Page:The Awakening of Japan, by Okakura Kakuzō; 1905.djvu/122

 first began to seize upon any corner of the globe where was aught to be gained. When Marco Polo returned from the Chinese court, he bore tidings of the untold treasures of the extreme Orient. America was merely an accidental discovery on the part of Spain in her attempt to reach the coveted wealth of India. We recalled those days of Portuguese cruelty and Dutch treachery, when the cow’s hide gained a colony and the concession for a factory resulted in the establishment of an empire.

The beginning of the seventeenth century shows the rise of the East India companies of the French, Dutch, Danish, and English, the gratification of whose political ambitions, however, remained as yet unsatisfied owing to the struggles of mutual rivalry, the solidity of the Mussulman power of Delhi, and