Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/207

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PROJECTED SPANISH EMIGRATION

clothing ; and they must either take With them a sufficiency of the two last, or depend upon importations for the necessary supply. To do this, not only requires time, but is attended with an im- mense expence, if the number to be provided for is great ; and in this instance, of a people quitting their country, the number cannot be ascertained: of themselves, they cannot be supposed to have the means, and must therefore depend upon their friends. It becomes, then, a consideration of no little moment where to place them, so as to obviate these difficulties. The situation, climate, and produce of the Delia and the Crimea, seem pe- culiarly adapted to receive them. The Delta produces, with little or no cultivation, grain and fruits of all kinds necessary for the suste- nance of man ; and a small portion of labour cultivates a large tract of ground. Habitations, where little or no rain falls, are easily erected, and clothing is not the greatest Of hu- man wanis- The Spaniards, habi- luated to a warm climate, would i not find themselves incommoded by a heat that scarcely exceeds that of the northern provinces of their own kingdom more than two or three degrees, except at the period oftbe scirocco, and then for only a feu hours. Indolence, to which, as in common with all the natives of hot climates, they are more or loss in- clined, would here still meet with its usual indulgence. Pood could afford pasture for their favourite sheep, and probably increase the pioduee of llj.it vahiabh- animal. s a place ol residence, therefore, for the Spaniard*;, j,, || w . eVOJBt of their abandoning t!i Egypt appease to hold out in '■ ineuts not possessed by any oilier, «< cp( the Crimea, the pnad ancient (.reece. The prod* lions of this country and iK climate aft also Millar to those <»i Spain : he- sides which, it eii|o 1 manj other advantages all conducive to the comforts of its inhabitants. ( lonsj- dered in a political point of view, they both possess advantages tint cannot lie 01 i'i looej. e m b l he most superficial o!)>,T<r. Egypt, colonized by the fi ic;i.!> of ( ,ieat Britain, would form an impenetra- ble barrier to tin- hi, -in h in their toMgwprojcctod invasion of our EafC Indian territories j and would, at t!ie same time, afford an opining for the di- poSBJ of a great quantity of our manufactures: in e.< haSkje for which they would give us s.if- (lovver, imtron, rice, dates, cotton, coffee, drugs, Mc The occupation of Egypt would naturally be followed by that of the islands of Cyprus, Crete, Rhodes, &c. all productive, salubrious, and easily defensible ; offering not only the productions of warmer climates, but also inexhaustible forests of valuable timber. The Crimea, and the coasts of the Black Sea, present also, inde- pendently of their political value, sources of commerce of the highest consideration to Great Britain, as a point from which her manufactures may with ease be dispersed through all Persia, Georgia, Circassia, &c. which would return raw silk, drugs, Y2