TRAVELS IN 
the internal commerce of Hindoftan — the opportunity it would 
afford of entering into an alliance with the Mahrattas, whom he 
confiders as a warlike and faithful people — the eafy intercourfe 
that might be maintained from this coaft with the Perfian gulph, 
the Red Sea, the Ifles of France and Bourbon, Madagafcar, and 
the Cape of Good Hope. 
Thefe are certainly important confiderations, and demand all 
the vigilance and attention of our Government in India. Even 
a fmall force of French troops, had they been thrown upon the 
coaft of Malabar, at the very moment when our forces were 
drawn off into the Myfore, againft the Sultaun's army, might 
have proved fatal to our poffeffions on this coaft. The ufurper 
would, no doubt, have obtained his reinforcement from the Ifle 
of France, and probably without our knowledge, rendering, by 
their means, the conqueft of Seringapatam doubtful. If, in fuch 
a ftate of things, the French forces could have gained a footing 
at Bombay, Goa, or Guzzarat, and intrigued themfelves into 
an alliance with the Mahratta powers, though it might not have 
realized their project of an Indian empire, it would, at leaft, 
have been deftru£tive of our poffeffions in the weft of the pe- 
ninfula, to hold which, indeed, Mr. Anquetil confiders as fatal 
to our power in India. 
> 
On this fubjedl: his opinion is not lingular; before the over- 
throw of the Myfore kingdom, there were many of our own 
countrymen, whofe fentiments in this refpett accorded with 
his ; and who, like himfelf, have not only a profound know- 
ledge of Indian politics, but are well acquainted with the phy- 
I fical 
