Note 1273 — Chapter XV
Reading edition
"The Portuguese are much mixed with Negroes more particularly in the south and along the coast. The slave trade existed long before the Negroes of Guinea were exported to the plantations of America. Damião de Goes estimated the number of blacks imported into Lisbon alone during the 16th century at 10,000 or 12,000 per annum. If contemporary eye-witnesses can be trusted, the number of blacks met with in the streets of Lisbon equalled that of the whites. Not a house but had its negro servants, and the wealthy owned entire gangs of them" (Reclus, I. p. 471).