PORTUGAL. Manuscript, Book II. Les Colonies Portuguaises, [l - Lot 594

PORTUGAL. Manuscript, Book II. Les Colonies Portuguaises, [late 17th-early 18th c.]; 44-page ruled folio (wetness in lower part). Very legible manuscript, in applied handwriting, divided into 6 chapters: - I Division: "Les Colonies Portugaises ont été aquises par la force avec beaucoup de facilité et la pluspart ont été perdu de même"... - II Asie: "Actuellement cet empire immense [...] est réduit à la ville de Goa et à quelques comptoirs, comme Chaul, Daman, Bacaïm et l'Isle de Macao"; le commerce du Portugal avec les Indes orientales et la Chine... - III Afrique, principalement sur le royaume de Congo: "Le plus considérable de ces comptoirs est Cachao. All along the coast of Africa, the Portuguese, naturally incontinent, have mixed their blood so strongly with that of the negroes that they bear no resemblance to those of Europe. It is a species of all the mixed castes of men, who are European in name only, and who better bring together all the vices of Negroes and Europeans"... - IV America, on Brazil and its 14 provinces; the most developed part is devoted to the captaincy of Saint-Vincent, and the danger represented by the maroon Negroes... V Ocean islands: Porto Santo, Madeira, the Azores, Cape Verde, the islands of the Guinea Sea. VI Conclusion: "The exiguity of this population, compared with the immense extent of the Portuguese establishments, can be used to judge the weakness of each of them, and we can conclude that the Commerce and Navy of Portugal are also in a very poor state".