yield a good red dye of fast colour, this being the wish of Their Excellencies. Meantime the red cloth ordered in 1694, being 142 webs, and the 60 webs ordered lately, must be sent as soon as the required linen arrives from Coromandel. This cloth must be carefully dyed, and after being examined and approved by the members of Council must be properly packed by the Pennisten of the Comptoiren who are employed in this work, on both which points complaints have been received, and which must be guarded against in future. During my residence 96 webs of cloth have been sent out of the 142 that were ordered, so that 46 are yet to be sent, besides the 60 of the new order. No more cloth and dye-roots must be issued to the dyers at a time than they can use in one dyeing, because otherwise the cloth lies about in their poor dwellings and gets damaged, while the roots are stolen or used for private purposes, which is a loss to the Company, of which many instances might be quoted. There is no doubt the Administrateur Abraham Mighielsz Biermans, who has been entrusted with the supervision of this work for many years, will endeavour to further the interests of the Company in this respect as much as possible and keep these lazy people to their work. For the present there is a sufficient quantity of material in stock, as there were in the storehouses on the last of November, 1696, 60,106 lb. of different kinds of dye-root, with which a large quantity of cloth may be dyed, while a yearly supply is delivered at the Fort from Manaar, Carrediva, &c. In Carrediva and "the Seven Places" as they are called, much less is delivered than formerly, because at present roots are dug up after the fields have been sown, while formerly this used to be done before the lands were cultivated, to the disadvantage of the owners. This practice was abandoned during the time of Commandeur Blom, as it was considered unfair; because the fields are already heavily taxed, and on this account the delivery is 20 to 25 bharen [39] less than before.[28]