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.

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.

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 Pococurante, “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 modė, 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.

(9) The same language had been addressed to Isabella. - Hist. c. 15.

(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. -En. III. v. 247.

CANTO VIII.

(1) Ex ligno lucido confectum, et arte mira 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 Bo 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 men. The gifts which he received from me were afterwards carried before him."Hist. c. 32.

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

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) Etas est illis aurea. Apertis vivunt hortis. — P. Martyr, dẹc. i. 3.

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

"Cortes," says Bernal Díaz,

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

(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.

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 Guannaba." - 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.

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 Æschylus, 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. African traveller, "that our torches burnt dim, and and even the human voice lost its natural tone."

"The air was so vitiated," says an seemed ready to be extinguished;