A.--The above Instructions were ready for Your Honours when, on January 31 last, the yacht "Bekenstyn" brought a letter from Colombo dated January 18, in which we were informed of the arrival of our new Governor, His Excellency Gerrit de Heere. By the same vessel an extract was sent from a letter of the Supreme Government of India of October 19 last, in which my transfer to Mallabaar has been ordered. But, much as I had wished to serve the Company on that coast, I could not at once obey the order owing to a serious illness accompanied by a fit, with which it pleased the Lord to afflict me on January 18. Although not yet quite recovered, I have preferred to undertake the voyage to Mallabaar without putting it off for another six months, trusting that God will help me duly to serve my superiors, although the latter course seemed more advisable on account of my state of health. As some matters have occurred and some questions have arisen since the writing of my Memoir, I have to add here a few explanations. B.--Together with the above-mentioned letter from Colombo, of January 18, we also received a document signed by both Their Excellencies Governors Thomas van Rhee and Gerrit de Heere, by which all trade in Ceylon except that of cinnamon is made open and free to every one. Since no extract from the letter from Batavia with regard to this matter was enclosed, I have been in doubt as to how far the permission spoken of in that document was to be extended. As I am setting down here my doubt on this point, His Excellency the Governor and the Council of Colombo will, I have no doubt, give further information upon it. I suppose that the trade in elephants is excepted as well as that in cinnamon, and that it is still prohibited to capture, transport, or sell these animals otherwise than on behalf of the Company, either directly or indirectly, as has been the usage so far.