<P> In sixteenth century southern Portugal there were Chinese slaves but the number of them was described as "negligible", being outnumbered by East Indian, Mourisco, and African slaves . Amerindians, Chinese, Malays, and Indians were slaves in Portugal but in far fewer number than Turks, Berbers, and Arabs . China and Malacca were origins of slaves delivered to Portugal by Portuguese viceroys . A testament from 23 October 1562 recorded a Chinese man named António who was enslaved and owned by a Portuguese woman, Dona Maria de Vilhena, a wealthy noblewoman in Évora . António was among the three most common male names given to male slaves in Évora . D. Maria owned one of the only two Chinese slaves in Évora and she specifically selected and used him from among the slaves she owned to drive her mules for her because he was Chinese since rigorous and demanding tasks were assigned to Mourisco, Chinese, and Indian slaves . D. Maria's owning a Chinese, 3 Indians, and 3 Mouriscos among her fifteen slaves reflected on her high social status, since Chinese, Mouriscos, and Indians were among the ethnicities of prized slaves and were very expensive compared to blacks, so high class individuals owned these ethnicities and it was because her former husband Simão was involved in the slave trade in the east that she owned slaves of many different ethnicities . When she died, D. Maria freed twelve of her slaves including this Chinese man in her testament, leaving them with sums from 20,000 to 10,000 réis in money . D. Maria de Vilhena was the daughter of the nobleman and explorer Sancho de Tovar, the capitão of Sofala (List of colonial governors of Mozambique), and she was married twice, the first marriage to the explorer Cristóvão de Mendonça, and her second marriage was to Simão da Silveira, capitão of Diu (Lista de governadores, capitães e castelões de Diu). D. Maria was left a widow by Simão, and she was a major slave owner, possessing the most slaves in Évora, with her testament recording fifteen slaves . </P> <P> A legal case was brought before the Spanish Council of the Indies in the 1570s, involving two Chinese men in Seville, one of them a freeman, Esteban Cabrera, and the other a slave, Diego Indio, against Juan de Morales, Diego's owner . Diego called on Esteban to give evidence as a witness on his behalf . Diego recalled that he was taken as a slave by Francisco de Casteñeda from Mexico, to Nicaragua, then to Lima in Peru, then to Panama, and eventually to Spain via Lisbon, while he was still a boy . </P> <P> Chinese boys were kidnapped from Macau and sold as slaves in Lisbon while they were still children . Brazil imported some of Lisbon's Chinese slaves . Fillippo Sassetti saw some Chinese and Japanese slaves in Lisbon among the large slave community in 1578, although most of the slaves were blacks . Brazil and Portugal were both recipients of Chinese slaves bought by Portuguese . Portugal exported to Brazil some Chinese slaves . Military, religious, and civil service secretarial work and other lenient and light jobs were given to Chinese slaves while hard labor was given to Africans . Only African slaves in 1578 Lisbon outnumbered the large numbers of Japanese and Chinese slaves in the same city . Some of the Chinese slaves were sold in Brazil, a Portuguese colony . Cooking was the main profession of Chinese slaves around 1580 in Lisbon according to Fillippo Sassetti from Florence and they were viewed as "hard working", "intelligent", and "loyal" by the Portuguese . </P> <P> The Portuguese "highly regarded" Asian slaves like Chinese and Japanese, much more "than slaves from sub-Saharan Africa" and Moorish Muslims . The Portuguese attributed qualities like intelligence and industriousness to Chinese and Japanese slaves which is why they favored them more . Traits such as high inttelligence were ascribed to Indians, Chinese, and Japanese slaves . </P>

When did portugal begin to trade with african kingdoms