31o t r a v e l s in
Europe to the Indian Ocean, if we except the Portugueze iflands
and Rio de Janeiro, whofe admiflion to us is extremely precarious,
we have not a creek that will afford us a butt of water,
a bifcuit, or a bullock.
It is by no means neceffary to refort to the coafts of South
America to fucceed in the Southern Whale Filhery. The
whales on the eaft and weft cOafts of Africa are of the fame
kind, of as large a fize, and as eafily taken, as thofe on the
ihores of the oppofite continent. The black whales, indeed,
are caught with much greater eafe, as they refort in innumerable
quantities into all the bays on the coafts of South Africa, where
there is no riik in encountering them, and lefs expence as well
as more certainty in taking them, than in the open ocean. The
fpermaceti whale, whofe oil is more valuable, and of which one
half of the cargo at leaft fhould be compofed, in ofder to meet
the expences of a long voyage, is equally abundant on the
coafts of Southern Africa as on thofe of America. No objection
can therefore lie on the ground of taking the fiih.
I f policy requires the encouragement of all our .filheries by
bounties, and that with a view of increafing the nurfery of
feamen to Great Britain and Ireland ; it may, perhaps, be expedient
to extend that encouragement to the inhabitants of the
C a p e of Good Hope, a meafure which could not fail to bring together
the South Sea filhers to its ports to complete their cargoes,
giving, by their means, an increafed energy and aftivity
to the trade and induftry of the fettlement.
3 ' The
SOUTHERN AFRICA;. 321
The fituation, the fecurity, and the conveniences of the
Knyfna, are admirably adapted for carrying into execution a
filhery on fuch a plan. Every material either is, or might
be, produced upon the fpot for equipping their ihips. The
land is here the very belt that the colony affords, and it fo happens,
that the fix months in which it might be dangerous to
fiih on this coaft, are the fuitable feafon for cultivating the
land. Such fmall craft might alfo find their advantage in running
down to the iflands in the South Seas and picking up a
cargo of leals, and thus anticipate the Americans, who, by
means of their filhery and ginfeng, ancf the produce of their
lumber cargoes, have worked themfelves, as we have already
had occafion to notice, into a Valuable portion of the China
trade. Whereas if oil taken on the coaft by the fmall craft of
the inhabitants of the Cape, which might alfo include oil taken
by foreign filhermen and exchanged by them for India or China
goods,'were admitted to entry in Britilh bottoms into Great
Britain at a low colonial duty, the foreign filhermen, who
never can, be excluded from fithing on the coafts of Africa,
might find a market for their oil there. And the Americans
would, probably, under fuch regulations, find it their advantage,
to fupply themfelves with Indian produce at the Cape, and extend
their filhery only when they could *not obtain a vent for
their native produce of ikins, drugs, and lumber. The fituation
of the-Cape, properly flocked, might thus be an important
dépôt for Britilh trade with America, and, perhaps, fuperfede-
expenfive voyages to China in their fmall ihips. This, however,
is mere mattter of opinion and not of fail. That the
v o l . 1 1. t t plan