ABSTRACT
D. Francisco Dalmeida, upon considering the remonstrance and the articles which the captains had laid before him against the great Afonso Dalboquerque, ordered Gaspar Pereira, who acted as his secretary, to draw up an Act of accusation, and he prepared an ordinance which contained the following statement:—“I, D. Francisco Dalmeida, Viceroy of the Indies for the king my lord, command you, Gonçalo Fernandez, and Francisco Lamprea, public scrivener and judicial in these parts of India, and Pero Vaz, late scrivener of the caravel St. Jorge, and João Saramenho, receiver of the defuntos, that you all four open this inquiry (according to the depositions laid before you by Manuel Telez, Afonso Lopez da Costa, and Antonio do Campo) against Afonso 210Dalboquerque, and prosecute the same by examination in order of certain articles which they will communicate to you; and Gonçalo Fernandez shall conduct the inquiry, and the other three of you be scriveners, and the four shall be always present at the taking down of the testimony. And as some of the witnesses are not present, all the testimony shall be taken upon oath before me, and the testimony which they require that is in Cananor shall be sent for and taken down there; and this inquiry shall be conducted in the house of Gonçalo Fernandez, inquisitor, wherein all that is done every day shall remain locked up in a chest with three keys of which each scrivener shall have one. And you four have now sworn upon oath in my presence, administered to you by Gaspar Pereira, to prosecute this inquiry well and diligently. Done in Cochim on the twenty-sixth day of the month of May. Gaspar Pereira drew this up in the year one thousand five hundred and eight.
