i68 
TRAVELS IN 
a,nd in framing such regulations as appeared to be best cal- 
culated for promoting the [)rosperitj of the colon}', securing 
the interests of the East India Company, and extending the 
commerce and navigation of Britain. Its importance, in 
fact, Avas deemed of such magnitude, that it was a resolution 
of the minister from which he never meant to recede, " That 
'* no foreign power, directly or indirectly, should obtain pos- 
" session of the Cape of Good Hope, for, that it was the 
*' physical guarantee of the British territories in India." Its 
political importance, indeed, could be doubted by none; its 
commercial advantages were believed by all. 
Yet, after every precaution that had been employed for 
securing the privileges, increasing the conveniency, and pro- 
moting the interests, of the East India Company in this 
settlement, it was but too apparent that an inclination pre- 
vailed in some of the Directors to disparage or undervalue it. 
What their motives may have been, I do not pretend to de- 
termine ; nor will I suppose that a body of men, who have 
always been remarkable for acting upon the broad basis of 
rational prosperity, could, in the present instance, so far de- 
viate from their usual line of conduct, as to bend to the in- 
fluence of any little jealousy about patronage or prerogative, 
■when the welfare of the public was so nearly concerned. 
I'he opinions of men, it is true, when grounded on moral 
events, are sometimes fugitive, and yield to circumstances : 
it were difficult, however, to assign , any event or circum- 
stance that could have operated so as to produce any reason- 
able grounds for a change in the ophiion of the Directors of 
2 
