Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/361

 OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 121 CHAPTER IX. Welter upon the waters, mighty one And stretch thee in the ocean s trough of brine ; Turn thy wet scales up to the wind and sun, And toss the billow from thy flashing fin ; Heave thy deep breathing to the ocean s din, And bound upon its ridges in thy pride, Or dive down to its lowest depths, and in The caverns where its unknown monsters hide Measure thy length beneath the gulf-stream s tide.&quot; BHAIIT ARM S Sea-Serpent. THE colony had now reached a point when its policy must have an eye to its future destinies. If it were in tended to push it, like a new settlement, a very different course ought to be pursued from the one hitherto adopted. But the governor and council entertained more moderate ?iews. They understood their real position better. It was true that the Peak, in one sense, or in that which related to soil and products, was now in a condition to receive immigrants as fast as they could come; but the Peak had its limits, and it could hold but a very circumscribed number. As to the group, land had to be formed for the reception of ihe husbandman, little more than the elements of soil existing over so much of its surface. Then, in the way of trade, there could not be any very great inducement for adventurers to come, since the sandal-wood was the only article possessed which would command a price in a fo reign market. This sandal-wood, moreover, did not be long to the colony, but to a people who might, at any moment, become hostile, and who already began to com plain that the article was getting to be very scarce. Un der all the circumstances, therefore, it was not deemed desirable to add to the population of the place faster than would now be done by natural means. The cargoes of the two vessels just arrived were divided between the state and the governor, by a very just process. VOL. II. -11