338 CO CHINCH IN A. 
British nation have acquired and annexed to her original 
dominions. 
But beside the security which, on the one hand, the pos- 
session of the strong peninsula of Turon would afford to our 
valuable fleets employed in the China trade and, on the 
other, the annoyance it could not fail to give us if in the 
hands of an active and enterprizing enemy, the important 
advantages which would result to our Indian commerce by 
having in this part of the ^vov\d a secure harbour, where 
water and every kind of refreshment may be procured, are 
not lightly to be appreciated. Considered in this point of 
view only, if the management of our China ships was less 
dexterous and the means of preserving the health of the 
crcAvs less efficacious than they really are, the having of such 
a port to resort to, in the event of a ship being too late in the 
season aiu! caught by the adverse monsoon, which sometimes 
happens, -would be an invaluable acquisition. Many other 
considerations mioht be uroed in favour of establishino- an 
intercourse with Cochinchina, but I shall at present confine 
the few observations I have to make to a brief view of 
those advantages which the East India Compan}'' would de- 
rive in their commercial concerns with China, by establishing 
a factory on the peninsula of Turon bay. 
That the China trade is the most important and the most 
advantageous of the Company's extensive concerns is, I be- 
lieve, universally admitted ; and that it is worthy of high 
consideration in a national point of view requires but little 
