10 (Bulletin of the Jilaiural History Society. 
But, granting that these clouds may pass away, is there no 
other source of danger? Is there no nation which can possi- 
bly change the condition of the world and throw into shade, 
in the way of conquests, the colossal feats of Ginghis Khan 
or of Tamarlam? There is a nation which has a history of 
thousands of years, and though subject to many vicissitudes 
it has existed virtually as one nation, and to-day has a popu- 
lation of nearly 400,000,000 souls. This people are prolific; 
they are ingenious, intellectually endowed and industrious; 
they are extremely national; their land teems with inhabi* 
tants, and the very waters are covered with their floating 
homes. For a long time they have not been aggressive, yet 
they have, of late especially, pushed their wanderings into 
other lands. Forty thousand of them occupy the very centre 
of San Francisco, the chief city on the Pacific coast. During 
the last century they have been brought into forced contact 
with other peoples. Despised by all, maltreated by most, yet 
they are made in the fashion of men, and they must be subject 
to the ordinary motives and passions which influence the race 
elsewhere. It is evident that they stimulated, though it be 
by forced contact, with the ideas of the oppressing foreign- ^ 
ers. Is it unreasonable to suppose that some day they may 
show the power which now lies slumbering under a patient 
endurance? Goaded by the treatment they have received, is 
it not possible that a spirit of retaliation may take root and 
revenge become a watchward in their councils? There are 
men among them of large and cultivated intellects, men who 
are beginning to shape their growth; and should one of these 
masters of men arise, a man who leads and sways and moulds 
his fellow-men, should such an one avail himself of the tens 
of millions of his people capable of bearing arms; train them 
with the strictest military discipline; arm them with the best 
of weapons, and stir them up to show their manhood, he 
certainly could be a power on the earth. In a short time 
that ingenious people could be taught to manufacture their 
implements of war and build vessels of war after the most 
improved patterns. In the meantime they could purchase 
from European sources both arms and ships. Only a few 
