2t2 
TRAVELS IN 
its trade to the Eaft will, in the nature of things, be iaconfider- 
able for a long time. Her fir ft objed will be to fend out troops 
and ftores to endeavour to deftroy, at fome future period, our 
trade and poffefiions in India, which fhe has long regarded with 
envy and jealoufy — and v/e have already fhewn how far the 
Cape may be inftrumental in checking or in forwarding, ac- 
cording to the power who holds it, her projeds in this part of 
the world. 
I now proceed to inquire to what extent the Cape of Good 
Hope may be confidered as advantageous to the interefts of the. 
Britifh nation, by furnifhing articles of export for general con- 
fumption in Europe and the Weft Indies. Its importance, in 
this point of view, will readily be decided from the ftatement 
of a few fimple fadts colleded from the cuftom-houfe books, 
together with the fupplies that were confumed by the army, the 
navy, and the inhabitants during our pofleffion. It may be ob-^ 
ferved, however, that no true eftimate can be formed from fuch 
ftatement of what the colony is capable of producing, cramped 
as it always has been by reftridive regulations, which the indo- 
lent difpofitions of the fettlers tended but too much to cherifti j 
and, therefore, that the following account of colonial produce 
adually confumed and exported, is not to be taken as the 
ftandard meafure of its worth, as a territorial pofleffion, nor 
confidered as any comparative quantity of what it might fupply, 
when governed by a fyftem of falutary laws, and inhabited by 
an induftrious and intelligent race of men. 
