t of trade and the nation, there is the greatest
reason to believe this to be the intention of the legislature. I have
been obliged to insist fully upon this matter, because it is a point
hitherto untouched, and a point of such high importance, that, unless it
be understood according to my sense of the matter, there is an end of all
hopes of extending our trade on this side, which is perhaps the only side
on which there is the least probability that it ever can be extended;
for, as to the north-west passage into the South Seas, that seems to be
blocked up by the rights of another company; so that, according to the
letter of our laws, each company is to have its rights, and the nation in
general no right at all.

If, therefore, the settling of this part of Terra Australis should
devolve on the South Sea Company, by way of equivalent for the loss of
their Assiento contract, there is no sort of question but it might be as
well performed by them as by any other, and the trade carried on without
interfering with that which is at present carried on, either by the East
India or African Companies. It would indeed, in this case, be absolutely
necessary to settle Juan Fernandez, the settlement of which place, under
the direction of that company, if they could, as very probably they
might, fall into some share of the slave-trade from New Guinea, must
prove wonderfully advantageous, considering the opportunity they would
have of vending those slaves to the Spaniards in Chili and Peru. The
settling of this island ought to be performed at once, and with a
competent force, since, without doubt, the Spaniards would leave no means
unattempted to dispossess them: yet, if a good fortification was once
raised, the passes properly retrenched, and a garrison left there of
between three and five hundred men, it would be simply impossible for the
Spaniards to force them out of it before the arrival of another squadron
from hence. Neither do I see any reason why, in the space of a very few
years, the plantation of this island should not prove of as great
consequence to the South Sea Company as that of Curacao to the Dutch West
India Company, who raise no less than sixty thousand florins per annum
for licensing ships to trade there.

From Juan Fernandez to Van Diemen's Land is not above two months' sail;
and a voyage for discovery might be very conveniently made between the
time that a squadron returned from Juan Fernandez, and another squad