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In principle it consisted of two barge-like vessels placed side by side, a platform being laid on the top, for the engine, passengers, and steersman; the latter, as in all American steam-vessels, of whatever size, being perched in an elevated round-house on deck.
On the second day we reached a marshy and fenny country, which, owing to immense quantities of rain which had lately fallen, was completely submerged. At a large town we got on board a kind of passage- boat, crowded with people; it had neither sails nor oars, and those were not the days of steam-vessels; it was a treck-schuyt, and was drawn by horses.
The Kroomen inhabit the country which extends along the coast, from Simon River to Capes Palmas and Lahoo; they voluntarily engage themselves in bands to aid the crews of vessels. Having safely moored the brig, they proceeded to unload the merchandize on board of her, and to transfer it to the steam-vessels. They then began to sail up the Nun branch of the Niger.
Canada is now traversed from one end to the other by railways, with numerous ramifications to the north and south, while steam-vessels run not only on its main artery the Saint Lawrence and the great chain of lakes, but also on numerous other rivers and lakes in every direction on the lines of the highway to any inhabited district.
By the law of New York, no one can navigate the bay of New York, the North River, the Sound, the lakes, or any of the waters of that State, by steam-vessels, without a license from the grantees of New York, under penalty of forfeiture of the vessel. By the law of the neighboring State of Connecticut, no one can enter her waters with a steam-vessel having such license.
The great freshwater turtle of the Amazons grows on the upper river to an immense size, a full-grown one measuring nearly three feet in length by two in breadth, and is a load for the strongest Indian. The price of turtles, like that of all other articles of food, has risen greatly with the introduction of steam-vessels.
But I have not been able to convince myself that, under existing circumstances, there is any means by which Greece can be so readily saved as by steady perseverance in equipping the steam-vessels, which are so admirably calculated to cut off the enemies' communication with Alexandria and Constantinople, and for towing fire-vessels and explosion-vessels by night into ports and places where the hostile squadrons anchor on the shores of Greece.
The Murray itself is navigable for steam-vessels for many hundred miles, and probably it will not be very long before these modern inventions are introduced upon its waters. For the account of this voyage, see Sturt's Expeditions in Australia, vol. ii. pp. 72-221.
The usual primitive means of conveyance, such as human beings, animals, carts, boats, etc., were partly displaced by steam-vessels from 1861 onward. Exchange was effected by barter, cowries of different values being the prototype of coins, which were cast in greater or less quantity under each reign.
A rapid increase in the number of armed steam-vessels may be calculated upon, while the destruction of half of those at present employed would scarcely retard the progress of this mighty power a power which may alter the destinies of half the world. The hostility, therefore, of persons who cannot hope by their united opposition to effect the slightest change in the system, becomes contemptible.
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