Far from the western cliffs he cast his eye O'er the wide ocean stretching to the sky:

In calm magnificence the sun declined,

And left a paradise of clouds behind :

Proud at his feet, with pomp of pearl and gold,
The billows in a sea of glory roll'd.

-Ah! on this sea of glory might I sail,

'Track the bright sun, and pierce the eternal veil

That hides those lands, beneath Hesperian skies, 'Where day-light sojourns till our morrow rise!'

Thoughtful he wander'd on the beach alone; Mild o'er the deep the vesper planet shone, The eye of evening, brightening through the west Till the sweet moment when it shut to rest:

'Whither, O, golden Venus! art thou fled?

'Not in the ocean-chambers lies thy bed;

'Round the dim world thy glittering chariot drawn • Pursues the twilight, or precedes the dawn;

Thy beauty noon and midnight never see,

'The morn and eve divide the year with thee.'

Soft fell the shades, till Cynthia's slender bow Crested the farthest wave, then sunk below:

Tell me, resplendent guardian of the night, 'Circling the sphere in thy perennial flight, 'What secret path of heaven thy smiles adorn, 'What nameless sea reflects thy gleaming horn?'

Now earth and ocean vanish'd, all serene

The starry firmament alone was seen;

Through the slow, silent hours, he watch'd the host Of midnight suns in western darkness lost,

Till Night himself, on shadowy pinions borne,

Fled o'er the mighty waters, and the morn

Danced on the mountains :-" Lights of heaven!' he

cried,

'Lead on ;-I go to win a glorious bride;

Fearless o'er gulphs unknown I urge my way, 'Where peril prowls, and shipwreck lurks for prey :

'Hope swells my sail;-in spirit I behold

'That maiden world, twin-sister of the old,

By nature nursed beyond the jealous sea,

'Denied to ages, but betrothed to me.'2

The winds were prosperous, and the billows bore The brave adventurer to the promised shore ; Far in the west, array'd in purple light,

Dawn'd the new world on his enraptured sight: Not Adam, loosen❜d from the encumbering earth, Waked by the breath of God to instant birth, With sweeter, wilder wonder gazed around,

When life within, and light without he found;

When all creation rushing o'er his soul,

He seem'd to live and breathe throughout the whole.

So felt Columbus, when, divinely fair,

At the last look of resolute despair,

The Hesperian isles, from distance dimly blue,
With gradual beauty open'd on his view.

In that proud moment, his transported mind
The morning and the evening worlds combined,
And made the sea, that sunder'd them before,
A bond of peace, uniting shore to shore.

Vain, visionary hope! rapacious Spain

Follow'd her hero's triumph o'er the main,

Her hardy sons in fields of battle tried,
Where Moor and Christian desperately died,

A rabid race, fanatically bold,

And steel'd to cruelty by lust of gold,

Traversed the waves, the unknown world explored,

The cross their standard, but their faith the sword; Their steps were graves; o'er prostrate realms they

trod;

They worshipp'd Mammon while they vow'd to God.

Let nobler bards in loftier numbers tell

How Cortez conquer'd, Montezuma fell;
How grim Pizarro's ruffian arm o'erthrew
The sun's resplendent empire in Peru;
How, like a prophet, old Las Casas stood,
And raised his voice against a sea of blood,

Whose chilling waves recoil'd while he foretold
His country's ruin by avenging gold.

-That gold, for which unpitied Indians fell,

That gold at once the snare and scourge of hell,

Thenceforth by righteous heaven was doom'd to shed

Unmingled curses on the spoiler's head;
For gold the Spaniard cast his soul away,-

His gold and he were every nation's prey.

But themes like these would ask an angel-lyre, Language of light and sentiment of fire;

Give me to sing, in melancholy strains,

Of Charib martyrdoms and negro chains;