and they took him literally and really at his word. And it will soon be seen that Columbus, though naturally of an honorable nature, was not the less the dupe of this fearful system. He proceeded on his voyage, discovered a portion of the West Indies, and speedily plunged into atrocities against the natives that would have been pronounced shocking in Timour or Attila. James Montgomery, in his beautiful poem, the West Indies, has strongly contrasted the character of Columbus and that of his successors. The winds were prosperous, and the billows bore The brave adventurer to the promised shore; Far in the west, arrayed in purple light, Dawned the New World on his enraptured sight. Not Adam, loosened 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 seemed 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 opened on his view. In that proud moment, his transported mind The morning and the evening worlds combined; And made the sea, that sundered them before, A bond of peace, uniting shore to shore. Vain, visionary hope! rapacious Spain Followed 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 steeled 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 worshipped Mammon_, while they vowed to God.