X INTRODUCTION. 



across the Atlantic until it reached the Cape de Verd Islands on 

 the other side ; then it took a turn, and came hack on this side 

 again, reaching the coast of Brazil in the vicinity of Cape St. 

 Roque. Here there was another turn, and another recrossing of 

 the broad ocean, striking this time for the Cape of Good Hope, 

 but bending far away to the right before that turning point was 

 reached. 



XXin. Thus the great highway from the United States to the 

 Cape of Grood Hope nearly crossed the Atlantic, it was discovered, 

 three times. The other parts of the ocean by the wayside were 

 blank, untraveled spaces. All the vessels that sailed went by one 

 road and returned by the other. Now and then there was a sort 

 of a country cross-road, that was frequented by robbers and bad 

 men as they passed on their voyage from Africa to the West In- 

 dies and back. But all the rest of the ocean on the wayside, and 

 to the distance of hundreds of miles on either hand, was blank, and 

 seemed as untraveled and as much out of the way of the haunts 

 of civilized man as are the solitudes of the wilderness that lie broad 

 off from the emigrants' trail to Oregon. Such was the old route. 



XXIY. Who were the engineers that laid out these highways 

 upon the sea, and why did traders never try short cuts across the 

 blank spaces ? There was neither rock, nor shoal, nor hidden dan- 

 ger of any sort to prevent ; why did not traders, therefore, seek to 

 cut off these elbows in the great thoroughfares, and, instead of 

 crossing the Atlantic three times on their way to the Cape of Grood 

 Hope (§ XXn.), cross it only once, as they did coming home ? 



Who, it was repeated, were the hydrographic engineers concern- 

 ed in the establishing of this zigzag route ? 



XXV. Inquiry was instituted, and, after diligent research, it was 

 traced, by tradition, to the early navigators and the chance that 

 directed them. When they set sail from Europe, seeking a pas- 

 sage to the East via the Cape of Grood Hope, they passed along 

 down by the Cape de Verd Islands, and then, as they approached 

 the equator, the winds forced them over toward the coast of Bra- 

 zil. Thus a track was made, and the route to the East laid out. 



XXVI. As one traveler in the wilderness follows in the trail of 

 another, so, it was discovered, did the trader on the high seas fol- 

 low in the wake of those who had led the way. 



