CHAPTER XVII.
WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY--MUCIUS SCAEVOLA--WHAT'S TO BE
DONE?--BRUTUS TORQUATUS AND PETER THE GREAT--AUSTRALIA, BOTANY BAY,
AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN--NEW GUINEA AND THE BUCCANEER--VANCOUVER'S
ISLAND--WHITE SKINS--DANGER OF LANDING ON A WAVE--HANGED OR
DROWNED--ROUTE TO HAPPINESS--OMENS.
The old saw, _Where there's a will there's a way_, means--if it means
anything--that a great deal may be effected by energy. A man without
energy is a helpless character, and invariably lags behind his fellow
mortals in the stream of life; like a cork in an eddy, he is rebuffed
here and jostled there, and goes on travelling in a circle to the end
of the chapter. Not so the man of action; no jostling thwarts him, no
rebuffs retard him; he breaks through all sorts of obstacles, and
floats along with the current.
Such a man was Becker. Though surrounded with dangers, and harassed by
the elements, almost alone he had converted a wilderness into fertile
fields; he pursued the track that his judgment suggested, and followed
it up with invincible resolution; he manfully resisted the severest
trials, and cheerfully bore the heaviest burdens; his reliance on
Truth or Virtue and on God were unfaltering; but had he provided for
every emergency? Is mortal power capable of overcoming every
difficulty? We shall see.
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