboa, 1954), and by Fr. G. Schurhammer, S.J.'s previously quoted Franz Xaver, II (1), pp. 1-130. In this category of "literatura de viagens," we can also include the shipwreck narratives collected in Bernardo Gomes de Brito's celebrated Histdria Trdgico- Maritima (2 vols., Lisboa 1735-36, with supplementary undated volume), which is now available in several modem Portuguese editions, as well as selections in English translations.2

Another relevant source comprises the accounts of the annual India

1 An interesting complement to this fuller account is formed by two other documents on this voyage published by Cdte. A. Marques Esparteiro, "A Higiene nas naus de viagem em meados do seculo XVIII" (Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, Out./Dez. 1958, pp. 279-96).

2 The latest Portuguese edition known to me is by Ant6nio Sergio, Histria Trdgico- Maritima compilada por Bernardo Gomes de Brito, anotada, comentada e acom- panhada de um estudo (3 vols., Lisboa, 1955-56); C. R. Boxer, The Tragic History of the Sea, 1589-1622 (Hakluyt Society, Second Series, Vol. CXII, Cambridge, 1959); Ibidem, Further Selections from the Tragic History of the Sea, 1559-1565 (Hakluyt Society, Second Series, Vol. CXXXII, Cambridge, 1968), wherein will be found reference to earlier translations by G. McCall Theal, etc.

4 Luso-Brazilian Review

voyages given by the chroniclers Joao de Barros, Femao Lopes de Caste- nheda, Diogo do Couto, Ant6nio Bocarro, etc., as well as the lists or ementas compiled by employees of the Casa da India, such as Luis de Figueiredo Falcao3 and Simao Ferreira Paes,4 or by independent writers such as the 18th-century Lisbon printer, Francisco Luis Ameno.5 These have recently been evaluated by Joao Vidago, "Anota9oes a uma Biblio- grafia da Carreira da India" (Studia, XVIII, 1918, pp. 209-241), to which the interested reader is referred for details. His attention may also be drawn to V. Magalhaes Godinho, Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, Vol. II (Lisboa, 1968), Cap. 5, pp. 71-86, "A Rota do Cabo," as well as to the article by the same author under the same title in Joel Serrao (ed.), Dicionarrio de Historia de Portugal, Vol. III (Lisboa, 1968), pp. 673-92, supplemented by the much shorter one by J. Gentil da Silva (op.cit., pp. 692-94). Finally, mention may be made of some other works which bear directly on this topic: Americo Pires de Lima, Como se tratavam os Portugueses em Mofambique, no primeiro quartel do seculo XVII (reprinted in a limited edition from the Anais da Faculdade de Farmdcia do Pdrto, Porto, 1941); J.A.A. Frazao de Vasconcelos, Subsidios para a historia da carreira da India no tempo dos Filipes (Lisboa, 1960); Alberto Iria, Da Navegalao Portuguesa no Indico no seculo XVII. Documentos do Arquivo Hist6rico Ultramarino (Lisboa, 1963); Jos6 Roberto do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da India (Marilia, 1966). This last work is conveniently supplemented by the Documentagao Ultramarina Portuguesa, Vol. IV (Lisboa, 1966), pp. 1-409, which is mainly concerned with the Indiamen calling at Bahia between 1709 and 1784.

The foregoing by no means exhausts the bibliography of this subject, but a careful study of this material is sufficient to establish two points. Firstly, that during the three and a half centuries for which the carreira endured, there were only two major ports of call, Mogambique island and Bahia (Salvador). The former was regularly utilised for the whole of this period, but chiefly on the outward voyage (viagem da ida); whereas Bahia became a regular escala only during the last third of the 17th cen-

3 Livro em que se cont6m toda a Fazenda e Real Patrimonio dos Reinos de Portugal, India e Ilhas adjacentes e outros particularidades (Lisboa, 1859), pp. 137-196.

4 Recopilafao das famosas armadas que para a India foram, 1496-1650. Facsimile edition by Captain D. I. Affonso da Costa of the Brazilian Navy, Rio de Janeiro, 1937.

5 "Noticia Chronologica .. das Armadas que os Reys de Portugal ter mandado aquelle Estado [da India] desde o anno de seo descobrimento at6 o presente [1762]," Biblioteca Publica de Evora, Codex CXV/1-21, listed with a number of others by J. H. da Cunha Rivara, Catdlogo dos MSS. da Bibliotheca Publica Eborense, Tomo I (Lisboa, 1850), pp. 309-10.

C. R. Boxer 5

tury6 and it was utilised chiefly on the homeward run (torna-viagem). Of course, other ports were utilised on occasion, such as Angra in Terceira, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, and Luanda, or islands such as St. Helena, Comoro, and Madagascar (Bahia de Santo Agostinho). But, generally speaking, these places were used only in an emergency, and they did not become regular escalas for any considerable length of time, as will be explained below. Secondly, for the first two centuries of the carreira, the Crown often promulgated instructions (regimentos) enjoining that the voyage should be made without touching at any place at all, either on the outward or on the homeward run. As one instance among many, we may cite the carta-r6gia of the 30 March 1662, ordering the Viceroy of India: "que em nenhuma maneira concintais daqui em diante venha mais embarca96es algumas com escala pelo dito Reino de Angola e Brasil, se nao em direitura a este Reino, nem possa tomar outro porto salvo obrigado do tempo ou de outra cousa muito for9osa." The reasons motivating these injunc- tions were not always the same, but they included: (i) fear that the Crown might be defrauded of its dues through the contraband-trade which inevitably occurred where an Indiaman called at a port for any length of time;7 (ii) fear that the ship might lose her voyage through the delay involved;8 (iii) fear that some of the crew, soldiers, or (in later years) degredados, might desert. With the object of ensuring that Indiamen could make direct voyages, the Crown likewise periodically reminded the authorities concerned that the ships must be amply provisioned with food and water, in some cases for nine months.9

6 Caetano Montez, "Mogambique e a navegagao da India", in MoFambique- Documentario Trimestral, Nr. 40, pp. 5-22, Lourengo Marques, 1944; C. R. Boxer, "Mogambique Island and the Carreira da India", in Studia. Revista Semestral, Julho de 1961, pp. 95-132, an article unfortunately disfigured by numerous misprints; Ibidem, "Mogambique Island as a way-station for Portuguese East-Indiamen", in The Mariner's Mirror, Vol. 48 (1962), pp. 3-18; J. R. do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da India (Marilia, 1966), especially pp. 275-97, for list of Indiamen calling at Bahia, 1500-1799.

7 This anxiety is evident as early as the Ordenao6es da India of 1520 (ed. A. L. Caminha, Lisboa, 1807), pp. 48, 53, 55, where Indiamen are forbidden to stop any- where for longer than three days and then only in case of great necessity, and no unauthorised persons to be allowed ashore. 8 The Regimento for the armada of 1510 forbade watering at the Cape Verde Islands or at Beziguiche, "onde atee agora todas as armadas foram, porque cor a demora diso se perde a viagem" . . . (apud Centro de Estudos Hist6ricos Ultra- marinos, As Gavetas da Torre do Tombo, V, (Lisboa, 1965), pp. 498-99). Though undated, this Regimento is obviously of 1510. 9 "Mantimento necessario para 800 homens de guerra e 400 de mar, que hande yr o anno que vem a India providos pello tempo declarado", d. Lisboa, 27.xii.1636, apud CEHU, O Centro de Estudos Hist6ricos Ultramarinos e as Comemorao5es Henri- quinas (Lisboa, 1961), p. 72.


Although through voyages, especially on the homeward run, were far from being unknown, it is obvious that in the great majority of cases, the ships had to call somewhere; particularly if they were delayed by calms in the gulf of Guinea, by bad weather off the Cape of Good Hope, by a high incidence of disease on board ship, or by the provisions of food and water running short. Departures late in the season, whether from Lisbon or from Goa, likewise had the same effect; since contrary winds and unfavourable weather were then virtually unavoidable hazards in either the South Atlantic or else in the Indian Ocean. In so far as the outward voyage was concerned, Mogambique island soon became and always remained the principal escala of the carreira da India, despite its notorious unhealthiness, for the reasons explained by Joao de Barros when describ- ing the first visit of Vasco da Gama to that port in March 1498.

A qual povoagao Mogambique daquelle dia tomou tanta posse de n6s, que em nome, 6 oje a mais nomeada escala de todo o mundo, e per fre- quentagao a mayor que tem os Portugueses: e tanto que poucas cidades ha no reyno que de cincoenta annos a esta parte enterassem em sy tanto defunto como elle tem dos nossos. Ca depois que nesta viagem a India foy descuberta ate ora, poucos annos passarao que a ida ou a vinda nam jnvernas- sem aly as nossas naos: e alguns jnvernou quasy todo hiia armada, onde ficou sepultada a mayor parte da gente por causa da terra ser muy doentia. Porque como o sitio della e hum cotovello a maneira de cabo que esta em altura de quatorze graos e meyo, do qual convem que as naos que pera aquellas partes navegam ajam vista para jrem bem navegadas, quando os ventos lhe nao servem pera passar adiante a jda ou vinda, tomam aquelle remedio de jnvernar aly; e desta necessidade e doutras (como adiante vere- mos na descripqao de toda esta costa) procedeo elegerse pera escala de nossas naos, hum lugar tam doentio e barbaro, leixando na mesma costa outros mais celebres e nobres.0l

Joao de Barros was not exaggerating. Lizuarte de Abreu noted in 1558 that the inhabitants of the island claimed that the local records showed that over 30,000 men landed from ships in the carreira had been buried there during the preceding thirty years.l1 Fr. Joao dos Santos, O.P., writing half a century later, observed in his classic Ethiopia Oriental of 1609: "Esta ilha logo no principio quando foy povoada pelos Portugueses era muy doentia: assi estao nella enterrados muytos milhares delles, mas jt agora pela bondade de Deos he mais sadia" (op.cit., Parte I,a Livro 3, cap.iv). The Dominican friar's optimism was evidently misplaced, as complaints that Mogambique was a veritable "a?ouge de gente Portugueza"12 con-

10Joao de Barros, Primeira Decada da Asia (Lisboa, 1552), Livro IV, cap. 4. I have modernised the spelling in places.

11 Apud G. Schurhammer, S.J., Franz Xaver, II(1), p.59 n. 12Francisco de Sousa, S.J., Oriente Conquistado (2 vols., Lisboa, 1710), Tomo

I, p. 881.

C. R. Boxer 7

tinued with few intermissions throughout the next two centuries. One of the few visitors to Mo9ambique who had a better opinion of the island was a clerical passenger in the outward-bound Indiaman, Sao Francisco de Borfa, which called there at the end of July 1691:

Mossambique nao he tao feo como o pintao, mas os portugueses cor a sua lascivia e gula enchem as sepulturas. A mayor falta que ter he de agua, que a nao ha, senao de cisternas. Os mantimentos sao bastantes, ricas laranjas, e limoens, bons leitoens, boas vaccas, figos do Reino, e athe romas vi alli. O trigo e arroz vem de Senna, hua e outra couza sao excellentes, mas o pao aos que vao do Reino nao sabe bem, porque o amassao corn sura que he huia potagem que destilhio as palmeiras, e as que dao sura nao dao cocos. Os templos sao belamente asseyados ainda as menores ermidas. Se Deos nos conserva na India he pella grandeza, magnificiencia, e bizarria com que se tratao os templos, e se faz o culto divino. A igreja da menor aldeia pode confundir as das melhoras povoagoens de Portugal.13

In point of fact, the perennial high death-rate on the island was due not so much to the 'lascivia e gula" denounced by the visiting cleric in 1691, as to the malarial and bilious fevers which were endemic there. Another reason was that many outward-bound Indiamen reached Mogambique with their passengers and crews decimated by death and disease, for the reasons explained by Padre Femao de Queiroz, S.J., in 1687.

Nao se podiao tambem escusar muitas mortes em tanta variedade de climas; porque se bem o mar he mais sadio que a terra, podem ser muitas as causas da corrupgao; como se ve nos mantimentos velhos, recozidos, e pobres; na agoa de pipas mal curadas, e muito mais depois de passar Guine; na gente meya corrupta, do Limoeiro, e Cabria; na multidao dos navegantes, pouco comodo dos gazalhados, que se chega adoecer em grande numero, na mayor e forgoza falta da limpeza, esta certo o mayor dano; na ruim distribuigao dos mantimentos, conforme requerem os climas; e em outros incidentes de menos porte; causas bastantes para perder a saude e as vidas. E se as viagens sao compridas, e sem refresco, he certo o mal de Loanda, ou corrupgao dos homens vivos; inconvenientes que quiz apontar, porque se podem remediar cor as prevengoes contrfrias, e com se refrescarem na viagem, como fazem multiplicadas vezes os estrangeyros. Passa hua nao nossa ja tarde por Mogambique, e tendo muitos portos, e ilhas em que pode tomar refresco, sem ele comete o largo do mar Indico, e faltando a mongao, chega tao tarde, que traz metade da gente morte, ou em vesperas de mor- rer; se nao arriba a Sacatora [= Socotora]l4, ou inverna em Mogambique,

13 "Viagem que fez D. Agostinho da Anunciacao Arcebispo de Goa Primaz da India

Oriental na nao Sao Francisco de Boria o anno de 1691" (British Museum, Additional MSS. 20953, fls. 251). Cf. John Huighen van Linschoten, his Discours of Voyages into ye Easte and West Indies (London, 1598), pp. 8-9, for a similar description of Mogambique island a century earlier. 14 Francisco de Sousa, S. J., who wintered at Socotora island in the galleon Sao Pedro de Alcantara from Nov. 1665 to Feb. 1666, noted: "A terra alem de aspera, e


aonde nunca ouve bastante disposigao para se acudir a tanta gente, que lastimosamente pov6a o campo de Sao Gabriel, sem os ministros Reaes compadegerem de tao grave dano. Como se El Rey mandara somente trazer a nao a India, deyxando a gente no mar e terra sepultada; e sendo dano tao ordinario, e conhecido, por falta de providencia e de castigo, nunca teve o remedio necessario.15 Padre Fernao de Queiroz, S.J., was not being entirely fair when he

criticised the home government for its indifference to the lack of hospital and other facilities at Mogambique. As early as 1507 there was built 'hiua casa grande em modo de esputal para agasalhar os doentes, que ordinariamente havia no tempo que as naus ali inveraram," presumably on instructions from the Crown.16 Another hospital was founded in 1538, and Jesuit visitors to Mogambique speak glowingly of the hospital facilities available there in 1563-67.17 Some fifty years later, Fr. Joao dos Santos, O.P., in his Ethiopia Oriental, tells us: "Deste hospital ter cuydado o Provedor, e irmaos da Misericordia, mas o gasto delle he a custa del Rey, que pera isso manda pagar o capitao da fortaleza como Veador que he da sua fazenda nestes partes de Mozambique."18 Almost at the same time as the Dominican friar penned these words and just before their appearance in print, this well-run hospital was destroyed by the Dutch during their attacks on Mogambique in 1607-08, and thirty years elapsed before another was opened to replace it. This seems to have functioned most irregularly, and in 1680-81, the Prince-Regent, Dom Pedro, authorised the construction of a new and better hospital, "em que se curarem nao s6 os soldados da fortaleza e moradores, mas todos os soldados que ahy apor- tarem, assim das naos de arribada como de viagem." The administration of this hospital was entrusted to the Religious of the Order of Sao Joao de Deus, "porque s6 elles sabem ter cuidado dos enfermos e tratar da saude delles."

The vicissitudes of this hospital have been admirably described in the well documented studies of Senhor Ant6nio Alberto de Andrade, to which fragosa, he escaldada dos ventos nortes, e muito doentia, e nella nos morreo a terceira parte da gente, e entre elles cinco Religiosos da Companhia meus companheiros." He adds that Tristao da Cunha's fleet wintered there in 1507, and the Indiaman Sao Gonfalo in 1668 (Oriente Conquistado, Tomo I, ed. 1710, pp. 892-93).

15 Fernao de Queiroz, S. J., Conquista Temporal e Spiritual de Ceylao (ed. Colombo, 1916), p. 908. For other references to the high mortality rate at Mocambique see ibidem, pp. 861, 931, 933.

16Joao de Barros, Decada II, Livro I, cap. 6; Gaspar Correia, Lendas da India, Livro I, Tomo I, Parte II.

17Cf. the eyewitness reports in A. da Silva Rego (ed.), Documentaado para a histria das miss6es do padroado portugu6s do Oriente. India, Vol. IX (1953), pp. 214, 327; Ibidem, op. cit., Vol. X (1953), p. 235; G. Schurhammer, S. J., Franz Xaver, II (1), pp. 62-66, and sources there quoted.

18Ethiopia Oriental (ed. 1609), Parte I, Livro 3, cap. iv.

C. R. Boxer 9

the interested reader is referred.19 Suffice it to say here, that the high mortality-rate continued, mainly owing to the unavoidable ignorance of the causes and cures of tropical diseases before the scientific discoveries of the 19th-20th centuries. The Governor informed the Crown in 1758 that this Hospital of Sao Joao de Deus was still what it always had been, 'hum sumidouro de vidas."20

If it is asked why the Portuguese persisted in using the island of Mogam- bique as an escala in the carreira, when experience proved that it was a virtual afouge or sumidouro of valuable lives, several reasons can be advanced. In the first place, as Padre A. da Silva Rego has pointed out, there was: "'ste afinco, esta teimosia, esta insist8ncia dos Portugueses por terra que uma vez tivessem ocupado, constituem aliAs um dos mais carac- teristicos tra9os da nossa colonizagao."21 In the second place, there was its geographically advantageous situation, emphasised in the previous quo- tation from Joao de Barros, Decada I, Livro 4, cap.iv, on p. 7 above. In the third place, there was the incentive to trade in contraband gold, ivory, amber, ebony (pau preto), and other East-African products, which proved an irresistible temptation to the officers and crew of many Indiamen, as contemporaries frequently complained. These three factors, either sep- arately or in combination, proved stronger in practice than the arguments which were advanced from time to time, that the Portuguese would do better to make Madagascar, Mombasa, or some other place their main escala in the Indian Ocean section of the carreira.

In 1521, the last year of his reign, King Dom Manuel I ordered the construction of a fortress somewhere in the island of Sao Louren9o (Mada- gascar), "por ter enformagao que avia nela muyta prata e gingibre que esperava daver; e tambem pera que as naos da carga da especiaria indo para a India fazerem ali agoada e irem por fora da ilha de Sam Louren9o que era mais segura navegacao para se passar a India que por Mogambi- que." The two ships sent out with building materials and workmen for this purpose failed to meet at the rendezvous; and the project was cancelled in the next year by the new king, Dom Joao III, who ordered "que nenhua fortaleza das que el rey seu pay mandara fazer na India de novo, se fizesse."22 The discovery of this island and consequently of the outer route

19A. A. de Andrade, "Fundagco do Hospital Militar de Sao Joao de Deus, em Mogambique", in Studia, Vol. I (1958), pp. 77-89; Ibidem, Os Hospitaleiros de Sio Joaio de Deus no ultramar. Subsidios para a sua histbria (Lisboa, 1957), reprinted from articles published serially in the review Portugal em Africa, Vols. XIII-XIV.

20 Pedro de Saldanha de Albuquerque to the Secretary of State, d. Mogambique, 30 Dec. 1758, in Arquivo das Col6nias, Vol. IV (Lisboa, 1919), p. 79.

21 A. da Silva R6go, "Viagens Portuguesas a India em meados do seculo XVI", in Anais da Academia Portuguesa da Hist6ria, IIa Serie, Vol. V (Lisboa, 1954), p. 119.

22 Fernmo Lopes de Castanheda, Os Lvros quarto e quinto da historia do descobri-


to India in 1500-1510 had raised the problem of whether the outer or the inner passage was preferable from the navigational point of view, both for the outward and/or the homeward voyage. To a large extent, the answer depended on what season of the year the ship left Lisbon or Goa, and when she rounded, or hoped to round, the Cape of Good Hope. The pilots and other nautical experts were by no means agreed on this subject, and the discussion continued for over a century, the fluctuating view- points being reflected in the different roteiros and regimentos approved by the Crown.

About the year 1540 (the exact date is uncertain), the Crown decided that if the outward-bound Indiamen rounded the Cape of Good Hope after the 20/25 July, they should take the outer passage to the east of Madagascar, but if they passed the southernmost tip of Africa before that date, they should take the inner route through the Mo,ambique channel. This ruling was not accepted unquestioningly, and several experienced pilots, including Gaspar Manuel writing about 1606, claimed that ships which rounded the Cape of Good Hope at any time before the 3 Septem- ber still had a good chance of reaching India by the inner passage before November.23 This remained a minority opinion for the first half of the 17th-century; for a study of the surviving roteiros, regimentos, and diarios de bordo for the period 1550-1650 indicates that most pilots considered it was safer to take the outer passage (the conditions of the ship's stores and the health of the crew permitting) if the Cape was rounded after the 25 July.24 In actual fact, the regimentos enjoining ships to take the outer passage if they rounded the Cape after the 25 July were frequently dis- obeyed for the reasons explained by Padre Ant6nio Francisco Cardim, S.J., in his eyewitness account of the loss of the great galleon Sao Lourenqo on the shoals of Mogincual in the Mogambique channel in September 1649, having rounded the Cape on the 31 July.25

mento e conquista da India (Coimbra, 1553), V, cap. lxxix. The standard-work on the early connections of the Portuguese with Madagascar is still A. Kammerer, La Decouverte de Madagascar par les Portugais et la cartographie de l'tle (Lisboa, 1950).

23 Martim Afonso de Sousa's proposals and the King's comments thereon in 1536, in J. D. M. Ford (ed.), Letters of John III King of Portugal, 1521-1557 (Harvard U. P., 1931), pp. 254-56; Gaspar Manuel's "Roteiro" of c. 1605, apud Caetano Montez, "Mocambique e a navegagao da India", pp. 10-11.

24 Gabriel Pereira (ed.), Roteiros Portuguezes da viagem de Lisboa d India nos sdculos XVI e XVII (Lisboa, 1898), pp. 46, 54, 107, 115-117. Ant6nio de Moniz Carneiro, Roteiro da India Oriental. Cor as emmendas que novamente se fizerao a elle (Lisboa, 1666). Manuel Pimentel, Arte Practica de Navegar e Roteiro das viagens . . . [das] Indias e Ilhas Orientaes e Occidentaes (Lisboa, 1699), pp. 346-47, inserts a "Viagem que se pode fazer passando tarde o Cabo de Boa Esperanca por dentro da ilha de Sao Lourengo," after passing the Cape as late as the 20 August.

25 Ant6nio Francisco Cardim, S. J., Relaamn da viagem do galeam Sam Lourenco,

C. R. Boxer 11

Ordena El Rey no Regimento aos Capitaes Mores facam viagem sempre por fora da Ilha de Sam Lourengo [after the 25 July], por evitar as inver- nadas, que ordinariamente fazem os officiais em Mogambique, movidos do muito que interessam nas vendas das fazendas, e ouro, que dalli levam para a India com total ruina da infantaria, que a ilha a pura fome, e mao tem- peramento em sy consome; e tambem do perigo das agoas, que em Agosto por diante correm cor grande impeto mais que rios, at6 o Cabo das Cor- rentes. Guardase muito mal esta ordem, e por se forrarem vinte dias de viagem vemos as mais das naos virem por dentro.

Determinava o nosso Cabo guardallo, e entendido pella gente maritima se veyo a sua camara, e alegando falta de agoa, e mantimentos, cor parecer dos oficiais, e em fatal hora, se resolveo, que fossemos por dentro.26

Cardim adds: "como os Pilotos nam sam creados nesta carreira, temem os muitos baixos, que ha por fora, e no fim se vem perder na viagem de dentro."

Caetano Montez points out in his article,Moqambique e a Navegalao da India, p. 18, "realmente, cor freqiiencia vemos naus que chegam ao Cabo em tempo de ir por dentro, seguirem por fora; naus que dobram o Cabo tarde, mesmo assim irem por dentro; e de armadas que chegam em forma9ao ao Cabo vemos umas unidades irem por dentro, outras por fora." True enough; but although it would be difficult to document the assertion statistically, I feel sure that the great majority of outward-bound naus da carreira da India, between 1500 and 1800, took the inner route through the Mogambique channel and called, for better or for worse, at the little coral island of that name.

As regards homeward-bound Indiamen (torna-viagem), the position was rather different. Generally speaking, we have much less information about these voyages (save when the ships figured disastrously in the Hist6ria Trdgico-Maritima) than we do about the outward-bound fleets. Nevertheless, I would hazard the statement that the majority of homeward-bound Indiamen took the outer passage to the east of Madagascar. This outer route for the torna-viagem was certainly the rule rather than the exception for most of the 16th century; though Gaspar Ferreira Reimao, "piloto-Mor do Reino e Senhorios de Portugal," was clearly exaggerating when he claimed in his Roteiro of 1612 that when he navigated the homeward-bound Nossa Senhora do Castelo by the inner passage in 1597-98, this was the first occasion this route had been taken since 1527.27

e sua perdigam nos baixos de Moxincale em 3 de Septembro de 1649 (Lisboa, 1651), fl. B.

26 " . havendo de ir por fora, sam necessarias mais mantimentos, e dispenseiros

fieis, e nam como hum dos dous do nosso galeam, que lavava sua roupa na agoa doce del Rey" (Ibidem, op. cit., fl. D).

27 Roteiro da Navegaao e carreira da India, 1612 (ed. Fontoura de Costa, Lisboa, 1939), pp. 43-45.


He adds that his successful reopening of this course east of Madagascar had since been followed by many other homeward-bound Indiamen; but I am inclined to believe that in fact the outer passage was more often used during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as in the sixteenth. Of course, we find numerous instances of homeward-bound ships wintering at Mogambique island; but this was usually because they had failed to round the Cape of Good Hope (owing to leaving Goa too late in the season, or for some other reason), and so had been compelled to winter and refit in this port. The Captain of Mo9ambique complained at the end of 1666: "dura couza h6 para quem navega huia arribada, mas tenho por mais insofrivel tolerar a de oito naos que tantas arribarao a esta fortaleza, despois que a governo no discursso de pouco mais de dois annos." The consenusus of expert nautical opinion in 1615 was: "saindo de Goa at6 o derradeiro de dezembro, deviam vir por dentro, por ser a nave- ag9ao mais segura; e des do primeiro de janeiro por diante fica arriscada

a navegagao por dentro, e que devem vir por f6ra; e que partindo de Cochim, todas as naus que d'alli partirem, devem vir por f6ra."28 At this time and for long afterwards, Indiamen seldom left Goa before New Year's Day; and most of them almost certainly took the outer passage.

Although Mo9ambique island was in constant use as an escala for as long as the carreira da India lasted, the dockyard and repair facilities left a great deal to be desired. Some excellent timber could be obtained from the neighboring mainland, but there was always a shortage of skilled shipwrights and of naval stores. Dom Pedro de Almeida, Marquis of Castel-Novo (later of Aloma), who called at Mogambique with the India- men Nossa Senhora Madre de Deus and Nossa Senhora da Caridade e Sdo Francisco de Paula on his voyage to Goa in August 1744, wrote as follows to the Secretary of State from this island:

... E a respeito disto nao posso deixar de admirar que havendo duzentos annos que Portugal possue este Porto tao frequentado das nossas Naos que vao e vem da Europa, nao haja nelle nem armazem, nem material, nem official, nem ferroamenta para concerto dos Navios, e succedendo arribar qualquer delles que nao traga consigo as materiaes de que necessita, ou hade apodrecer neste porto, ou ser tao larga a sua demora, como succedeo a Nao Sao Jodo e Sdo Pedro que faga a Sua Magestade huma inutil, e consideravel despeza, podendo vir a ser esta falta de mais perigoza consequencia se aos Navios Estrangeiros que frequentao esta costa se lhe nao tirassem os pretextos affectados das suas arribadas pondolhes promptos os materiaes de que

28 Decision of a junta of pilots of the carreira da India at Lisbon on the 18 March 1615, in R. de Bulhao Pato (ed.), Documentos Remettidos da India ou Livros das Mongoes, III (Lisboa, 1885), pp. 326-27. Cf. the decisions of similar juntas in 1635 and 1646, respectively, in J. A. Frazao de Vasconcelos, Pilotos das navegacoes portuguesas dos seculos XVI e XVII (Lisboa, 1942), pp. 79-84.

C. R. Boxer 13

necessitao emquanto os damnos sejao verdadeiros, para que seja breve a sua demora, e nfio tenhao tempo de adquirirem melhores instrucgoes do Paiz.29

The Count-Viceroy went on to contrast the backwardness of Mocam- bique island in this and other respects with the remarkable development of the Ile de France (Mauritius) under the guiding hand of the enter- prising Mahe de La Bourdonnais, where the French, "tenhao hoje naquelle paiz nao s6 cor a cultura que o nosso nao tem, abundando de frutos, e de gados, mas de excelentes armazens de tudo quanto he necessario para qualquer concerto de Naos que alli arribao."30 These representations, and those of later governors and viceroys, did not bring about any lasting improvement, although the authorities at Lisbon made some serious if sporadic efforts to build up stocks of supplies and material at Mo9ambique.

There was a sheltered anchorage for a large number of ships to the NW of the island, but parts of the harbour were (and are) encumbered with banks and shoals, while the approaches to the island from seaward re- quired careful and accurate navigation. The Patrdo-M6r in residence was usually a Portuguese; but great reliance was placed on the sailors drawn from the local Muslim community which was described by Fr. Joao dos Santos, O.P., in his classic Ethiopia Oriental: "Esta tambem nesta ilha outra povoagao de Mouros, apartada da dos Christaos obra de dous tiros d'espingarda, pouco mais ou menos, na qual vivem poucos Mouros, e estes pela m6r parte sao marinheyros, pobres e mesquinhos, e ordinariamente andao no servi9o do capitao, e dos Portugueses, dos quaes sao amigos, e mostrao se Ihe leaes, ou por medo, ou porque sempre dependem delles."31

The Marquis of Castel-Novo explained in his dispatches from Mogam- bique that the moradores of that island were driving a thriving trade in gold, ivory, and slaves with French ships bringing provisions from Bour- bon and the Ile de France, despite reiterated royal orders prohibiting all commerce with foreign nations. This contraband trade was still more flourishing in the Querimba islands, which the French from Mauritius and the English from Bombay visited without let or hindrance,

porque huma Nao mercante he superior em forca a pouca gente que habita cada ilha. Tem cada huma dellas quando muito dois ou tres

29Arquivo das Colonias, Vol. III (Lisboa, 1918), pp. 229-230 ("Correspondencia do Marquez de Castello-Novo, quando V Rei e Capitao General da India, para El Rei e diversas autoridades da metropole, principada em MoCambique em 10 d'Agosto de 1744").

30 The Count-Viceroy's tribute to this remarkable Frenchman was well deserved. Cf. Pierre Crepin, Mahe de La Bourdonnais, Gouverneur-General des fles de France et de Bourbon, 1699-1753 (Paris, 1922).

31Joao dos Santos, O. P., Ethiopia Oriental (1609), Parte I, Livro III, Cap. iv.


Portuguezes com poucos Cafres que os servem na cultura das terras; e nao ha forca nenhuma com que se Ihe possa resistir quando queirao persistir, como fazem naquelles portos, nem se Ihe pode embaragar a extracgao, nao s6 do marfim e escravos, mas a grande copea de cuary que Ihe serve para o negocio de Bengalla ...32 E assim com verdade se pode dizer, que este terreno mais serve para utilidade dos Estrangeiros, que para a dos vassallos, e se Sua Magestade ao menos servir de subsidio a esta Praga para Ihe matar a forme, e dar-lhe mantimentos, redundaria delle algum beneficio, mas por falta de embarcagoens nem este recebe; tal he a negligencia dos Portu- guezes, ainda nas materias do seo interesse, que por nao trabalharem antes querem estar ociosos nos lares da sua casa, que fazer o menor movimento para beneficiar os seos frutos, contentandose que Ihos vao procurar por hum commercio a furto ainda que fiquem sogeitos as penas das prohibi- 96ens, fiados em que a distancia Ihe facilita a ouzadia, ou Ihe encobre o deleito.

Although the "Rios de Senna" [Zambezia] produced rice, maize, beans and other provisions in abundance, the Portuguese of Mogambique island did not have enough shipping to get supplies regularly from that region.

A vista disto nao he pouco de admirar que esta Ilha onde o terreno he secco, e esteril esteja no centro da abundancia, padecendo mizerias e mor- rendo de fome por nao haver quem Ihe conduza mantimentos, e ainda he maior mizeria que achando-nos ha 200 annos na distancia de 80 legoas da Ilha de Sao Lourengo, onde he sempre continua e fartura, e abundancia dos frutos e dos gados, que seja necessaria que os Francezes estabelecidos ha 30 annos nas duas ilhas Mascarenhas [Bourbon] e Mauricias [fle de France] situadas na contra-costa de Sao Lourengo, e em muito maior distancia de n6s, nos venhao matar a fome com o mantimento daquelle dis- tricto de que n6s estamos mais perto.33 If the Crown's orders prohibiting commerce with foreign nations were

disregarded or evaded in Mo9ambique, the laws against smugglers and contraband-traders were likewise difficult to enforce at Salvador (Bahia), even though this place was the capital city of the colony for over two

32 For further details see the documented article by C. R. Boxer, "The Querimba Islands in 1744", in Studia, Vol. XI (1963), pp. 343-353. I may add that Dr. Tous- saint's observation at the foot of p. 352, "il n'y avait pas de clandestinite a l'epoque dans le trafic entre le Mozambique et les iles Frangaises", is inexact. The traffic was clandestine, however much it flourished, since it was carried on in despite of reiterated royal and viceregal orders for its suppression. Cf. "Instruccao dada ao Marques de Lourigal quando veio por vicerei da India, 1740", in Chronista de Tissuary, Vol. IV (Nova Goa, 1869), p. 79; and Anais da Junta de Investigao6es do Ultramar, Vol. ix, Tomo I (Lisboa, 1954), pp. 271-72, for this contraband trade in 1778: "Que a negociagao dos Navios Franceses naquella Ilha como em todos os mais Portos de Sua Magestade Fidelissima na costa de Africa seja expressamente prohibida, o sabem todos, como tamb6m serem nos mesmos portos generos de contrabando as armas e a polvora." . .

33 Correspondence of the Marquis of Castel-Novo, Mogambique, August, 1744, in the Arquivo das Col6nias, Vol. III (Lisboa, 1918), pp. 225-240.

C. R. Boxer 15

centuries and was strongly garrisoned. As indicated above, the close con- nection of Bahia with the carreira da India dates from the last quarter of the seventeenth-century. Dom Manuel, in announcing the official discovery of Brazil to the "Reis Catolicos" in a dispatch dated 28 August 1501, had claimed: "pareceu que Nosso Senhor milagrosamente quis que se achasse, porque e mui conveniente e necessaria k navega9ao da India." As Alexander Marchant, Duarte Leite, and Jos6 Roberto do Amaral Lapa have already shown, this statement was distinctly premature.34 Little use was made of Bahia as a way-station for the carreira during the next century and a half; and the course laid down for the India voyage in the standard roteiros of Vicente Rodrigues, Gaspar Ferreira Reimao, Aleixo da Mota, etc., did not envisage the use of Bahia (or of any other Brazilian settlement) as a regular port of call, on either the homeward or the outward voyage.35

Of course, a number of Indiamen did call at Brazil during this period, particularly after the foundation of Bahia in 1549. But they did so only out of dire necessity, and not of set purpose, as instanced by the unlucky ship Sao Paulo, which twice lost her voyage to India and was forced to call at Bahia in 1556 and 1560. Another instance was provided in 1596 by the outward-bound Indiaman, Sao Francisco, which having lost its rudder in 26? southern latitude, was forced to put back to Bahia, "ainda contra um expresso Regimento de El-Rei, porque a necessidade nao tem lei."36 This is evidently a reference to the provisdo of the 6 March 1565, which forbade outward-bound ships which had lost their voyage to winter in Brazil, but ordered them to return to Lisbon. It was embodied in all subsequent regimentos for the captains and escriv6es of Indiamen down to 1756, and probably later (Regimento dos Escrivaens das Naos da Carreira da India [Lisboa, 1640], fls. A7-A8. Cf. also the reprint of 1756).

Calls at Brazilian ports were not numerous at this period, for there was no great inducement to break the Crown regulations forbidding this practice save in case of unavoidable necessity. So far as outward-bound Indiamen were concerned, unless they were becalmed for long periods in

34 Alexander Marchant, "Colonial Brazil as a way-station for the Portuguese India Fleets", in The Geographical Review, Vol. XXXI (July, 1941), pp. 454-465. Marchant did not, however, realise the extent to which Bahia became a port of call for homeward-bound Indiamen after c. 1660. Jose Roberto do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da India (Marilia, 1966), pp. 7-10. 35 These and other standard roteiros are conveniently summarized in Frederic Mauro, Le Portugal et lAtlantique au XVIIe sicle, 1570-1670. Etude Economique (Paris, 1960), pp. 23-27.

36 Gaspar Afonso, S. J., RelaSio da viagem e successo que teve a Ndo Sdo Francisco ... na Armada que foy para a India no anno de 1596 (in Hist6ria Trdgico-Maritima, ed. S6rgio, III, p. 86.


the Gulf of Guinea (as happened to the Sao Paulo in 1560), they usually had enough water and provisions to get round the Cape of Good Hope and as far as Mogambique, if not to Goa. The commanders and officers of these ships were anxious to reach their destination as soon as possible, "por razao do mesmo interesse, para chegar primeiro a India e vender mais caro."37 Brazil's main export was sugar, and there was no market for this commodity in Asia, which produced sufficient sugar of its own, and in some years actually exported a small surplus to Europe. Homeward- bound Indiamen had more inducement to call at a Brazilian port if they were delayed in rounding the Cape of Good Hope, so that their stores of water and provisions ran low, or if they missed the island of St. Helena which served as a watering and refreshment place on occasion. But their cargoes of pepper and spices found a better market at Lisbon than at Bahia, so they normally preferred to sail direct to the Tagus if they were able to do so. When the Dutch began to infest the South Atlantic, and particularly during their occupation of Pernambuco in 1630-54, it was obviously very dangerous for Portuguese Indiamen to call at Brazilian ports, since the cruisers of the West India Company, or the Zeeland privateers, were usually to be found in the offing.38 With the Portuguese reconquest of Netherlands Brazil in 1654, and particularly after the ratifi- cation of the peace with the United Provinces in 1663, the Dutch were no longer a deterrent. We find from then onwards a steady increase in homeward-bound Indiamen calling at Bahia, though not of outward-bound vessels. These latter usually left Lisbon rather late in the season (March- April), and they were anxious to lose no time in passing the Abrolhos and rounding the Cape of Good Hope.

The Crown was for long reluctant to sanction the calls of homeward- bound Indiamen at Bahia, and some of the numerous seventeenth-century alvards, cartas-regias and provisoes prohibiting this practice between 1615 and 1672 have been published elsewhere.39 However, there were always

37 op. cit., p. 85. 38 Even during the (admittedly precarious) truce with the Dutch in 1641-1652,

the homeward-bound Indiamen from Goa were ordered to make their voyage em direitura to Lisbon, if this was humanly possible. Cf. the regimentos for Jose Pinto Pereira in 1645 (O Centro de Estudos Hist6ricos Ultramarinos e as Comemora?oes Henriquinas, pp. 73-74), and for Luis Velho in 1646 (Historical Archives, Goa, "Livros da Correspondencia Secreta, Vol. I, 1635-1647). Cf. also the very similar regimento for Rangel Pinto in 1668, published by Alberto fria, Da Navegalao Portu- guesa no Indico (1963), pp. 186-87.

39Provisdo of 15 December 1615, in Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da India, p. 23, n 17; cartas-regias of March 1632 and January 1632, in Boletim da Filmoteca Ultramarina Portuguesa, Nr. 23 (Lisboa, 1963), pp. 17, 28; provisao of 15 December 1661, cartas-rdgias of 18 March 1665, 17 June 1667, and 18 September 1670 (J. J. de

C. R. Boxer 17

critics of the viagem em direitura, including the Procurador da Fazenda at Goa in January 1665, who argued that regulations which were once justified might be rendered positively harmful by later developments:

Por tal avalio a prohibigao de que as naos da India nao venham fazendo escalas, porque pela distancia da viage vem as embarcagois cor muito maior perigo, os navegantes cor insoportaveis incommodidades, cor que as fazendas e os vassallos vem cor tam conhecido risco, como ter mani- festo a experiencia; e desta procede que sem embargo dos regimentos de Vossa Magestade ja todas as naos buscam causas com que se justificam a escala e quebrantam a prohibigao. Nestes termos parece que achando-se meyos para que a Navegagao tenha menos perigos e a fazenda de Vossa Magestade e seus vassallos mais utilidades, convira que 5s naos da India se permittao as escalas por que se nao busquem pretextos cor que se quebrantem as ordens tanto em preiuzo da fazenda Rial. The viceroy, Ant6nio de Melo de Castro, in his dispatch to the Crown

of the same date, pointed out that even when there was no necessity to do so, the ship's officers often drew up a termo, "em que dizem, que o navio esta aberto, e que infalivelmente se hira a pique, e que convem tomar qualquer porto que puderem sem embargo do regimento, para nelle o concertarem, de que se segue arribarem a aquella parte que levarao ia determinada, quando daqui partirao," whether it was Mogambique, Rio de Janeiro, or Bahia. On receipt of this dispatch, the Crown relented to the extent of agreeing that smaller vessels such as "pataxos com avisos" might be permitted to call at Brazilian ports, but maintained the ban on the larger ndus and galeoes of the carreira doing so.40

Reluctantly yielding to what was already an established, if an unofficial practice, the Crown promulgated a couple of provisoes on the 2 March 1672, authorising homeward-bound Indiamen to call at Bahia, if the captain and officers considered it advisable to do so. In such cases, the officers and seamen could sell "as fazendas de sua liberdade," which had been properly registered at Goa, but under no circumstances was any of the other cargo to be sold. In practice, the local authorities could not always raise the money to pay for the often extensive repairs which were needed, mainten-

Andrade e Silva, Collec9ao Chronol6gica da legisla~io portugueza, II, 1657-1674, Lisboa, 1856, pp. 73, 98, 129, 184, prohibiting the sale of Asian goods on board of such Indiamen as might be forced to call at Brazil or Angola); provisao of 29 March 1670, allowing only Terceira and Lisbon as escalas for Indiamen (op. cit., p. 181). Regimento for the Governor of Brazil, d. 4 March 1671, in Virginia Rau and Maria Fernanda Gomes da Silva, Os Manuscritos do Arquivo da Casa de Cadaval respeitantes ao Brasil, Vol. I (Lisboa, 1955), pp. 220-221.

40 Arquivo Hist6rico Ultramarino, India, "Papeis avulsos," 1665 and 1668, in Alberto Iria, Da Navegaiao Portuguesa no Indico no s6culo XVII (Lisboa, 1963), pp. 171- 172, 179-181. Cf. also Panduronga Pissurlencar, Assentos do Conselho do Estado [da India], Vol. IV, 1659-1695 (Goa, 1956), pp. 144-45.


ance of the officers and crews, etc., so on rare occasions some of the cargo had to be sold to cover such expenses. Whenever possible, however, the cost was defrayed from other sources, such as the donativo de dote de Inglaterra e paz de Holanda by the Provedoria da Fazenda Real.41

The frequency with which homeward-bound Indiamen called at Bahia in the last third of the seventeenth century, was partly due to the fact that the India trade was then changing over from being primarily concerned with pepper and spices to being largely concerned with Indian cotton textiles, Chinese silks, and other Asian fabrics, mostly of high quality but not occupying much space. Ant6nio Paes de Sande, writing from Goa to the Count of Ericeira at Lisbon in 1679, urged that homeward-bound Indiamen should be allowed to lade chests of sugar at Rio de Janeiro or at Bahia, "pois as fazendas hoje, e os cabedais da India nao sao tantos que dem carga bastante a huma embarca9ao por limitada que seja."42 This is, in fact, what took place, as instanced in the correspondence of Padre Ant6nio Vieira, S.J., at Bahia in June 1691: "Da India tivemos nau com cinco meses de viagem e mais de cem homens mortos ... dizem aqui que vem carregada de pedraria [= diamantes], porque nao trouxe mais que pedras [por lastro], em lugar das quais levara setecentas caixas de agucar, e ira descarregar na alfandega h vista da pobre casa da India."43 In the following year the Crown finally came round to the viewpoint of those persons who had been urging (since 1664, at least) that the homeward- bound ndaos da India should normally call at Bahia, and should then sail to Lisbon in company with the Brazil fleet and its convoy. This order of the 18 December 1692 was confirmed by another on the 4 February 1694, and is reflected in the 1699 edition of Manuel Pimentels Roteiro: "Passado o Cabo [de Boa Esperanca] sigase a derrota para a Bahia de Todos os Santos, goverando-se conforme a carta, e os ventos, pra dalli seguir viagem para o Reino em companhia da frota e combois."44

This change of front (and of heart?) on the part of the Crown and its

41J. R. do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da India, pp. 20-21, 58-63, 269-71; Anais do Arquivo Piublico da Bahia, Vol. XXXXII (Bahia, 1952), pp. 109, 126, 178, 188, 205, 239, 269.

42 Virginia Rau e M. F. Gomes da Silva, Os MSS. da Casa Cadaval, Vol. I, p. 252. 43 Joao Lucio d'Azevedo, Cartas do Padre Ant6nio Vieira, Vol. III (Coimbra, 1928), pp. 612-13. This ship was the Na Sra. da Conceia~o, Captain D. Joao de Carcomo Lobo. For references to this ship and other Indiamen calling at Bahia between 1684 and 1692 in Vieira's correspondence see op. cit., pp. 515-16, 542, 592-96, 615-16, 638. 44 Cartas-Regias of 18/xii/1692 and 4/ii/1694, in Anais do Arquivo Puiblico da Bahia, Vol. XXXI (1949), pp. 32, 52. Cf. also D. Joao de Lencastre's dispatch to the Crown, d. Bahia, 27 June 1695, summarized in J. R. do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreiraa da ndia, pp. 13-14. "Viagem Moderna da India para Portugal", in Manuel Pimentel, Arte Practica de Navegar (Lisboa, 1699), pp. 355-56.

C. R. Boxer 19

advisers coincided almost exactly with the first discoveries of gold on a really rich scale in Minas Gerais. Within a few years the total population and the purchasing power of the upper classes in Brazil had both markedly increased. For most of the eighteenth century, returning Indiamen had every incentive to call at Brazilian ports, where they could profitably dispose, whether legally or otherwise, of great quantities of Indian textiles, and Chinese silks and porcelain, in exchange, primarily, for Brazilian gold and tobacco. Luis Gomes Ferreira, a Portuguese physician and surgeon who spent twenty years in Bahia and Minas Gerais during the reign of Dom Joao V, noted in 1735 that even Chinese ink and tea were readily obtainable there. 45 A French resident at Lisbon observed five years earlier that in Brazil "les marchandises de la Chine s'y vendroient beaucoup plus avantageusement que par tout ailleurs."46 While Chinese silken fabrics were usually in great demand, it was noted in 1758 that it was "porcelana, que h6 a droga que mais facilmente se vende nesta terra."47

Needless to say, the gold (and from 1729 onwards, the diamonds) of Brazil proved a magnet for foreign ships as well as for Portuguese. English, French, and (c. 1723-28) Ostend East-Indiamen, warships, or ordinary merchant-men, were constantly finding excuses to call at Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, where they participated in the contraband gold-trade in the same way as did the Portuguese vessels. All the Crown's efforts and paper legislation failed to stop this smuggling trade, mainly because, as the King complained to the Governor of Bahia in 1718: "os Cabos officiaes de guerra sao os que com mais devassidao e escandallo descami- nhao as fazendas dos direitos e tirao por alto as das Naos da India e navios estrangeiros, sendo que deviam ser os que mais procurassem evitar-se semelhantes descaminhos; e que os mesmos a quem se encar- rega a guarda dos ditos navios e NMos da India sao os que cometem corn mais seguranga de impunidade este delicto."48

45 Luis Gomes Ferreira, Erario Mineral dividido em doze tratados (Lisboa, 1735). 46 Anon., Description de la vile de Lisbonne ou lon traite de la cour de Portugal,

des colonies Portugaises, et du commerce de cette capitale (Paris, 1730), p. 248. 47 J. R. do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da India, p. 206. 48 Carta-Rdgia d. 22 March 1718, in Ignacio Accioli-Braz do Amaral, Mem6rias

Hist6ricas e Politicas da Provincia da Bahia, Vol. II (Bahia, 1925), pp. 338-339. It would be easy to find annual complaints to the same effect, but the following extract from a dispatch of the Viceroy Count of Sabugosa to the Secretary of State at Lisbon, d. Bahia, 3 October 1733, will suffice: "Ainda muito antes das Naos da India darem fundo nesta Bahya, se lhes introduz sincoenta fuzileiros com hum capitao, Alferes, e dous sargentos, alem de se Ihe meterem guardas pela Provedoria-Mor da fazenda, e andarem tres lanxas de ronda de dia de noite athe sairem da barra em fora; e toda esta cautella e prevengao custuma produzir tgo pouco fruto que tudo quanto os interessados querem extrahem por alto; e suposto se tire todos os annos hiia devassa


Naturally, the naval and military officers at Bahia were not the only ones who profited from this contraband-trade, which redounded directly or indirectly to the advantage of many of the local moradores, "porque a esta corte s6 trazem hoje as naos da India, as [fazendas] que na Bahia nao tenhao sahida os officiaes e passageiros," as the officials of the Casa da India at Lisbon complained in 1725.49 The problem was frequently ventilated in the Conselho Ultramarino, but no satisfactory solution was ever found. Apart from anything else, a really rigorous enforcement of the anti-smuggling laws would have been counter-productive, as the per- cipient Conselheiro-Ultramarino, Ant6nio Rodrigues da Costa, pointed out in 1715: "A conveniencia que os vassallos do Brasil experimentam nesta negociagao com os navios estrangeiros, os faz desejar que se lhes fran- quierem os portos as nag6es estrangeiras, e a aborrecer o govemo que lh'o impede."50

There is no need to discuss the details of this contraband-trade with Indiamen, whether Portuguese or foreign, since this has recently been done by Professor J. R. do Amaral Lapa.51 One point which he makes, however, requires some comment. On p. 150 of A Bahia e a Carreira da India, he writes: "Num periodo de 15 anos (1692 a 1712), seguiram de Portugal para as Indias cerca de 806 navios, sendo de notar que nesse espago de tempo nao parece ter havido interdigao para a escala na Bahia. As cifras de tao breve periodo podem permitir-nos indiretamente uma ideia de quanto teria atingido a contribui9ao brasileira nos s6culos aqui estudados." The figure of 806 ships is obviously a misprint or a misappre- hension. The ementa of Francisco Lufs Ameno, which is the fullest and most reliable for this period, gives a total of 39 ships which left Lisbon for

destes desencaminhos nao vi que nenhum dos comprehendidos fosse ate agora castigado" (Arquivo P6blico do Estado da Bahia, Vol. XXX (1732-1733), Nr. 161, fl. 25).

49"Carta Geral que se escreveo por esta Caza [da India] ao vedor Geral do Estado da India em a mongco de 1725," in Documentaado Ultramarina Portuguesa, IV (1966), pp. 55-57.

50Consulta of the Conselho Ultramarino, Lisboa, 24 July 1715, in Documentos Hist4ricos, Vol. XCVI (1952), pp. 163-87. The Council even considered forbidding homeward bound Indiamen from calling at Brazilian ports, as they had been (on paper) before 1692, but dropped the idea as impracticable (Ibidem, op. cit., Vol. XCVII, 1952, pp. 113-115). For a list of twenty-seven laws and edicts forbidding foreign ships from trading in Brazilian ports see "Colecgao das Leys e Ordens que prohibem os navios estrangeiros assim os de guerra como os mercantes nos portos do Brasil, desde 1591 ate 1761", in Catdlogo dos MSS Ultramarinos na Biblioteca Ptblica do Porto, pp. 249-254.

51 A Bahia e a Carreira da India (1966), pp. 177-194, "Fisco e Contrabando", pp. 195-231. Additional information will be found in Documentafdo Ultramarina Portu- guesa, IV (1966), pp. 35-409, passim.

C. R. Boxer 21

the East in 1697-1712, including a few bound direct for Macao and one for Timor.52 On Professor Amaral Lapa's own showing, some 22 of these called at Bahia on their return voyage;53 and though a few more may have done so, certainly as many as thirty-nine did not - still less anything like 800!

It is not possible to estimate the proportion of contraband trade at Bahia to the amount of legitimate trade in Asian goods. For most of this period, the Portuguese Crown acted on the mercantilist principle ex- pressed in an alvard of the 19 June 1772: "que da capital ou metr6pole dominante 6 que se deve fazer o com6rcio e navegagao para as colonias e nao as colonias entre si."54

The Crown therefore strove to channel the trade in Asian goods - whether spices, textiles, porcelain, etc. - through Lisbon, where they would pay customs duty before being re-exported to Brazil. Hence the numerous alvards, cartas-regias and provisoes, forbidding the Indiamen which called at Bahia from selling the main part of their cargoes there, even if the goods were damaged. The sales of such Asian merchandise at Bahia were usually limited to those commodities carried in the caixas de liberdade, and the gasalhados of the officers and crew.55 This privilege was inevitably and consistently abused, just as it was in the case of similar rules and regulations which attempted to limit the "private trade" driven by the employees of the Dutch, English, and French East-India Com- panies throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.56 The "psy- chose de fraude" which Huguette and Pierre Chaunu have documented so impressively in the Spanish-American transatlantic trade57 was present in a greater or lesser degree throughout the whole colonial world during the ancien rdgime, and for the same basic reason. Neither government officials nor the employees of chartered trading-companies were able to live on the basic salaries which they received, and they were perforce compelled to supplement them, licitly or otherwise.58

52Francisco Luis Ameno, "Noticia Chronologica", (BPE, Cod. CXV/1-21), fls. 100-103 verso.

53 A Bahia e a Carreira da India, pp. 283-87. 54 op. cit., p. 228. 55 Cf. the orders to this effect promulgated between 1661 and 1749, listed in J. J.

de Andrade e Silva, Collecgdo Chronologica, II, 1657-1674, p. 98. 56 Cf. the instances given in C. R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 1600-1800 (London, 1965), pp. 201-06, 244-45, 249, 254-55; and the discussion in Louis Dermigny, La Chine et l'Occident. La Commerce d Canton au XVIIIe sicle, 1719- 1833 (3 vols., Paris, 1964), I, 233-43, "Pacotilles et port-permis", II, 598-682, "La Contrabande du The"; III, "Le Trafic Calandestine".

57 Sville et l'Atlantique, 1504-1650 (11 vols., Paris, 1955-58). 58 "It is very well known", wrote the English Governor and Council at Benkulen in Sumatra, to their superiors at Madras in 1754, that "the pay of your servants will


Since the abuse of private trading privileges and the existence of contraband trade were obvious facts of life from the earliest days of European expansion overseas, it is rather amusing to see them denounced in a tone of shocked surprise by a strongly-worded royal decree of April 1785, addressed to the Governor and senior authorities of Mogambique and Zambesia.59 These high officials were accused, among other things, of

Entrando em Negociagoes mercantis, per si, e por interpostas pessoas com dinheiros seus proprios, e ate cor os da Minha Real Fazenda: E nao havendo meio algum, que nao excogitassem para extorquir o cabedal alheio, e engrossar o seu, chegando a sua inexhaurivel cobica a tal extremo, que ao mesmo tempo, em que os ditos Governadores Me representavam aquelle importante Dominio, e os seus Habitantes reduzidos a maior penuria, e a mais deploravel situacao, elles mesmos, dentro de brevissimo tempo de seu governo, appareciam senhores de importantes cabedaes, que em seus Nomes, e de terceiras pessoas remettiam para f6ra, e empregavam no commercio, ou que anticipando-se-lhes a morte se patenteavam nos seus con- sideraveis Espolios.

Needless to add that the minatory tone and the severe penalties threatened in this alvard em forma de Ley had no more effect than had similar en- actments in the days of Afonso de Albuquerque, who never tired of telling King Manuel that the worst enemies which the "Rei Venturoso" had in India were some of his own officials.60

not maintain them in such a place as this in meat and clothes; they must either starve or seek some other means of livelihood, if every chance of getting one honestly is shut up to them". (Madras Records, Court and Bay Abstract, 1754. I owe this quo- tation to Miss Seyamala Kathinthamby). Cf. also the Duke of Cadaval's remark that it was much more difficult to find suitable candidates for colonial governorships after they had been prohibited from trading, even in some "negocio justo", by the royal decree of September 1720. Cadaval had been against the promulgation of this decree, having foreseen "a difficuldade de encontrar pessoas capazes daquelles empregos de passar o mar e hir a climas diferentes, sem outra utilidade mais que o risco, e a despeza de sua fazenda" (Virginia Rau & M. F. Gomes da Silva, Os MSS da Casa de Cadaval, II, 310).

59Alvara em f6rma de Ley, porque Voss Magestade, obviando as prevaricaoes commettidas em Mossambique pelos Governadores e Capitaes Generaes, e pelos Ouvidores daquella Capitania: He servida occorrer a ellas na forma assim declarada, d. 14 April and registered 21 April 1785.

60 ". . porque a jemte da India tem hum poucochynho a consciencia grosseta e parece-lhe que vam a Jerusalem em Romaria quando furtam", Albuquerque wrote in his inimitable style to the King on the 30 November 1513, when enumerating the misdeeds of some "quadrylheiros e tanadares e escrivaes das presas" (R. A. de Bulhao Pato, ed., Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque, Tomo I, Lisboa, 1884, pp. 141- 150). Cf. also the judicious considerations of Alexandre Lobato concerning the contraband trade at Sofala and Mogambique in his Estudos Mocambicanos. A Expansao Portuguesa em Mo9ambique de 1498 a 1530 (3 vols., Lisboa, 1954-1960), III, 393-97. Virginia Rau, "Fortunas ultramarinas e a nobreza portuguesa no seculo XVII" (Revista

C. R. Boxer 23

Although Mogambique island and the Bahia de Todos os Santos were by far the most important escalas in the carreira da India, passing mention may be made of some of the others which were utilised less frequently. The island of St. Helena was a watering-place and rendezvous for homeward-bound Indiamen for much of the sixteenth century, although it had the disadvantage of being "hua boya no maar que os mais herrao, e erramdo-se bem craro estaa quoao em perigo de sede chegarao a Portugal s6 com agoa que tomarao na India," as an anonymous critic wrote in 1545.61 He suggested that homeward-bound Indiamen should call at Mogambique island to fill their water-barrels and thus obviate the need to call at St. Helena or elsewhere; but in 1568 the Crown categorically forbade these Indiamen to do so, "salvo semdo em extrema necessidade."62 We have seen above that homeward-bound Indiamen did call at Mo9am- bique fairly often (though not as often as those which were outward- bound). Diogo do Couto complained in 1603 that those ships which did so took the opportunity of lading cargoes of ebony (pao preto) on private account.63

Couto also tells us that the idea of some port in Madagascar for use as an escala was revived in 1556,64 but neither this nor subsequent sug- gestions to the same effect in the seventeenth and eighteenth century were implemented. The Bay of Santo Agostinho was the place principally favoured by such Indiamen as called at this island, but those of Sao Felix, Sao Boaventura, and Anton Gil were occasionally visited.65 The largest of the Comoro islands, "huma das mais altas, e mais bellas, que tem todo o mar Oceano," as a voyager of 1750 described it with evident exaggera- tion, was also visited occasionally, though it was of more importance for its trade with Mogambique.66 Portuguesa de Hist6ria, Tomo VIII, Coimbra 1959, pp. 1-25), documents the case of Ant6nio Telles de Silva, who made a fortune by judicious trading, money-lending, and investment, before his death in January 1651.

61V. Magalhaes Godinho, Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, Vol. II (Lisboa, 1968), p. 74. An alvard of the 23 February 1579, Pera que na Ilha de Santa Elena nao fiquem os bateis, was embodied in the standard Regimento dos Escrivaens down to 1756 at least.

62"Regimento dado por El-Rei D. Sebastiao a Dom Luis de Ataide", d. Lisboa, 27 Feb. 1568, in A. da Silva Rego, Documentafao. India, X, 1566-1568 (Lisboa, 1953), pp. 458-9.

63". .. que he a total destruigao das naos que all invernmo, o que se ouvera de atalhar com grandes defesas" (Decada VII, Livro 8, cap. xii).

64 Decada VII, Livro 3, cap. vi. 65 Francisco Raymundo de Moraes Pereira, Reladio da viagem (Lisboa, 1750), pp.

101-05; A. Fontoura da Costa, A Marinharia dos Descobrimentos (ed. 1934), pp. 334-35; J. T. Hardyman in Studia, XI (1963), pp. 315-41. 66 F. R. de Moraes Pereira, Relafao da Viagem (1752), pp. 171-73; A. Fontoura da Costa, A Marinharia dos Descobrimentos (ed. 1934), pp. 300-05.


On the other side of Africa, Sao Paulo de Luanda was occasionally used as an escala by Indiamen, but only in a genuine emergency, as it was well away from both the outward-bound and the homeward-bound passages laid down in the roteiros and regimentos.67 As regards Brazilian ports, Bahia always remained the principal escala for homeward-bound India- men, with Rio de Janeiro in the second place; although the volume of gold passing through the city of Sao Sebastiao was greater than that which was handled by the city of Salvador. The great demand in Asia, Africa, and Europe for Bahian tobacco, especially that from Cachoeira, helps to explain why Bahia remained the chief escala for Indiamen until the closing years of the 18th-century, when outward-bound ships started to call at Rio instead. Recife was seldom visited by Indiamen, and the lesser Bra- zilian ports still more rarely, though the conditions granted to a Macau- bound Indiaman in 1759 contained the following clause: "Que possa a dita Nao arribar A Ilha de Santa Catharina, e na volta A Cidade da Bahia; bem entendido, que nao devem fazer negociagao alguma nestes portos, debaixo das penas, em que incorrem os que commergeao nos portos do Brazil sem licenga de Sua Magestade."68 The terms of trade were liberal- ised by an alvard of the 17 January 1783, which permitted outward-bound Indiamen to lade brandy, rum, and sugar (but not tobacco) at Brazilian ports for sale at Goa and Macao.69 The restriction on the direct exporta- tion of Brazilian tobacco to the East, where it was in great demand in China, was removed during the last decade of the eighteenth century; and in 1810 ships were allowed to sail direct from Macao to Brazilian ports without being compelled to call at Goa en route.70

A final word on the Azores as an escala for the Naus da Carreira da

67Manuel Pimentel, Arte de Navegar (Lisboa, 1699), pp. 356-58, includes an emergency "Viagem do Cabo de Boa Esperanca para Angola, se por alguia necessidade for preciso ir a Angola." On pp. 375-81, Pimentel gives short descriptions of "alguns portos, e Bahias onde as Naos da India se podem recolher em caso de necessidade." Aguada de Saldanha; Bahia do Cabo de Boa Esperanga; Bahia de Sto. Agostinho na Ilha de Sao Lourenco; Ilha de Anjoane (Comoro); Ilhas de Querimba, e porto do Oibo; Ilha de SocotorA; Ilha de Mascarenhas (Bourbon); Ilha do Cirne (Mauritius); Bahia de Anton Gil na Ilha de S. Lourenco; Ilhas da Trindade, e da Asencao; Ilha de Santa Helena.

68 Condio6es, que se hdo de praticar corn a negocia*do, que no presente anno de 1759 vai fazer ao Imperio da China a Ndo de guerra Nossa Senhora da Atalaia (Lisboa, 1759). The Gazeta de Lisboa of the 14 October 1760 gives a list of the Chinese goods (mainly teas and silks) which she brought back to Lisbon after touching at Bahia (28 June-26 July) and Faial (18-23 September). 69 J. R. do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da India, pp. 199-200.

70 Ibidem, op. cit., pp. 216-221. Cf. also V. Magalhaes Godinho in Diciondrio de Histdria de Portugal, III (1968), pp. 691-92, for the revival of Portuguese trade with Asia in the period 1784-1814.

C. R. Boxer 25

India. A glance at the map and at the standard regimentos and roteiros for the torna-viagem will show that homeward-bound Indiamen almost invari- ably passed through the Azores, usually by the island of Terceira. From about 1520 onwards, when French Huguenot pirates became a menace, and were later succeeded by English and Dutch corsairs and by the Barbary Rovers, Portuguese warships were often sent to meet the homeward-bound Indiamen off the Azores and convoy them to Lisbon.71 India- men which touched at Terceira (or elsewhere) in this way naturally had the opportunity of "private trade" during their (usually, brief) stay, as well as of obtaining fresh water and provisions. Undoubtedly, some contraband-trade with passing Indiamen was carried on; but the corn and wine of the Azores did not have the same attraction for smugglers as the gold, ivory, and ebony of Mogambique, or the sugar, tobacco, and gold of Bahia. Rather surprisingly, the Crown not merely allowed but facili- tated the Indiamen of the Ostend Company to call at the Azores and sell part of their Asian cargoes there in exchange for provisions - possibly a favour to D. Joao V's Austrian Queen.72 In any event, Portuguese India- men called often enough at Terceira to warrant the maintenance there of a Provedor das armadas e naus da India for many years.

Summary The two principal escalas for the carreira da India were Mo9ambique

island and Bahia (Salvador) in Brazil; the former from the beginning of the 16th-century, and the latter from 1663. Apart from their favourable geographical situation, they both afforded excellent opportunities for a thriving contraband-trade, which the Crown made repeated but futile efforts to suppress.

Through voyages in either direction were not unknown, but the great majority of outward-bound Indiamen called at Mogambique island; and many homeward-bound Indiamen which failed to round the Cape of Good Hope were forced to do so. There was an active trade, largely legitimate and partly contraband, between this island and the Portuguese Indian ports of Goa, Damao, and Diu. It was mainly based on the exchange of African gold, ivory, and slaves, for Indian textiles, Chinese porcelain, and missanga. The slave-trade with Brazil was a development of the late 18th

71 Details in V. Magalhaes Godinho, "A Rota do Cabo", in Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, II (1968), 75-77. For the position of the Azores in the maritime economy of Portugal's empire cf. Frederic Mauro, Le Portugal et l'Atlantique au XVIIe siecle, 1570-1670 (Paris, 1960), pp. 13-14, 22-27, 102-07, 299-301, 352-57, 362, 472-74, 490-92, 503-04.

72 Letters from the Casa da India at Lisbon to the Juizes das Alfandegas at Terceira and Fayal, 26 November 1723, in Documentadao Ultramarina Portuguesa, IV, 62-63.


and early 19th centuries. Contraband-trade with the French islands of Bourbon and Mauritius did not become very important until the spectacu- lar development of those islands by Mahe de La Bourdonnais; but it was one of the mainstays of Mogambique's economy during the second half of the 18th century. The Portuguese were never able to install adequate dockyard and repair facilities at Mocambique; partly because they had no effective control of the mainland opposite the island for more than the depth of a few miles. Endemic fevers and other tropical diseases kept the white population and the strength of the garrison down to a very low level for over three centuries. The Prelate of Mocambique noted in 1822: "Serao portanto os Portugueses brancos, ou reputados taes entrando ambos os sexos 120 individuos," out of a total population of some 8,500-9,000, including government officials and the garrison.73

Bahia, populous and strongly garrisoned, with its rich hinterland of the Reconcavo under effective Portuguese control, afforded much better dockyard and repair facilities when it became (unofficially) an annual escala for homeward-bound Portuguese Indiamen in 1663 - a practice fully sanctioned by the Crown only some thirty years later. It was never used as a regular escala for outward-bound Indiamen, though it sometimes served as a porto de arribada for those which had lost their voyage; but the Crown strongly discouraged this practice, preferring such ships to return direct to Lisbon. In the second half of the 17th and for most of the 18th centuries, the homeward-bound Indiamen which left Goa usually were not fully laden; and it became the practice for them to complete their cargoes by loading sugar, tobacco, and hides at Bahia for the account of the Crown and for private individuals. With few exceptions, these Indiamen were not allowed to sell their bulk cargoes of Asian goods at Bahia, but they had to take them on intact to Lisbon; whence they could be re-exported, in whole or in part, to Bahia and other Brazilian ports, after paying dues at the Casa da India and the Customs. The Asian goods brought by the officers and crew in their caixas de liberdade and their gasalhados, could, however, be sold at Bahia under the terms of an edict in 1672 (in practice, long before). In this way, both a flourishing legitimate and a contraband-trade, based on the exchange of Indian textiles, Chinese silk fabrics, tea, and porcelain, for Brazilian gold (after 1695), sugar, tobacco, and hides, quickly developed and maintained itself. The mora-

73 D. Virginia Rau (ed.), "Mem6ria Chorografica da Provincia ou Capitania de Mossambique na Costa d'Africa Oriental conforme o estado em que se acha no ano de 1822", by D. Fr. Bartolomeu dos Martires, in Studia, XI (1963), pp. 123-63, especially pp. 134-35. There were almost certainly fewer than 150 white inhabitants of Mogambique island in any given year prior to 1822, except, of course, when there were several Indiamen in the harbour awaiting the monsoon for onward passage.

C. R. Boxer 27

dores of Bahia naturally preferred to buy goods secured directly from the officers, crew, and passengers of homeward-bound Indiamen, than to pay the much higher prices asked for Asian goods which had been re-exported from Lisbon after paying heavy duties there.

Indiamen which reached Bahia from Goa in an unseaworthy condition, as many of them did, were allowed to land their bulk cargoes of Asian goods, which were stored in the Customs-House under lock and key, until such time as the ship had been repaired and was ready to leave for Lisbon, when these goods were re-embarked. If the ship was condemned to be broken up, as being too badly damaged, her cargo was distributed among her consorts (if any), or among the royal frigates convoying the homeward-bound Brazil Fleets, which sailed in convoys between 1650 and 1765 (and briefly in 1797-1801). It is not possible to estimate the relative proportions of contraband and legitimate trade in Asian goods at Bahia. But it is clear that the system of liberdades and gasalhados was grossly abused, particularly during the reign of D. Joao V, when the gold-mines of Brazil gave a great boost to the purchasing power of the moradores.

Appendix A Carreira da India (viagem de ida), em 1636-1800

Anos Partirao de Lisboa Chegarao a Goa 1636-1640 14 11 or 12 1641-1645 18 12 or 13 1646-1650 26 20 1651-1655 18 16 or 17 1656-1660 14 13 1661-1666 9 8 1666-1670 12 10 1671-1675 12 11 1676-1680 13 11 1681-1685 13 13 1686-1690 5 5 1691-1695 10 7 1696-1700 13 13 1701-1705 13 13 1706-1710 9 9 1711-1715 11 11 1716-1720 9 7 1720-1725 10 9 1726-1730 9 8 1731-1735 11 11 1736-1740 13 12 1741-1745 11 11 1746-1750 16 15


1751-1755 7? (no figures for 1753 available) 6? 1756-1760 10 10 1761-1765 9 9 1766-1770 7 7 1771-1775 7 or 8 7 or8 1776-1780 5 5 1781-1785 7 (no figures for 1784 available) 7 1786-1790 8 8 1791-1795 4 (no figures for 1793 & 1795) 4 1796-1800 5 (no figures for 1796) 5 N.B. The foregoing is a tentative estimate only, as the sources available to me do not always agree with each other. For the years 1636-50, I have relied chiefly on Simao Ferreira Paes, Recopilafao das Famosas Armadas que para a India foram (ed. Rio de Janeiro, 1937); for the years 1650-1750, on Francisco Luis Ameno, "Noticia Chronologica" (BPE, Cod. CXV-1-21); and for the years 1751-1800, on J. A. Ismael Gracias, Catdlogo dos livros do assentamento da gente de guerra que veio do Reino para a India, 1731-1811 (Nova Coa, 1893). These have been checked with various other printed sources, of which the most useful are: Manuel Xavier, S. J., Compendio Universal (ed., Nova Goa, 1917), and Ernesto de Vasconcelos (ed.), Relaoii de capitdes mores e Naos (Separata do Boletim da Segunda Classe da Academia das Sciencias de Lisboa, Vol. XVI, Coimbra, 1925).

It is highly probable that the great majority of Indiamen which reached Goa had called at Mogambique on the way.

For a list of the outward-bound passages for the years 1500-1635, see V. Magalhaes Godinho, Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, II, 77. For a list of the India- men calling at Bahia, 1500-1800, see J. R. do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da India, pp. 275-97.

The third column in the above table attempts to show only the numbers which actually reached Goa, and is not necessarily correct for the same five-year period as column 1. For instance, of the fleet of six sail which left Lisbon in May 1740, with the Viceroy Marquis of Lourical, one was lost off Bahia, and the other four reached Goa only between March and June, 1741.

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Article Contentsp. 3p. 4p. 5p. 6p. 7p. 8p. 9p. 10p. 11p. 12p. 13p. 14p. 15p. 16p. 17p. 18p. 19p. 20p. 21p. 22p. 23p. 24p. 25p. 26p. 27p. 28p. 29

Issue Table of ContentsLuso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Summer, 1971), pp. 1-126Front Matter [pp. 1 - 2]The Principal Ports of Call in the Carreira da ndia [pp. 3 - 29]New Light on Euclides da Cunha: Letters to Oliveira Lima, 1903-1909 [pp. 30 - 55]Educational Innovation and Politics in So Paulo: 1933-34 [pp. 56 - 68]Amar, Verbo Intransitivo [pp. 69 - 77]Anecdotal Narrative in Ferno Lopes' "Crnica de D. Pedro I" [pp. 78 - 87]Derivados Regressivos em Grande Serto: Veredas [pp. 88 - 102]Samuel Putnam, Brazilianist [pp. 103 - 114]Books Received [pp. 115 - 116]Periodicals Received [p. 117]Current Bibliography [pp. 118 - 125]Back Matter [pp. 126 - 126]

Documents

The Principal Ports of Call in the Carreira da India.pdf