392 THE SEA IN THE LIFE OF THE NATIONS. 



of moorlands, and overgrown forests, and where the sea, on the other 

 hand, with its fish, molhisks, and crabs, presents an inviting- bill of 

 fare, we find people who, like sea birds, live almost exclusively on sea 

 food and use the land only as their dwelling place. Such are the Terra 

 del Fuegans, who live at the extreme southern end of the inhabited 

 earth, and the Tlinkit Indians, along the southeastern coast of Alaska, 

 which is indented with fiords like the coast of Norway, and cut up into 

 islands. The latter have become so accustomed to their slender, well- 

 built boats that they use their feet unwillingly and awkwardly. Sim- 

 ilarly, in Europe, the Danes have developed into an essentially coast- 

 inhabiting, seafaring people, since a portion of them, under the 

 appropriate name of Vikings (people of the fiords), established settle- 

 ments between a sea teeming with fish and the bare fields of the inland. 

 The history of the Normans unfolds an impressive picture, showing 

 how readily the bold seaman turns sea robber. The Normans, their 

 venturesome spirits lured by the wide freedom of the sea, soon trans- 

 ferred their predatory expeditions from the home soil to foreign lands. 

 They sailed up the streams of eastern England, up the Seine and the 

 Elbe; they harried Cologne on the Rhine, and they entered Sicily as 

 conquerors. Of the sea the same may be said as of the desert, that 

 rich booty entices the foolhard}^ to brigandage, especially when 

 acquaintance with the lay of the land and a sure hiding place promises 

 successful rape. The Dalmatian coast, with its concealed coves and 

 narrow inlets, presents a number of such sally ports and loopholes for 

 escape along one whole side of Adriatic ship routes. For this reason 

 it was a constant seat of piracy, even in ancient times, and when Rome 

 sent a messenger to the Illyrian queen Teuta to demand the cessation 

 of buccaneering, her proud answer, that it did not concern Rome, that 

 it was the custom of her people, had a certain geographical justifica- 

 tion. Opportunit}' not only makes thieves, but rears a nation of 

 robbers. 



Recently doubt has been expressed, rather hypercritically, of the 

 value of sinuses and islands as a nautical impulse to the inhabitants 

 of coast lands. Beyond the even coast line of the Australian and the 

 African mainland, unfringed with islands, the inhabitants have lived 

 from the earliest days devoid of all connection with the sea. Yet no 

 one would venture to say that the negro shows no aptitude for the sea- 

 faring life. On board our vessels many a black African has done 

 valiant service as sailor. In fact, the whole race of Kru negroes, on 

 the seaboard near Cape Palmas, have won world-wide fame as the best 

 sailors employed in the West African merchant service, though, it 

 must be confessed, that this is true only since passing European ves- 

 sels have hired the ''Kru boys" for the work. However, it seems 

 significant that the one tribe of negroes that pursue navigation of their 

 own impulse, the Papel negroes of Portuguese West Africa, south of 



