\ 
250 TRAVELS IN 
France and Bourbon, a fufEcient number of troops and tranf- 
ports to difturb the peace of our Indian fettlements. Her aim 
will not be that of fighting our fleets of war, nor of making a 
dire<3: attack on our Eaftern poiTeffions, but to abet and affift the 
native powers againft us, with a view rather of deftroying our 
empire in India, than any hope fhe can polTibly form of efta- 
blifhing one of her own. Without funds and without credit {he 
can have little profped of amalTing wealth by fair trade and 
honeft induftry ; and will therefore attempt, by every means 
fhe can think of employing, to effect the ruin of ours ; by dif- 
turbing the peace of our fettlements through her intriguing 
agents j by forming alliances with thofe who are difpofed to be 
hoflile towards us j and by alfifting them with her troops. 
It was In this point of view that the French confidered the 
Cape of Good Hope to be more important than the Ifle of Cey- 
lon, the ceffion of which, I have reafon to believe, they never 
meant to difpute vigoroufly in negociation, being rather deter- 
mined to fiand a conteft for the reftoration of the Cape nomi7ially 
to its ancient poffefTors. If, however, in order to obtain a 
peace, we were reduced to the neceffity of accepting the alter- 
native of either, as probably was the cafe, it became, no doubt, 
a very ferious and interefting confideration, to eftimate their 
comparative value and importance. The one rated as yielding 
a revenue of nearly a million a year, with a harbour not fur- 
pafled in the whole world j the key of all India j and a place, 
in the hands of a powerful enemy, from whence all India might 
be affaulted— the other, a barren projnontory (for fuch it was 
generally 
