306 KETROSPECT. 



made an astonishing difference in the facility of 

 distant navif^ation. Even in the time of Cook, a 

 man who left his fireside for such expeditions un- 

 derwent severe privations. A yacht now, with 

 eveiy luxury of life, can. circumnavigate the globe. 

 Besides the vast improvements in ships and naval 

 resources, the whole western shores of America 

 are thrown open, and Australia has become the 

 capital of a rising continent. How different are 

 the circumstances to a man shipwrecked at the 

 present day in the Pacific, to what they were in 

 the time of Cook ! Shice his voyage a hemisphere 

 has been added to the civilized world. 



If a person suffer much from sea-sickness, let 

 him weigh it heavily in the balance. I speak from 

 expenence : it is no trifling evil, cured in a week. 

 If, on the other hand, he take pleasure in naval 

 tactics, he will assuredly have full scope for his 

 taste ; but it must be borne in mind how large a 

 proportion of the time during a long voyage is 

 spent on the water as compaied with the days in 

 harbour. And what are the boasted glories of the 

 illimitable ocean] A tedious waste, a desert of 

 water, as the Arabian calls it. No doubt there are 

 some delightful scenes. A moonlight night, with 

 the clear heavens and the dark glittering sea, and 

 the white sails filled by the soft air of a gently- 

 blowing trade-wind ; a dead calm, with the heaving 

 surface polished like a mirror, and all still except 

 the occasional flapping of the canvass. It is well 

 once to behold a squall with its rising arch and 

 coming fury, or the heavy gale of wind and mount- 

 ainous waves. I confess, however, my imagination 

 had painted something more grand, more terrific 

 in the full-grown storm. It is an incomparably 

 finer spectacle when beheld on shore, where the 

 waving trees, the wild flight of the birds, the dark 



