Even In The Time Of Cook, A Man Who Left
His Fireside For Such Expeditions Underwent Severe Privations.
A Yacht Now, With Every Luxury Of Life, Can Circumnavigate
The Globe.
Besides the vast improvements in ships and
naval resources, the whole western shores of America are
thrown open, and Australia has become the capital of a
rising continent.
How different are the circumstances to a
man shipwrecked at the present day in the Pacific, to what
they were in the time of Cook! Since his voyage a hemisphere
has been added to the civilized world.
If a person suffer much from sea-sickness, let him weigh
it heavily in the balance. I speak from experience: it is no
trifling evil, cured in a week. If, on the other hand, he take
pleasure in naval tactics, he will assuredly have full scope
for his taste. But it must be borne in mind, how large a
proportion of the time, during a long voyage, is spent on
the water, as compared with the days in harbour. And what
are the boasted glories of the illimitable ocean. A tedious
waste, a desert of water, as the Arabian calls it. No doubt
there are some delightful scenes. A moonlight night, with
the clear heavens and the dark glittering sea, and the white
sails filled by the soft air of a gently blowing trade-wind, a
dead calm, with the heaving surface polished like a mirror,
and all still except the occasional flapping of the canvas.
It is well once to behold a squall with its rising arch and
coming fury, or the heavy gale of wind and mountainous
waves.
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