Water tanks are here very necessary, because the country has no fresh water rivers, and the water for the cultivation of lands is that which is collected during the rainfall. Some wealthy and influential natives contrived to take possession of the tanks during the time the Company sold lands, with a view of thus having power over their neighbours and of forcing them to deliver up to them a large proportion of their harvests. They had to do this if they wished to obtain water for the cultivation of their fields, and were compelled thus to buy at high price that which comes as a blessing from the Lord to all men, plants, and animals in general. His Excellency Laurens Pyl, then Governor of Ceylon, issued an order in June, 1687, on his visit to this Commandement, that for these reasons no tanks should be private property, but should be left for common use, the owners being paid by those who require to water their fields as much as they could prove to have spent on these tanks. I found that this good order has not been carried out, because the family of Sangere Pulle alone possesses at present three such tanks, one of which is the property of Moddely Tamby. Before my departure to Colombo I had ordered that it should be given over to the surrounding landowners, who at once offered to pay the required amount, but I heard on my return that the conveyance had not been made yet by that unbearably proud and obstinate Bellale caste, they being encouraged by the way their patron Moddely Tamby had been favoured in Colombo, and the Commandeur is not even recognized and his orders are passed by. Your Honours must therefore see that my instructions with regard to these tanks are carried out, and that they are paid for by those interested, or that they are otherwise confiscated, in compliance with the Instructions of 1687 mentioned above, which Instructions may be found among the papers in the Mallabaar language kept by the schoolmasters of the parishes. Considering that many of the Instructions are preserved in the native language only, they ought to be collected and translated into our Dutch language.[69]