(3) The parrot, as described by Aristotle. -Hist. Animal. viii. 12.

(4) Here are birds so small, says Herrera, that, though they are birds, they are taken for bees or butterflies.

(5) The Humming bird. Kakopit (florum regulus) is the name of an Indian bird, referred to this class by Seba.

(6) There also was heard the wild cry of the Flamingo.

What clarion winds along the yellow sands?

Far in the deep the giant-fisher stands,

Folding his wings of flame.

(7) Il sert après sa mort à parer les jeunes Indiennes, qui portent en pendans d'oreilles deux de ces charmans oiseaux.

Buffon.

(8) According to an ancient tradition. - See Oviedo, Vega, Herrera, &c. Not many years afterwards a Spaniard of distinction wandered everywhere in search of it; and no wonder, as Robertson observes, when Columbus himself could imagine that he had found the seat of Paradise.

CANTO XI.

(1) P. Martyr, dec. i.

(2) They believed that the souls of good men were conveyed to a pleasant valley, abounding in guavas and other delicious fruits. Herrera, I. iii. 3. Hist. del Almirante, c. 62.

(3) "The dead walk abroad at night, and feast with the living" (F. Columbus, c. 62); and "eat of the fruit called Guannába.” ---- - P. Martyr, dec. i. 9.

(4) War reverses the order of nature. In time of peace, says Herodotus, the sons bury their fathers; in time of war, the fathers bury their sons' But the gods have willed it so. -I. 87.

(5) An ancient Cacique, in his lifetime and after his death, employed by the Zemi to alarm his people. See Hist. c. 62.

(6) The author is speaking in his inspired character. Hidden things are revealed to him, and placed before his mind as if they were present.

(7) Nor could they (the Powers of Darkness) have more effectually prevented the progress of the faith, than by desolating the New World; by burying nations alive in mines, or consigning them, in all their errors, to the sword. — Relacion de B. de las Casas.

(8) Not man alone, but many other animals, became extinct there.

(9) P. Martyr, dec. iii. c 7.

(10) Rocheforte, c. xx.

CANTO XII.

(1) For a summary of his life and character, see "An Account of the European Settlements."-P. I. c. 8. Of him it might have been said, as it was afterwards said of Bacon, and a nobler tribute there could not be: "In his adversity I ever prayed that God would give him strength, for greatness he could not want. Neither could I condole for him in a word or syllable, as knowing no accident could do harm to virtue, but rather help to make it manifest." - B. Jonson.

(2) It is remarkable that these phenomena still remain among the mysteries of nature.

(3) E disubito parve giorno a giorno

Essere aggiunto, come quei, che puote,

Avesse'l Ciel d'un' altro Sole adorno.

Paradiso, I. 61.

(4) Te tua fata docebo.- Virg.

Saprai di tua vita il viaggio. - Dante.

(5) P. Martyr, Epist. 133, 152.

(6) When he entered the Tagus, all the seamen ran from all parts to behold, as it were some wonder, a ship that had escaped so terrible a storm. -Hist. c. 40.

(7) I wrote on a parchment that I had discovered what I had promised; and, having put it into a cask, I threw it into the sea. - Ibid. c. 37.

(8) See the Eumenides of Eschylus, v. 305, &c.

(9) Balboa immediately concluded it to be the ocean for which Columbus had searched in vain; and when, at length, after a toilsome march among the mountains, his guides pointed out to him the summit from which it might be seen, he commanded his men to halt, and went up alone. -Herrera, I. x. 1.

(10) I always saw them in his room, and he ordered them to be buried with his body. Hist. c. 86.

(11) His person, says Herrera, had an air of grandeur. His hair, from many hardships, had long been gray. In him you saw a man of an unconquerable courage and high thoughts; patient of wrongs, calm in adversity, ever trusting in God; and, had he lived in ancient times, statues and temples would have been erected to him without number, and his name would have been placed among the stars.

(12) See the Eumenides of Eschylus, v. 246. Agamemnon of Eschylus, v. 82. (13) "There go the sons of him who discovered those fatal countries," &c. Hist. c. 85.

(14) One of these, on account of his extraordinary sagacity and fierceness, received the full allowance of a soldier. His name was Berezillo.

(15) With my own eyes I saw kingdoms as full of people as hives are full of bees; and now where are they Las Casas.

(16) No unusual effect of an exuberant vegetation.

"The air was so vitiated," says an

African traveller, "that our torches burnt dim, and seemed ready to be extinguished;

and even the human voice lost its natural tone."

(17) See Washington's Farewell Address to his fellow-citizens.

(18) "There are those alive," said an illustrious orator, "whose memory might touch the two extremities. Lord Bathurst, in 1704, was of an age to comprehend such things; and, if his angel had then drawn up the curtain, and, while he was gazing with admiration, had pointed out to him a speck, and had told him, 'Young man, there is America, which, at this day, serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners; yet shall, before you taste of death,""&c. - Burke in 1775.

(19) How simple were the manners of the early colonists! The first ripening of any European fruit was distinguished by a family festival. Garcilasso de la Vega relates how his dear father, the valorous Andres, collected together in his chamber seven or eight gentlemen to share with him three asparaguses, the first that ever grew on the table-land of Cusco. When the operation of dressing them was over (and it is minutely described) he distributed the two largest among his friends; begging that the company would not take it ill if he reserved the third for himself, as it was a thing from Spain.

North America became instantly an asylum for the oppressed; Huguenots, and Catholics, and sects of every name and country. Such were the first settlers in Carolina and Maryland, Pennsylvania and New England. Nor is South America altogether without a claim to the title. Even now, while I am writing, the ancient house of Braganza is on its passage across the Atlantic,

Cum sociis, natoque, Penatibus, et magnis dis.

(20) Je me transporte quelquefois au delà d'un siècle. J'y vois le bonheur à côté de l'industrie, la douce tolérance remplaçant la farouche inquisition; j'y vois un jour de fête; Péruviens, Mexicains, Américains libres, François s'embrassant comme des frères, et bénissant le règne de la liberté, qui doit amener partout une harmonie universelle. Mais les mines, les esclaves, que deviendront-ils ? Les mines se fermeront; les esclaves seront les frères de leurs maitres. — Brissot.

There is a prophetic stanza, written a century ago by Bp. Berkeley, which I must quote, though I may suffer by the comparison:

Westward the course of empire takes its way.

The four first acts already past,

A fifth shall close the drama with the day.
Time's noblest offspring is the last.

(21) See Paradise Lost, X.

(22) Cortes. A peine put-il obtenir audience de Charles-Quint: un jour il fendit la presse qui entourait le coche de l'empereur, et monta sur l'étrier de la portière. Charles demanda quel était cet homme; "C'est," répondit Cortes, "celui qui vous a donné plus d'états que vos pères ne vous ont laissé de villes."-Voltaire.

(17) "Almost all," says Las Casas, "have perished. The innocent blood which they had shed cried aloud for vengeance; the sighs, the tears of so many victims, went up before God.”

(24) L'Espagne a fait comme ce roi insensé qui demanda que tout ce qu'il toucheroit se convertit en or, et qui fut obligé de revenir aux dieux pour les prier de finir sa misère. Montesquieu.

(1) The Convent of La Rábida.

(2) See Bernal Diaz, c. 203; and also a well-known portrait of Cortes, ascribed to Titian. Cortes was now in the forty-third, Pizarro in the fiftieth year of his age.

(3) Augustin Zarate, lib. iv. c. 9.

(4) An interpolation.

(5) Late Superior of the House.

(6) In the chancel of the cathedral of St. Domingo.

An anachronism. The body of Columbus was not yet removed from Seville.

It is almost unnecessary to point out another in the Ninth Canto. The telescope was not then in use; though described long before, with great accuracy, by Roger Bacon.

(7) The words of the epitaph. "A Castilia y a Leon nuevo Mundo dio Colon." (8) Mexico.

(9) Afterwards the arms of Cortes and his descendants.

(10) Fernandez, lib. ii. c. 63.

(11) B. Diaz, c. 203.

(12) ❝ After the death of Guatimotzin," says B. Diaz, "he became gloomy and restless; rising continually from his bed, and wandering about in the dark." "Nothing prospered with him; and it was ascribed to the curses he was loaded with."