The Company's slaves here are few in number, consisting of 82 individuals, including men, boys, women, and children. But no more are required, as the Oeliaars perform many of the duties for which slaves would be otherwise required. They are employed in the stable, the warehouses, the arsenal, the hospital, and with the shipbuilders and masons. The only pay they receive is 3 fannums and a parra of rice per month, except some of the masons. This payment is sufficient for some of them, but not for all, as there are some employed in masonry work who do their work as well as any of the natives, and, as they have to maintain a wife and children, the master mason has often recommended higher pay for them. There is one among the masons who receives 6 fannums a month, another gets 4, and two others 3 fannums. This might be raised from 6 to 10, from 4 to 8, and from 3 to 6 fannums respectively, so that these poor people may not be discouraged; and on the other hand increased pay often produces increased labour, and thus the Company would perhaps not lose by the extra expense. The matter must, however, be submitted to His Excellency the Governor, as also the request of one of the masons that his daughter may be emancipated, in order to marry a native who has proposed to her. The father offers in her place as a slave another young and capable woman. There is also another application for emancipation from a dyer who is now, he says, 60 years of age. The Company would lose nothing in granting this request, because all he delivers is two or three pieces of ordinary chintz a year. All these matters must be submitted to His Excellency the Governor and the Council.[60]
Having now treated of the Wanny, of the lands of Ponneryn and Mantotte within the Province of Jaffnapatam, and of the fort, we must see what is to be said with regard to the seacoast, and also if any important matter has been forgotten.
Manaar is the last island on this side, and the banks and islets near it form together what is called "Adam's Bridge," which closes the passage between Ceylon and Coromandel. This island also protects Jaffnapatam on the south, as no vessel could come here without passing Manaar. The passage through the river is so inconvenient on account of its shallowness that no vessel can pass without being first unloaded. Therefore no vessel is able to pass nor any smuggling take place without its being known in Manaar. It is on this account that an order was issued by His Excellency the Governor and the Council in their letter of March 5, 1695, to Jaffnapatam, to the effect that no smuggled areca-nut from Colombo or Calpentyn must be allowed to pass there. This was when the trade in these waters was re-opened for private enterprise from Coromandel, and the order was conveyed by us to Manaar by letter of March 11. A close watch must be kept, but so long as the passage of Ramacoil or Lembe in the domain of the Teuver is so well known by some people as it is said to be, it is not likely that attempts at smuggling would be made in Manaar.[61]