Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/79

 a fairer field for success to the exertions of the moral cultivator than that of any untutored people whom I ever met.

Recent events seem destined to place the Sandwich Islands in a much more important situation on the political map of the world, than they occupied fifteen or twenty years ago. While Spain had possession of Mexico, California, and the southern continent, they were seldom visited but by fur traders, for the purpose of refitting, or obtaining fresh provisions; and were regarded by the world more as objects of curiosity than as places from which any political advantages were likely to be derived. But now that the Mexicans and southern Americans have succeeded in emancipating themselves from the slothful despotism of their ancient rulers, the native energies of their character will shortly begin to develope themselves; and uncontrolled by the trammels which so long fettered their commercial prosperity, a few years may see their fleets, in imitation of their bold and enterprising brethren of the northern continent, ploughing their way through the Pacific, and, in exchange for their precious metals, bringing back to their country the luxurious productions of China and the Indies. The Sandwich Islands are nearly equidistant from