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 send him a physician. Garcias accordingly sent one who villanously poisoned him. He then made a descent upon the island; besieged the capital, took it, plundered it, and used the inhabitants very cruelly. This event happening in time of peace, and without the least provocation, caused an implacable hatred to the Portuguese amongst all the people, not only of that island, but of all the Moluccas.

"In a short time the Portuguese preserved no more humanity or good faith with each other than with the natives. Almost all the states, where they had the command, were divided into factions. There prevailed everywhere in their manners, a mixture of avarice, debauchery, cruelty, and devotion. They had most of them seven or eight concubines, whom they kept to work with the utmost rigour, and forced from them the money they gained by their labour. Such treatment of women was very repugnant to the spirit of chivalry. The chiefs and principal officers admitted to their tables a multitude of those singing and dancing women, with which India abounds. Effeminacy introduced itself into their houses and armies. The officers marched to meet the enemy in palanquins. That brilliant courage which had confounded so many nations, existed no longer amongst them. They were with difficulty brought to fight, except for plunder. In a short time, the king no longer received the tribute which was paid him by one hundred and fifty eastern princes. It was lost on its way from them to him. Such corruption prevailed in the finances, that the tributes of sovereigns, the revenues of provinces, which ought to have been immense, the taxes levied on gold, silver, and spices, on the inhabitants of the