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,*
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,

ן

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.

"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.

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.

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,

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

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,†
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; and seemed to wait

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."

*Rev. xix. 17.

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.

To return was deemed impossible, as it blew always from

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.

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.*

* 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