NO. 53.— 1902.] GALLE DUTCH RECORDS. 



259 



RESOLUTIONS AND SENTENCES OF THE COUNCIL OF 

 THE TOWN OF GALLE, 1640-44. 



Being the Translation of Volumes I. and II. of the Galle Dutch 

 Records, made for the Society in Holland. 1 



Edited and revised by R. G. Anthonisz, Government Archivist. 



VOLUME I. 

 August 8, 1641 A.D. 



MS. page 1. 



ALTHOUGH a Singalese runaway had reported that since 

 our last expedition to Bacquelle 2 and thereabouts, the enemy 

 had repaired thither with 150 white men, besides the " blacks " 

 from Mature, yet the Lord President was by divers sergeants 

 and other officers daily accosted, and requested leave to sally 

 out in small parties of 12, 16, or 20 men, in order to shoot 

 cattle and to provide other refreshments ; His Honour, having 

 told this to the Council, has submitted to their judgment 

 whether it were not advisable to send out a considerable 



1 Volumes I. and II. of the G-alle Records are the oldest Dutch manu- 

 scripts extant in Ceylon. They embrace the years 1640-44, and furnish 

 details of the proceeding's of the Dutch in Ceylon from the date of their 

 first obtaining- a footing in the Island by the conquest of the fortified town 

 of G-alle. No attempt has been made to correct the phraseology of the 

 translation, as the quaint, though perhaps often obscure, language in 

 which it is presented very faithfully reproduces the original. The Trans- 

 lator has laboured under the disadvantage, not only of having to decipher 

 a very difficult and imperfect manuscript, but also to get at the context 

 where whole passages have been destroyed by vermin. 



By an error of the binder the earliest resolutions (1640-41), which should 

 have appeared at the commencement of Volume I., have been bound up 

 with Volume II. 



2 Wakw»ella, 4 miles from Galle. 



[Printed under Resolution No. 11 of Council Meeting of July 3, 1902— see page 258, ante.] 



2 



