153 REPORT— 1873. 



to realize the erroneous ideas of Columbus regarding the identity of his discoveries 

 with the regions of the Great Khan's dominion. It was, in consequence, some time 

 before America could vindicate its independent position on the surface of the 

 globe ; while Jerusalem long remained the central point of the map, because it was 

 so described in the book of Ezekiel. Down nearly to the middle of the 15th 

 century the map of the world was, in its outline, as it had been handed down by 

 Biblic and other traditions sanctioned by some Fathers of the Church, " sprinkled 

 with a combination of classical and mediaeval legends." 



How important geographical science has become since that date, and how each 

 day brings fresh materials and illustrations of the importance, I need hardly point 

 out. The discovery by the Portuguese of a sea-route to India entirely changed the 

 whole course of commerce between Europe and Asia, A trade which had first 

 enriched Tyre and the Phoenicians, and in Solomon's reign tempted the Jews to 

 build fleets on the Red Sea — which, stiU increasing, made Alexandria the great em- 

 porium of Indian wares, while in more modern times it helped to create a city 

 of merchant princes in Venice, — abandoned from that date the caravan routes of 

 Asia. The Adriatic ceased to bear rich argosies from the East, and Nuremberg, 

 with other free cities of Germany, equally lost a source of wealth in distributing 

 Eastern merchandise. 



This was the first and most pregnant of the great changes caused by the geo- 

 graphical discoveries of the 15th century. The planting of the European race in 

 North and South America, and especially of our own stock in the North, was a 

 second result, which promises to make English the predominating language of the 

 world, and to spread British institutions and love of liberty over the four quarters of 

 the globe. How it has affected the destiny of the Aborigines over the new world 

 laid open by geographical discoveries is a less satisfactory subject of reflection; 

 but whatever the estimate may be of relative good and evil following in the wake 

 of such explorations, the influence exercised on the destinies of nations cannot be 

 questioned ; and amidst all the workers who contributed to these results, great and 

 lasting as they have been. Geographers may rightly claim a foremost place. 



Few things in the retrospect of past intercourse and knowledge of each other among 

 nations widely separated are more remarkable than the continuous communication 

 across the whole breadth of Asia between east and west, which seems always to 

 have been maintained for purposes of traffic, from the earliest periods. No dangers 

 of the way, no physical oDstacles of luountain-ranges and great rivers or deserts, 

 no length of time nor ignorance of the geogTaphical bearings of any portion of this 

 area of so many thousand miles, seemed to have acted as deterrents. Even the 

 softly nurtured Venetian merchants were undismayed ; and Marco Polo's book of 

 his father's travels and his own abundantly proves that time must have borne a 

 very different value in those days to that which prevails in this century. In the 

 first journey to China we find they stayed one year at Sarai, on the Volga, and 

 another at Bokhara. It is true they found it difficult to get either backward or 

 forward, owing to the unsettled state of the country ; but this did not in any way 

 militate against their accepting an invitation, under a safe escort from the Envoys 

 of Alan, the " Lord of the Levant," to proceed to the court of Kubliir Khan, in 

 China — a journey which occupied.them a whole year. Whether the profits of any 

 successful venture were so enorm(jus as to afford adequate return for the time, or 

 the merchants of those days were so fond of adventure and exploration that they 

 were content -with less profit than modern commerce expects, I am not prepared to 

 say. But whatever may be the true explanation of this apparent diversity, we 

 may congratulate ourselves that each year many geographical explorations, accom- 

 panied as these now are by careful and scientific observations, and the immediate 

 registering of new facts in accurate collation with ,ill previously acquired data, 

 sensibly diminish the extent of unknown territory, and by so much not only facili- 

 tate the development of a constantly increasing commerce, but largely contribute to 

 the diminution of causes of national contention, in the application of treaties and 

 the determination of boundaries. 



AVe have had several very striking examples of this within the past year ; and 

 although this is not the place to enter into the merits of the disputed questions 

 as to limits in any of the cases, I may be permitted to refer to them in general 



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