No. 38.— 1889.] THE DUTCH IN CEYLON, 1602-1 757. 145 



In the month of July of the same year, the peelers, not- 

 withstanding the permission given by the King for free 

 peeling, were not only molested in their work, but cruelly 

 beaten and illtreated, particularly in the Oedepalle Corle and 

 Kadoetoewane, and the gathered cinnamon was destroyed 

 or carried away. 



The Dessawe of the Three and Four Corles and the Court 

 Adigaar having been remonstrated with about these pro- 

 ceedings, the Dessawe replied that the Adigaar had issued 

 the order that the cinnamon gathering should not be 

 interfered with, and he did not know why that command 

 had not been obeyed, as it had been before. 



At last, in the month of August, a letter was received from 

 their Excellencies at Batavia with instructions to try and 

 dissuade the Court from insisting on their demands, and 

 if they still persisted in them, to give a decided refusal. 



At the same time orders came that Governor Loten was 

 to leave for Batavia, and was to be succeeded by the Councillor 

 Extraordinary Heer Jan Schreuder, who arrived at Colombo 

 on September 27 following. 



At the commencement of 1757 the Dessawe of the Three and 

 Pour Corles, accompanied by two other chiefs, came down to 

 Colombo as Ambassadors from the Court, and repeated in 

 the first and second audience their troublesome demands 

 concerning the elephant trade, and the transport of arecanuts 

 to Putulang. Whereupon the two Governors expressed their 

 regret at being obliged to refuse, as they had received the 

 positive commands of their Excellencies to make no altera- 

 tion in the arrangements, and to keep to the old privileges 

 and conditions which the Company had enjoyed for more 

 than one hundred years. 



The two Governors reported the result of the conference 

 to their Excellencies in all its details on January 27. 



On March 17 following, Governor Loten left for Batavia, 

 and surrendered the administration to Governor Schreuder, 

 under whose rule, in consequence of the last and positive 

 refusal to the two-fold demand of the Candians, an insurrec- 



86—90 h 



