SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
211 
Syria. But that, admitting even they should succeed in col- 
lecting at Suez an army equal to their wishes, the difficulties 
of transporting this army to India would be almost insur- 
mountable. If it be meant by those who support this 
opinion that the attempt is to be made by sea, whilst the 
Cape remained in our possession, I have little hesitation in 
agreeing with them that it must certainly fail. During the 
last war, when their troops had marched to Suez, they had 
not a single ship in the Red Sea that dared to carry the 
French flag, nor, with the Cape and Ceylon in our hands, 
could they at any future period have a fleet of any descrip- 
tion without our permission. 
But we will even allow them to have assembled at Suez a 
fleet of their own ships, or of the country coasters, sufficient 
to take on board their armament destined for the Malabar 
coast. The next question is, where, or in what manner, are 
they to victual and to provision such a fleet for a month or 
five weeks passage, and especially in the supply of the in- 
dispensable article of water ? The fountains of Moses, it is 
true, furnish a supply of water at all seasons of the year, but 
they are situated at tvvelve miles distance from Suez. Water 
may be, likewiscs and is, collected in tanks or reservoirs 
near the town, but it soon grows fetid. The difficulty, how- 
ever, of victualling and watering such a fleet, though great, 
is not insurmountable, and therefore may be allowed to be 
got over. 
The dangerous navigation of the Red Sea, in which it ap- 
pears not fewer than fifteen armed ships were lost between 
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