i82 TRAVELS IN 
" be found guilty of misdemeanors and irregularities ap- 
" proacbing to crimes — that the said officers of police and others 
" should be authorized to engage destitute and helpless young 
" men in a service, where they would have a comfortable sub- 
" sistence, and an honourable employment — that the young 
" men so procured should be retained in Great Britain, at the 
" depot, for a certain time, in order to be instructed in such 
" branches of education as would qualify for the duty of a non- 
" commissioned officer, and in those military exercises which* 
" form them for immediate service in the regiments in India/' 
Now of all the places on the surface of the globe, for the 
establishment of such a depot, the Cape of Good Hope is pre- 
eminently distinguished. In the first place, there would be 
no difficulty in conveying them thither. At all seasons of 
the year, the outward bound ships of the Company, private 
traders, or whalers, sail from England, and the more they 
were distributed among the ships the greater the probability 
would be that none of them died on the passage. There is 
not, perhaps, any place on the face of the earth which in 
every respect is so suitable as the Cape for forming them into 
soldiers. It possesses, among other good qualities, three 
advantages that are invaluable — healthiness of climate — 
cheapness of subsistence — and a favourable situation for 
speedy intercourse with most parts of the world, and par- 
ticularly with India. I shall make a few remarks on each of 
these points- 
To establish the fact of the healthiness of its climate, I do not 
consider it as necessary to produce copies of the regular returns 
I 
