TRISTAN DA CUNH A. 139 
future time be so unfortunate as to be excluded from the Brazils 
and the Cape of Good Hope, this half-waj island to India 
would be found to possess many conveniencies. Even those 
who may contend that om- colonial territories are already suf- 
ficiently extended must at least agree that we can never have 
too many points of secuiity and accommodation for our ships 
of war and of commerce. It was indeed once proposed, by 
a set of adventurers, to form an establishment on this island, 
in order to carry on a con\-enient smuggling trade with the 
settlements of South America, particularly those of Spain, by 
furnisliino; the natives with li2;ht Manchester and coarse Indian 
goods in exchange foi- specie, and employing, at the same time, 
their shipping in the Southern A\ hale Fishery, in order to 
procure oil and bone as a return cargo for Em"o})e. If, under 
the immediate eye of government, such a settlement Avere 
made, it might answer the same purpose for the East India 
Company's ships on the outward-bound voyage as St. Helena 
does on the homeward ; and a work of defence on a xevy 
limited scale, with a few men, woidd I'cnder it impregnable, 
a circumstance which not a little enhances its value. 
Continuing' our vovaoc from Tristan da Cunha we doubled 
the Cape of Good Hope between the parallels of 39° and 40^, 
where, though now in the middle of summer, the air was 
extremely cold, loaded with rain and sleet ; and we ex- 
perienced frequent and heavy gales of ^vind from the south- 
east quarter which caused a constant deep rolling sea, whose 
appearance, however tremendous to those who are not ac- 
customed to it, is little regarded by those who are. The run 
of the shi[) by the log in this rolling sea, a little to the east- 
'r 2 
