4^6 
TRAVELS IN 
to prevent his becoming troublesome, recommended liim to 
accept of a high appointment at the Cape of Good Hope, 
v/here, I understand, he arrived within a month after the 
evacuation, not as plain Mr. G , late of the English East 
India Company's service, but as Monsieur Le G , Con- 
seiller privS en intime de la Kepuhliqiie Batave auprh du Gouver- 
nenr et Conseil au Cap de Bonne Esperance. 
It also appeared, from the conduct of the three commis- 
sioners that were sent out to arrange certain points with the 
British government, that French interest was likely to pre- 
dominate at the Cape. These gentlemen, though calling 
themselves Dutch, made a hard struggle, but without suc- 
cess, that the minutes of their joint transactions and corre- 
spondence with the commissioners that were appointed on the 
part of the British government, should be kept in the French 
language. In short, every step that was taken by the new 
government clearly evinced that, although the Batavian flag 
might be suffered to fly, French influence was likely to pre- 
vail. Long, indeed, before the peace, it was become pretty 
evident that Holland was not in a condition to make any 
successful struggle in defence of her integrity or existence, 
and that an incorporation with Belgium, and becoming a de- 
partment of France, would, in all probability, be the final 
Euthanada of their High Mightinesses, the United Provinces. 
These and other considerations produced a gloominess and 
melancholy on the minds of the better disposed part of the 
colonists that bordered on despondency. When the day of 
evacuation arrived, the castle and the road to the wharf were 
7 
