[Page 1]
Garden House, Walworth, in Surrey.
Gentlemen -
As the ultimate Intention of your present laudable Undertaking is indisputably to deduce from it some very essential Benefits to the World in general & this kingdom in particular, It is not to be supposed the noble promoters of it will disesteem any hints calculated to substantiate & diffuse these Benefits, respectfully submitted to their Consideration: -
Taking this for granted, I presume to trouble You with these few Lines, and to request Should you think any of them worthy your own, or the notice of the higher Powers interested in the Success of your Expedition; That You will condescend to communicate & honor them with your efficacious Recommendation. -
If the Royal Society had the sole Regulation of your above mention'd Expedition, it might be thought meerly a philosophical Enterprize, And indeed in this Sence, it would be sufficiently commendable, but being on the contrary intirely under the direction of Government. We must conclude that some Solid, as well as refined --- advantages are in view, namely, the Acquirement of Such Settlements in the Southern Ocean, as may open new Sources to Commerce, and operate as a Terror and Curb upon the Neighbouring & Europian Spaniards.
That an Establishment in these parts would abundantly answer such purposes is certain, & many others of equal Consequence; but not intending this as a Treatise upon the Subject, I Shall only instance, that North America having for years been a perfect human Loadstone, attracting Settlers thither from all Quarters of Europe, And by These means arived to such a pitch in point of population, as to be uneasy under the usual maternal Crontroul: - a Settlement in the Southern Ocean would not only divert the Torrent of Emigrants from thence, but (the Trade) being open) extract a great many of the Natives & Inhabitants already there, a Circumstance that might tend perhaps more than any other, to the natural redependance of these people upon the Mother Country ; for the more their mercantile Indulgences increase and expand, the less time & thought they will bestow in thwarting the Measures of Government, No people understand their own Interests better, of course in this case, they would not long oppose meer prejudices to the premanent advantages of Such an additional Commercial Object: The prosperity, therefore of Your well concerted