"Thee hath it pleased-Thy will be done!" he said, 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!
"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. In that awful hour,
Sent forth to save, and girt with God-like power,
And glorious as the regent of the sun, ተ
An Angel came! He spoke, and it was done!
He spoke, and, at his call, a mighty Wind,
Not like the fitful blast, with fury blind,
But deep, majestic, in its destined course,
Sprung with unerring, unrelenting force,
*Herrera, dec. I. lib. i. c. 9.
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; 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.
"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)
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,
Who, from his birth to this eventful hour,
Hast led thy servant over land and sea,
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!
* They may give me what name they please. I am servant of Him, &c. Hist. del Almirante, c. 2.
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.
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