SOUTHERN AFRICA. " 251 
generally efteemed) at a great diftance from our Indian territo- 
ries, affording little or no revenue, and maintained at a great 
expence. 
" If we give up Ceylon," has obferved Lord Macartney, 
" being fituated at the extremity of the peninfula of India, it 
" would become an immediate and terrific enemy to us in that 
*' quarter, as commanding the power of invading from thence 
*' both the coafl of Malabar and Coromandel. To a maritime 
" power the excellent harbour of Trincomalee is a jewel of in- 
" eftimable value ; it holds the bay of Bengal at its mercy, and 
" affords every facility of overawing and controuling the navi- 
" gation of the Straits of Sunda and Malacca. Our Afiatic 
" poiTeilions, commerce, and marine, would confequently lie 
" open to the depredations of the mailers of Ceylon .... Ad- 
" mitting then that Ceylon fhould preponderate, if put into 
*' the fcale agalnfl the Cape, let it not be forgotten, however, 
" that the Cape i?i an enemy s hatids may become a powerful in~ 
*' Jlrument for their recovering Ceylon^^ 
There can be no queftion that the French were extremely 
glad we gave up the worfe, under the idea of its being an in- 
flrument in their hands of taking from us the better. Ceylon 
to them was of no great value. It furnifhes no fupplies for an 
army or a navy, and would always be at the mercy of that 
power which could bring a fuperior fleet into the Indian Seas; 
and we have (hewn that no fuch fleet of an enemy could be 
afTembled there, nor vidualled, nor provifioned, whilft the Gape 
K K 2 of 
