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In what state are your manufactures? — Are your people equally industrious as formerly, and are they equal to other nations in the ingenious arts ?" ¬" As much beyond them," he answered, " as the sun outshines the smallest star that only twinkles when he has set. There are some arts, perhaps, in which, as we do not prize them so highly as others, we may be inferior; but in all the great improvements of the higher, which assist human labour, and which can only be brought to perfection by the deepest know- ledge of chemistry and mechanics, we have no equals, nor can ever, I believe, be rivalled. There is a force and robustness, if I may so express myself, in the natives of Armata, as if they were of a different species from the ordinary race of men." ¬" I rejoice to hear it — one question then only remains — ¬" Have you fisheries ? — Are your seas prolific, ¬and ¬
