Why can Portugal hire Mameluks, and Barbary Corsairs?
If anything they were enemies of a different religion, and it’s very unlikely they would be hired as mercenaries.
I think some mistake was made with “Mameluco” which is a Portuguese word that denotes the first generation child of a European and an Amerindian. It corresponds to the Spanish word mestizo.
Some Indian/Wokou pirates would work much better as Mercenaries could be added instead.
Also i will request again that the Navigator card buffing the Portuguese Explorer gives him a Montante and a matchlock pistol with reduced range.
Sources:
Even with his launch scraping the bottom, Antonio grappled the galley from the stern. At once five Portuguese knights, wearing suits of armour that covered them from head to foot, jumped into her and, wielding their two-handed swords, created havoc all around them. Within minutes the galley was fully cleared of enemies! But by a stroke of ill fortune, just at the point when Antonio de Noronha was about to board the galley an arrow hit him on one of his knees, causing a serious wound that made him fall helpless inside the launch. Concerned only in saving Antonio, the launch’s crew pulled away, leaving the five knights alone in the galley facing hundreds of enemies that pressed them from all sides. Then an epic fight took place in which those five performed prodigies of valour with their two-handed swords, not allowing the Adilkhan’s soldiers to return to the galley. From his vantage point atop a high parapet Adilkhan watched, in amazement, the way in which the Portuguese were fighting and could not restrain himself from praising them.
Mandavi June 1510
Portuguese Sea battle Volume 1.