200 
TRAVELS IN 
" fidlze all the powers of Europe againft us, and your monopoly 
" of the Indian trade has put you in pofTeffion of a fund of in- 
" exhauftible wealth 1" 
As the French, in all human probability, will very foon be 
deprived of all their colonies in the weft, they will be more 
anxious to increafe their eftablifhments in the eaft j and how- 
ever limited might have been the extent of their views on the 
memorable expedition to Egypt, there cannot now be a differ- 
ence of opinion on the fubjedt. India is, undoubtedly, their ob- 
jedt, and to gain that object they will leave no meafures untried, 
nor regard the facrifice of thoufands. They have now, indeed, 
ftronger motives than ever for attempting the deftrudion of our 
power in the eaft. Driven from the moft valuable of their Weft 
India fettlements, by a condud of which the confequences 
might eafily have been forefcen, and in a fair way of lofmg the 
reft, they will feek for reparation in Egypt and in India. If, 
however, England can fucceed in keeping them out of the 
Eaftern Seas, the feeble remains of their maritime ftrength muft 
fpeedily be extinguiftied ; for without colonies they can have 
little or no foreign trade, and confequently no feamen. To 
efFed this defireable end, it will be indifpenfably neceflary 
for England to regain poflefTion of the Cape of Good Hope, 
which, with Malta and Ceylon, are the beft guarantees for the 
tranquillity of our Indian trade and fettlements, gnd without 
which their fecurity muft always be confidered as precarious. 
It is almoft fuperfluous to obferve how much every nation of 
Europe is interefted, that the power of the Britifh empire 
fliould, 
