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INSCRIBED ON THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.

UNCLASP me, Stranger; and unfold,
With trembling care, my leaves of gold,
Rich in gothic portraiture-

If yet, alas, a leaf endure.

In RABIDA's monastic fane
I cannot ask, and ask in vain.
The language of CASTILE I speak ;
'Mid many an Arab, many a Greek,
Old in the days of CHARLEMAIN;
When minstrel-music wandered round,
And Science, waking, blessed the sound.

No earthly thought has here a place,
The cowl let down on every face;
Yet here, in consecrated dust,
Here would I sleep, if sleep I must.
From GENOA when COLUMBUS came,
(At once her glory and her shame)
'Twas here he caught the holy flame.
'Twas here the generous vow he made;
His banners on the altar laid.

Here tempest-worn and desolate 1
A Pilot, journeying thro' the wild,
Stopt to solicit at the gate
A pittance for his child.

"Twas here, unknowing and unknown,
He stood upon the threshold-stone.
But hope was his-a faith sublime,
That triumphs over place and time;
And here, his mighty labour done,
And his course of glory run,
Awhile as more than man he stood,
So large the debt of gratitude!

One hallowed morn, methought, I felt

As if a soul within me dwelt !
But who arose and gave to me
The sacred trust I keep for thee,
And in his cell at even-tide

Knelt before the cross and died-
Inquire not now. His name no more
Glimmers on the chancel-floor,
Near the lights that ever shine
Before ST. MARY'S blessed shrine.

To me one little hour devote,
And lay thy staff and scrip beside thee;
Read in the temper that he wrote,
And may his gentle spirit guide thee!
My leaves forsake me, one by one;
The book-worm thro' and thro' has gone.
Oh haste-unclasp me, and unfold;
The tale within was never told !

1 We have an interesting account of his first appearance
in Spain, that country which was so soon to be the theatre
of his glory. According to the testimony of Garcia Fernan-
dez, the physician of Palos, a sea-faring man, accompanied
by a very young boy, stopped one day at the gate of the
Convent of La Rábida and asked of the porter a little
bread and water for his child. While they were receiving
this humble refreshment, the Prior, Juan Perez, happen-
ing to pass by, was struck with the look and manner of
the stranger, and, entering into conversation with him,
soon learnt the particulars of his story. The stranger was
Columbus; the boy was his son Diego; and, but for this
accidental interview, America might have remained long
undiscovered for it was to the zeal of Juan Perez that.
he was finally indebted for the accomplishment of his
great purpose. See Irving's History of Columbus.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

THERE is a spirit in the old Spanish Chroniclers of the sixteenth century that may be compared to the freshness of water at the fountain-head. Their simplicity, their sensibility to the strange and the wonderful, their very weaknesses give an infinite value, by giving a life and a character to every thing they touch; and their religion, which bursts out everywhere, addresses itself to the imagination in the highest degree. If they err, their errors are not their own. They think and feel after the fashion of the time; and their narratives are so many moving pictures of the actions, manners, and thoughts of their contemporaries.

What they had to communicate, might well make them eloquent; but, inasmuch as relates to Columbus, the Inspiration went no farther. No National Poem appeared on the subject; no Camoëns did honour to his Genius and his Virtues. Yet the materials, that have descended to us, are surely not unpoetical; and a desire to avail myself of them, to convey in some instances as far as I could, in others as far as I dared, their warmth of colouring and wildness of imagery, led me to conceive the idea of a Poem written not long after his death, when the great consequences of the Discovery were beginning to unfold themselves, but while the minds of men were still clinging to the superstitions of their fathers.

The Event here described may be thought too recent for the Machinery; but I found them together. 2 A belief in the agency of Evil Spirits prevailed over both hemispheres; and even yet seems almost necessary to enable us to clear up the Darkness,

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And justify the ways of God to Men.

THE ARGUMENT.

COLUMBUS, having wandered from kingdom to kingdom, at length obtains three ships and sets sail on the Atlantic. The compass alters from its ancient direction; the wind becomes constant and unremitting; night and day he advances, till he is suddenly stopped in his course by a mass of vegetation, extending as far as the eye can reach, and assuming the appearance of a country overwhelmed by the sea. Alarm and despondence on board. He resigns himself to the care of Heaven, and proceeds on his voyage. Meanwhile the deities of America assemble in council; and one of the Zemi, the gods of the islanders, announces his approach. "In vain," says he, "have we guarded the Atlantic for ages. A mortal has baffled our power; nor will our votaries arm against him. Yours are a sterner race. Hence! and, while we have recourse to stratagem, you array the nations round your altars, and prepare for an exterminating war." They disperse while he is yet speaking; and, in the shape of a condor, he directs his flight to the fleet. His journey described. He arrives there. A panic. A mutiny. Columbus restores order; continues on his voyage; and lands in a New World. Ceremonies

do

2 Perhaps even a contemporary subject should not be rejected as such, however wild and extravagant it may be, if the manners be foreign and the place distant-major è longinquo reverentia. L'éloignement des pays, says Racine, répare en quelque sorte la trop grande proximité des temps; car le peuple ne met guère de différence entre ce qui est, si j'ose ainsi parler, à mille ans de lui, et ce qui en est à mille lieues.

of the first interview. Rites of hospitality. The ghost of Cazziva.

Two months pass away, and an Angel, appearing in a dream to Columbus, thus addresses him: "Return to Europe; though your Adversaries, such is the will of Heaven, shall let loose the hurricane against you. A little while shall they triumph; insinuating themselves into the hearts of your followers, and making the World, which you came to bless, a scene of blood and slaughter. Yet is there cause for rejoicing. Your work is done. The cross of Christ is planted here; and in due time, all things shall be made perfect!"

CANTO I.

Night-Columbus on the Atlantic-the Variation of
the Compass, &c.

SAY who, when age on age had rolled away,
And still, as sunk the golden Orb of day,
The seamen watched him, while he lingered here,
With many a wish to follow, many a fear,
And gazed and gazed and wondered where he went,
So bright his path, so glorious his descent,
Who first adventured-In his birth obscure,
Yet born to build a Fame that should endure,1
Who the great secret of the Deep possessed,
And issuing through the portals of the West,
Fearless, resolved, with every sail unfurled,
Planted his standard on the Unknown World?
Him, by the Paynim bard descried of yore,
And ere his coming sung on either shore,
Him, ere the birth of Time by Heaven designed
To lift the veil that covered half mankind,
None can exalt

Yet, ere I die, I would fulfil my vow;
Praise cannot wound his generous spirit now.

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Her awful face; and Nature's self reposed;
When, slowly rising in the azure sky,
Three white sails shone-but to no mortal eye,
Entering a boundless sea. In slumber cast,
The very ship-boy, on the dizzy mast,
Half breathed his orisons! Alone unchanged,
Calmly, beneath, the great Commander 2 ranged,
Thoughtful not sad; and, as the planet grew,
His noble form, wrapt in his mantle blue,
Athwart the deck a deepening shadow threw.
"Thee hath it pleased-Thy will be done!" he
said,3

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Then sought his cabin; and, their garments spread,
Around him lay the sleeping as the dead,
When, by his lamp to that mysterious Guide,
On whose still counsels all his hopes relied,
That Oracle to man in mercy given,

Whose voice is truth, whose wisdom is from heaven,
Who over sands and seas directs the stray,
And, as with God's own finger, points the way,
He turned; but what strange thoughts perplexed
his soul,

When, lo, no more attracted to the Pole,
The Compass, faithless as the circling vane,
Fluttered and fixed, fluttered and fixed again!
At length, as by some unseen Hand imprest,
It sought with trembling energy the West !5
"Ah no!" he cried, and calmed his anxious brow.
"Ill, nor the signs of ill, 'tis thine to show ;
Thine but to lead me where I wished to go !"
COLUMBUS erred not.6 In that awful hour,
Sent forth to save, and girt with God-like power,
And glorious as the regent of the sun,
An Angel came! He spoke, and it was done!
He spoke, and, at his call, a mighty Wind,s
Not like the fitful blast, with fury blind,
But deep, majestic, in its destined course,
Sprung with unerring, unrelenting force,
From the bright East. Tides duly ebbed and flowed;
Stars rose and set; and new horizons glowed;
Yet still it blew! As with primeval sway
Still did its ample spirit, night and day,
Move on the waters!-All, resigned to Fate,
Folded their arms and sate ;9 and seemed to wait
Some sudden change; and sought, in chill suspense,
New spheres of being, and new modes of sense;
As men departing, though not doomed to die,
And midway on their passage to eternity.

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.

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'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 clairement que le signe de la main regardoit l'Amérique." 7 Rev. xix. 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. Hist. del Almirante, c. 19. Nos pavidi-at pater Anchises-lætus.

CANTO II.

The Voyage continued.

"WHAT vast foundations in the Abyss are there,
As of a former world? Is it not where
ATLANTIC kings their barbarous pomp displayed;
Sunk into darkness with the realms they swayed,
When towers and temples, thro' the closing wave,
A glimmering ray of ancient splendour gave—
And we shall rest with them. Or are we thrown"
(Each gazed on each, and all exclaimed as one)
"Where things familiar cease and strange begin,
All progress barred to those without, within?
-Soon is the doubt resolved. Arise, behold-
We stop to stir no more... nor will the tale be told."
The pilot smote his breast; the watchman cried
"Land!" and his voice in faltering accents died.'
At once the fury of the prow was quelled;
And (whence or why from many an age withheld)2
Shrieks, not of men, were mingling in the blast;
And armed shapes of god-like stature passed!
Slowly along the evening sky they went,
As on the edge of some vast battlement;
Helmet and shield, and spear and gonfalon
Streaming a baleful light that was not of the sun!
Long from the stern the great Adventurer gazed
With awe not fear; then high his hands he raised.
"Thou All-supreme
in goodness as in

power,

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Who, from his birth to this eventful hour,
Hast led thy servant over land and sea,3
Confessing Thee in all, and all in Thee,
Oh still" He spoke, and lo, the charm accurst
Fled whence it came, and the broad barrier burst!
A vain illusion! (such as mocks the eyes
Of fearful men, when mountains round them rise
From less than nothing) nothing now beheld,
But scattered sedge-repelling, and repelled!

And once again that valiant company
Right onward came, ploughing the Unknown Sea..
Already borne beyond the range of thought,
With Light divine, with Truth Immortal fraught,
From world to world their steady course they
keep,

Swift as the winds along the waters sweep,
'Mid the mute nations of the purple deep.
-And now the sound of harpy-wings they hear;
Now less and less, as vanishing in fear!
And see, the heavens bow down, the waters rise,
And, rising, shoot in columns to the skies,"
That stand-and still, when they proceed, retire,
As in the Desert burned the sacred fire;
Moving in silent majesty, till Night
Descends, and shuts the vision from their sight.

1 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.

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

3 They may give me what name they please. I am servant of Him, &c. Hist. del Almirante, c. 2.

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

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

CANTO III.

An Assembly of Evil Spirits.

1

THO' changed my cloth of gold for amice grey
In my spring-time, when every month was May,
With hawk and hound I coursed away the hour,
Or sung my roundelay in lady's bower.
And tho' my world be now a narrow cell,
(Renounced for ever all I loved so well)
Tho' now my head be bald, my feet be bare,
And scarce my knees sustain my book of prayer,
Oh I was there, one of that gallant crew,
And saw-and wondered whence his Power He
drew,

Yet little thought, tho' by his side I stood,
Of his great Foes in earth and air and flood,
Then uninstructed. But my sand is run,
And the Night coming and my Task not
done! - -

"Twas in the deep, immeasurable cave
Of ANDES, echoing to the Southern wave,
'Mid pillars of Basalt, the work of fire,
That, giant-like, to upper day aspire,
"Twas there that now, as wont in heaven to shine,
Forms of angelic mould and grace divine
Assembled. All, exiled the realms of rest,
In vain the sadness of their souls suppressed;
Yet of their glory many a scattered ray
Shot thro' the gathering shadows of decay.
Each moved a God; and all, as Gods, possessed
One half the globe; from pole to pole confessed R !

Oh could I now-but how in mortal verseTheir numbers, their heroic deeds rehearse! These in dim shrines and barbarous symbols reign, Where PLATA and MARAGNON meet the Main 9. Those the wild hunter worships as he roves, In the green shade of CHILI's fragrant groves; Or warrior-tribes with rites of blood implore, Whose night-fires gleam along the sullen shore Of HURON Or ONTARIO, inland seas 10, What time the song of death is in the breeze!

'Twas now in dismal pomp and order due, While the vast concave flashed with lightnings blue, On shining pavements of metallic ore, That many an age the fusing sulphur bore, They held high council. All was silence round When, with a voice most sweet yet most profound,

A sovereign Spirit burst the gates of night, And from his wings of gold shook drops of liquid light!

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MERTON, commissioned with his host to sweep
From age to age the melancholy deep!
Chief of the ZEMI, whom the Isles obeyed,
By Ocean severed from a world of shade'.

I.

"Prepare, again prepare,"

Thus o'er the soul the thrilling accents came,
"Thrones to resign for lakes of living flame,
And triumph for despair.

He, on whose call afflicting thunders wait,
Has willed it; and his will is fate!
In vain the legions, emulous to save,

Hung in the tempest o'er the troubled main 2; Turned each presumptuous prow that broke the And dashed it on its shores again. [wave,

All is fulfilled! Behold, in close array,
What mighty banners stream in the bright track
[of day!
II.

"No voice as erst shall in the desert rise;
Nor ancient, dread solemnities

With scorn of death the trembling tribes inspire. Wreaths for the Conqueror's brow the victims bind! Yet, tho' we fled yon firmament of fire,

Still shall we fly, all hope of rule resigned?"

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"Ан, why look back, tho' all is left behind?
No sounds of life are stirring in the wind.--
And you, ye birds, winging your passage home,
How blest ye are !-We know not where we roam.
We go," they cried, "go to return no more;
Nor ours, alas, the transport to explore
A human footstep on a desert shore!"

-Still, as beyond this mortal life impelled
By some mysterious energy, He held
His everlasting course. Still self-possessed,
High on the deck He stood, disdaining rest;
(His amber chain the only badge he bore,
His mantle blue such as his fathers wore)
Fathomed, with searching hand, the dark profound,
And scattered hope and glad assurance round;
Tho', like some strange portentous dream, the Past
Still hovered, and the cloudless sky o'ercast.

At day-break might the Caravels be seen, Chasing their shadows o'er the deep serene; Their burnished prows lashed by the sparkling tide,

Their green-cross standards waving far and wide.
And now once more to better thoughts inclined,
The sea-man, mounting, clamoured in the wind.
The soldier told his tales of love and war;
The courtier sung-sung to his gay guitar.

1 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.

2 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.

3 Light vessels, formerly used by the Spaniards and Portuguese.

Round, at Primero, sate a whiskered band;
So Fortune smiled, careless of sea or land!
LEON, MONTALVAN, (serving side by side;
Two with one soul-and, as they lived, they died)
VASCO the brave, thrice found among the slain,
Thrice, and how soon, up and in arms again,
As soon to wish he had been sought in vain,
Chained down in FEZ, beneath the bitter thong,
To the hard bench and heavy oar so long!
ALBERT of FLORENCE, who, at twilight-time,
In my rapt ear poured DANTE's tragic rhyme,
Screened by the sail as near the mast we lay,
Our nights illumined by the ocean-spray;
And MANFRED, who espoused with jewelled ring
Young ISABEL, then left her sorrowing:
LERMA 'the generous,' AVILA 'the proud 5;'
VELASQUEZ, GARCIA, thro' the echoing crowd
Traced by their mirth-from EBRO's classic shore,
From golden TAJO, to return no more!

CANTO V.

The Voyage continued. YET Who but He undaunted could explore A world of waves, a sea without a shore, Trackless and vast and wild as that revealed When round the Ark the birds of tempest wheeled; When all was still in the destroying hour— No sign of man! no vestige of his power! One at the stern before the hour-glass stood, As 'twere to count the sands; one o'er the flood Gazed for St. Elmo'; while another cried [sighed. "Once more good morrow!" and sate down and Day, when it came, came only with its light. Though long invoked, 'twas sadder than the night! Look where He would, for ever as He turned, He met the eye of one that inly mourned.

8

Then sunk his generous spirit, and He wept. The friend, the father rose; the hero slept. PALOS, thy port, with many a pang resigned, Filled with its busy scenes his lonely mind; The solemn march, the vows in concert given, The bended knees and lifted hands to heaven, The incensed rites and choral harmonies, The Guardian's blessings mingling with his sighs; While his dear boys-ah, on his neck they hung,' And long at parting to his garments clung.

4 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.

5 Many such appellations occur in Bernal Diaz, c. 204. 6 Many sighed and wept; and every hour seemed a year, says Herrera.-I. i. 9 and 10.

7 A luminous appearance of good omen.

8 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.

9" 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 comforted myself with the reflection that our Lord would not suffer so earnest an endeavour for the exaltation of his church to come to nothing, yet I considered that, on account of my unworthiness," &c.-Hist. c. 37.

Oft in the silent night-watch doubt and fear
Broke in uncertain murmurs on his ear.
Oft the stern Catalan, at noon of day,
Muttered dark threats, and lingered to obey;
Tho' that brave Youth-he, whom his courser
bore

Right thro' the midst, when, fetlock-deep in gore,
The great GONZALO1 battled with the Moor,
(What time the ALHAMBRA shook-soon to unfold
Its sacred courts, and fountains yet untold,
Its holy texts and arabesques of gold)
Tho' ROLDAN, sleep and death to him alike,
Grasped his good sword and half unsheathed to

strike.

"Oh born to wander with your flocks," he cried,
"And bask and dream along the mountain-side;
To urge your mules, tinkling from hill to hill;
Or at the vintage-feast to drink your fill,
And strike your castanets, with gipsy-maid
Dancing Fandangos in the chestnut shade-
Come on," he cried, and threw his glove in scorn,
"Not this your wonted pledge, the brimming horn.
Valiant in peace! Adventurous at home!
Oh, had ye vowed with pilgrim-staff to roam;
Or with banditti sought the sheltering wood,
Where mouldering crosses mark the scene of
blood!"

He said, he drew; then, at his Master's frown,
Sullenly sheathed, plunging the weapon down.

'Twas the mid hour, when He, whose accents dread

Still wandered thro' the regions of the dead,
(MERION, Commissioned with his host to sweep
From age to age the melancholy deep)

To elude the seraph-guard that watched for man,
And mar, as erst, the Eternal's perfect plan,
Rose like the Condor, and, at towering height,
In pomp of plumage sailed, deepening the shades
of night.

Roc of the West! to him all empire given ! 4
Who bears Axalhua's dragon-folds to heaven ; 5
His flight a whirlwind, and, when heard afar,
Like thunder, or the distant din of war!

Mountains and seas fled backward as he passed
O'er the great globe, by not a cloud o'ercast
From the ANTARCTIC, from the Land of Fire &
To where ALASKA's wintry wilds retire ;7
From mines of gold, and giant-sons of earth,
To grots of ice, and tribes of pigmy birth
Who freeze alive, nor, dead, in dust repose,
High-hung in forests to the casing snows."
Now 'mid angelic multitudes he flies,
That hourly come with blessings from the
skies;

Wings the blue element, and, borne sublime,
Eyes the set sun, gilding each distant clime;
Then, like a meteor, shooting to the main,
Melts into pure intelligence again.

CANTO VI.

The flight of an Angel of Darkness.

WAR and the Great in War let others sing,
Havoc and spoil, and tears and triumphing;
The morning-march that flashes to the sun,
The feast of vultures when the day is done;
And the strange tale of many slain for one!
I sing a Man, amid his sufferings here,
Who watched and served in humbleness and fear;
Gentle to others, to himself severe.

Still unsubdued by Danger's varying form,
Still, as unconscious of the coming storm,
He looked elate; and, with his wonted smile,
On the great Ordnance leaning, would beguile
The hour with talk. His beard, his mien sublime,
Shadowed by Age-by Age before the time,2
From many a sorrow borne in many a clime,
Moved every heart. And now in opener skies
Stars yet unnamed of purer radiance rise !
Stars, milder suns, that love a shade to cast,
And on the bright wave fling the trembling mast!
Another firmament! the orbs that roll,
Singly or clustering, round the Southern pole!
Not yet the four that glorify the Night-
Ah, how forget when to my ravished sight,
The Cross shone forth in everlasting light !3

1 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 2nd of January, 1492. Columbus set sail on the 3rd of August following.

2 Hist. e. 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. Es' io non mi

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