ORIGIN OF MARITIMi: HABIT 1^7 



when by successive steps the)' C()n([uered I>ritain, and it is in 

 the main their motive, transmitted by the inheritance of blood 

 and habit, which has made our own people for two centuries 

 successful in the exploits of war and peace upon the seas. 

 More than fi\e centuries before the Mediterranean people 

 dared to traverse the safe waters of the trade-wind belt which 

 separates Europe from America, the hardy Northmen found 

 their way, in their frailer craft, across the storm-swept waters 

 of the North Atlantic to the .American shores. Greenland at 

 least was the seat of pernianent settlement and the object of 

 innumerable voyages centuries before the Southern Europeans 

 dared venture far beyond the Pillars of Hercules. 



The vast importance of the seafaring habit to the history 

 of a people may be judged by its effect upon the fate of the 

 English folk. Owing to their skill in seamanship and their 

 courage in facing the dangers of the deep they have been able 

 to establish their j)Ossessions in every part of the world which 

 may have particularly tempted them to colonizing ventures. 

 By way of the sea they have been led to become an almost 

 world-wide people. Of the three New-W^orld continents — 

 North America. South America, and Australia — they possess 

 Australia altogether, and almost all of North America ; only 

 the southern of the twin continents has escaped their grasp. 

 Nine-tenths of the valuable islands beyond the limits of luirope 

 belong to the English-speaking people, or to their kindred, 

 the Dutch ; in a word, through their maritime power those 

 North Eiiroi)eans bid tair in time to dominate every part of 

 the world which is ht for their occupation. These considera- 

 tions make it plain that the way to national power is over the 

 waves, and tliat this wa\' is the natural path of our race. It is 

 on this account that all those natural features which we are 



