[1] [ several lines lost ]
Monday the 15th of September 1653.
The commissioners appointed to consider the ninth point of the descriptions concerning the privateering or sailing by letters of marque, have made their report, which states that the regulation enacted in the year 1646 on this matter ought to remain in force. However, in order to animate and encourage everyone, at this juncture in time, to equip a ship or ships to inflict damage on the Po(tuguese, that, in addition to the modifications in duties granted in the year 1652, provisionally and until further orders, the following modifications could be granted:
1.
That all captured goods shall be secured and brought to a neutral warehouse, for which officials of the high administration and the interested parties or their director shall each have a key.
2.
That after sentence has been pronounced on the aforesaid goods by the council of justice in Brazil, they shall be sold as is presently done by the aforesaid officials of the high administration, provided that the interested parties or their director shall be free to attend the sale.
3.
The moneys accruing from the captured prizes shall be received, as is still customary and pursuant to ancient custom, provided that the share of the interested parties or their director shall be promptly credited and paid shortly after receipt of said moneys.
4.
That all captured goods which one should want to export after the sale, may be loaded insuch ships as the interested parties shall find expedient, and that they go to the fatherland and nowhere else, unless the high administration in Brazil decides otherwise according to circumstances.
5.
However, the Negroes captured with the prizes taken at sea [ may be sent with the knowledge of the government in Brazil to such places, as the purchasers choose. ]
[ 6. ]
[ The duties now received by the Company for all prize goods ] captured and specified in the aforesaid regulations (the Negroes included) shall be modified to ten percent [ and nothing more ], the export upon order as before.
Whereupon, after due deliberation, it was unanimously resolved to enact the same and allow everyone to act accordingly; and the honorable commissioners were thanked for their efforts.
