28 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS, 



out fairly. The New World was discovered by a bold in- 

 quisition of science, which the newly released thought — 

 exulting in its freedom — could only have attempted ; and 

 was conquered by the proud daring of a chivalry, which was 

 first sublime to undertake and strong enough to accomplish, 

 all that its fiery dreams had conceived. Then the Matador 

 knights of Southern Europe, possessed themselves of gold-bear- 

 ing, gorgeous Mexico ; and the cut-and-thrust agility — the fero- 

 cious cowardice of their national show, "the bull-fight" — has 

 been well perpetuated in the assassin's skill with the assassin's 

 blade ; and the brutal thirst for blood, wreaking itself the more 

 mercilessly as the victim is more helpless — which has distin- 

 guished the modern Mexico of that conquest ! 



But another people — from the hardy North of the Old 

 World, which has always preserved the physical integrity of 

 its races — went across to possess the, to them, congenial 

 North of the New. 



The elemental war — the thundering of wind-driven waves 

 upon "the rock-bound coast" — the white desolation of snows 

 crowning the cliffs and bowing the gnarled tangles of scrubby 

 forests, had no formidable terrors to them — whose manhood 

 had been cultivated amidst the out-door hardships of those 

 gallant feudal sports to which we have alluded. They had 

 been cradled by the tempestuous North, and knew how to 

 match all its moods in self-defence. They could wrench the 

 fire from dead trees by friction, and even when this resource 

 failed, knew how to strip the warm skin from the newly slain 

 beast to wrap around them in their slumbers, and defy the 

 winter. They were not appalled by the savage red man with 

 his scalp lock, for they had conquered brutes as savage in 

 the wild fastnesses of their mutual home. Though certainly 

 there is a wide difference between the rough boar hunts, 

 thi'ough which some of our pilgrim fathers may be supposed 

 to have been habituated to " imminent perils by flood and 

 field" — to which the knights went forth with their peers 



