No. 42.— 1891.] 



PROCEEDINGS. 



43 



4. The CHAIRMAN took the opportunity of returning the 

 thanks of the Society to Mr. Corbet, who was now, for a time 

 at least, resigning the Honorary Secretaryship, on the eve of 

 his departure for England. His services had been appreciated 

 by the Society thoroughly and deservedly. They should be 

 very glad indeed to welcome him back after his sojourn at 

 home, and he was sure all joined in hoping that he would 

 have a pleasant and happy holiday. 



5. Mr. Corbet read some extracts from a translation by Mr. 

 Advocate F. H. de Vos of extracts relating to Ceylon from 

 " De Hervormde Kerh in Nederlandsch Oost-Indie onder de 

 Oost-Indische Compagnie (1602-1795), door (7. A. L. van 

 Troostenburg de Bruyn." 



Mr. Corbet explained that the book from which the extracts 

 were taken was an account of the Reformed Church in the 

 Netherlands East Indies. The extracts were very volumin- 

 ous, and those read bristled with statistics regarding the 

 number of Christians and churches in the Island during the 

 seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth. 

 Mr. Corbet remarked that the extracts were so numerous 

 that it would be impossible to go through them all on 

 that occasion, and if it was the wish of the Meeting, 

 the reading of the Paper could be concluded at another 

 time. 



The Chairman said that the sense of the Meeting might be 

 taken as to whether the reading of the Paper should be 

 continued or discontinued. The extracts were largely statis- 

 tical and such as not to be very readily followed when being 

 read, and it seemed to be simply a trial of their patience to 

 continue the reading. When printed the Paper would be 

 more readily understood and more acceptable than in its 

 present form. 



Mr. A. M. Ferguson said they should however take care to 

 acknowledge their indebtedness to Mr. de Yos for the great 

 pains he had taken in translating a very important historical 

 document, which would be exceedingly useful as throwing 

 light on the history of our predecessors in Ceylon. 



The Hon. P. Ramanathan added that was precisely the 

 view that struck him. He did not know exactly the purpose of 

 the Paper, because on the card there were lots of Dutch words 

 strung together, and he did not understand a word of Dutch. 

 The conversions in those days seemed to have been enormously 

 great, and his interest was raised in the Paper owing to the 

 discovery of that fact, and of course he should read it carefully 

 when be got it in print. They were not able to deal with the 

 statistics and so on that it contained at present. He was sure 

 they were executing the wish of the Meeting in acknowledg- 

 ing the services of Mr. de Vos in preparing so interesting a 



