Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/157

 CHAPTER IX.

was discovered by Tasman, in 1642, and visited by Captain Cook in 1769. It consists of two large and several small islands, the largest being something over  three hundred miles broad. They are mountainous, and of a volcanic nature. Mounts Egmont and Looker-on are from 8,000 to 10,000 feet high. The native population was at this time about one hundred and fifty thousand. This group, like all the Pacific islands, is very beautiful, so much so as to tempt the English government to get  possession of them, and establish its colonies wherever a  foothold could be obtained. An old proverb says, "Brag is a good dog, but Hold Fast is a better one." Some conceited Englishmen have boasted that England girdles  the world with a chain of fortifications; that in the East  Indies she is supreme; in China her power has been  felt; in the Eastern Archipelago she knows no rival;  and from the "Lion’s Rump" at Cape Town she looks  forth over the broad ocean with the air of a conqueror. The banner of St. George waves in solemn majesty over the rock of St. Helena and is seen far out in the Atlantic. She has planted herself firmly on the coasts of Africa and of North and South America, and the best of the  West India Islands are hers, and the sun always shines