132 Distinctive characteristics of the 



ter : the one capable of a certain degree of civilization and refine- 

 ment, independent of extraneous aids ; the other exhibiting an abase- 

 ment which puts all mental culture at defiance. The one composed, 

 as it were, of a handful of people whose superiority and consequent 

 acquisitions have made them the prey of covetous destroyers ; the 

 other a vast multitude of savage tribes whose very barbarism is 

 working their destruction from within and without. The links that 

 connect them partake of the fate of the extremes themselves ■ and 

 extinction appears to be the unhappy, but fast approaching doom of 

 them all. 



4. Maritime Enterprise. — One of the most characteristic traits of 

 all civilised and many barbarous communities, is the progress of 

 maritime adventure. The Caucasian nations of every age present a 

 striking illustration of this fact : their sails are spread on every ocean, 

 and the fabled voyage of the Argonauts is but a type of their achieve- 

 ments from remote antiquity to the present time. Hence their 

 undisputed dominion of the sea, and their successful colonization of 

 every quarter of the globe. The Mongolians and Malays, though 

 active and predatory, and proverbially aquatic in their habits, are 

 deficient in that mechanical invention which depends on a knowledge 

 of mathematical principles ; while they seem also incapable of those 

 mental combinations which are requisite to a perfect acquaintance 

 with naval tactics. The Negro, whose observant and imitative 

 powers enable him to acquire with ease the details of seamanship, 

 readily becomes a mariner, but rarely a commander : and history is 

 silent on the nautical prowess of his race. Far behind all these is 

 the man of America. Savage or civilized, the sea for him has had 

 few charms, and his navigation has been almost exclusively restricted 

 to lakes and rivers. A canoe excavated from a single log, was the 

 principal vessel in use in the new world at the period of its discovery. 

 Even the predatory Charibs, who were originally derived from the 

 forests of Guayana, possessed no other boat than this simple contri- 

 vance, in which they seldom ventured out of sight of land ; and 

 never excepting in the tranquil periods of the tropical seas, when 

 they sailed from shore to shore, the terror of the feebler natives of 

 the surrounding islands. The canoes of the Arouacs of Cuba were 

 not more ingeniously contrived than those of the ruder Charibs 



