pints of fpirits ; together with a confiderable quantity of butter,
vinegar, raifins, peas and beans, all the produce of the colony,
and all of them articles which were to be procured at a moderate-
rate. I conclude, from the quantity expended, that, in this
year, the fquadron, fuppofing it to confiR of three thoufand
men, was fubfifled mofily on Cape produce; and, therefore,
that it coft the Government little more than one-fourth part of
What it would have done on moft other Rations.
With refpedt to the wear and tear of the tackle and furniture,
I have underflcod it to be very confiderable on this Ration,
owing to the frequent gales of wind, and the expofed fituation
of the fliips. Admiral Pringle ufed to fay, that every foUth-
eaRerly gale, of a week’s duration, coR his Majefly fome thousand
pounds. But this expence might, probably, be obviated
by forming an efiabliflitnent at Saldanha Bay.
The geographical pofition of the Cape of Good Hope, throws
a vaR weight into the fcale of its importance to England. Its
happy fituatioh, with regard to climate, and the productions of
the foil, Ramp its Value as a depofifary of troops and feamen;
and its relative pofition on the globe enhances that; value by the
ready communication it commands with almoR evefy part of
the world. We have feen with what expedition more than two
ihoUfand trbops were thrown from hence into India, to the very
walls of Seringapatam; and, on another occafion, twelve hundred
effeaive men into Egypt. With equal facility and difpatcli
could the fame, or a greater, nUmber have been conveyed to
the eafi coaR of North America, the WeR India iflands, or the
WeR
•weft coaR of South America. At a month’s notice, the whole
coafl of Brazil could be lined with cruizers from the Gape.
The whole eaflern eoafl of Africa, and the various iflands contiguous
to it, are at the mercy of the power who holds the Cape;
and the large ifland of Maflagafcar may he approached in ten or
twelve days, thofe qf France and Bourbon in much lels than a
month, the Red Sea in five or fix weeks, and the eoafls of Malabar
and Coromandel in feven or eight weeks. Thefe paffages
will certainly depend much on the feafon of the year in which
they are made, but when this is properly chofen, the different
places may be arrived at within the periods here mentioned.
If, at any time, troops might fie wanted in the WeR Indies,
the homeward-bound Eafl Indiajnen might be employed to
tranfport them thither from the-Gape without retarding their paf-
fage more than fixteen or eighteen days, as the common practice
of .croffing the line is now as far to the weflward as if'tr e ft
longitude. Detachments of the Hottentot corps would be well
calculated for fervice in the WeR India iflands. Should, at any
future period, the French refume their proje&s on India by the
Red Sea (which they will certainly not fail to do whenever an
opportunity prefents itfelf), in three months from the time it
was firfl known in England, a force from the Gape might be in
■poffeffion of the flraits of Babelmandel, and, by thus anticipating,
completely fruflrate their defigns, which, with the Cape in
their poffeffion, or in that of the Dutch, they might eafily ac-
complifli.
i i 2 But