That winter voyage was a stormy one, although not a very long one, as the storms came from the west. On the tossing ship, amid the howling tempests, the young adventurer had no fears. His fancy saw a destiny for him too great to be swallowed up in a tempest. Caesar said to the frightened boatman in the storm: "Quid times? Cæsarem vehis et fortunas suas." Ralph Morton could say with equal confidence that the little ship carried greater fortunes than those of Caesar, for he was about to influence the world's history more than did Caesar. And it is doubtful if Caesar did change the current of history much beyond his lifetime. Gaul and Britain would have been conquered without him, and perhaps at the expense of the same lives and treasure which he squandered in his struggle with Pompey, and his partisans spent in their struggle with Brutus and Cassius.
