HILAIRE BELLOC II9 



them at once the islands and the commerce of the 

 Mediterranean. It was the sail which permitted 

 their invasion of the northern shores and the un- 

 happy subjection of Spain. 



We Europeans have for now some seven hundred 

 years, from at least the Third Crusade, so con- 

 stantly used this gift of Islam that we half forget 

 its origin. You may see it in all the Christian 

 harbours of the Mediterranean to-day, in every 

 port of the Portuguese coast, and here and there 

 as far north as the Channel. It is not to be seen 

 beyond Cherbourg, but in Cherbourg it is quite 

 common. . . . 



. . . The little ships so rigged come out like 

 heralds far from the coast to announce the old 

 dominion of the East and of the religion that made 

 them : of the united civilization that has launched 

 them over all its seas, from east of India to south 

 of Zanzibar and right out here in the western 

 place which we are so painfully recovering. They 

 arc the only made thing, the on\y fonn wc accepted 

 from the Arab : and we did well to accept it. The 

 little ships are a delight. 



You see them everywhere. They belong to the 

 sea and they animate it. They are similar as 

 waves arc similar : they are different as waves are 

 different. They come into a hundred positions 

 against the light. They heel and lun wilh every 

 mode of energy. 



