30O TRAVELS IN 
the negociation ; and the article was altered accordingly. 
Thus might it also have been with regard to the Cape of 
Good Hope, had the Directors consulted the real interests of 
the East India Company. But, as there is reason to believe 
that, though late, they have seen their error, and that they 
are now convinced the Cape must either become a British 
territory, or their interests will very materially suffer ; it is to 
be hoped they will shew themselves as solicitous to remove the 
evil as they were before indifferent in preventing it; for, 
should the present opportunity be allowed to slip, Tempuserit 
magno cum optaverit emptim. 
What the Dutch meant to have done with it, had not the 
present war broken out, is uncertain. I was told, from good 
authority, that their intention was to give it a fair trial of ten 
or twelve years, unclogged and unfettered; to endeavour to 
raise it, by every encouragement, to its greatest possible value 
as a territorial possession ; to admit the commerce of all na- 
tions on equal terms with their own, and to allow an influx 
of settlers from Europe ; if, at the end of that time, the re- 
venues were not so far improved as not only to meet the or- 
dinary and contingent expences of the establishment and the 
garrison, but to produce a surplus for the use of the State, 
that they should then consider how to dispose of it to the 
best advantage. 
All ships were, accordingly, admitted to an entry of Euro- 
pean, American, or Indian produce and manufactures, on 
payment of a duty of 10 per cent, on the invoice prices ; and 
