SOUTHERN AFRICA. ~ 177 
for the maintenance of a ftation whofe advantages are incal- 
culable. 
But the article of expence, trifling even in war, could be no 
objeit whatfoever in time of peace. The fortifications, which 
were in tlie mod: ruinous condition when the place was taken, 
being finifhed in a complete manner, would require no further 
expence than that of merely keeping the works in repair, v/hich 
might amount, perhaps, to an avmual fum of five thoufand 
pounds. The contingencies and extraordinaries of the army 
could not, at the utmoft, amount to twenty thoufand pounds ; 
fo that twenty-five or thirty thoufand pounds would be the ex- 
tent of the contingent and extraordinary expences of the Cape 
in time of peace ; a fum that, by proper management, and a 
prudent appHcation of the revenues of the colony, might eafily 
be defrayed out of the public treafury there, and leave a fur- 
plus adequate to all the demands of the civil department, to- 
gether with the necelTary repairs of public works and buildings. 
' The manner in which T calculate is thus : from a review of 
the colonial revenues, I find that the average in the Dutch Go- 
vernment in ten years, from 1784 to 1794 was little more than 
100,000 rix dollars yearly, but that by the regulations and new 
imports made by the Dutch Commifraries General in 1793, the 
amount in the following year was 211,568 rix dollars. They 
afterwards experienced a confiderable increafe, and from the 
firft year of Lord Macartney's adminiftration they rofe gradu- 
ally as follows: 
VOL. II. A A From 
