THE EVOLUTION OF COLONIES. j^6^ 



burst of Greek colonizing activity wliicli peopled Italy and 

 Sicily was followed by a pause of forty years. After the Puri- 

 tan exodus there was no emigration to ISTew England for nearly a 

 century. The rush to the Australian gold fields more than doubled 

 the population in ten years, and then fell permanently to half. An 

 eloquent propaganda sent a tidal wave of emigration to ISTew South 

 Wales in 1861-'63, only to sink in just the same space of time to 

 its former level. 



Migration and emigration are alike 'periodic. Swiss cowherd 

 and Lapland deerherd, French workman and British invalid migrate 

 only for the season. Fishermen emigrate for the season. Most 

 of the first emigrants to new colonies intended to return, and many 

 of them did and do return, but ever fewer with successive years. 

 They compensate for this ascent above the animals by being migra- 

 tory within their new area. Americans and Australians, New-Zea- 

 landers and South Africans have no homes. 



There is a heightened temperature in plants before flowering, in 

 lower organisms before budding or fission, in the lower animals at 

 pairing, and in human beings during courtship. So is there among 

 peoples at great colonizing periods. A " fever of emigration " par- 

 tially depopulated Spain after the discoveries of Columbus and again 

 of Balboa. The settlement of Xew England and Pennsylvania was 

 preceded by growing and widespread, if subdued, excitement. Three 

 successive waves of colonizing enthusiasm swept over England and 

 Scotland in the forties. The gold rushes to California and Australia 

 in 1847-'51, and the milder sensations of Kimberley and the Trans- 

 vaal, Coolgardie, and Klondike, partook of the same character. And 

 still, in some remote Swedish village, an emigrant to the United 

 States or Australia will create a " fever " by the tidings he sends 

 home of success or better days. Then it gets into the blood, and they 

 can not stay. A " colonizing fever " is admitted by observers like the 

 Due de Broglie to reign at present in France, and is alleged to exist 

 with equal intensity in Germany and Italy, while it is said to be 

 redoubled in England, where it is normal and in the temperament. 



At efflorescence, fission, budding, and parturition there is a " dis- 

 ruptive climax.*' So is there in colonization and emigration. 

 Esquiros has given a pathetic account of a visit to an emigrant ship 

 at the London docks. William Black has described, and some artist 

 has painted, the departing Highland emigrants as they sing Locha- 

 ber ]^o More. As the white or the dark cliffs fade, the lump rises in 

 the throat, the eyes fill with unwonted tears, and those who are gifted 

 that way break into verse. Byron's wild Good Night!, Edward 

 Bliss Emerson's melancholy Last Farewell, Hugo's vicarious Sea 

 Song of the Exiles, and Australian Gordon's Exile's Farewell 



