XXV.
There is no part of the world of coasts, continents, oceans, seas,
straits, capes, and islands which is not under the sway of a
reigning wind, the sovereign of its typical weather. The wind
rules the aspects of the sky and the action of the sea. But no
wind rules unchallenged his realm of land and water. As with the
kingdoms of the earth, there are regions more turbulent than
others. In the middle belt of the earth the Trade Winds reign
supreme, undisputed, like monarchs of long-settled kingdoms, whose
traditional power, checking all undue ambitions, is not so much an
exercise of personal might as the working of long-established
institutions. The intertropical kingdoms of the Trade Winds are
favourable to the ordinary life of a merchantman. The trumpet-call
of strife is seldom borne on their wings to the watchful ears of
men on the decks of ships. The regions ruled by the north-east and
south-east Trade Winds are serene. In a southern-going ship, bound
out for a long voyage, the passage through their dominions is
characterized by a relaxation of strain and vigilance on the part
of the seamen. Those citizens of the ocean feel sheltered under
the aegis of an uncontested law, of an undisputed dynasty. There,
indeed, if anywhere on earth, the weather may be trusted.
Yet not too implicitly. Even in the constitutional realm of Trade
Winds, north and south of the equator, ships are overtaken by
strange disturbances. Still, the easterly winds, and, generally
speaking, the easterly weather all the world over, is characterized
by regularity and persistence.
As a ruler, the East Wind has a remarkable stability; as an invader
of the high latitudes lying under the tumultuous sway of his great
brother, the Wind of the West, he is extremely difficult to
dislodge, by the reason of his cold craftiness and profound
duplicity.
The narrow seas around these isles, where British admirals keep
watch and ward upon the marches of the Atlantic Ocean, are subject
to the turbulent sway of the West Wind. Call it north-west or
south-west, it is all one--a different phase of the same character,
a changed expression on the same face. In the orientation of the
winds that rule the seas, the north and south directions are of no
importance. There are no North and South Winds of any account upon
this earth. The North and South Winds are but small princes in the
dynasties that make peace and war upon the sea. They never assert
themselves upon a vast stage. They depend upon local causes--the
configuration of coasts, the shapes of straits, the accidents of
bold promontories round which they play their little part. In the
polity of winds, as amongst the tribes of the earth, the real
struggle lies between East and West.
