216 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



penetrated to China itself, and there found the wonder- 

 ful thing that, in more capable hands than those of the 

 ossified scions of its inventors, was destined to be the 

 means of opening up the whole navigable world. 



Whatever the means, they certainly obtained a 

 compass, and speedily learned its use, so that they 

 became, for the time, quite expert navigators ; indeed, 

 they were the pioneers of that science, a proof of which 

 is afforded by the Arabic names given to the stars even 

 now in use, and the indispensable almanack. And 

 had their skill in shipbuilding or instrument-making 

 been commensurate with their courage and learning, 

 it is difficult, indeed, to see why they, and not Euro- 

 peans, should now have been the carriers of the 

 world ; but, like the Chinese, having reached a certain 

 point in their development of seafaring, they halted, 

 and could go no farther. For one thing, their perfect 

 fatalism, with its inevitable excuse for laziness, stood 

 in the way of their advance beyond a certain point. 

 What, for instance, could be more fatal to any progress, 

 in a business point of the view, than their practice, 

 followed to-day as it was in those far-off times, of 

 lowering the anchor down a few fathoms on the 

 approach of night, furling the sail, and turning in, 

 all hands of them satisfied with the knowledge that, 

 before their vessel could strike upon any shore, she 

 must be brought up by her anchor ? or, if that did not 

 happen, and she became a wreck well, it was so to be, 

 and no amount of exertion or watchfulness on their 

 part could have possibly prevented it. 



Thus, although they undoubtedly did mankind a 

 great service in extending the science of seafaring so 

 as to take in the great ocean roads, they, in their turn, 



