Chapter 10

Land discovered.

Twice in the zenith blaz’d the orb of light; No shade, all sun, insufferably bright! Then the long line found rest[1]—in coral groves Silent and dark, where the sea-lion roves:— And all on deck, kindling to life again, Sent forth their anxious spirits o’er the main. “Oh whence, as wafted from Elysium, whence These perfumes, strangers to the raptur’d sense? These boughs of gold, and fruits of heav’nly hue, Tinging with vermeil light the billows blue? And (thrice, thrice blessed is the eye that spied, The hand that snatch’d it sparkling in the tide)[d] Whose cunning carv’d this vegetable bowl, Symbol of social rites, and intercourse of soul?” Such to their grateful ear the gush of springs, Who course the ostrich, as away she wings; Sons of the desert! who delight to dwell Mid kneeling camels round the sacred well. The sails were furl’d:[2] with many a melting close, Solemn and slow the evening anthem rose, Rose to the Virgin.[e] ’Twas the hour of day, When setting suns o’er summer-seas display A path of glory, opening in the west To golden climes, and islands of the blest; And human voices, on the silent air, Went o’er the waves in songs of gladness there! Chosen of Men![f] ’twas thine, at noon of night, First from the prow to hail the glimmering light;[3] (Emblem of Truth divine, whose secret ray Enters the soul, and makes the darkness day!) “PEDRO! RODRIGO![4] there, methought, it shone! There—in the west! and now, alas, ’tis gone!— ’Twas all a dream! we gaze and gaze in vain! —But mark and speak not, there it comes again! It moves!—what form unseen, what being there With torch-like lustre fires the murky air? His instincts, passions, say, how like our own? Oh! when will day reveal a world unknown?”

[1] For thirty-five days they were advancing ‘where fathom-line could never touch the ground.’

[2] On Thursday, the 11th of October, 1492.

[3] A light in the midst of darkness, signifying the spiritual light that he came to spread there. F. Col. c. 22. Herrera, I i 12.

[4] Pedro Gutierrez, a Page of the King’s Chamber. Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, Comptroller of the Fleet.