Your Honours must comply with our orders contained in the letter of May 4 last from Colombo, as to how the cheques from Golconda are to be drawn up and entered in the books. With regard to the special request of the merchants that the amount due to them might be paid in cash or elephants through the said Timmerza to their attorneys, this does not appear in their letter of December 7, 1696, from Golconda, but the principal purchasers of elephants request that the Company may assist the people sent by them in the obtaining of vessels, and, if necessary, give them an advance of 300 or 400 Pagodas, stating that these had been the only reasons why they had consented to deal with the said Timmerza. In our letter of May 4 Your Honours have been informed that His Excellency Laurens Pit, Governor of Coromandel, has consented at our request to communicate with you whenever necessary, as the means of the Golconda merchants who desire to obtain advances from the Company, and how much could be advanced to their attorneys. Such cases must be carefully dealt with, but up to the present no such request has been made, which is so much the better. I.--The 20,000 paras or 866 2/3 lasts of nely applied for from Negapatam will come in useful here, although since the date of this Memoir or the 6th of June the Council agreed to purchase on behalf of the Company the 125 1/5 lasts of rice brought here in the Bengal ship of the Nabob of Kateck Caim Caareham, because even this does not bring the quantity in store to the 600 lasts which are considered necessary for Jaffnapatam, as is shown under the heading of provisions and ammunition. It will be necessary to encourage the people from Bengal in this trade, as has been repeatedly stated. K.--The petition mentioned here, submitted by the bargemen of the Company's pontons, stating that they have been made to pay all that had been lost on various cargoes of rice above one per cent., that they had not been fairly dealt with in the measuring, &c., deserves serious investigation. It must be seen to that these people are not made to refund any loss for which they are not responsible and which they could not prevent, and the annexed recommendation should be followed as far as reasonable. The point of the unfair measuring must be especially attended to, since such conduct would deserve severe correction. L.--The instructions given here with regard to the receipt of Pagodas must be carried out, but none but Negapatam or Palicatte Pagodas must be received or circulated. Our instructions under the heading of Golden Pagodas must be observed.