[An inquiry into the reason of this King’s detaining Europaeans] It may be worth some inquiry, what the reason might be, that the King detains the Europaean People as he does.  It cannot be out of hope of Profit or Advantage; for they are so far from bringing him any, that they are a very great Charge, being all maintained either by him or his People.  Neither is it in the power of Money to redeem any one, for that he neither needs nor values.  Which makes me conclude, it is not out of Profit, nor Envy or ill will, but out of Love and Favour, that he keeps them, delighting in their Company, and to have them ready at his Command.  For he is very ambitious of the Service of these Men, and winks at many of their failings, more than he uses to do towards his Natural Subjects. [The King’s gentleness towards his white Soldiers.] As may appear from a Company of White Soldiers he hath, who upon their Watch used to be very negligent, one lying Drunk here and another there.  Which remisness in his own Soldiers he would scarce have indured, but it would have cost them their lives.  But with these he useth more Craft than Severity to make them more watchful.

[They watch at his Magazine.] These Soldiers are under two Captains, the one a Dutch man and the other a Portugueze.  They are appointed to Guard one of the King’s Magazines, where they always keep Sentinel both by Day and Night.  This is a pretty good distance from the Court, and here it was the King contrived their Station, that they might swear and swagger out of his hearing, and that no body might disturb them, nor they no body.  The Dutch Captain lyes at one side of the Gate, and the Portugueze at the other.

[How craftily the King corrected their Negligence.] Once the King to employ these his white Soldiers, and to honour them by letting them see what an assurance he reposed in them, sent one of his Boys thither to be kept Prisoner, which they were very Proud of.  They kept him two years, in which time he had learnt both the Dutch and Portugueze Language.  Afterwards the King retook the Boy into his Service, and within a short time after Executed him.  But the King’s reason in sending this Boy to be kept by these Soldiers was, probably not as they supposed, and as the King himself outwardly pretended, viz.  To shew how much he confided in them, but out of Design to make them look the better to their Watch, which their Debauchery made them very remiss in.  For the Prisoners Hands only were in Chains, and not his Legs; so that his possibility of running away, having his Legs at liberty, concerned them to be circumspect and wakeful.  And they knew if he had escaped it were as much as their lives were worth.  By this crafty and kind way did the King correct the negligence of his white Soldiers.