Dying, to-night I would fulfill my vow.
Praise cannot wound his generous spirit now.
The Poem opens on Friday, the 14th of September, 1402.
[c] ——the great Commander
In the original,’ El Almirante.’ In Spanish America, says 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.
[d] “Thee hath it pleas’d—Thy will be done!” he said,
‘It has pleased our Lord to grant me faith and assurance for this enterprize—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.
[e] Whose voice is truth, whose wisdom is from heav’n,
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. Hist. des Navig. aux Terres Australes.
[f] COLUMBUS err’d not.
When these regions were to be illuminated, says Acosta, cùm divino consilio decretum esset, prospectum etiam divinitus est, ut tarn longi itineris dux certus hominibus præberetur. De Natura Novi Orbis.
A romantic circumstance is related of some early navigator in the Histoire Gen. des Voyages, I. i. 2. “On trouva dans l’isle 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.”
[g] He spoke, and, at his call, a mighty Wind,
The more Christian opinion is, that God, at the length, with eyes of compassion as it were looking downe from heaven, intended even then to rayse those windes of mercy, whereby…….this newe worlde receyved the hope of salvation.—Certaine Preambles to the Decades of the Ocean.
[h] Folded their arms and sat;
To return was deemed impossible, as it blew always from home. F. Columbus, c. 19. Nos pavidi—at pater Anchises—lætus.
[] What vast foundations in the Abyss are there,
Tasso employs preternatural agents on a similar occasion,
Trappassa, et ecco in quel silvestre loco
Sorge improvisa la città del foco.
Gier. Lib, c. xiii. 33.