[15][16] The first contingent left Lisbon in 1545 and the system apparently continued to function intermittently until the eighteenth century.
Regarding the timespan of the Órfãs d'El-Rei being sent overseas, it was said that "the system apparently continued to function intermittently until the (early) eighteenth century.
[18] During the Iberian Union, the Habsburg King of Portugal continued the policy of sending female orphans to Goa, ignoring protests from the Portuguese authorities there.
[26] The sex ratio between men and women in Goa was skewed, and the shipments of Órfãs d'El-Rei was an attempt to correct this.
[27] Frederick Charles Danvers wrote in 1894 that "It had for some time been customary to send out orphan girls to India, from orphanages at Lisbon, with the view of getting them husbands and so providing for them, and, at the same time, with the view of furnishing wives of their own nation to the Portuguese in India, to prevent them from marrying native Indian women.
In many instances these orphans were also provided with dowries by the State, which occasionally took the form of appointments in the Government service, which, though given to the girls themselves, were of course intended to be filled by their husbands.
[29][30] One tale related how some Dutch privateers seized a ship with Portuguese orphan girls and took them as brides.
[31] James Talboys Wheeler wrote in 1881 that "It was the custom of the king of Portugal to send a number of well-born orphan girls every year to Goa, with sufficient dowries to procure them husbands in Portuguese India.
[32] François Pyrard of Laval in his account of his voyages, observed some Portuguese merchants, when their ship was in danger, "It was a very miracle that saved us, for the wind was from the sea, and we were so close ashore that we had great difficulty in doubling the point and getting out.
The principal merchant made one of 800 cruzados: to wit, 400 for an orphan girl to marry withal, and 400 for a lamp and other utensils for a shrine of Our Lady that is hard by.
[4][34] The exiled former ruler (liwali) of Pemba converted to Christianity from Islam and was married to an órfã do rei named Dona Anna de Sepulveda in 1607.