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CANTO III.

(1) Many of the first discoverers ended their days in a hermitage or a cloister.

(2) Vast, indeed, must be those dismal regions, if it be true, as conjectured (Kircher. Mund. Subt. I. 202), that Ætna, in her eruptions, has discharged twenty times her original bulk. Well might she be called by Euripides (Troades, v. 222) the Mother of Mountains; yet Etna herself is but "a mere firework, when compared to the burning summits of the Andes."

(3) Gods, yet confessed later. -Milton. Ils ne laissent pas d'en être les esclaves, et de les honorer plus que le grand Esprit, qui de sa nature est bon. - Lafitau.

(4) Rivers in South America. Their collision with the tide has the effect of a tempest.

(5) Lakes of North America. Huron is above a thousand miles in circumference. Ontario receives the waters of the Niagara, so famous for its falls, and discharges itself into the Atlantic by the river St. Lawrence.

(6) La plupart de ces îles ne sont en effet que des pointes de montagnes : et la mer, qui est au-delà, est une vraie mer Méditerranée. - Buffon.

(7) The dominion of a bad angel over an unknown sea, infestandole con torbellinos y tempestades, and his flight before a Christian hero, are described in glowing language by Ovalle. -Hist. de Chile. IV. 8.

(8) Alluding to the oracles of the islanders, so soon to become silent; and particularly to a prophecy, delivered down from their ancestors, and sung with loud lamentations (Petr. Martyr, dec. 3, lib. 7) at their solemn festivals (Herrera, I. iii. 4), that the country would be laid waste on the arrival of strangers, completely clad, from a region near the rising of the sun. - Ibid. II. 5, 2. It is said that Cazziva, a great Cacique, after long fasting and many ablutions, had an interview with one of the Zemi, who announced to him this terrible event (Hist. c. 62), as the oracles of Latona, according to Herodotus (II. 152), predicted the overthrow of the eleven kings in Egypt, on the appearance of men of brass, risen out of the sea.

Nor did this prophecy exist among the islanders alone. It influenced the councils of Montezuma, and extended almost universally over the forests of America. — Cortes. Herrera. Gomara. "The demons, whom they worshipped," says Acosta, "in this instance told them the truth."

(9) These scattered fragments may be compared to shreds of old arras, or reflections from a river broken and confused by the oar; and now and then perhaps the imagination of the reader may supply more than is lost. Si qua latent, meliora putat. "It is remarkable," says the elder Pliny, "that the Iris of Aristides, the Tyndarides of Nicomachus, and the Venus of Apelles, are held in higher admiration than their finished works." And is it not so in almost everything?

Call up him that left half told
The story of Cambuscan bold.

CANTO IV.

(1) Light vessels, formerly used by the Spaniards and Portuguese.

(2) In the Lusiad, to beguile the heavy hours at sea, Veloso relates to his companions of the second watch the story of the Twelve Knights. — L. vi.

(3) Among those who went with Columbus were many adventurers, and gentlemen of the court. Primero was the game then in fashion. -See Vega, p. 2, lib. iii. c. 9.

(4) Many such appellations occur in Bernal Diaz, c. 204.

CANTO V.

(1) Many sighed and wept; and every hour seemed a year, says Herrera.-I. i. 9 and 10.

(2) A luminous appearance, of good omen.

(3) His public procession to the convent of La Rábida on the day before he set sail. It was there that his sons had received their education; and he himself appears to have passed some time there, the venerable guardian, Juan Perez de Marchena, being his zealous and affectionate friend. The ceremonies of his departure and return are represented in many of the fresco-paintings in the palaces of Genoa.

(4) "But I was most afflicted when I thought of my two sons, whom I had left behind me in a strange country before I had done, or, at least, could be known to have done, anything which might incline your highnesses to remember them. And though I consoled myself with the reflection that our Lord would not suffer so earnest an endeavor for the exaltation of his church to come to nothing, yet I considered that, on account of my unworthiness," &c. Hist. c. 37.

(5) Gonsalvo, or, as he is called in Castilian, Gonzalo Hernandez de Cordova; already known by the name of The Great Captain. Granada surrendered on the second of January, 1492. Columbus set sail on the third of August following.

(6) Probably a soldier of fortune. There were more than one of the name on board.

CANTO VI.

(1) Not but that in the profession of arms there are at all times many noble natures. Let a soldier of the age of Elizabeth speak for those who had commanded under him, those whom he calls "the chief men of action."

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"Now that I have tried them, I would choose them for friends, if I had them not before I had tried them, God and his providence chose them for me. I love them for mine own sake; for I find sweetness in their conversation, strong assistance in their employments with me, and happiness in their friendship. I love them for their virtue's sake,

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and for their greatness of mind (for little minds, though never so full of virtue, can be but a little virtuous), and for their great understanding; for to understand little things, or things not of use, is little better than to understand nothing at all. I love them for their affections; for self-loving men love ease, pleasure and profit; but they that love pains, danger and fame, show that they love public profit more than themselves. I love them for my country's sake; for they are England's best armor of defence, and weapons of offence. If we may have peace, they have purchased it; if we must have war, they must manage it," &c.

(2) Hist. c. 3.

(3) The Cross of the South; "una Croce maravigliosa, e di tanta bellezza," says Andrea Corsali, a Florentine, writing to Giuliano of Medicis in 1515, "che non mi pare ad alcuno segno celeste doverla comparare. E s'io non mi inganno, credo che sia questo il crusero di che Dante parlò nel principio del Purgatorio con spirito profetico, dicendo,

I'mi volsi a man destra, e posi mente

All' altro polo, e vidi quattro stelle," &c.

It is still sacred in the eyes of the Spaniards. "Un sentiment religieux les attache à une constellation dont la forme leur rappelle ce signe de la foi planté par leurs ancêtres dans les déserts du nouveau monde."

(4) Le Condor est le même oiseau que le Roc des Orientaux. -Buffon. "By the Peruvians," says Vega, "he was anciently worshipped; and there were those who claimed their descent from him." In these degenerate days he still ranks above the eagle.

(5) As the Roc of the east is said to have carried off the elephant. See Marco Polo. Axalhua, or the Emperor, is the name in the Mexican language for the great serpent of America.

(6) Tierra del Fuego.

(7) Northern extremity of the New World. See Cook's Last Voyage.

(8) Mines of Chili; which extend, says Ovalle, to the Strait of Magellan.-I. 4.

(9) A custom not peculiar to the Western Hemisphere. The Tunguses of Siberia hang their dead on trees; parceque la terre ne se laisse point ouvrir."— M. Pauw.

CANTO VII.

(1) "Aquella noche triste." The night on which Cortes made his famous retreat from Mexico through the street of Tlacopan still goes by the name of LA NOCHE TRISTE. Humboldt.

(2) Pizarro used to dress in this fashion; after Gonsalvo, whom he had served under in Italy.

(3) A species of Bat in South America; which refreshes by the gentle agitation of its wings, while it sucks the blood of the sleeper, turning his sleep into death.

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Undoubtedly, says Herrera, the Infernal Spirit assumed various shapes in that region of the world.

(5) Many a modern reader will exclaim, in the language of Pococurantè, "Quelle triste extravagance!" Let a great theologian of that day, a monk of the Augustine order, be consulted on the subject. "Corpus ille perimere vel jugulare potest; nec id modò, verum et animam ita urgere, et in angustum coarctare novit, ut in momento quoque illi excedendum sit."— Lutherus, De Missa Privata.

The Roman ritual requires three signs of possession.

(6)

-magnum si pectore possit

Excussisse deum.

(7) Euripides in Alcest, v. 255.

(8) Voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle. - Dante.

Hist. c. 15.

(9) The same language had been addressed to Isabella. (10) His miraculous escape, in early life, during a sea-fight off the coast of Portugal. Hist. c. 5.

(11) Nudo nocchier, promettitor di regni !

By the Genoese and the Spaniards he was regarded as a man resolved on "a wild dedication of himself to unpathed waters, undreamed shores ;" and the court of Portugal endeavored to rob him of the glory of his enterprise, by secretly dispatching a vessel in the course which he had pointed out. "Lorsqu'il avait promis un nouvel hémisphère," says Voltaire, on lui avait soutenu que cet hémisphère ne pouvait exister; et quand il l'eut découvert, on prétendit qu'il avait été connu depuis long-temps."

(12) He used to affirm that he stood in need of God's particular assistance; like Moses, when he led forth the people of Israel, who forbore to lay violent hands upon him, because of the miracles which God wrought by his means. "So," said the Admiral, “did it happen to me on that voyage."— Hist. c. 19. —" And so easily," says a commentator, "are the workings of the Evil one overcome by the power of God!"

(13) This denunciation, fulfilled as it appears to be in the eleventh canto, may remind the reader of the Harpy's in Virgil. — Æn, III. v. 247.

CANTO VIII.

(1) Ex ligno lucido confectum, et arte mirâ laboratum.-P. Martyr, dec. i. 5. (2) The Simoom.

(3) Salve, regina. - Herrera, I. i. 12. It was the usual service, and always sung with great solemnity. "I remember one evening," says Oviedo, "when the ship was in full sail, and all the men were on their knees, singing Salve, regina," &c. Relacion Sommaria. The hymn, O Sanctissima, is still to be heard after sunset along the shores of Sicily, and its effect may be better conceived than described.

(4) I believe that he was chosen for this great service; and that, because he was to be so truly an apostle, as in effect he proved to be, therefore was his origin obscure; that

therein he might resemble those who were called to make known the name of the Lord from the seas and rivers, and not from courts and palaces. And I believe also, that, as in most of his doings he was guarded by some special providence, his very name was not without some mystery; for in it is expressed the wonder he performed; inasmuch as he conveyed to a new world the grace of the Holy Ghost, &c. - Hist. c. 1.

(5) A light in the midst of darkness, signifying the spiritual light that he came to spread there.-F. Col. c. 22. Herrera, I. i. 12.

(6) Pedro Gutierrez, a page of the king's chamber. Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, Comptroller of the Fleet.

CANTO IX.

(1) Signifying to the Infernal Powers (all' infierno todo) the will of the Most High, that they should renounce a world over which they had tyrannized for so many ages. - Ovalle, iv. 5.

(2) "This country excels all others, as far as the day surpasses the night in splendor. Nor is there a better people in the world. They love their neighbor as themselves; their conversation is the sweetest imaginable, their faces always smiling; and so gentle, so affectionate are they, that I swear to your Highnesses," &c. -Hist. c. 30, 33.

(3) Dryades formosissimas, aut nativas fontium nymphas de quibus fabulatur antiquitas, se vidisse arbitrati sunt.-P. Martyr, dec. i. lib. v.

And an eminent painter of the present day, when he first saw the Apollo of the Belvidere, was struck with its resemblance to an American warrior. West's Discourses in the Royal Academy, 1794.

(4) So, in like manner, when Cortes and his companions appeared at the gates of Mexico, the young exclaimed, "They are Gods!" while the old shook their heads, saying, "They are those of whom the prophets spake; and they are come to reign over us!" Herrera.

(5) The Cacique came to the shore in a sort of palanquin, attended by his ancient The gifts which he received from me were afterwards carried before him." Hist. c. 32.

men.

(6) The ring of Gyges, the lamp of Aladdin, and the horse of the Tartar king.

(7) For the effects of the telescope and the mirror on an uncultivated mind, see Wallis' Voyage round the World, c. 2 and 6.

CANTO X.

(1) Ætas est illis aurea. Apertis vivunt hortis. - P. Martyr, dec. i. 3.

(2) The wild cotton-tree, often mentioned in history.

"Cortes," says Bernal Diaz,

"took possession of the country in the following manner: Drawing his sword, he gave three cuts with it into a great Ceiba, and said —.”

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