of Brazil is the voyage of a month; from the Dutch colonies
of Surinam, Demarara, Berbice, and Effiquebo, with the Weft
India iflands, fix weeks ; the fame to the Red Sea; and two
months to’the coafts of Malabar and Coromandel. With the
eaft and the weft coafts of Africa and the adjacent iflands, it
commands a ready communication at all feafons of the year.
A place fo fituated, juft half way between England and India,
in a temperate and wholefome climate, and produitive of re-
frefhments of every defcription, would naturally be fuppofed to
hold outfuch irrefiftible advantages to the Eaft India Company,
not only by its happy pofition and local afcendancy, but alfo
by the means it affords of opening a new market and intermediate
depofitary for their trade and commodities, that they
would have been glad to purchafe, at any price, an acquifition
offuch immenfe importance; and that fuch great advantages,
however they might be blinked by fome or unknown to others,
would fpeedily have forced a general conviiftion of their value,
-in fpite of real ignorance or affefled indifference.
One might alfo have fuppofed that the pofleffion of the Cape
of Good Hope would have fuggefted itfelf to the Eaft India
Company as a place which would have removed many, if not all,
of the difficulties that occurred to them, on the renewal of their
privileges in 1793, when a deP6t for their recruits in Britain
was in contemplation. The principal regulations propofed for
fuch depofitary of troops, as contained in “ H iftoric View o f
“ P lan s fo r B ritijh In d ia ” were the following:— “ That the age
“ of the Company’s recruits fhould be from twelve to fifteen
“ or twenty, becaufe at this period of life, the conftitution was
“ found
“ found to accommodate itfelf moft eafily to the different varia-
“ tions of climate— that the officers of the police fhould be
“ empowered to transfer to the depot all fuch helplefs and in-
“ digent youths as might be found guilty of mifdemeanors and
“ irregularities approaching to crimes— that the faid officers of
“ police and others fhould be authorized to engage deftitute and
“ helplefs young men in a fervice, where they would have a
“ comfortable fubfiftence, and an honourable employment—
“ that the young men fo procured fhould be retained in Great
“ Britain, at the dépôt, for a certain time, in order to be in-
“ ftrutfted in fuch branches of education as would qualify for
<* the duty of a non-commiffioned officer, and in thofe military
“ exercifes which form them for immediate fervice in the regi-
“ ments in India.”
Now of all the places on the furface of the globe* for the
eftablifhment of fuch a depot, the Cape of Good Hope is preeminently
diftinguifhed. In the firft place, there would be no
difficulty in conveying them thither. In every month of the
year, the outward bound fhips of the Company, private traders,
or whalers, fail from England, and the fewer that each fhip
carried, the greater the probability would be that none of them
fhould die on the paflage. And there is, perhaps, no place on
the face of the earth in every refpeâ fo fuitable as the Cape
for forming them into foldiers. It polfefTes, among other ad-»
vantages, three that are invaluable ; healthinefs of climate,
cheapnefs. of fubfiftçnce, and a favourable fituation for fpeedy
intercourfe with moft parts of the world, and particularly with
India. I fhall make a few remarks on each of thefe points.
y 2 With