In 1770 the total European population in Cape Colony was nearly 10,000, of whom more than 8000 were free colonists, and the remainder “servants” and employés of the Company. All this time, although the prosperity of the Cape increased and its export of wheat, wine, and live-stock progressed satisfactorily, the revenue invariably failed to meet the expenditure; and, if other events had not occurred, the Dutch Company must soon have been compelled by bankruptcy to transfer the administration of the Cape to other hands. But towards the close of the 18th century, the Dutch, too weak to resist the influence of France and Russia, were showing veiled hostility towards England, with the result that England—which on the other hand was secretly longing to possess the Cape, owing to the development of the British Empire in India—declared war against the Netherlands at the end of 1780. In 1781 a British fleet under Commodore Johnstone left England for the Cape of Good Hope with 3000 troops on board. Johnstone, however, from storms and other reasons not so apparent, but possibly due to a certain indecision of mind, delayed his fleet at Porto Praya, in the Cape Verde Islands; and news of the expedition having been treacherously imparted to France by persons in England who were in her pay, Admiral Suffren—one of the greatest of sea-fighters—surprised the British fleet at the Cape Verde Islands with a squadron of inferior strength, and gave it such a sound drubbing that Johnstone was delayed for several months in reaching Cape Town, where the French had preceded him, and had landed sufficient men to make a British attack on Cape Town of doubtful success. Johnstone therefore contented himself in a not very creditable way with destroying the unarmed Dutch shipping in the port, and then left Cape Town without effecting a landing. The result was the garrisoning of Cape Town by a French regiment for two more years, during which time however another attempt was made by the British to seize the Cape, which was nearly successful. In the course of this war, however, England apparently made up her mind that the possession of the Cape of Good Hope and of Trinkomali in Ceylon was necessary to the welfare of her Indian possessions, and did not lose sight of this policy when the next legitimate opportunity presented itself to make war upon Holland. On the other hand, the French, though they withdrew their troops in 1783, were equally alive to the importance of the Cape; and in the great duel which was to take place between the two nations it is tolerably certain that South Africa would never have remained in the hands of the Dutch; if it had not become English it would have been taken and kept by the French.