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ing land were such on the following day as no longer to admit a doubt. Besides a quantity of fresh weeds, such as grow in rivers, they saw a green fish of a kind which keeps about rocks; then a branch of thorn, with berries on it, and recently separated from the tree, floated by them; then they picked up a reed, a small board, and, above all, a staff artificially carved. All gloom and mutiny now gave way to sanguine expectation; and throughout the day each one was eagerly on the watch, in hopes of being the first to discover the long-soughtfor land.

"In the evening, when, according to invariable custom on board of the admiral's ship, the mariners had sung the salve regina, or vesper hymn to the Virgin, he made an impressive address to his crew. He pointed out the goodness of God in thus conducting them by such soft and favouring breezes across a tranquil ocean, cheering their hopes continually with fresh signs, increasing as their fears augmented, and thus leading and guiding them to a promised land.

said parts of India, to see the said princes, and the people, and lands, and discover the nature and disposition of them all, and, the means to be taken for the conversion of them to our holy faith; and ordered that I should not go by land to the East, by which it is the custom go, but by a voyage to the West, by which course, unto the present time, we do not know for certain that any one hath passed; and for this purpose bestowed great favours upon me, ennobling me, that thenceforward I might style myself Don, appointing me high admiral of the Ocean Sea, and perpetual viceroy and governor of all the islands and continents I should discover and gain, and which henceforward may be discovered and gained, in the Ocean Sea; and that my eldest son should succeed me, and so on, from generation to generation, for ever. I departed, therefore, from the city of Granada on Saturday the 12th of May, of the same year, 1492, to Palos, a sea-port, where I armed three ships well calculated for such service, and sailed from that port well furnished with provisions, and with many seamen, on Friday the 3d of August of the same year, half an hour before sunrise, and took the route for the Canary Islands of your highnesses, to steer my course thence, and navigate until I should arrive at the Indies, and deliver the embassy of your highnesses to those princes, and accomplish that which you had commanded. For this purpose, I intend to write during this voyage very punctually, from day to day, all that I may do, and see, and experience, as will hereafter be seen. Also, my sovereign princes, besides describing each night ail that has occurred in the day, and in the day the navigation of the night, I propose to make a chart, in which I will set down the waters and lands of the Ocean Sea, in their proper situations, under their bearings; and, further to compose a book, and illustrate the whole in picture by latitude from the equinoctial, and longitude from the West; and upon the whole it will be essential that I should forget sleep, and attend closely to the navigation, to accom-tierrez, gentleman of the king's bed-chamber, and plish these things, which will be a great labour."

As a guide by which to sail, Mr. Irving also informs us, he had prepared "a map, or chart, improved upon that sent him by Paolo Tos canelli. Neither of these now exist; but the globe, or planisphere, finished by Martin Behem in this year of the admiral's first voyage, is still extant, and furnishes an idea of what the chart of Columbus must have been. It exhibits the coasts of Europe and Africa, from the south of Ireland to the end of Guinea; and opposite to them, on the other side of the Atlantic, the extremity of Asia, or, as it was termed, India. Between them is placed the island of Cipango, (or Japan,) which, according to Marco Polo, lay fifteen hundred miles distant from the Asiatic coast. In his computations Columbus advanced this island about a thousand leagues too much to the east; supposing it to lie in the situation of Florida, and at this island he hoped first to

arrive."

We pass over the known incidents of this celebrated voyage, which are here repeated with new interest and additional detail; but we cannot refrain from extracting Mr. Irving's account of its fortunate conclusion. The growing panic and discontent of his mutinous crew, and their resolution to turn back if land was not discovered in three days, are well known.

"The breeze had been fresh all day, with more sea than usual, and they had made great progress. At sunset they had stood again to the west, and were ploughing the waves at a rapid rate, the Pinta keeping the lead, from her superior sailing. The greatest animation prevailed throughout the ships; not an eye was closed that night. As the evening darkened, Columbus took his station on the top of the castle or cabin on the high poop of his vessel. However he might carry a cheerful and confident countenance during the day, it was to him a time of the most painful anxiety; and now when he was wrapped from observation by the shades of night, he maintained an intense and unremitting watch, ranging his eye along the dusky horizon, in search of the most vague indications of land. Suddenly, about ten o'clock, he thought he beheld a light glimmering at a distance! Fearing that his eager hopes might deceive him, he called to Pedro Gu

inquired whether he saw a light in that direction; the latter replied in the affirmative. Columbus, yet doubtful whether it might not be some delusion of the fancy, called Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, and made the same inquiry. By the time the latter had peared. They saw it once or twice afterwards in ascended the round house, the light had disapsudden and passing gleams; as it were a torch in the bark of a fisherman, rising and sinking with the waves: or in the hand of some person on shore, borne up and down as he walked from house to house. So transient and uncertain were these gleams, that few attached any importance to them; Columbus, however, considered them as certain signs of land, and moreover, that the land was inhabited.

"They continued their course until two in the morning, when a gun from the Pinta gave the joyful signal of land. It was first discovered by a mariner named Rodrigo de Triana; but the reward was afterwards adjudged to the admiral, for having previously perceived the light. The land was now clearly seen about two leagues distant; whereupon they took in sail and lay-to, waiting impatiently for the dawn.

"The thoughts and feelings of Columbus in this little space of time must have been tumultuous and intense. At length, in spite of every difficulty and danger, he had accomplished his object. The great mystery of the ocean was revealed; his theory, which had been the scoff of sages, was triumphantwhich must be as durable as the world itself. ly established; he had secured to himself a glory

"It is difficult even for the imagination to conceive the feelings of such a man at the moment of so sublime a discovery. What a bewildering crowd of conjectures must have thronged upon his mind, "And when on the evening of the third day they as to the land which lay before him, covered with beheld the sun go down upon a shoreless horizon, darkness. That it was fruitful was evident, from they broke forth into clamorous turbulence. For the vegetables which floated from its shores. He unately, however, the manifestations of neighbour-thought, too, that he perceived in the balmy air the

sensibility to the beauty of the scenery, and the charms of the climate, of this new world; and on his arrival at Cuba, these raptures are, if possible, redoubled.

fragrance of aromatic groves. The moving light which he had beheld, had proved that it was the residence of man. But what were its inhabitants? Were they like those of the other parts of the globe; or were they some strange and monstrous race, such as the imagination in those times was prone to "As he approached this noble island, he was give to all remote and unknown regions? Had he struck with its magnitude, and the grandeur of its come upon some wild island far in the Indian Sea; features; its high and airy mountains, which reor was this the famed Cipango itself, the object of minded him of those of Sicily; its fertile valleys, and his golden fancies? A thousand speculations of the long sweeping plains, watered by noble rivers; its kind must have swarmed upon him, as, with his stately forests; its bold promontories, and stretchanxious crews, he waited for the night to passing headlands, which melted away into the remotest away: wondering whether the morning light would distance. He anchored in a beautiful river, free reveal a savage wilderness, or dawn upon spicy from rocks or shoals, of transparent water, its banks groves, and glittering fanes, and gilded cities, and overhung with trees. Here, landing, and taking all the splendour of oriental civilization. possession of the island, he gave it the name of the name of San Salvador.

The land to which he was thus triumphantly borne was the island of San Salvador, since called Cat Island, by the English; and at early dawn he landed with a great company, splendidly armed and attired, and bearing in his hand the royal standard of Castile.

Juana, in honour of Prince Juan, and to the river

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were many palms, but differing from those of Spain and Africa; with the great leaves of these the natives thatched their cabins.

"As they approached the shores, they were re-speaking a perpetual round of fertility: among them freshed by the sight of the ample forests, which in those climes have extraordinary beauty and vegetation. They beheld fruits of tempting hue, but unknown kind, growing among the trees which overhung the shores. The purity and suavity of the atmosphere, the crystal transparency of the seas which bathe these islands, give them a wonderful beauty, and must have had their effect upon the susceptible feelings of Columbus. No sooner did he land, than he threw himself upon his knees, kissed the earth, and returned thanks to God with tears of joy. His example was followed by the rest, whose hearts indeed overflowed with the same feelings of gratitude."

"The continual eulogies made by Columbus on the beauty of the scenery were warranted by the kind of scenery he was beholding. There is a wonderful splendour, variety, and luxuriance in the vegetation of those quick and ardent climates. The verdure of the groves, and the colours of the flowers and blossoms, derive a vividness to the eye from the transparent purity of the air, and the deep serenity of the azure heavens. The forests, too, are full of life, swarming with birds of brilliant plumage. Painted varieties of parrots, and wood-peckers, create a glitter amidst the verdure of the grove; and humming-birds rove from flower to flower, resembling, as has well been said, animated particies of a rainbow. The scarlet flamingos, too, seen sometimes through an opening of a forest in a distant savannah, have the appearance of soldiers drawn up in battalion, with an advanced scout on the alert, to give notice of approaching danger. Nor is the least beautiful part of animated nature the various tribes of insects that people every plant, displaying brilliant coats of mail, which sparkle to the eye like precious gems.

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The natives of the island, when, at the dawn of day, they had beheld the ships, with their sails set, hovering on their coast, had supposed them some monsters which had issued from the deep during the night. They had crowded to the beach, and watched their movements with awful anxiety. Their veering about, apparently without effort; the shifting and furling of their sails, resembling huge wings, filled them with astonishment. When they beheld their boats approach the shore, and a number of strange beings, clad in glittering steel, or raiment of various colours, landing upon the beach, they fled in affright to their woods. Finding, how- From his continual remarks on the beauty of ever, that there was no attempt to pursue nor the scenery, and from the pleasure which he evimolest them, they gradually recovered from their dently derived from rural sounds and objects, he terror, and approached the Spaniards with great appears to have been extremely open to those deliawe; frequently prostrating themselves on the cious influences, exercised over some spirits by the earth, and making signs of adoration. During the graces and wonders of nature. He gives utterance ceremonies of taking possession, they remained to these feelings with characteristic enthusiasm, and gazing in timid admiration at the complexion, the at the same time with the artlessness and simplicity beards, the shining armour, and splendid dress of of diction of a child. When speaking of some lovely the Spaniards. The admiral particularly attracted scene among the groves, or along the flowery shore, their attention, from his commanding height, his of this favoured island, he says, one could live air of authority, his dress of scarlet, and the defer- there for ever.'-Cuba broke upon him like an elyence which was paid him by his companions; all sium. It is the most beautiful island,' he says, which pointed him out to be the commander. When that eyes ever beheld, full of excellent ports and they had still further recovered from their fears, profound rivers.' The climate was more temperate they approached the Spaniards, touched their beards, here than in the other islands, the nights being and examined their hands and faces, admiring their neither hot nor cold, while the birds and grasshopwhiteness. Columbus, pleased with their sim-pers sang all night long. Indeed there is a beauty plicity, their gentleness, and the confidence they reposed in beings who must have appeared to them so strange and formidable, suffered their scrutiny with perfect acquiescence. The wondering savages were won by this benignity; they now supposed that the ships had sailed out of the crystal firmament which bounded their horizon, or that they had descended from above on their ample wings, and that these marvellous beings were inhabitants of the skies."

Nothing is more remarkable in the journal of the great discoverer, than his extraordinary

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in a tropical night, in the depth of the dark-blue sky, the lambient purity of the stars, and the resplendent clearness of the moon, that spreads over the rich landscape and the balmy groves a charm more touching than the splendour of the day.

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In the sweet smell of the woods, and the odour of the flowers, which loaded every breeze, Columbus fancied he perceived the fragrance of oriental spices; and along the shores he found 'shells of the kind of oyster which produces pearls. Fron, the ferred the peacefulness of the ocean which bathes grass growing to the very edge of the water, he inthese islands, never lashing the shore with angry

surges. Ever since his arrival among these Antilles, he had experienced nothing but soft and gentle weather, and he concluded that a perpetual Berenity reigned over these happy seas. He was little suspicious of the occasional bursts of fury to which they are liable."

Hispaniola was still more enchanting.

"It was about the middle of April that Columbus arrived at Barcelona, where every preparation had been made to give him a solemn and magnificent reception. The beauty and serenity of the weather in that genial season and favoured climate, contributed to give splendour to this memorable cere. mony. As he drew near the place, many of the more youthful courtiers, and hidalgos of gallant "In the transparent atmosphere of the tropics, bearing, together with a vast concourse of the popu objects are descried at a great distance, and the lace, came forth to meet and welcome him. His purity of the air and serenity of the deep blue sky entrance into this noble city has been compared to gave a magical effect to the scenery. Under these one of those triumphs which the Romans were acadvantages, the beautiful island of Hayti revealed customed to decree to conquerors. First, were itself to the eye as they approached. Its mountains paraded the Indians, painted according to their sav were higher and more rocky than those of the other age fashion, and decorated with their national ornaislands; but the rocks reared themselves from ments of gold. After these were borne various among rich forests. The mountains swept down kinds of live parrots, together with stuffed birds and into luxuriant plains and green savannahs; while animals of unknown species, and rare plants, supthe appearance of cultivated fields, with the numer-posed to be of precious qualities; while great care ous fires at night, and the columns of smoke which was taken to make a conspicuous display of Indian rose in various parts by day, all showed it to be coronets, bracelets, and other decorations of gold, populous. It rose before them in all the splendour which might give an idea of the wealth of the newlyof tropical vegetation, one of the most beautiful discovered regions. After this, followed Columbus islands in the world, and doomed to be one of the on horseback, surrounded by a brilliant cavalcade most unfortunate." of Spanish chivalry. The streets were almost impassable from the countless multitude; the windows and balconies were crowded with the fair; the very roofs were covered with spectators. It seemed as if the public eye could not be sated with gazing on these trophies of an unknown world; or on the remarkable man by whom it had been discovered. There was a sublimity in this event that mingled a solemn feeling with the public joy. It was looked upon as a vast and signal dispensation of Provi. dence, in reward for the piety of e monarchs; and the majestic and venerable appearance of the dis coverer, so different from the youth and buoyancy that are generally expected from roving enterprise, seemed in harmony with the grandeur and dignity of his achievement.

The first interview with the friendly cacique Guacanagari, as well as his generous attentions on the wreck of one of their vessels, are described with great beauty. But we can only find room for the concluding part of it.

"The extreme kindness of the cacique, the gentleness of his people, the quantities of gold which were daily brought to be exchanged for the veriest trifles, and the information continually received of sources of wealth in the bosom of this beautiful island, all contributed to console the admiral for the misfortune he had suffered.

"The shipwrecked crew also, living on shore, and mingling freely with the natives, became fas-" "To receive him with suitable pomp and dis. cinated with their easy and idle mode of life. Extinction, the sovereigns had ordered their throne to empted by their simplicity from the painful cares and toils which civilized man inflicts upon himself by his many artificial wants, the existence of these islanders seemed to the Spaniards like a pleasant dream. They disquieted themselves about nothing. A few fields, cultivated almost without labour, furnished the roots and vegetables which formed a great part of their diet. Their rivers and coasts abounded with fish; their trees were laden with fruits of golden or blushing hue, and heightened by a tropical sun to delicious flavour and fragrance. Softened by the indulgence of nature, a great part of their day was passed in indolent repose-in that luxury of sensation inspired by a serene sky and a voluptuous climate; and in the evenings they danced in their fragrant groves, to their national songs, or the rude sounds of their sylvan drums.

"Such was the indolent and holiday life of these simple people; which, if it had not the great scope of enjoyment, nor the high-seasoned poignancy of pleasure, which attend civilization, was certainly destitute of most of its artificial miseries."

It was from this scene of enchantment and promise, unclouded as yet by any shadow of animosity or distrust, that Columbus, without one drop of blood on his hands, or one stain of cruelty or oppression on his conscience, set sail on his return to Europe, with the proud tidings of his discovery. In the early part of his voyage he fell in with the Carribee Islands, and had some striking encounters with the brave but ferocious tribes who possessed them. The distresses which beset him on his home passage are well known; but we willingly pass these over, to treat our readers with Mr. Irving's splendid description of his magnificent reception by the court at Barcelona.

be placed in public, under a rich canopy of brocade of gold, in a vast and splendid saloon. Here the king and queen awaited his arrival, seated in state, with the prince Juan beside them, and attended by the dignitaries of their court, and the principal nobility of Castile, Valentia, Catalonia, and Arragon, all impatient to behold the man who had conferred so incalculable a benefit upon the nation. At length Columbus entered the hall, surrounded by a brilliant crowd of cavaliers, among whom, says Las Casas, he was conspicuous for his stately and commanding person, which, with his countenance, rendered venerable by his grey hairs, gave him the august appearance of a senator of Rome; a modest smile lighted up his features, showing that he enjoyed the state and glory in which he came; and certainly nothing could be more deeply moving to a mind inflamed by noble ambition, and conscious of having greatly deserved, than these testimonials of the admiration and gratitude of a nation, or rather of a world. As Columbus approached, the sovereigns rose, as if receiving a person of the highest rank. Bending his knees, he requested to kiss their hands; but there was some hesitation on the part of their majesties to permit this act of vassalage. Raising him in the most gracious manner, they ordered him to seat himself in their presence; a rare honour in this proud and punctilious court."

In his second voyage he falls in again with the Caribs, of whose courage and cannibal propensities he had now sufficient assurance. Mr. Irving's remarks upon this energetic but untameable race are striking, and we think original.

people, so different from that of the pusillanimous "The warlike and unyielding character of these nations around them, and the wide scope of their enterprises and wanderings, like those of the

Nomade tribes of the Old World, entitle them to dis- | magnificent forests presented that mingled beauty tinguished attention. They were trained to war from their infancy. As soon as they could walk, their intrepid mothers put in their hands the bow and arrow, and prepared them to take an early part in the hardy enterprises of their fathers. Their distant roamings by sea made them observant and intelligent. The natives of the other islands only knew how to divide time by day and night, by the sun and moon; whereas these had acquired some knowledge of the stars, by which to calculate the times and seasons.

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The traditional accounts of their origin, though of course extremely vague, are yet capable of being verified to a great degree by geographical facts, and open one of the rich veins of curious inquiry and speculation which abound in the New World. They are said to have migrated from the remote valleys embosomed in the Apalachian mountains. The earliest accounts we have of them represent them with their weapons in their hands, continually engaged in wars, winning their way and shifting their abode, until, in the course of time, they found themselves at the extremity of Florida. Here, abandoning the northern continent, they passed over to the Lucayos, and from thence gradually, in the process of years, from island to island of that vast and verdant chain, which links, as it were, the end of Florida to the coast of Paria, on the southern_continent. The Archipelago, extending from Porto Rico to Tobago, was their strong hold, and the island of Guadaloupe in a manner their citadel. Hence they made their expeditions, and spread the terror of their name through all the surrounding countries. Swarms of them landed upon the south ern continent, and overran some parts of Terra Firma. Traces of them have been discovered far in the interior of the country through which flows the Oroonoko. The Dutch found colonies of them on the banks of the Ikouteka, which empties into the Surinam, along the Esquibi, the Maroni, and other rivers of Guayana, and in the country watered by the windings of the Cayenne; and it would appear that they have extended their wanderings to the shores of the southern ocean, where, among the aboriginals of Brazil, were some who called themselves Caribs, distinguished from the surrounding Indians by their superior hardihood, subtlety, and enterprise.

"To trace the footsteps of this roving tribe throughout its wide migrations from the Apalachian mountains of the northern continent, along the clusters of islands which stud the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea to the shores of Paria, and so across the vast regions of Guayana and Amazonia to the remote coast of Brazil, would be one of the most curious researches in aboriginal history, and might throw much light upon the mysterious question of the population of the New World."

We pass over the melancholy story of the ruined fort, and murdered garrison, to which our adventurer returned on his second voyage; and of the first dissensions that broke out in his now increasing colony; but must pause for a moment to accompany him on his first march, at the head of four hundred armed followers, into the interior of the country, and to the mountain region of expected gold. For two days the party proceeded up the banks of a stream, which seemed at last to lose itself in a narrow and rocky recess.

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and majesty of vegetable forms known only to these generous climates. Palms of prodigious height, and spreading mahogany trees, towered from amid a wilderness of variegated foliage. Universal freshness and verdure were maintained by numerous streams, which meandered gleaming through the deep bosom of the woodland; while various villages and hamlets, peeping from among the trees, and the smoke of others rising out of the midst of the forests, gave signs of a numerous population. The luxuriant landscape extended as far as the eye could reach, until it appeared to melt away and mingle with the horizon. The Spaniards gazed with rapture upon this soft voluptuous country, which seemed to realise their ideas of a terrestial paradise ; and Columbus, struck with its vast extent, gave it the name of the Vega Real, or Royal Plain.

"Having descended the rugged pass, the army issued upon the plain, in military array, with great clangour of warlike instruments. When the Indians beheld this shining band of warriors, glittering in steel, emerging from the mountains with prancing steeds and flaunting banners, and heard, for the first time, their rocks and forests echoing to the din of drum and trumpet, they might well have taken such a wonderful pageant for a supernatural vision.

"On the next morning they resumed their march up a narrow and steep glen, winding among craggy rocks, where they were obliged to lead the horses. Arrived at the summit, they once more enjoyed a prospect of the delicious Vega, which here presented a still grander appearance, stretching far and wide on either hand, like a vast verdant lake. This noble plain, according to Las Casas, is eighty leagues in length, and from twenty to thirty in breadth, and of incomparable beauty."

"The natives appeared to them a singularly idle and improvident race, indifferent to most of the objects of human anxiety and toil. They were impatient of all kinds of labour, scarcely giving themselves the trouble to cultivate the yuca root, the maize, and the potatoe, which formed the main articles of subsistence. For the rest, their streams abounded with fish; they caught the utia or coney, the guana, and various birds; and they had a perpetual banquet from the fruits spontaneously produced by their groves. Though the air was sometimes cold among the mountains, yet they preferred submitting to a little temporary suffering, rather than take the trouble to weave garments from the gossampine cotton which abounded in their forests. Thus they loitered away existence in vacant inactivity, under the shade of their trees, or amusing themselves occasionally with various games and dances."

"Having accomplished the purposes of his residence in the Vega, Columbus, at the end of a few days, took leave of its hospitable inhabitants, and resumed his march for the harbour, returning with his little army through the lofty and rugged gorge of the mountains called the Pass of the Hidalgos. As we accompany him in imagination over the rocky height, from whence the Vega first broke pausing to cast back a look of mingled pity and adupon the eye of the Europeans, we cannot help miration over this beautiful but devoted region. The dream of natural liberty, of ignorant content, and loitering idleness, was as yet unbroken, but the fiat had gone forth; the white man had penetrated into the land; avarice, and pride, and ambition, and pining care, and sordid labour, were soon to follow, and the indolent paradise of the Indian to disappear for ever!"

There is something to us inexpressibly pleasing in these passages; but we are aware that there are readers to whom they may seem tedious-and believe, at all events, that we have now given a large enough specimen of the kind of beauty they present. For per

sons of a different taste we ought to have ex- | in their fields beneath the fervour of a tropical in, tracted some account of the incredible darings, to raise food for their task-masters, or to produce and romantic adventures, of Alonzo de Ojeda; or of the ruder prowess and wild magnanimity of the cacique Caonabo, who alone of the island chieftains dared to offer any resistance to the invaders. When made prisoner, and carried off from the centre of his dominions, by one of the unimaginable feats of Ojeda, Mr. Irving has reported that

"He always maintained a haughty deportment towards Columbus, while he never evinced the least animosity against Ojeda for the artifice to which he had fallen a victim. It rather increased his admiration of him, as a consummate warrior, looking upon it as the exploit of a master-spirit to have pounced upon him, and borne him off, in this hawk. like manner, from the very midst of his fightingmen. There is nothing that an Indian more admires in warfare, than a deep, well-executed stratagem. "Columbus was accustomed to bear himself with an air of dignity and authority as admiral and viceroy, and exacted great personal respect. When he entered the apartment therefore where Caonabo was confined, all present rose, according to custom, and paid him reverence. The cacique alone neither moved, nor took any notice of him. On the contrary, when Ojeda entered, though small in person and without external state, Caonabo immediately rose and saluted him with profound respect. On being asked the reason of this, Columbus being Guamiquina, or great chief over all, and Ojeda but one of his subjects, the proud Carib replied, that the admiral had never dared to come personally to his house and seize him, it was only through the valour of Ojeda he was his prisoner; to Ojeda, therefore, he owed reverence, not the admiral."

sunk to sleep weary and exhausted at night, with the vegetable tribute imposed upon them. They the certainty that the next day was but to be a repetition of the same toil and suffering. Or if they occasionally indulged in their national dances, the ballads to which they kept time were of a melancholy and plaintive character. They spoke of the troduced sorrow and slavery, and weary labour times that were past before the white men had inamong them; and they rehearsed pretended prophe. cies, handed down from their ancestors, foretelling the invasion of the Spaniards; that strangers should come into their island, clothed in apparel, with swords capable of cleaving a man asunder at a blow, under whose yoke their posterity should be subdued. These ballads, or areytos, they sang with mournful tunes and doleful voices, bewailing the loss of their liberty and their painful servitude."

There is an interest of another kind in fol

lowing the daring route of Columbus along the shores of Cuba and Jamaica, and through the turbulent seas that boil among the keys in the gulf of Paria. The shores still afforded the same beauty of aspect-the people the same marks of submission and delighted wonder.

"It is impossible to resist noticing the striking contrasts which are sometimes forced upon the mind. The coast here described as so populous and animated, rejoicing in the visit of the discoverers, is the same that extends westward of the city of Trinidad, along the gulf of Xagua. All is now silent and deserted. Civilization, which has covered some parts of Cuba with glittering cities, has rendered this a solitude. The whole race of Indians has long since passed away, pining and perishing beneath the domination of the strangers whom they The insolent licence of the Spaniards, and welcomed so joyfully to their shores. Before me the laborious searches for gold which they lies the account of a night recently passed on this imposed on the natives, had at last overcome very coast, by a celebrated traveller, (Humboldt) their original feelings of veneration; and, but with what different feelings from those of Cotrusting to their vast superiority in numbers, lumbus! I passed,' says he, a great part of the they ventured to make war on their heaven-night upon the deck. What deserted coasts! not a light to announce the cabin of a fisherman. From descended visitants. The result was unre- Batabano to Trinidad, a distance of fifty leagues, sisted carnage and hopeless submission! A there does not exist a village. Yet in the time of tax of a certain quantity of gold dust was im- Columbus this land was inhabited even along the When pits are digged in the posed on all the districts that afforded that margin of the sea. substance, and of certain quantities of cotton soil, or the torrents plough open the surface of the earth, there are often found hatchets of stone and and of grain on all the others and various vessels of copper, relics of the ancient inhabitants fortresses were erected, and garrisons station- of the island."" ed, to assist the collection of the tribute.

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We cannot resist the temptation of adding the following full-length picture; which has all the splendour of a romance, with the additional charm of being true.

one,

"In this way," says Mr. Irving, was the yoke of servitude fixed upon the island, and its thraldom effectually ensured. Deep despair now fell upon the natives, when they found a perpetual task in"One morning, as the ships were standing along flicted upon them, enforced at stated and frequently recurring periods. Weak and indolent by nature, the coast, with a light wind and easy sail, they beunused to labour of any kind, and brought up in the held three canoes issuing from among the islands untasked idleness of their soft climate and their of the bay. They approached in regular order; fruitful groves, death itself seemed preferable to a which was very large and handsomely carved life of toil and anxiety. They saw no end to this and painted, was in the centre, a little in advance harassing evil, which had so suddenly fallen upon of the two others, which appeared to attend and them; no escape from its all-pervading influence; guard it. In this were seated the cacique and his no prospect of return to that roving independence family, consisting of his wife, two daughters, two and ample leisure, so dear to the wild inhabitants sons, and five brothers. One of the daughters was of the forests. The pleasant life of the island was eighteen years of age, beautiful in form and counteat an end; the dream in the shade by day; the nance; her sister was somewhat younger; both slumber during the sultry noon-tide heat by the were naked, according to the custom of these fountain or the stream, or under the spreading islands, but were of modest demeanour. In the palm-tree; and the song, the dance, and the game prow of the canoe stood the standard-bearer of the in the mellow evening, when summoned to their cacique, clad in a kind of mantle of variegated simple amusements by the rude Indian drum. They feathers, with a tuft of gay plumes on his head, and were now obliged to grope day by day, with bend-bearing in his hand a fluttering white banner. Two ing body and anxious eye, along the borders of Indians, with caps or helmets of feathers of uniform their rivers, sifting the sands for the grains of gold shape and colour, and their faces painted in a simiwhich every day grew more scanty; or to labour | lar manner, beat upon tabors; two others, with

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