ios] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
by general Abercromby, after de- 
feating and taking prisoners a very 
considerable body of French, who 
‘did not, however, surrender them- 
belves without a vigorous defence. 
In the preceding month, Isiquibo 
and Demerary, two Dutch settle- 
ments of great importance, were 
taken posgission of by a body of 
troops, commanded by general 
Whyte. 
The only advantage gained at 
sea, by the French, in the course of 
this year, was at Newfoundland, 
where a vast amount of property, 
in warehouses and other buildings, 
and in merchandize and shipping, 
was destroyed, in the month of Au- 
gust, by admiral Richery, after he 
had escaped from Cadiz, where he 
had been compelled to take refuge 
many months, from the British squa- 
dron, sent in quest ofhim. He had 
the good fortune to return safe to 
France, after his expedition, with- 
out the loss of aship. 
This success was amply counter- 
balanced, by the capture of a Dutch 
fleet of ships of war and transports, 
destined for the retaking of the Cape 
of Good Hope; which had been 
reduced, in the preceding year, by 
a British naval and military force, 
under the command of admiral 
Elphinstone and general Clarke. 
It sailed, in March, from the Texel, 
and was to have been joined by a 
French squadron, at the expence of 
the Dutch. Destitute of this ex- 
pected aid, it was attacked by the 
British squadron, under admiral 
Elphinstone, who captured the 
whole ; consisting of three ships of 
the line, three frigates, and other 
vessels of inferior size. About two 
thousand troops were on board the 
squadron. This event took place in 
the course of August. ==. > 
French empire, by the natura 
The Dutch settlements, in the 
island of Ceylon, with Malaccas 
Cochin, and Chinsura, in the end of 
1795, and beginning of 1796, were 
also taken possession of by the Bri- — 
tish troops without resistance. ; 
The reduction of these places, 
particularly of the Cape and Cey-— 
lon, though the possessions of our’ 
ally, the stadtholder, whom we had ~ 
taken under our proteétion, inspired 
an unusual degree of joy and exulta-— 
tion, not only ia the generality of 
the British nation, but into adminis=— 
tration, and persons in their cone 9 
fidence, who now began to drop 
hints, which have been so often re- 
peated, of coercing the trade of the 
world, of restraining it within Bri- 
tish channels, and of the com- 
mercial advantages of naval-war, 
without interruption, and without 
end. <A secretary of state said, in 
the house of commons, ‘‘ I would 
be glad to see the minister who § 
should dare to give up the Cape of 
Good Hope on any account.” This’ 
was somewhat in the same spirit 
with the resolution of the French 
government, to incorporate, in all 
possible cases, the Austrian Ne- 
therlands with the territories of 
the republic. The possession of 
the Cape and Ceylon, particularly 
the harbour of Trincomale, a sure 
asylum to ships in al] seasons, was 
accounted, by those who thought in 
this manner, such a compaction of 
the maritime dominion of Great 
Britain as the arrondissement of th 
boundaries of seas, rivers, and moun- 
tains. As, on the one hand, it wa 
said, a kingdom may be united by 
local position, but divided internally 
by mountains, morasses, and deserts 
which enabled the inhabitants of par- 
zicular distriéts to resist government; 
and 
