RELATIVE VALUE OF GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION 679 



Australia remained a region of possible future colonization, rather 

 than one to be readily exploited. 



A whole century was destined to pass before the fertile eastern 

 shore was to be revealed, and then by a sailor of another nation, the 

 English Captain Cook, who, after sailing in and out round the islands 

 of New Zealand, of which Tasman had only seen a fragment, ex- 

 plored the whole of the east of Australia, and so opened the road 

 to its colonization by a different nation from the Dutch. 



The name of Captain Cook serves as a reminder that the eighteenth 

 century saw a revival of maritime activity in England. It is with 

 the great Pacific Ocean that his name is inseparably connected; 

 east and west, north and south he penetrated to its utmost limits, 

 revealing much of its wealth of islands, and finally sinking to rest in 

 its waters, slain, like his great predecessor Magellan, in a petty 

 skirmish, while endeavoring to protect his men. 



Cook was the last of the great oceanic explorers. After him sail- 

 ors were left, like Alexander, sighing for new worlds to conquer. 



The nineteenth century, save for attempts to penetrate the polar 

 fastnesses, has been mainly concerned with the exploration of the 

 interior of continents, in which representatives of many nations 

 have been engaged, for none have had special advantages of position. 



The development of steam navigation has largely served to anni- 

 hilate distance, and has destroyed much of the relative value of 

 position, which gave some countries an advantage in earlier times, 

 under other conditions. 



One interesting result has been a revival of the early Italian 

 eminence in exploration, the Duke of the Abruzzi's expedition hav- 

 ing penetrated to the "Farthest North" yet reached, while in the 

 recent attack on the Antarctic there has been a striking combina- 

 tion among a large number of countries. 



Finally, the fact that the great Universal Exposition is held this 

 year at St. Louis, where we are assembled, in the heart of North 

 America, suggests a reflection on a change in relative position, which 

 has affected many districts at different epochs, owing to a tendency 

 for the spread of civilization to follow the course of the sun in its 

 westerly path, as Wordsworth puts it, "Stepping westward seem 

 to be a kind of heavenly destiny." To the Assyrians of old, Eu- 

 rope itself was the West - - Ereb ; Moorish names in Portugal and 

 Morocco represent the West of a later period, while Cape Finisterre 

 similarly records the limit of the land. In the New World, the same 

 phenomenon repeats itself, the centre of gravity in the distribution 

 of its population moves steadily to the west, and the name of the 

 "Far West" is losing its earlier significance. Already for some time 

 the waves of civilization have reached the far Pacific shore. 



One thought remains. The Middle Ages might fittingly be de- 



