and to commerce in general. I therefore suppose, that, if the South Sea
Company should think proper to revive their trade in the manner I
propose, this proviso would be explained by Parliament to mean no more
than excluding the South Sea Company from settling or trading in or to
any place at present settled in or traded to by the East India Company:
for, as this interpretation would secure the just rights of both
companies, and, at the same time reconcile the laws for establishing them
to the general interest 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