What is "topasses"

Topasses (Tupasses, Topas, Topaz) were a group of people in maritime Asia in the early modern period, who claimed Portuguese ancestry or had taken up Portuguese culture and language. Topasses were found in the various places of South Asia and Southeast Asia which were frequented by the Portuguese, such as Goa, Malacca and Batavia. In particular they are associated with the ethnically mixed Portuguese group that dominated politics on Timor in the 17th and 18th centuries.