SOUTHERN AFRICA. 341 
two months. A total stagnation to all trade immediately fol- 
lowed the surrender of the place. The merchant of the town 
was clogged with a heavy capital of foreign goods, for which 
there was no vent ; and the fanner had little demands for his 
produce. Every one was desirous to sell, and, of course, there 
were no buyers. The limited amount, for which the Govern- 
ment was authorized to draw on the Asiatic Council of the 
Batavian Republic, had long been expended ; and the arrears 
of pay and allowances, still due to the garrison, inflamed it to 
mutiny. The great depreciation of the paper currency held out 
no encouragement for the Government to try its credit by ex- 
tending the capital already in circulation. All hard money 
had totally disappeared, except English copper penny pieces, 
of which I have already spoken, to the amount of about four 
thousand pounds, and even these Avere bought up by the Go- 
vernment and taken out of circulation, although their current 
value was two-pence. The addition of a French garrison, un- 
der such circumstances, would, in all probability, have hastened 
the destruction of the colony, in so far as regarded a supply 
of foreign articles in exchange for colonial produce. For, it 
is not to be supposed, after their treatment of the Dutch at 
home, they would be inclined to shew more consideration for 
their colonies. 
As a dependency on the Crown of Great Britain, in the 
natural course of things it became a flourishing settlement ; 
but neither the territorial nor the commercial advantages de- 
rivable to Britain, in consequence of the possession of it, are 
of such magnitude as, considered in these points of view only, 
to make the retention of it a sine qua non to a treaty of peace ; 
