CEYLON BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 



nual official letters to the East India Company, and the four 

 corresponding classes in Holland together with the replies and 

 instructions of the latter. But the amount of information that 

 way be interesting at the present day is not so great as would 

 at first appear. A great deal was written backwards and for- 

 wards about individual clergymen, their choice, appointment, qua- 

 lifications and destiny ; their arrival, adventures, location, re- 

 moval and departure ; their age, sickness, infirmity or death ; 

 slight misunderstandings about charges in their appointments ; 

 recommendations and testimonials on their arrival and depart 

 ture either home or to a new station. The classical letters con* 

 tain lengthy assurances of interest and co-operation, kind and 

 christian encouragement, and detailed accounts of home Churches, 

 of proceeding of the classes, and of the state of the Father- 

 land, its diplomatic and warlike operations with the Kingdoms 

 of Europe, all which was of course interesting to the colonists 

 to know. Many of the consistory's letters to the high autho- 

 rities are urgent applications for more clergymen, either to fill 

 up vacancies or to meet the increasing demand. 



The oldest letter with which we begin is from the Galle 

 to the Colombo Consistory dated June 1659. Previous to 

 this the Ceylon clergy had not been in the habit of sending 

 to Holland annual Ecclesiastical Reports of their operations. 

 The classis of Amsterdam wished that a direct and regular 

 correspondence be opened and kept up between the Church in 

 Ceylon and themselves, that thereby the Colonial Church may 

 remain in a desired connexion with the Parent Church. The 

 classis wrote to this effect, complaining that all they knew of 

 late about Ceylon was only indirectly from Batavia. This letter 

 was circulated among the Ceylon Consistories, and as it was 

 considered unsatisfactory that each individual Consistory should 

 correspond with the classis, as had occasionally taken place, 

 one general epistle giving an oversight of their operations through- 

 put the Island was unanimously thought preferable. But as it 



