194 
TRAVELS IN 
that could poflibly be colleded and fent down from Suez and 
all the other ports of the Red Sea. Little, therefore, is to be 
apprehended from the defigns of the French on India by the 
way of the Red Sea, fo long as we can command the flrait and 
vidua! the force necelfary to be ftatloned there ; advantages 
which the pofleflion of the Cape and of Ceylon would always 
enable us to make ufe of. 
But if through the Cape the French can contrive to affemble 
and vi6lual a large armament in the Indian Seas, we muft have 
an immenfe force to prevent fuch an armament from co-opera- 
ting with a body of troops that may previoufly have been 
thrown into Egypt and Syria, a plan which they probably in- 
tended to have carried into effedV, had not the ambitious views 
of the Conful put us on our guard, and rendered the prefent war 
both juft and neceffary. Such a plan, at any future period of 
peace, may eafily be realized, long before any intelligence of it 
could reach India, or any force be fent out from England to 
counteradt it, if Malta and the Cape of Good Hope were accef- 
fible to the French, but could not be carried into execution pro- 
vided the Cape be left in our hands, and converted into a naval 
and military ftation, for which it is fo peculiarly adapted. 
What the confequence might be of an attempt entirely by 
land, from Greece or Syria to India, is not quite fo certain j and 
under the prefent circumftances of the French, it is not im- 
probable that the experiment will be made by land and nor by 
fea. If, indeed, the emperor Paul had lived to carry into exe- 
cution his wild but dangerous fcheme, of affembling a large 
body 
