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 gulfs 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 betroth'd to me."

JAMES MONTGOMERY.

In 1484 Columbus laid his plan before King John II, of Portugal, but became so disgusted with his treachery and double-dealing, that he left Portugal and entered the service of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Spanish monarchs listened to him with attention, and ordered that the greatest astronomers and cosmographers of the kingdom should assemble at Salamanca and pass upon the feasibility of the project.

COLUMBUS

[January, 1487]

ST. STEPHEN'S cloistered hall was proud
In learning's pomp that day,
For there a robed and stately crowd
Pressed on in long array.

A mariner with simple chart
Confronts that conclave high,
While strong ambition stirs his heart,
And burning thoughts of wonder part
From lip and sparkling eye.

What hath he said? With frowning face,
In whispered tones they speak,
And lines upon their tablets trace,
Which flush each ashen cheek;
The Inquisition's mystic doom

Sits on their brows severe,
And bursting forth in visioned gloom,
Sad heresy from burning tomb

Groans on the startled ear.

Courage, thou Genoese! Old Time

Thy splendid dream shall crown; Yon Western Hemisphere sublime, Where unshorn forests frown, The awful Andes' cloud-wrapt brow, The Indian hunter's bow,

Bold streams untamed by helm or prow, And rocks of gold and diamonds, thou To thankless Spain shalt show.

Courage, World-finder! Thou hast need!
In Fate's unfolding scroll,

Dark woes and ingrate wrongs I read,
That rack the noble soul.
On! on! Creation's secrets probe,
Then drink thy cup of scorn,
And wrapped in fallen Cæsar's robe,
Sleep like that master of the globe,
All glorious, yet forlorn.

LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY.

9

He dreads no tempests on the untravell'd deep, Reason shall steer, and skill disarm the gale. PHILIP FRENEAU.

Early in 1491 the council of Salamanca reported that the proposed enterprise was vain and impossible of execution, and Ferdinand accepted the decision. Indignant at thought of the years he had wasted, Columbus started for Paris, to lay his plan before the King of France. He was accompanied by his son, Diego, and stopped one night at the convent of La Rabida, near Palos, to ask for food and shelter. The prior, Juan Perez de Marchena, became interested in his project, detained him, and finally secured for him another audience of Isabella.

And so his guest he comforted.

O wise, good prior! to you, Who cheered the stranger's darkest days, And helped him on his way, what praise And gratitude are due!

JOHN T. TROWBRIDGE.

Isabella and Ferdinand were with their army before Granada, and received Columbus well; but his demands for emoluments and honors in the event of success were pronounced absurd; the negotiations were broken off, and again Columbus started for France. The few converts to his theories were in despair, and one of them, Luis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues of Aragon, obtained an audience of the Queen, and enkindled her patriotic spirit. When Ferdinand still hesitated, she exclaimed, "I undertake the enterprise for my own crown of Castile. I will pledge my jewels to raise the money that is needed!" Santangel assured her that he himself was ready to provide the money, and advanced seventeen thousand florins from the coffers of Aragon, so that Ferdinand really paid for the expedition, after all.

THE FINAL STRUGGLE

From "The New World"
[January 6-April 17, 1492]

YET had his sun not risen; from his lips
Fell in swift fervid accents his desire,
And Talavera's eyes of smouldering
fire

Shone with a myriad doubts, a dark eclipse Of faith hung round him, and the longedfor ships

Ploughed but the ocean of his star-lit dreams;

Time had not tried his soul enough with whips

And scorns, for so the rigid Master deems
He makes his servants fit

For the hard toils which knit
The perfect garment, firm and without

seams,

The world shall wear at last; his hurt brain teems

With indignation and he turns away Undaunted, and he girds him for the fray

Once more; but first he hears the words of his good friend,

Marchena, strong with trust in the far-shining end.

II

O noble priest and friend! you reached the court

And turned the Queen from conquest's mid career

To hearken; other triumphs glittered
clear

Before her, and again from Huelva's port
The seeker came; he saw Granada's fort
Open its gates reluctant, and the King,
El Zogoibi, bewail his bitter sort
And loss which made the rich Te Deums
ring

When on La Vela's tower

The cross bloomed like a flower Of heaven's own growing; but the sudden spring,

Loud with birds silent long that strove to sing,

After the winter's weary voiceless reign, Was overcast with storms of cold disdain; Haughtily forth he fared and reached Granada's gates

When the clouds lifted and the persecuting fates

Relented from their fury; for the Queen
Listened unto the urgings manifold
Of Santangel, and counsel, wise and
bold,

You showed the way, but sought not from the gloom to tread.

The wind was fair, the ships lay in the bay,

And the blue sky looked down upon the earth;

Prophetic time laughed toward the nearing birth

Of the strong child with whom should come a day

That dulled all earlier hours. Forth on the way

With holy blessings said, and bellied sails,

And mounting joy that knows not let nor stay!

Lo! the undaunted purpose never fails!

O patient master, seer,

For whom the far is near,

The vision true, and the mere present pales

Its lustre, what mild seas and blossomed vales

Awaited you? haply a paradise

But not the one which drew your swerve

"Or, haply, how if this contrarious West, That me by turns hath starved, by turns hath fed,

Embraced, disgraced, beat back, solicited, Have no fixed heart of Law within his breast, Or with some different rhythm doth e'er

contest

Nature in the East? Why, 't is but three weeks fled

side.

See (so they wept) God's Warning! Admiral, turn!

Steersman, I said, hold straight into the

West.

Then down the night we saw the meteor burn.

So do the very heavens in fire protest: Good Admiral, put about! O Spain, dear Spain!

Hold straight into the West, I said again.