Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/27



OME three or four centuries ago a change came over the general policy of European monarchs and statesmen. By the discovery of America—to use the graphic generalisation of Canning—a new world was brought into being to restore the balance of the old. An impulse was given to maritime adventure, and dazzling reports of new countries, teeming with fabulous wealth, fired the public imagination. There was no scruple about the expropriation of the territories that were visited, the conquest of the inhabitants, and the acquisition of their treasures. A colonising era began, which has lasted with intermissions until the present time. Spain, Holland, and England threw themselves heartily into this enterprise, and eventually began to fight with one another in the distant lands that were exploited. France also entered the field, and founded new settlements. Most of these colonies were established on military lines, which are not by any means the best for nation-building. Every colonising nation by turns made the mistake of putting military first and colonists second.

As this did not absorb all their energy, adventurous spirits set out to discover other lands. As an incidental circumstance of their voyages, they fought all whom they met: thus the Spaniards had rich colonies in the West Indies, and in South America; and English navigators, having obtained letters of marque, and fired with an invincible hatred of everything Spanish, took on themselves the character of freebooters or buccaneers 1