DR. TH. NEUMANN. 141 



as their kings proudly used to sa3^ the sun never went 

 down. It was the Spanish nation, whose language be- 

 came then and is still a universal language in many 

 parts of our planet.' Nearly the whole continent of 

 South America, the Antilles and Central America be- 

 came Spanish, as well as the Philippines in the far East 

 and other islands in the Pacific. The great difference 

 between Portuguese and Spanish colonization, and there- 

 fore the simple explanation of the better success of the 

 latter, was the circumstance that the Portuguese settled 

 only along the coasts of the countries they occupied, in 

 Africa as well as in India, partly yielding to the power 

 of adverse events, partly on account of their near-sight- 

 edness and carelessness ; the Spaniards, however, at once 

 endeavored and succeeded in penetrating the whole in- 

 terior of their colonies, thus gaining a territory many 

 times greater than the small coast strips the Portuguese 

 inhabited. In consequence of this, Spanish has become 

 a universal language which we hear on all the oceans ; 

 a whole continent has taken up the Spanish language, 

 besides numerous groups of islands and smaller colonies, 

 and a rich and highly developed literature forms the in- 

 tellectual background, without which no universal lan- 

 guage can be imagined. The great ease with which 

 other Romance nations, such as Italians, French, Portu- 

 guese, are able to acquire a knowledge of Spanish, has 

 contributed not a little to its dominating position. It is a 

 universal language in the highest sense, and its powerful 

 influence in South America is so great that the very In- 

 dians have learned it and use it sometimes exclusively, 

 or at least in connection with their own tongues. 



Yet Spanish is not the language to which the palm 

 must be attributed. As rulers of the Universe the 

 Spaniards have been followed by the English. It is but 

 fair to state that there was another nation which for a 

 short time during the seventeenth century had gained a 



©7 



