Undoubtedly, says Herrera, the Infernal Spirit assumed various shapes in that region of the world.
[] Then, inly gliding, &c.
The original passage is here translated at full length.
Then, inly gliding like a subtle flame,
Thrice, with a cry that thrill’d the mortal frame,
Call’d on the Spirit within. Disdaining flight,
Calmly she rose, collecting all her might.[[1]]
Dire was the dark encounter! Long unquell’d,
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
Inform’d and lifted by the unknown Power,
It starts, it speaks’. “We live, we breathe no more!” &c.
Many a modern reader will exclaim in the language of Pococurantè, ‘Quelle triste extravagance!’ Let a great theologian of that day, a monk of the Augustine order, be consulted on the subject. ‘Corpus ille perimere vel jugulare potest; nec id modò, verùm et animam ita urgere, et in angustum coarctare novit, ut in momento quoque illi excedendum sit.’
[1]—magnum si pectore possit
Excussisse deum.
[c] The scorn of Folly, and of Fraud the prey;
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 unpath’d waters, undream’d shores;’ and the court of Portugal endeavoured to rob him of the glory of his enterprise, by secretly dispatching a vessel in the course which he had pointed out. ‘Lorsqu’il avail promis un nouvel hémisphère,’ says Voltaire, ‘on lui avait soutenu que cet hémisphère ne pouvait exister; et quand il l’eut découvert, on prétendit qu’il avait été connu depuis long-temps.’
[d] The hand that snatch’d it sparkling in the tide,
The drinking cups of the Islanders, if we may believe a contemporary of Columbus, were ex lignu…lucido confecta, el arte mirá lalorata. P. Martyr, dec. i. 5.
[e] Rose to the Virgin.
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. See Brydone, I. 330.
[f] Chosen of Men!
I believe that he was chosen for this great service; and that, because he was to be so truly an apostle, as in effect be 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. F. COL. c. 1.
[g] Slowly to land the sacred cross we bore,
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.