106 On the Natural Boundaries of Empires. 
DESERTS 
Form a permanent barrier to nations. 
‘wo foreign kings, who obtained possession of Egypt, at- 
tempted to establish their dominion over the deserts of Af- 
rica by force. The result of the two expeditions was simi- 
lar, though the immediate fate of those engaged was differ- 
ent. Cambyses the Persian took with him a numerous 
flourishing army; he left them buried in the sands of the 
desert, and returned back nearly alone. 
ussein, the son of Mohammed Ali Pacha, undertook a 
similar expedition, but his army returned, leaving their co 
mander in possession of as much dominion as his remains 
would cover. 
The empire under the rule of the heirs of Constantine the 
Great, and those of the monarch of Persepolis, were separa- 
ted by immense deserts, which served as a barrier between 
the hostile nations. The Romans of the eastern empire, 
under a warlike emperor, were accustomed to make inroads 
on Persia, crossed the Tigris, captured the principal fortres- 
ses, and imagined the country subdued. single year gen- 
erally witnessed their retreat. The Persians, when their lead- 
ers were ambitious, invaded Asia Minor, gained victories 
and captured cities, but the result was uniformly the same. 
Lewis the fourteenth, laid waste Lorraine and Franche 
Compté; however detestable this was in a moral point of 
dominions of Chili and Peru. A desert, twelve hundred 
miles long, forms a boundary to the United States of Amer- 
ica on the west. : 
The political fate of the nations, residing, in future time, 
beyond this boundary, is fixed by their situation. 
It is not possible that the inhabitants of the coast of the 
acific, if true sons of America, will ever send their rep- 
resentatives to a distance of three thousand miles, over 
