INTRODUCTION. 
across the Atlantic until it reached the Cape de Yerd Islands on 
the other side ; then it took a turn, and came hack on this side 
again, reaching the coast of Brazil in the vicinity of Cape St. 
Roque. Here there was another turn, and another recrossing of 
the broad ocean, striking this time for the Cape of G-ood Hope, 
but bending far away to the right before that turning point was 
reached. 
XXIH. Thus the great highway from the United States to the 
Cape of G-ood Hope nearly crossed the Atlantic, it was discovered^ 
three times. The other parts of the ocean by the wayside were 
blank, untraveled spaces. All the vessels that sailed went by one 
road and returned by the other. Now and then there was a sort 
of a country cross-road, that was frequented by robbers and bad 
men as they passed on their voyage from Africa to the West In- 
dies and back. But all the rest of the ocean on the wayside, and 
to the distance of hundreds of miles on either hand, was blank, and 
seemed as untraveled and as much out of the way of the haunts 
of civilized man as are the solitudes of the wilderness that lie broad 
off from the emigrants' trail to Oregon. Such was the old route. 
XXIY. Y/ho were the engineers that laid out these highways 
upon the sea, and why did traders never try short cuts across the 
blank spaces ? There was neither rock, nor shoal, nor hidden dan- 
ger of any sort to prevent ; why did not traders, therefore, seek to 
cut off these elbows in the great thoroughfares, and, instead of 
crossing the Atlantic three times on their way to the Cape of G-ood 
Hope (§ XXH.), cross it only once, as they did coming home ? 
Who, it was repeated, were the hydrographic engineers concern- 
ed in the establishing of this zigzag route ? 
XXY. Inquiry was instituted, and, after diligent research, it was 
traced, by tradition^ to the early navigators and the chance that 
directed them. When they set sail from Europe, seeking a pas- 
sage to the East via the Cape of G-ood Hope, they passed along 
down by the Cape de Yerd Islands, and then, as they approached 
the equator, the winds forced them over toward the coast of Bra- 
zil. Thus a track was made, and the route to the East laid out. 
XXYI. As one traveler in the wilderness follows in the trail of 
another, so, it was discovered, did the trader on the high seas fol- 
low in the wake of those who had led the way. 
