Those volumes, then, will supply a general and a very well conceived
estimate of immense tracts of the globe, hitherto but little known to
the English public. The view is clear, quick, and discriminative. The
countries of which it gives us a new knowledge are probably destined to
act with great power on our interests, some as the rivals of our
commerce, some as the depots of our manufactures, and some as the
recipients of that overflow of population which Europe is now pouring
out from all her fields on the open wilderness of the world.
This spread of emigration to the north is a curious instance of the
reflux of the human tide; for, from the north evidently was Europe
originally peopled. Japhet was a powerful propeller; and often as he has
dwelt in the tents of Shem, he is likely to overwhelm the whole
territory of the southern brother once more. The Turk, the Egyptian, the
man of Asia Minor, the man of Thrace, will yet be but tribes in that
army of the new Xerxes which, pouring from Moscow, and impelled from St
Petersburg, will renew the invasions of Genghiz and Tamerlane, and try
the civilized strength of the west against the wild courage and
countless multitudes of Tartary. Into this strange, but important, and
prospectively powerful country, we now follow the traveller. Embarking
from Liverpool in the Caledonia, a vessel of 1300 tons and 450 horse
power, he was amply prepared to face the perils of the most stormy of
all oceans, the Atlantic. The run across lad the usual fortunes of all
voyages, and within a week after their departure from _terra firma_ they
saw a whale, who saw them with rather more indifference, for he lay
lounging on the surface until the steamer had nearly run over him. At
last he dived down, and was seen no more. Next day, while there was so
little wind, that all their light canvass was set, they saw the
phenomenon of a ship under close-reefed topsails. This apparent timidity
was laughed at by some of the passengers, but the more experienced
guessed that the vessel had come out of a gale, of which they were
likely to have a share before long, a conjecture which was soon
verified.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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