OCEAN, THE UNIVERSAL HIGHWAY 211 



power, which has grown to be entirely dependent upon 

 its own sea-trade for its existence, cannot afford to be 

 contemptuously indifferent to the rise and progress of 

 other nations in sea- power that are not dependent 

 upon the food brought oversea for their daily bread. 

 And also that the possession of great wealth without 

 the energy to fight for the protection of that wealth, 

 and with the belief that money will make up for the 

 loss of national manhood is a fatal delusion, and one 

 that surely presages the downfall of the nation be- 

 mused by it. 



After the fall of the Carthaginians, the use of the 

 sea (I cannot yet say the ocean, since navigation was 

 principally confined to the Mediterranean as yet) 

 became degraded to fighting purposes almost exclu- 

 sively. It is true that Eome, following the bad ex- 

 ample of Carthage, began to neglect her own resources 

 because of the comparative ease with which she could 

 be fed by means of her ships from Egypt, the granary 

 of the ancient world. But the bad precedent of sea- 

 fighting had been fairly established, and there was 

 now no such thing as a peaceful trading vessel. Every 

 seafarer had, of necessity, to sail prepared at any hour 

 to meet with another vessel which would certainly 

 plunder him if able, and which he would certainly 

 plunder if strong enough. Even if they bore the 

 same insignia, or were even under the same ownership, 

 the fact of their being at sea seemed to render them 

 Ishmaels of the most pronounced type. In conse- 

 quence of this, seafaring had degenerated into piracy 

 it is quite safe to say that every seafarer of the 

 Middle Sea was a pirate, given opportunity. 



But, meanwhile, the hardy barbarians of the 



