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O'er him a Vampire his dark wings displayed.' 'Twas MERION's self, covering with dreadful shade. He came, and, couched on ROLDAN's ample breast, Each secret pore of breathing life possessed, Fanning the sleep that seemed his final rest; Then, inly gliding like a subtle flame, Thrice, with a cry that thrilled the mortal frame, Called on the Spirit within. Disdaining flight, Calmly she rose, collecting all her might.3 Dire was the dark encounter! Long unquelled, Her sacred seat, sovereign and pure, she held. At length the great Foe binds her for his prize, And awful, as in death, the body lies!

Not long to slumber! In an evil hour Informed and lifted by the unknown Power, It starts, it speaks! "We live, we breathe no more; The fatal wind blows on the dreary shore! On yonder cliffs beckoning their fellow-prey, The spectres stalk, and murmur at delay !4 -Yet if thou canst (not for myself I plead! Mine but to follow where 'tis thine to lead) Oh turn and save! To thee, with streaming eyes, To thee each widow kneels, each orphan cries! Who now, condemned the lingering hours to tell, Think and but think of those they loved so well!" All melt in tears! but what can tears avail? These climb the mast, and shift the swelling sail. These snatch the helm; and round me now I hear Smiting of hands, out-cries of grief and fear,5 (That in the aisles at midnight haunt me still, Turning my lonely thoughts from good to ill) [cry, "Were there no graves-none in our land," they "That thou hast brought us on the deep to die?"

Silent with sorrow, long within his cloak His face he muffled-then the HERO spoke. "Generous and brave! when God himself is here, Why shake at shadows in your mid career? He can suspend the laws himself designed, He walks the waters, and the winged wind; Himself your guide! and yours the high behest, To lift your voice, and bid a world be blest! And can you shrink? to you, to you consigned The glorious privilege to serve mankind! Oh had I perished, when my failing frame Clung to the shattered oar 'mid wrecks of flame! -Was it for this I lingered life away, The scorn of Folly, and of Fraud the prey ;7

1 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.

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7

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 endeavoured to rob him of the glory of his enterprise, by secretly despatching 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 decouvert, on prétendit qu'il avait été connu depuis long-temps."

Bowed down my mind, the gift His bounty gave, At courts a suitor, and to slaves a slave? -Yet in His name whom only we should fear, ("Tis all, all I shall ask, or you shall hear) Grant but three days"-He spoke not uninspired;8

And each in silence to his watch retired

At length among us came an unknown Voice! "Go, if ye will; and, if ye can, rejoice. Go, with unbidden guests the banquet share.

In his own shape shall Death receive you there."9

CANTO VIII.

Land discovered.

TWICE in the zenith blazed the orb of light;
No shade, all sun, insufferably bright!
Then the long line found rest-in coral groves
Silent and dark, where the sea-lion roves:-
And all on deck, kindling to life again,
Sent forth their anxious spirits o'er the main.

"Oh whence, as wafted from Elysium, whence
These perfumes, strangers to the raptured sense?
These boughs of gold, and fruits of heavenly hue,
Tinging with vermeil light the billows blue?
And (thrice, thrice blessed is the eye that spied,
The hand that snatched it sparkling in the tide)
Whose cunning carved this vegetable bowl, 10
Symbol of social rites, and intercourse of soul?"
Such to their grateful ear the gush of springs,
Who course the ostrich, as away she wings;
Sons of the desert! who delight to dwell
'Mid kneeling camels round the sacred well;
Fall to the demon in the redd'ning blast."
Who, ere the terrors of his pomp be passed,

The sails were furled; with many a melting close, Solemn and slow the evening-anthem rose, Rose to the Virgin.12 "Twas the hour of day, When setting suns o'er summer-seas display A path of glory, opening in the west To golden climes, and islands of the blest; And human voices, on the silent air, Went o'er the waves in songs of gladness there!

8 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!" 9 This denunciation, fulfilled as it appears to be in the eleventh canto, may remind the reader of the Harpy's in Virgil. Æn. III. v. 247.

10 Ex ligno lucido confectum, et arte mirâ laboratum. P. Martyr. dec. i. 5.

11 The Simoom.

12 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.

Chosen of Men!1 "Twas thine, at noon of And clap their hands, exclaiming as they run, night,

First from the prow to hail the glimmering light:2|
(Emblem of Truth divine, whose secret ray
Enters the soul and makes the darkness day!)
"PEDRO ! RODRIGO !3 there, methought, it shone !
There in the west! and now, alas,'tis gone!-
'Twas all a dream! we gaze and gaze in vain!
-But mark and speak not, there it comes again!
It moves!-what form unseen, what being there
With torch-like lustre fires the murky air?
His instincts, passions, say, how like our own?
Oh! when will day reveal a world unknown?"

CANTO IX.

The New World.

LONG on the deep the mists of morning lay,
Then rose, revealing, as they rolled away,
Half-circling hills, whose everlasting woods
Sweep with their sable skirts the shadowy floods:
And say, when all, to holy transport given,
Embraced and wept as at the gates of Heaven,
When one and all of us, repentant, ran,
And, on our faces, blessed the wondrous Man;
Say, was I then deceived, or from the skies
Burst on my ear seraphic harmonies?
"Glory to God!" unnumbered voices sung,
"Glory to God!" the vales and mountains rung,
Voices that hailed Creation's primal morn,
And to the shepherds sung a Saviour born.

4

Slowly, bare-headed, thro' the surf we bore The sacred cross, and, kneeling, kissed the shore. But what a scene was there ?5 Nymphs of

romance,

6

Youths graceful as the Faun, with eager glance, Spring from the glades, and down the alleys peep, Then head-long rush, bounding from steep to steep,

1 "I believe that he was chosen for this great service; and that, because he was to be so 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 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.

2 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.

3 Pedro Gutierrez, a Page of the King's Chamber. Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, Comptroller of the Fleet.

4 Signifying to the Infernal Powers (all' infierno todo) the will of the Most High, that they should renounce a world over which they had tyrannised for so many ages.Ovalle, iv. 5.

5" This country excels all others; as far as the day surpasses the night in splendour. Nor is there a better people in the world. They love their neighbour 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.

6 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,

"Come and behold the Children of the Sun !"7
When hark, a signal-shot! The voice, it came
Over the sea in darkness and in flame!
They saw, they heard; and up the highest hill,
As in a picture, all at once were still!
Creatures so fair, in garments strangely wrought,
From citadels, with Heaven's own thunder fraught,
Checked their light footsteps-statue-like they stood
As worshipped forms, the Genii of the Wood!

At length the spell dissolves! The warrior's lance
Rings on the tortoise with wild dissonance !
And see, the regal plumes, the couch of state !s
Still where it moves the wise in council wait!
See now borne forth the monstrous mask of gold,
And ebon chair of many a serpent-fold;
These now exchanged for gifts that thrice surpass
The wondrous ring, and lamp, and horse of brass."
What long-drawn tube transports the gazer home,
Kindling with stars at noon the ethereal dome?
"Tis here and here circles of solid light
Charm with another self the cheated sight;
As man to man another self disclose,

That now with terror starts, with triumph glows!

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THEN CORA came, the youngest of her race,
And in her hands she hid her lovely face;
Yet oft by stealth a timid glance she cast,
And now with playful step the Mirror passed,
Each bright reflection brighter than the last!
And oft behind it flew, and oft before;

The more she searched, pleased and perplexed the more !

And look'd and laugh'd, and blush'd with quick surprise!

Her lips all mirth, all ecstacy her eyes!

But soon the telescope attracts her view; And lo, her lover in his light canoe Rocking, at noon-tide, on the silent sea, Before her lies! It cannot, cannot be. Late as he left the shore, she lingered there, Till, less and less, he melted into air!Sigh after sigh steals from her gentle frame, And say that murmur-was it not his name? She turns, and thinks; and, lost in wild amaze, Gazes again, and could for ever gaze!

Nor can thy flute, ALONSO, now excite, As in VALENCIA, when, with fond delight, FRANCISCA, waking, to the lattice flew, So soon to love and to be wretched too! Hers thro' a convent-grate to send her last adieu.

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7 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 who were to come and to reign over us!" -Herrera.

8" 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.

9 The ring of Gyges, the lamp of Aladdin, and the horse of the Tartar king.

-Yet who now comes uncall'd; and round and There silent sate many an unbidden Guest 1o, round,

And near and nearer flutters to the sound;
Then stirs not, breathes not-on enchanted ground?
Who now lets fall the flowers she culled to wear
When he, who promised, should at eve be there;
And faintly smiles, and hangs her head aside
The tear that glistens on her cheek to hide!
Ah, who but CORA ?-till inspired, possessed,
At once she springs, and clasps it to her breast!
Soon from the bay the mingling crowd ascends,
Kindred first met! by sacred instinct Friends!
Thro' citron-groves, and fields of yellow maize,
Thro' plantain-walks where not a sun-beam plays.
Here blue savannas fade into the sky.
There forests frown in midnight majesty ;
Ceiba,2 and Indian-fig, and plane sublime,
Nature's first-born, and reverenced by Time!
There sits the bird that speaks!3 there,quivering,rise
Wings that reflect the glow of evening-skies!
Half bird, half fly, the fairy king of flowers5
Reigns there, and revels thro' the fragrant hours;
Gem full of life, and joy, and song divine,
Soon in the virgin's graceful ear to shine.6

"Twas he that sung, if ancient Fame speaks truth,
"Come! follow, follow to the Fount of Youth!
I quaff the ambrosial mists that round it rise,
Dissolved and lost in dreams of Paradise!"
For there called forth, to bless a happier hour,
It met the sun in many a rainbow-shower!
Murmuring delight, its living waters rolled
'Mid branching palms and amaranths of gold !"

CANTO XI.

Evening-A Banquet-The Ghost of Cazziva.
THE tamarind closed her leaves; the marmoset
Dreamed on his bough, and played the mimic yet.
Fresh from the lake the breeze of twilight blew,
And vast and deep the mountain-shadows grew;
When many a fire-fly, shooting thro' the glade,
Spangled the locks of many a lovely maid,
Who now danced forth to strew our path with flowers,
And hymn our welcome to celestial bowers.8

There odorous lamps adorned the festal rite,
And guavas blushed as in the vales of light.9

1 Ætas est illis aurea. Apertis vivunt hortis. P. Martyr. dec. i. 3.

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2 The wild cotton-tree, often mentioned in History. "Cortes, says Bernal Diaz, "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 Il sert après sa mort à parer les jeunes Indiennes, qui portent en pendans d'oreilles deux de ces charmans oiseaux. -BUFFON.

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. 8 P. Martyr. dec. i.

9 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.

Whose steadfast looks a secret dread impressed;
Not there forgot the sacred fruit that fed
At nightly feasts the Spirits of the Dead.
Mingling in scenes that mirth to mortals give,
But by their sadness known from those that live.
There met, as erst, within the wonted grove,
Unmarried girls and youths that died for love!
Sons now beheld their ancient sires again;
And sires, alas, their sons in battle slain !

But whence that sigh? "Twas from a heart that
broke !

And whence that voice? As from the grave it spoke!
And who, as unresolved the feast to share,
Sits half-withdrawn in faded splendour there?
"Tis he of yore, the warrior and the sage,
Whose lips have moved in prayer from age to age;
Whose eyes, that wandered as in search before,
Now on COLUMBUS fixed-to search no more!
CAZZIVA ", gifted in his day to know
The gathering signs of a long night of woe;
Gifted by Those who give but to enslave;
No rest in death! no refuge in the grave!
-With sudden spring as at the shout of war,
He flies! and, turning in his flight, from far
Glares thro' the gloom like some portentous star!
Unseen, unheard! Hence, Minister of Ill 12!
Hence, 'tis not yet the hour! tho' come it will!
They that foretold-too soon shall they fulfil '3
When forth they rush as with the torrent's sweep 14,
And deeds are done that make the Angels weep!

Hark, o'er the busy mead the shelf proclaims 15
Triumphs, and masques, and high heroic games.
And now the old sit round; and now the young
Climb the green boughs, the murmuring doves
among.

Who claims the prize, when winged feet contend;
When twanging bows the flaming arrows send 16?
Who stands self-centred in the field of fame,
And, grappling, flings to earth a giant's frame?
Whilst all, with anxious hearts and eager eyes,
Bend as he bends, and, as he rises, rise!
And CORA's self, in pride of beauty here,
Trembles with grief and joy, and hope and fear!
(She who, the fairest, ever flew the first,
With cup of balm to quench his burning thirst;
Knelt at his head, her fan-leaf in her hand,
And hummed the air that pleased him, while she
fanned)

How blest his lot!-tho', by the Muse unsung,
His name shall perish, when his knell is rung.
That night, transported, with a sigh I said
""Tis all a dream!"-Now, like a dream, 'tis fled;

10 The dead walk abroad in the night, and feast with the living;" (F. Columbus, c. 62.) and "eat of the fruit called Guannaba." P. Martyr, dec. i. 9.

11 An ancient Cacique, in his life-time and after his death, employed by the Zemi to alarm his people.-See Hist. c. 62.

12 The Author is speaking in his inspired character. Hidden things are revealed to him, and placed before his mind as if they were present.

13Nor 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.

14 Not manalone, but many other animals becamexetinct there.

15 P. Martyr. dec. iii. c. 7.
16 Rochefort, c. xx.

And many and many a year has passed away,
And I alone remain to watch and pray!
Yet oft in darkness, on my bed of straw,
Oft I awake and think on what I saw!
The groves, the birds, the youths, the nymphs
And CORA, loveliest, sweetest of them all! [recall,

CANTO XII. A Vision.

STILL Would I speak of Him before I went,
Who among us a life of sorrow spent,
And, dying, left a world his monument;
Still, if the time allowed! My Hour draws near;
But He will prompt me when I faint with fear.

Alas, He hears me not! He cannot hear!

Twice the Moon filled her silver urn with light. Then from the Throne an Angel winged his flight; He, who unfixed the compass, and assigned O'er the wild waves a pathway to the wind; Who, while approached by none but Spirits pure, Wrought, in his progress thro' the dread obscure, Signs like the ethereal bow-that shall endure ! As he descended thro' the upper air, Day broke on day as God himself were there! Before the great Discoverer, laid to rest, He stood, and thus his secret soul addressed 3. "The wind recalls thee; its still voice obey. Millions await thy coming; hence, away. To thee blest tidings of great joy consigned, Another Nature, and a new Mankind! The vain to dream, the wise to doubt shall cease; Young men be glad, and old depart in peace 4! Hence! tho' assembling in the fields of air, Now, in a night of clouds, thy Foes prepare To rock the globe with elemental wars, And dash the floods of ocean to the stars5; To bid the meek repine, the valiant weep, And Thee restore thy Secret to the Deep 6 !

"Not then to leave Thee! to their vengeance Thy heart their aliment, their dire repast7! [cast,

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Te tua fata docebo.-VIRG.
Saprai di tua vita il viaggio.-DANTE.

4 P. Martyr, Epist. 133, 152.

5 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.

6 "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.

7 See the Eumenides of Eschylus, v. 305, &c.

8 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.

Chains thy reward! beyond the ATLANTIC wave
Hung in thy chamber, buried in thy grave 9!
Thy reverend form 10 to time and grief a prey,
A phantom wandering in the light of day!
"What tho' thy grey hairs to the dust descend,
Their scent shall track thee, track thee to the
end";
[fame 12,
Thy sons reproached with their great father's
And on his world inscribed another's name !
That world a prison-house, full of sights of woe,
Where groans burst forth, and tears in torrents
These gardens of the sun, sacred to song, [flow!
By dogs of carnage 13 howling loud and long,
Swept till the voyager, in the desert air 14,
Starts back to hear his altered accents there 15!
"Not thine the olive, but the sword to bring,
Not peace, but war! Yet from these shores shall
spring

Spread the pure spirit of thy Master mild!
Peace without end 16; from these, with blood defiled,
Here, in His train, shall arts and arms attend,

Arts to adorn, and arms but to defend.
Assembling here, all nations shall be blest;
The sad be comforted; the weary rest;
Untouched shall drop the fetters from the slave;
And He shall rule the world he died to save!

"Hence, and rejoice. The glorious work is done.
A spark is thrown that shall eclipse the sun!
And, tho' bad men shall long thy course pursue,
As erst the ravening brood o'er chaos flew,17
He, whom I serve, shall vindicate his reign;
The spoiler spoiled of all; 18 the slayer slain; 19
The tyrant's self, oppressing and opprest,
'Mid gems and gold unenvied and unblest : 20

9 "I always saw them in his room, and he ordered them to be buried with his body."-Hist. c. 86.

10 His person, says Herrera, had an air of grandeur. His hair, from many hardships, had long been grey. 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.

11 See the Eumenides of Eschylus, v. 246.

12There go the sons of him who discovered those fatal countries, &c."-Hist. c. 85.

13 One of these, on account of his extraordinary sagacity and fierceness, received the full allowance of a soldier. His name was Berezillo.

14" With my own eyes I saw kingdoms as full of people, as hives are full of bees; and now where are they?"-LAS CASAS.

"The

15 No unusual effect of an exuberant vegetation. air was so vitiated," says an African traveller, "that our torches burnt dim, and seemed ready to be extinguished; and even the human voice lost its natural tone."

16 See Washington's farewell address to his fellow-citizens. 17 See Paradise Lost, X.

18 Cortes. A peine put-il obtenir audience de CharlesQuint un jour il fendit la presse qui entourait le coche de l'empereur, et monta sur l'étrier de la portière. Charles demanda quel etait cet homme; "C'est," repondit Cortes, "celui qui vous a donné plus d'états que vos pères ne vous ont laissé de villes.' "VOLTAIRE.

19 Almost all," says Las Casas, "have perished. The innocent blood, which they had shed, cried aloud for vengeance; the sighs, the tears of so many victims went up before God."

20 L'Espagne a fait comme ce roi insensé qui demanda que tout ce qu'il toucheroit se convertit en or, et qui fut obligé de revenir aux dieux pour les prier de finir sa misère.MONTESQUIEU.

While to the starry sphere thy name shall rise,
(Not there unsung thy generous enterprise !)
Thine in all hearts to dwell-by Fame enshrined,
With those, the Few, that live but for Mankind;
Thine evermore, transcendent happiness!
World beyond world to visit and to bless."

On the two last leaves, and written in another hand, are some stanzas in the romance or ballad measure of the Spaniards. The subject is an adventure soon related.

THY lonely watch-tower, Larenille,
Had lost the western sun;
And loud and long from hill to hill
Echoed the evening-gun,

When Hernan, rising on his oar,
Shot like an arrow from the shore.

"Those lights are on St. Mary's Isle ;
They glimmer from the sacred pile."1
The waves were rough; the hour was late.
But soon across the Tinto borne,
Thrice he blew the signal-horn,
He blew and would not wait.
Home by his dangerous path he went;
Leaving, in rich habiliment,

Two Strangers at the Convent-gate.

They ascended by steps hewn out in the rock; and, having asked for admittance, were lodged there.

Brothers in arms the Guests appeared;
The Youngest with a Princely grace
Short and sable was his beard,
Thoughtful and wan his face.

His velvet cap a medal bore,

And ermine fringed his broidered vest;
And, ever sparkling on his breast,
An image of St. John he wore.2

The Eldest had a rougher aspect, and there was craft in his eye. He stood a little behind in a long black mantle, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword; and his white hat and white shoes glittered in the moon-shine.3

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The

The Eldest swore by our Lady, 9 the Youngest by his conscience; 10 while the Franciscan, sitting by in his grey habit, turned away and crossed himself again and again. "Here is a little book," said he at last," the work of him in his shroud below. It tells of things you have mentioned ; and, were Cortes and Pizarro here, it might perhaps make them reflect for a moment." Youngest smiled as he took it into his hand. He read it aloud to his companion with an unfaltering voice; but, when he laid it down, a silence ensued; nor was he seen to smile again that night."The curse is heavy," said he at parting, "but Cortes may live to disappoint it." Ay, and Pizarro too!"

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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 that 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.

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