258 TRAVELS IN 
sailor may be subsisted equally cheap with the soldier. It 
has been calculated, after making the usual allowances for 
waste, damage, and interest of money, on ships provisions 
sent out from England, to say nothing of the premium re- 
ceived on bills given in exchange for paper currency, that the 
sailor at the Cape can be furnished with his ration of fresh 
beef or mutton, biscuit, and wine, at one-fourth part of the 
rate which the same ration costs the government in salt pro- 
visions and biscuit sent out from England. A pint of wine, 
as I have already stated, costs no more than threepence, and 
might be reduced to half that price by abolishing the mono- 
poly ; and the Cape brandy, though at present bad, on ac- 
count of the defective manner of distillation, and the improper 
ingredients employed, may be had at a much cheaper rate 
than West India rum, and would, in a little time, under the 
encouragement of the British Government, have been made 
in its quality equally good of its kind. 
What the actual expence of the squadron, which might be 
considered to be stationed there for the defence of the settle- 
ment, amounted to, is not easily ascertained. Sometimes 
there were eighteen pendants, and sometimes not eight ; 
and the ships were generally employed on various and active 
service. The following account, made up in conformity to a 
precept of the House of Commons on a motion of the late 
Sir William Pulteney, will shew at least the money expended 
there in seven years for naval services. 
