342 TRAVELS IN 
not even when carried to the highest possible degree of which 
they are susceptible. If the importance of this settlement 
was confined to these objects, the possession of it would not 
be worth the concern of the British government. 
It now remains to consider, in the last place, the import- 
ant advantages that might result to England, by establishing 
at the Cape a kind of central dep6t for the Southern Whale 
Fishery. It is an universally acknowledged truth that, with 
the promotion of navigation, are promoted the strength and 
security of the British empire ; that the sea is one great source 
of its wealth and power ; and that its very existence, as an 
independent nation, is owing to the preponderancy of its 
navy ; yet, it would seem that the advantages offered by this 
element have hitherto been employed only in a very partial 
manner. Surrounded as we are on all sides by the sea, every 
square mile of which is, perhaps, not much less valuable than 
a square mile of land in its produce of food for the sustenance 
of man, how long have we allowed another nation to reap 
the benefit of this wealthy mine, and to support from it al- 
most exclusively, a population which, in proportion to its 
territory, was double to that of our own ; a nation which, by 
this very source of industry and wealth, was once enabled to 
dispute with us the sovereignty of the seas ? A nation of 
fishermen necessarily implies a nation of seamen, a race of 
bold and hardy warriors. The navy of England has deserv- 
edly been long regarded as the great bulwark of the empire, 
whdst the most certain source of supplying that navy with 
the best seamen has been unaccountably neglected. Our 
colonies and our commerce have been hitherto considered as 
