Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/252

202 It is a beautiful story to those who know it—a thing like the gallant deeds of old; and if they laugh at me because I love their brave and sturdy little old ship, and think her the “biggest ship afloat”—well, I do not mind; and it is not only the ship I love. I longed to see this thing done; these Britons did it, and in the very way I wished it should be done—no wonder, then, that Ernest Shackleton, his merry men, and his brave little ship have a particular hold on my heart—they realised for me a lifelong wish—and to me it is a joy I do not care to hide that they believed in me all the time, and cared that I cared.

Those days, sailing through those gleaming seas by unknown lands, I dreamed dreams of such a thing as this, fearing that if it was to be I should not be here to see it; and, after all, the dreams have come true, and those who made them come true are men I believed in from the first—it is a beautiful, cheering, stimulating story for those who love their land.

Our “decadent” Empire cannot be quite dead—there are men in it yet who can do great things. I have a prophetic eye, and I look to the day when those who have to guide the destinies of our great Empire claim for the Empire the services in some high position of such a man as Sir Ernest Shackleton, with his unique combination of qualities, so admirably fitted to guide a ship of Empire to a safe and splendid harbour—no “little thing” is fit for a man who sees nothing in anything that has not obstacles to be overcome, rises in delight to tackle those obstacles, and goes at it with unwavering energy, spirit, and zest. May this wish come true!

It has been given to me also to hear the tales of what they have done or hope to do from the lips of other explorers—the gallant and popular French