So that Jaffnapatam had from this a clear revenue of Rds. 31,645.2.3/9 last year, which is the second in importance of the sources of revenue which the Company derives from this Commandement, besides the profit on the sale of elephants. So far the land rents have only been calculated in the Mallabaar books. We had therefore to depend entirely on the native officers who were employed in this work and had to translate the accounts; but the Hon. the Extraordinary Councillor of India, Mr. Laurens Pyl, when he was Commandeur of Jaffnapatam, very wisely introduced the practice of having all the fields, trees, houses, and gardens of the inhabitants indicated on maps, and of estimating the impositions of the tithes, and thus compiling a Dutch instead of the Mallabaar Thombo. Because, when a description was made in Mallabaar, in compliance with the orders of Their Excellencies at Batavia in 1675 and 1677, the yearly revenue of the Company increased by no less than Rds. 12,204 and 17/40 fanams. But as the natives were not supposed to have done the work satisfactorily, it was again undertaken by a committee of Dutch surveyors, who, however, wrote a great deal but did not start the work in the right way, and it was never properly completed. The new description of lands had however become so urgently necessary that His Excellency the Commissioner-General left orders that this work should be started afresh, ignoring what had been done already. During the government of Commandeur Blom this work was commenced again, some soldiers who were qualified surveyors being employed in it, as well as such Cannecappuls [19] as were required by the Thombo-keeper to do the writing, while one of the surveyors prepared the maps of the fields which had been surveyed. This was done with a view to obtain a plan of each particular field and thus recover the proper rents, and also to fix the boundaries between the different properties. Maps are also being prepared of each Aldea or village and each Province, of which our authorities in the Fatherland desire to receive a copy as stated in their letter to Batavia of August 27, 1694, which copies must be prepared. On my arrival here from Batavia in 1694, the Thombo-keeper, Pieter Bolscho, pointed out to me that this description of land was again unsatisfactory, and that it would not serve its purpose, as stated by me in the Annual Compendiums of November 30, 1694 and 1695. It was therefore necessary to have this work done for the third time, and to measure again all the lands which had been surveyed already. This time a scheme was drawn up with the help of the said Mr. Bolscho, and the work has succeeded so well that the Province of Walligamme, which alone extends over about half of this territory, has been completely surveyed, and will from the last of August yield an increase of revenue of Rds. 1,509.5.23 or Fl. 4,527.3.4 yearly. I have already written and sent out the bills, as a warning to the people