SOUTHERN AFRICA. 349 
In the wide range which, of late years, they have been ac- 
customed to take, from the east, round Caj)e Horn, to the 
west coast of America, partly for the sake of carrying on a 
contraband trade with the Spanish colonies, and partly for 
fishing, they are destitute, in time of war, or ail protection. 
Hitherto they have suffered little inconvenience from this cir- 
cumstance, because the Cape of Good Hope gave us the 
complete and undisturbed possession of the Southern Ocean; 
but is this the case in the present war, when the enemy is in 
possession of the bays and harbours of the Cape ? Whilst, 
from Europe to the Indian Ocean, if we except the Portu- 
p'ueze islands and Rio de Janeiro, whose admission to us is 
extremely precarious, we have not a creek that will afford us 
a butt of water, a biscuit, or a bullock ? 
It is by no means necessary to resort to the coasts of South 
America to succeed in the Southern Whale Fishery. The 
whales on the east and west coasts of Africa are of the same 
kind, of as large a size, and as easily taken, as those on the 
shores of the opposite continent. The black whales, indeed, 
are caught with much greater ease, as they resort in innumer- 
able quantities into all the bays on the coasts of South Africa, 
where there is no risk in encountering them, and less expence 
as well as more certainty in taking them, than in the open 
ocean. The spermaceti whale, whose oil is more valuable, 
and of which one half of the cargo at least should be com- 
posed, in order to meet the expences of a long voyage, is 
equally abundant on the coasts of Southern Africa as on those 
of America. No objection can therefore lie on the ground of 
taking the fish. Besides it is well known that whales, after 
