The Commandeur, President (absent). Dessave de Bitter, Vice-President. Capt. van der Bruggen, Administrateur. Abraham Biermans. Lieut. Claas Isaacsz. The Thombo-keeper, Pieter Chr. Bolscho. The Ensign Arnoud Mom. The Onderkoopman Joan Roos. The Onderkoopman Jan van Groeneveld. The Bookkeeper Jan de Wit, Secretary. But it must be considered that on my departure to Mallabaar, and in case the Dessave be commissioned to the pearl fishery, this College will be without a President; the Onderkooplieden Bolscho and Roos may also be away in the interior for the renovation of the Head Thombo, and it may also happen that Lieut. Claas Isaacsz will be appointed Lieutenant-Dessave, in which case he also would have to go to the interior; in such case there would be only three members left besides the complainant ex-officio and the Secretary, who would have no power to pronounce sentence. The Lieutenant van Hovingen and the Secretary of the Political Council could be appointed for the time, but in that case the Court would be more a Court Martial than a Court of Justice, consisting of three Military men and two Civil Servants, while there would be neither a President nor a Vice-President. I consider it best, therefore, that the sittings of the Court should be suspended until the return of the Dessave from the pearl fishery, unless His Excellency the Governor and the Council should give other instructions, which Your Honours would be bound to obey. I also found that no law books are kept at the Court, and it would be well, therefore, if Your Honours applied to His Excellency the Governor and the Council to provide you with such books as they deem most useful, because only a minority of the members possess these books privately, and, as a rule, the Company's servants are poor lawyers. Justice may therefore be either too severely or too leniently administered. There are also many native customs according to which civil matters have to be settled, as the inhabitants would consider themselves wronged if the European laws be applied to them, and it would be the cause of disturbances in the country. As, however, a knowledge of these matters cannot be obtained without careful study and experience, which not every one will take the trouble to acquire, it would be well if a concise digest be compiled according to information supplied by the chiefs and most impartial natives. No one could have a better opportunity to do this than the Dessave, and such a work might serve for the instruction of the members of the Court of Justice as well as for new rulers arriving here, for no one is born with this knowledge. I am surprised that no one has as yet undertaken this work.