Rijckloff Volckertsz. van Goens, Commander-in-Chief of the VOC's forces in Ceylon and India, felt understandably frustrated with the directors of the VOC when he wrote them in February 1661. He had completed the conquest of the remaining Portuguese fortifications on Ceylon in 1658 and taken Negapatnam on the southern Coromandel Coast the next year. By early 1661, when writing these lines, two concerns weighed paramount on his mind: the conquest of Malabar and the refortification of the places already taken. Van Goens was concerned that Portugal would yet be able to mount a counter-offensive and take back that which had been captured at tremendous cost after years of warfare. In addition, Van Goens became ever more suspicious of the VOC's former ally on the island, Raja Sinha, king of Kandy. Colombo had not been handed over to Kandy after its capitulation in 1656, and relations with Kandy had remained frosty ever since, spilling over into open conflict when Van Goens attempted to seize the territory of the Seven Korales in 1664-65. To protect the spoils of war therefore, Van Goens wanted to build new fortifications. He would not make the same mistake the Portuguese had originally made. They had built their forts with only the threat from Kandy in mind, not the possibility of a full-blown European siege. The VOC forts, therefore, should be designed explicitly with this idea in mind. To this end, new works had already been proposed for Galle and Colombo. Even Jaffna, which had been perhaps the strongest of the Portuguese fortifications, would be rebuilt with a large pentagonal citadel. But this system would not serve merely military functions. Van Goens had promised the directors of the Company that great profits could be gained from Ceylon, if only the Company could control the island's trade. This would require fortifying all the major ports and anchorages. To this end, the VOC would have to reconstruct the forts in the east, Trincomalee and Batticaloa, which had been handed over to the king of Kandy and destroyed twenty years before. But the directors did not wish to approve this move, leaving Van Goens frustrated by what he saw as their lack of vision.