*** 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 thal took place at this time in Palos, says, "that Cortes was now absent at Nuestra Senora de la Rábida." The convent is within half a league of the town.

2 A

Lates to the Vaqage of Calambas.

P. 172, 1. 15.

descried of yore,

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 Gerusalemme Liberata.

Tempo verrà, che fian d'Ercole i segni

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

P. 172, 1. 30.

the great Commander

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.

P. 173, 1. 6.

"Thee hath it pleased―Thy will be done!" he said,

"It has pleased our Lord to grant me faith and assurance for this enterprise He has 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.

P. 173, 1. 12.

Whose voice is truth, whose wisdom is from heaven,

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.

P. 173, 1. 24.

COLUMBUS erred not,

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'île 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 gravées, qui ne furent point entendues; mais il parut clairment que le signe de la main regardoit l'Amérique."

P. 173, 1. 29.

He spoke, and, at his call, a mighty Wind,

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.

P. 174, 1. 8.

Folded their arms, and sate;

To return was deemed impossible, as it blew always from home.Hist. del Almirante, c. 19. Nos pavidi―at pater Anchises-lætus.

P. 174, 1. 20.

What vast foundations in the Abyss are there,

Tasso employs preternatural agents on a similar occasion,

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.

P. 174, 1. 18.

ATLANTIC kings their barbarous pomp displayed;

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 harbour, going to strike the flag, when he saw the sea retire to a considerable distance, and then, swelling mountain-high, return 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.

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.

P. 175, 1. 2.

"Land," and his voice in faltering accents died.

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.

P. 175, 1. 4.

And (whence or why from many an age withheld)

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

P. 175, 1. 27.

From world to world their steady course they keep,

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

P. 176, 1. 4.

And, rising, shoot in columns to the skies,

Water-spouts. See Edwards's History of the West Indies, I. 12.

Note.

P. 176, 1. 16.

Tho' changed my cloth of gold for amice grey

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

P. 176, 1. 31.

'Twas in the deep, immeasurable cave

Of ANDES,

Vast indeed must be those dismal regions, if it be true, as conjectured (Kircher. Mund. Subt. I. 202) that Etna, 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."

P. 177, 1. 10.

One half the globe; from pole to pole confessed!

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.