The matter of the Secretariate not being conducted as it ought to be, cannot be dealt with in full here. It was said in the letters of November 17 and December 12, 1696, that the new Secretary, Mr. Bout (who was sent here without any previous intimation to the Commandeur), would see that all documents were properly registered, bound, and preserved, but these are the least important duties of a good Secretary. I cannot omit to recommend here especially that a journal should be kept, in which all details are entered, because there are many occurrences with regard to the inhabitants, the country, the trade, elephants, &c., which it will be impossible to find when necessary unless they appear in the letters sent to Colombo, which, however, do not always deal very circumstancially with these matters. It will be best therefore to keep an accurate journal, which I found has been neglected for the last three years, surely much against the intention of the Company. The Secretary must also see that the Scholarchial resolutions and the notes made on them by the Political Council are copied and preserved at the Secretariate, another duty which has not been done for some years. I know on the other hand that a great deal of the time of the Secretary is taken up with the keeping of the Treasury Accounts, while there is no Chief Clerk here to assist him with the Treasury Accounts, or to assist the Commandeur. This was felt also by Mr. Blom, and he proposed in his letters of February 12 and March 29, 1693, to Colombo that the Treasury Accounts should be kept by the Paybook-keeper, which, in my humble opinion, would be the best course, as none of the four Onderkooplieden [42] here could be better employed for this work than the Paybook-keeper. It must be remembered, however, that Their Excellencies do not wish the Regulation of December 29, 1692, to be altered or transgressed, so that these must be still observed. I would propose a means by which the duties of the Cashier, and consequently of the Secretary, could be much decreased, considering that the Cashier can get no other knowledge of the condition of the general revenue than from the Thombo-keeper who makes up the accounts, namely, that the Thombo-keeper should act as General Accountant, as well of the rent for leases as of the poll tax, land rent, tithes, &c., in which case the native collectors could give their accounts to him. This, I expect, would simplify matters, and enable the Secretary to be of more assistance to the Commandeur. In case such arrangement should be made, the General Accountant could keep the accounts of the revenue specified above, which could afterwards be transferred to the accounts of the Treasury; but Your Honours must wait for the authority to do so, as I do not wish to take this responsibility. I must recommend to Your Honours here to see that in future no petitions with regard to fines are written for the inhabitants except by the Secretaries of the Political Council or the Court of Justice, as those officers in India act as Notaries. This has to be done because the petitions from these rebellious people of Jaffnapatam are so numerous that the late Mr. Blom had to forbid some of them writing such communications, because even Toepasses and Mestices take upon themselves to indite such letters, which pass under the name of petitions, but are often so full of impertinent and seditious expressions that they more resemble libels than petitions. Since neither superior nor inferior persons are spared in these documents, it is often impossible to discover the author. Whenever the inhabitants have any complaint to make, I think it will be sufficient if they ask either of the two Secretaries to draw out a petition for them in which their grievances are stated, which may be sent to Colombo if the case cannot be decided here. In this way it will be possible to see that the petitions are written on stamped paper as ordered by the Company, while they will be written with the moderation and discrimination that is necessary in petitions. There are also brought to the Secretariate every year all sorts of native protocols, such as those kept by the schoolmasters at the respective churches, deeds, contracts, ola deeds of sale, and other instruments as may have been circulated among the natives, which it is not possible to attend to at the Dutch Secretariate. But as I have been informed that the schoolmasters do not always observe the Company's orders, and often issue fraudulent instruments and thus deceive their own countrymen, combining with the Majoraals and the Chiefs of the Aldeas, by whom a great deal of fraud is committed, it will be necessary for the Dessave to hold an inquiry and punish the offenders or deliver them up for punishment.