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dared cross 30dW. or 175dW. From 30d to 175d is ours--from 30d to 175d is
peace, prosperity and happiness.
Beyond was the great unknown. Even the geographies of my boyhood showed
nothing beyond. We were taught of nothing beyond. Speculation was
discouraged. For two hundred years the Eastern Hemisphere had been wiped
from the maps and histories of Pan-America. Its mention in fiction, even, was
forbidden.
Our ships of peace patrol thirty and one hundred seventy-five. What ships from
beyond they have warned only the secret archives of government show; but, a
naval officer myself, I have gathered from the traditions of the service that it has
been fully two hundred years since smoke or sail has been sighted east of 30d or
west of 175d. The fate of the relinquished provinces which lay beyond the dead
lines we could only speculate upon. That they were taken by the military power,
which rose so suddenly in China after the fall of the republic, and which wrested
Manchuria and Korea from Russia and Japan, and also absorbed the Philippines,
is quite within the range of possibility.
It was the commander of a Chinese man-of-war who received a copy of the edict
of 1972 from the hand of my illustrious ancestor, Admiral Turck, on one hundred
seventy-five, two hundred and six years ago, and from the yellowed pages of the
admiral's diary I learned that the fate of the Philippines was even then presaged
by these Chinese naval officers.
Yes, for over two hundred years no man crossed 30d to 175d and lived to tell his
story--not until chance drew me across and back again, and public opinion,
revolting at last against the drastic regulations of our long-dead forbears,
demanded that my story be given to the world, and that the narrow interdict
which commanded peace, prosperity, and happiness to halt at 30d and 175d be
removed forever.
I am glad that it was given to me to be an instrument in the hands of Providence
for the uplifting of benighted Europe, and the amelioration of the suffering,
degradation, and abysmal ignorance in which I found her.
I shall not live to see the complete regeneration of the savage hordes of the
Eastern Hemisphere--that is a work which will require many generations,
perhaps ages, so complete has been their reversion to savagery; but I know that
the work has been started, and I am proud of the share in it which my generous
countrymen have placed in my hands.
The government already possesses a complete official report of my adventures
beyond thirty. In the narrative I purpose telling my story in a less formal, and I
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