200 
TRAVELS IN 
about 300,000 rixdoilars or 60,000/. Suppose tlien the con- 
tingencies and extraordinaries of the army to be 30,000/. 
the whole sum recj^uired would be 90,000/. or 450,000 rix- 
doilars, the exact amount of the colonial revenue at the close 
of the year 1801. 
The point of view, in which the importance of the Cape 
next presents itself to our consideration, is its local position, as 
being favourable for distributing troops to any part of the 
globe, and especially to our settlements in the east, with faci- 
lity and dispatch ; which is not by any means the least among 
those advantages it possesses as a military station. Im- 
portant as the considerations are of healthiness of climate and 
cheapness of subsistence where a depot of troops is intended to 
be formed, its value in these respects would very materially 
be diminished by great distance from, or difficulty of convey- 
ance to, those places where their services are most likely to be 
required. 
The longer the voyage the less effective will the troops be 
on their arrival ; and delay is dangerous, even to a proverb. 
Perhaps it is not saying too much, that we are indebted in a 
very high degree to the Cape for the conquest of Mysore and 
the overthrow of Tippoo ; not merely from the reinforcements 
that were sent from thence to join the Indian army, though 
they eminently conti ibuted to the conquest of Seringapatam, 
but from the speedy inteliigence obtained of the transactions 
carrying on at the Isle of France in consequence of the arrival 
of the Sultaun's agents, of which they were entirely ignorant 
in India, but w hich, by the vigilance and precaution of Lord 
2 
