CHAPTER XIX.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWELVE--THE MARY--COUNT UGOLINO--THE SOURCES OF RIVERS--THE ALPS DEMOLISHED--NO MORE PYRENEES--THE FIRST SHIP--ADMIRAL NOAH--FLEETS OF THE ISRAELITES--THE COMPASS--PRINTING--GUNPOWDER--ACTIUM AND SALAMIS--DIDO AND AENEAS--STEAM--DON GARAY AND ROGER BACON--MELCHTHAL, FURST, AND WILLIAM TELL--GOING A-PLEASURING--UPSET VERSUS BLOWN UP--A DEAD CALM--THE LOG--WILLIS'S ARCHIPELAGO--THE ISLAND OF SOPHIA--THE BREAD FRUIT-TREE--NATIVES OF POLYNESIA--STRIPED TROWSERS--ABDUCTION OF WILLIS--IS HE TO BE ROASTED OR BOILED ?--WHEN THE WINE IS POURED OUT, WE MUST DRINK IT.
At the date of the events narrated in the preceeding chapter, comparatively little was known of Oceania, that is, of the islands and continents that are scattered about the Pacific Ocean.

Most of them had been discovered, named, and marked correctly enough in the charts, but beyond this all was supposition, hypothesis, and mystery.

The mighty empire of England in the east was then only in its infancy, Sutteeism and Thuggism were still rampant on the banks of the Ganges, but the power of the descendants of the Great Mogul was on the wane.
California was only known as the hunting-ground of a savage race of wild Indians.

The now rich and flourishing colonies of Australia were represented by the convict settlement of Sydney.

The Dutch had asserted that the territory of New Holland was utterly uninhabitable, and this was still the belief of the civilized world; nor was it without considerable opposition on the part of _soi-disant_ philanthropists that the English government succeeded in establishing a prison depot on what at the time was considered the sole spot in that vast territory susceptible of cultivation.