A F R I C A. 195 
fervlce may fell, for their own behoof, a part 
of its commodities, and particularly the fpiceries 
with which the thips that return from India 
are loaded, the company obliges them to 
touch at the Cape, where it is fuppofed they 
are watched more narrowly than they could 
be at any of the other adjacent bays. This 
fufpicion, which certainly does little honour 
to the officers it employs, is even carried fo 
far that a captain dares not take upon him to 
touch at a foreign port, without the moft urgent 
reafons ; and every perfon defirous afterwards 
of commanding a veffel would be obliged, in 
this refped:, to be ftill more fcrupulous. I 
have myfelf experienced a melancholy proof 
of the feverity of thefe orders ; for on my re- 
turn from the Cape, during a moft unfortu- 
nate paffage, having ftruggled nearly fix months 
againft contrary v/iods, and being in vv^ant of 
provifions, our captain would not venture to 
ftop even for a moment at one of the Canaries, 
which we paffed v^lthin cannon fiiot. 
One day, however, the company may per- 
haps deign to examine my plan, and order it 
to be put in execution ; but till it is accom- 
plifhed, I ihall fincerely regret that fo fine a 
O 2 country 
