MOUNTAINEERS. 51 



Basques ; and how long did the expiring sounds of 

 the Celtic language wail among the Cornish rocks, 

 after the lowlands of England had become Roman, 

 Saxon, Dane, and Norman, by turns, and the mingling 

 of a fivefold race had given to the country the most 

 capable population under the sun ? Turn whither- 

 soever we will, on the surface of the globe, or in 

 the years of its history, the discovery is ever the 

 same. The Phenicians were once great in Northern 

 Africa, and the Egyptians mighty by Nilus' flood ; 

 but where now are the ships of Carthage, the palaces 

 of Memphis, or the gates of Thebes ; or where are 

 the men by whom these were erected, or the con- 

 querors by whom they were laid waste 1 The cor- 

 morant sits solitary on those heaps by the Euphrates, 

 where the conqueror of Egypt erected his throne ; the 

 Goth and the Hun trod with mockery over the tombs 

 of the Scipios ; and the turbaned Arab has erected 

 his tent over the fallen palaces of Numantia ; but 

 the cliffs of Atlas have retained their inhabitants, and 

 the same race which dwelt there before Carthage 

 or Rome, or Babylon or Memphis, had existence, 

 dwell there still, and, shielded by the fastnesses 

 of their mountains, the sword will not slay them, 

 neither will the fire burn. Everywhere it is the 

 same. If we turn our observation to the west : 

 the plains of Guiana, and Brazil, and Mexico, and 

 Peru, and Chili, and Paraguay have been rendered 

 up to the grasping hand of conquest ; and, because 

 of the gold and the silver they contain, the thickly- 

 serried Andes have been held by the skirts ; but the 

 red Indian is still in his mountain dwelling ; and in 

 spite of all that fanaticism and avarice, yet more 

 fell, have been able to accomplish, in the very pas- 

 sion and intoxication of their daring (and they 

 have been dreadful in those sunny lands), Chimbo- 

 razo looks down, from his lofty dwelling among the 

 earthquakes, on the huts of his primeval inhabitants; 

 and Orizaba yet mingles his smoke with that of fires 



