Until the whale fishery rounded Cape Horn, no commerce but colonial, scarcely any intercourse but colonial,
直到鲸鱼业绕过合恩角,没有通商,只是殖民地的地区,几乎没有同世界的交往,只是殖民地的地区
was carried on between Europe and the long line of the opulent Spanish provinces on the Pacific coast.
欧洲和在太平洋海岸西班牙长期冷漠关系。
It was the whaleman who first broke through the jealous policy of the Spanish crown, touching those colonies;
正是捕鲸船打破了旧西班牙殖民主义在这些地区的铁幕,
and, if space permitted, it might be distinctly shown how from those whalemen at last eventuated the liberation of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia from the yoke of Old Spain,
在捕鲸业发达以前,在欧洲与非洲的合恩角的关系中,殖民关系占绝对的主导地位,与南美的秘鲁、智利和玻利维亚也是如此。
and the establishment of the eternal democracy in those parts.
为这些地区民主政体的建立奠定了基础。
That great America on the other side of the sphere, Australia, was given to the enlightened world by the whaleman.
地球另一端的澳大利亚,也是由捕鲸者带入文明世界的。
After its first blunder-born discovery by a Dutchman, all other ships long shunned those shores as pestiferously barbarous;
在一个荷兰人因为偶然而首先发现了澳洲以后,很长一段时间来往的船只都认为那是一片传播着瘟疫的大陆,所以都避而远之。
but the whale-ship touched there. The whale-ship is the true mother of that now mighty colony.
可是捕鲸船却勇敢地靠了岸。捕鲸者才是澳洲大地真正的母亲!