to the Company, but also because of the idolatry and devil-worship which they have to a certain extent been allowed to practise, and which acts as a poison to the other inhabitants, among whom we have so long tried to introduce the Dutch Reformed religion. The debt of the dyers at Annecatte, entered under the name of Manoel of Annecatte, dyer, which amounted at the end of August to Fl. 9,823.6, has been since reduced by Fl. 707.10, and is still being reduced daily, as there is sufficient work at present to keep them all busy, of which mention has been made under the heading of Dye-roots. This debt amounted at the end of February, 1694, to Fl. 11,920.13.6, so that since that time one-third has been recovered. This is done by retaining half the pay for dyeing; for when they deliver red cloth they only receive half of their pay, and there is thus a prospect of the whole of this debt being recovered. Care must be taken that no one gives them any money on interest, which has been prohibited, because it was found that selfish people, aware of the poverty of these dyers, sometimes gave them money, not only on interest but at a usurious rate, so that they lost also half of the pay they received from the Company on account of those debts, and were kept in continual poverty, which made them either despondent or too lazy to work. For this reason an order was issued during the time of the late Commandeur Blom that such usurers would lose all they had lent to these dyers, as the Company would not interfere on behalf of the creditors as long as the debt to the Company was still due. On this account also their lands have been mortgaged to the Company, and Mr. Blom proposed in his questions of December 22, 1693, that these should be sold. But this will not be necessary now, and it would not be advantageous to the Company if the weavers were thus ruined, while on the other hand this debt may on the whole be recovered. (31)