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Who made the first sail? Nobody knows. But very likely some Asiatic
savage hoisted a wild beast's skin on a stick over some very simple
sort of raft tens of thousands of years ago. Rafts had, and still
have, sails in many countries. Canoes had them too. Boats and ships
also had sails in very early times, and of very various kinds: some
made of skins, some of woven cloth, some even of wooden slats. But no
ancient sail was more than what sailors call a wind-bag now; and they
were of no use at all unless the wind was pretty well aft, that is,
more or less from behind. We shall presently find out that tacking,
(which is sailing against the wind), is a very modern invention; and
that, within three centuries of its invention, steamers began to oust
sailing craft, as these, in their turn, had ousted rowboats and canoes.


CHAPTER II
THE FIRST FAR WEST
(The last 5000 years B.C.)
This chapter begins with a big surprise. But it ends with a bigger one
still. When you look first at the title and then at the date, you
wonder how on earth the two can go together.


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