This
encouraged us in the belief that we were following the right course to
the Ruby Mountains, for Marco Polo's parchment informed us that the
giants whom he saw were by far the largest men to be seen "in this
strait," from which it seemed the intrepid Venetian navigator had
sailed through this strait as early as the year 1272, when he made his
famous voyage round the world.
As we proceeded along the coast, the weather being now clear and fine,
we observed great stretches of country, flat and uninviting, upon which
there appeared to be no sign of life. Indeed, the whole of this
southern continent seems to be sparsely populated when compared with
the islands, upon most of which the native inhabitants are very
numerous. In this may be seen the hand of an all-wise Providence. In
the ages to come a white population will, no doubt, emigrate to New
Holland, and if this great continent was found to be densely populated
by a black people, it would be a work of great difficulty to overcome
them. Whereas, the aboriginal population being scant by reason of the
barren nature of the country, the task of colonization by the whites
would be easy. We often sailed for more than a week at a time along
this coast without seeing any sign of human habitation, and those
natives whom we did see were of so poor a description and appeared to
be so frightened of us and of our vessel as hardly to deserve the name
of humans.
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