176 TRAVELS IN 
lieved not an officer nor a man could possibly have survived 
the voyage to India. Yet the same ships, after being pro- 
perly washed, scoured, and fumigated, and the crews com- 
pletely refieshed, carried on other troops to their destination 
without the loss of a single man. 
How far the conduct of the Directors was compatible with 
the interests of the East India Proprietors, who have con- 
signed them to their management, I shall endeavour to point 
out in the subsequent pages, and to state some of those ad- 
vantages that would have resulted to the British nation iu 
general, and to the East India Company in particular, by 
annexing the Cape to the foreign possessions of England ; 
and the serious consequences that must infallibly ensue from 
its being in the possession of an enemy. Opinions on this 
subject, it would seem, are widely different ; on which ac- 
count a fair and impartial statement of such circumstances as 
may tend to elucidate a doubtful point, may not be deemed 
impertinent, and may ultimately be productive of good, by 
assisting those, to whose care the best interests of the country 
are committed, to form their judgment on facts locally col- 
lected, and brought in some order together under one point 
of view. It is not unimportant to premise that such facts 
were cither taken from authentic and official documents, or 
fell immediately under my own observation. 
I proceed then, in the first place, to consider the Cape of 
Good Hope in the view of a military station ; by which term 
I do not mean to confine myself to the mere garrison that 
may be considered necessar}^ for the defence of the settle- 
