226 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XIX. 



inconvenience and the loss of memoranda for a claim that 

 he had upon the East India Company. 



He had, namely, during his governorship of Ceylon, ad- 

 vanced to the Company's chest the sum of 82,000 rixdollars. 

 A letter of demand for the repayment of this sum, sent in to 

 Governor-General Mossel* in 1757, f had for the time being 

 the only result that he was asked to complete the sum to 

 100,000 rixdollars ! To this he agreed, and got back the 

 additional 18,000 rixdollars later through his attorney in Java. 

 It cost him more trouble and time to get back the large sum 

 of 82,000 rixdollars. From the transcript printed in the 

 journal mentioned, of a demand presented in Europe, it seems 

 that only in 1763, when he " was in France for the improve- 

 ment of his feeble health," did he receive the money back, 

 but with a gross deduction of 7 T ^ per cent, for the Company 

 and \ per cent, on the interest, plus 2 J per cent, commission. 

 In the said letter of demand he asks for the deduction back, 

 as well as the interest at 6 per cent, since 1762. This last, 

 however, was not granted to him. From an " extract uyt de 

 Resolutie door de vergadering der Heeren 17en binnen 

 Amsterdam genomen op Woensdag 1 April 1767," J it 

 appears that he received a refusal. 



From various notes and papers that accompanied the 

 plates in the portfolios it appears that Loten was in constant 

 correspondence with students of natural history in the colonies 

 and in Europe, and now and then sent specimens to private 

 persons or learned societies in the motherland. He himself 

 on his homeward voyage brought with him inter alia four live 

 crested pigeons, § but had declined an offer made to him by his 

 cousin, 1 1 Mr. Cornelis Hasselaar,^ at Cheribon, of deer and birds 

 for taking with him on the same voyage. 



* Jacob Mossel, Governor-General, 1751-61. 



f Perhaps the marriage of Loten's relative Hasselaar to Mossel's daugh- 

 ter in this year (see note below) induced him to send in his claim at this time. 



| «• Extract from the resolution adopted by the meeting of the 

 Seventeen in Amsterdam on Wednesday, 1st April 1767." 



§ See extract from Edwards's Gleanings of Nat. Hist, further on. 



|| Or nephew (nee/ means either). 

 Pieter Cornelis Hasselaar married, at Batavia, 24th April 1757, as his 

 second wife, Geertruida Margaretha, the daughter of Governor-General 

 Mossel. (See notice of him in van der Aa's Biog. Wdnbk. der Nederl.) 



