Ponneryn is the third Province from where elephants should be obtained if all be well, because formerly when this Province was ruled by an Adigar or Lieutenant-Dessave appointed by the Company, like the Provinces Ilipoecarwe, Polweramcattoe, and Mantotte, no less than 25 alias on an average were obtained from there yearly, for which purpose two kraals had been made. In 1690 this practice was changed, because His Excellency van Mydregt, by decree of March 2 of the same year, granted the revenue of Ponneryn to the young Don Gaspar, and those of the other two Provinces to the old Don Gaspar, on condition that the former should, as Master of the Hunt, see that all the elephants which were found there were captured and sent down on account of the Company; for which purpose 145 hunters and their Manigares were placed under his command. The project for which this arrangement was made, however, proved to be illusory, for no more than 74 elephants were delivered by the Master of the Hunt in 7 years' time, while according to the previous account 175 animals ought to have been delivered. This means a loss to the Company of 101 elephants during the same period, besides the tithes of the harvest for these three Provinces, while, moreover, we had to continually hear complaints from the inhabitants of maltreatment on the part of the said Wannias, as happened again lately when the Dessave De Bitter visited Ponneryn. They are not satisfied with the revenues mentioned above, but consider themselves rulers over the inhabitants, which was never meant by His Excellency van Mydregt, and they were always prevented from asserting themselves as such, as may be seen from a report by Commandeur Blom on Jaffnapatam, submitted to His Excellency the Governor and the Council of Colombo on August 28, 1692. About a year after the issue of the deeds of gift of the tithes, His Excellency proposed to change this practice again, and in a document of March 29, 1693, he repeated this proposal, saying that he had already given orders for a general elephant hunt on account of the Company in the said Provinces, in which both the hunters and the inhabitants were to take part. Why this order was not carried out I cannot say; but I know that already, within six months after the issue of the deeds of gift, he noticed that both these Don Gaspars had been favoured too much. This may be seen from a letter from His Excellency dated July 4, 1690, to Jaffnapatam. For these various reasons I have recommended that the form of government in the Wanni should be changed, as would appear in our conjoined letter to Batavia of August 12, 1695. Many more reasons might be brought forward, but it would be trouble in vain. I therefore recommend Your Honours to strictly follow the orders of His Excellency the Governor and the Council of Colombo as contained in their letters of October 13 and November 21, 1696, in favour of the said Wannias, because Messrs. van Kuilen and Petitfilz, who were commissioned to investigate this matter, declared that the inhabitants on the borders of the Wanni are quite content and well satisfied. There is no use therefore in our saying anything, although my experience and that of the Dessave have proved quite the contrary. I cannot help for this reason making a speculative calculation of the amount which the Company has lost since the conquest of this territory by the non-payment of tributes and arrears in the Wanni and Ponneryn. If each animal be calculated on an average to be sold at Rds. 350, or 1,050 Florins, as may be considered to be the case, the amount would be:--