Dr. D'Acunha has set this English traveller down to 1684, and introduces a quotation from him in illustration of the coinage of the latter period, in his quasi-chronological notes, a new element in the confusion of his readers.
"3 plaghe" in Balbi.
"Serafinno di argento" (ibid.).
"Quando si parla di pardai d'oro s'intendono, tanghe 6, di buona moneta" (Balbi). This does not mean the old pardao d'ouro or golden pagoda, a sense which apparently had now become obsolete, but that in dealing in jewels, &c., it was usual to settle the price in pardaos of 6 good tangas instead of 5 (as we give doctors guineas instead of pounds). The actual pagodas of gold are also mentioned by Balbi, but these were worth, new ones 7½ and old ones 8 tangas of good money.
No doubt, however, foreign coins were used to make up sums, and reduce the bulk of small change.