450 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XVII. 



Therefore the Lord President, having convened the 

 Council, has submitted to their judgment the question 



Whether for the benefit of the Honourable Company 

 it would not be advisable to arm and man our sloops, and 

 they having been provided with all necessaries for four or 

 five days, to send them out of this bay this very evening, 

 to see whether the said mantchoes could anywhere be 

 got at ; 



Which having been weighed, and it having been considered 

 that probably the said mantchoes are not yet far from here, 

 but may be lying hereabouts, whether in the Bay of Biligam 

 or elsewhere on the coast, 



MS.fol. 104. 



that if this be so, it is quite possible to come upon them 

 unawares and capture the same ; 



that, in case we allowed them free play and did not attack 

 them, they might also attack other champans bound hither 

 from Coromandel, Battecaloa, or other places, and put the 

 same in great peril, to the great disadvantage and detriment 

 of the Honourable Company and their owners, and to the 

 advantage of our enemy aforesaid ; 



It has been unanimously resolved to put the proposition 

 of the Lord President into effect ; 



to choose out of this garrison 40 able-bodied men, both 

 soldiers and musketeers, under command of the Merchant 

 Mr. Gerrit Moutmaker and Lieutenant Gerrit Maeyer, who 

 are charged with the execution of this project— and to let 

 them go on board the sloop aforesaid. 



May the Almighty grant them complete success and safe 

 return. Amen. 



Thus resolved and approved in the town of Galle, 

 datum ut supra. Jan Thy sen, Marten Vinck, Paulus Doncq, 

 Gerrit Moutmaker, Gerrit Maeyer, Albert Hooghland, Secre- 

 tary. 



