Would ye were sleeping side by side!
Of all his friends he loved thee best."

The supper in the chamber done,
Much of a southern sea they spake,

8

And of that glorious city won
Near the setting of the sun,
Throned in a silver lake;

Of seven kings in chains of gold,9
And deeds of death by tongue untold,
Deeds such as breathed in secret there

Had shaken the confession-chair!

The eldest swore by our Lady,10 the youngest by his conscience; " while the Franciscan, sitting by in his gray habit, turned away and crossed himself again and again. "Here is a little book," said he at last, "the work of him in his shroud below. It tells of things you have mentioned; and, were Cortes and Pizarro here, it might perhaps make them reflect for a moment." The youngest smiled as he took it into his hand. He read it aloud to his companion with an unfaltering voice; but, when he laid it down, a silence ensued; nor was he seen to smile again that night.12 <<The eurse is heavy," said he at parting, "but Cortes may live to disappoint it."-"Ay, and Pizarro too!"

A circumstance, recorded by Herrera, renders this visit not improbable. "In May, 1528, Cortes arrived unexpectedly at Palos; and, soon after he had landed, he and Pizarro met and rejoiced; and it was remarkable that they should meet, as they were two of the most renowned men in the world." B. Diaz makes no mention of the interview; but, relating an occurrence that took place at this time in Palos, says "that Cortes was now absent at Neustra Senora de la Rábida." The convent is within half a league of the town.

NOTES.

CANTO I.

(1) IN him was fulfilled the ancient prophecy,

venient annis

Secula seris, quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, &c.

Seneca in Medea, v. 374.

Which Tasso has imitated in his Gierusalemme Liberata.

Tempo verrà, che fian d'Ercole i segni
Favola, vile, &c.

The poem opens on Friday the 14th of September, 1492.

C. xv. 30.

(2) In the original, El Almirante. "In Spanish America," says M. de Humboldt, 'when El Almirante is pronounced without the addition of a name, that of Columbus is understood; as, from the lips of a Mexican, El Marchese signifies Cortes ;" and as, among the Florentines, Il Segretario has always signified Machiavel.

(3) "It has pleased our Lord to grant me faith and assurance for this enterprise. He nas opened my understanding, and made me most willing to go." — See his Life by his Son, Ferd. Columbus, entitled, Hist. del Almirante Don Christoval. Colon. c. 4 & 37.

His will begins thus: "In the name of the most holy Trinity, who inspired me with the idea, and who afterwards made it clear to me, that by traversing the ocean westwardly," &c.

(4) The compass might well be an object of superstition. A belief is said to prevail, even at this day, that it will refuse to traverse when there is a dead body on board.

(5) Herrera, dec. I. lib. i. c. 9.

(6) When these regions were to be illuminated, says Acosta, cùm divino concilio decretum esset, prospectum etiam divinitus est, ut tam longi itineris dux certus hominibus præberetur.- De Natura Novi Orbis.

A romantic circumstance is related of some early navigator in the Histoire Gén. des Voyages, I. i. 2. "On trouva dans l'ile de Cuervo une statue équestre, couverte d'un manteau, mais la tête nue, qui tenoit de la main gauche la bride du cheval, et qui montroit l'occident de la main droite. Il y avoit sur le bas d'un roc quelques lettres gravees, qui ne furent point entendues; mais il parut clairement que le signe de la main regardoit l'Amérique."

Rev. 19: 17.

(8) The more Christian opinion is, that God, with eyes of compassion, as it were, looking down from heaven, called forth those winds of mercy, whereby this new world received the hope of salvation. — Preambles to the Decades of the Ocean.

(9) To return was deemed impossible, as it blew always from home. rante, c. 19. Nos pavidi-at pater Anchises-lætus.

Hist. del Almi

CANTO II.

(1) Tasso employs preternatural agents on a similar occasion,

Trappassa, et ecco in quel silvestre loco

Sorge improvisa la città del foco. xiii. 33.

Gli incanti d'Ismeno, che ingannano con delusioni, altro non significano, che la falsità delle ragioni, et delle persuasioni, la qual si genera nella moltitudine, et varietà de' pareri, et de' discorsi humani.

(2) See Plato's Timæus; where mention is made of mighty kingdoms, which, in a day and a night, had disappeared in the Atlantic, rendering its waters unnavigable.

Si quæras Helicen et Burin, Achaïdas urbes,
Invenies sub aquis.

At the destruction of Callao, in 1747, no more than one of all the inhabitants escaped; and he by a providence the most extraordinary. This man was on the fort that overlooked the harbor, going to strike the flag, when he perceived the sea to retire to a considerable distance; and then, swelling mountain-high, it returned with great violence. The people ran from their houses in terror and confusion; he heard a cry of Miserere rise from all parts of the city; and immediately all was silent; the sea had entirely overwhelmed it, and buried it forever in its bosom ; but the same wave that destroyed it drove a little boat by the place where he stood, into which he threw himself and was saved. (3) The description of a submarine forest is here omitted by the translator.

League beyond league gigantic foliage spread,

Shadowing old Ocean on his rocky bed ;

The lofty summits of resounding woods,

That grasped the depths, and grappled with the floods;

Such as had climbed the mountain's azure height,

When forth he came and reassumed his right.

(4) Historians are not silent on the subject. The sailors, according to Herrera, saw the signs of an inundated country (tierras anegadas); and it was the general expectation that they should end their lives there, as others had done in the frozen sea, "where St. Amaro suffers no ship to stir backward or forward." -Hist. del Almirante, c. 19.

(5) The author seems to have anticipated his long slumber in the library of the Fathers.

(0) They may give me what name they please. I am servant of him, &c. Almirante, c. 2.

As St. Christopher carried Christ over the deep waters, so Columbus went over safe, himself and his company. Hist. c. 1.

(S) Water-spouts. See Edwards' History of the West Indies, I. 12. Note.

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 origi❤ nal 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.

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 neag 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."

"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 em ployments with me, and happiness in their friendship. I love them for their virtue's sake,