2o6 
TRAVELS IN 
of our power in India, and to endeavour to erect upon ils 
ruins an empire of their own. To accomplish this point, and 
in consequence thereof, in the language of the present Corsi- 
can ruler, " To strike a blow at England which will be fol^ 
" lowed up with its complete destruction," they know there 
are hut two roads to take : the one by getting possession of 
Egypt and Syria, where they might collect and season their 
troops for the grand expedition, either by sea or land ; the 
other by occupying the Cape of Good Hope. Knowing the 
latter to be a desperate attempt, they were induced to make 
an experiment on the former. Had they, or their forced ally, 
the Dutch, kept possession of the Cape, there is no reason for 
supposing that the same fleet which sailed for Egypt, might 
not have sailed from some other port, to this station ; or that 
they could not have slipped out from time to time almost any 
number of troops they might have thought proper to send. 
These troops, when seasoned and prepared at the Cape, for 
a warmer climate, could easily have been transported to the 
Isles of France and Bourbon, where the French would not 
only continue to draw supplies from the former, and to victual 
and provision their ships of war and transports from ther^ce, 
as in the American war, but where they could not fail to have 
received a material reinforcement to their shipping from the 
Dutch ; for it may be recollected, that the fleet under the 
command of Admiral Lucas reached Saldanha Bay, in spite 
of the obstacles which the Southern Atlantic presented, by the 
Cape being then in our hands. This fleet combined with 
that of the French would have required a naval force, on our 
part, in the Indian seas that might not have been quite con- 
venient for us to spare. It is possible, also, they might have 
