[q]
_Hung in the tempest o’er the troubled main;_
The dominion of a bad angel over an unknown sea, _infestandole con
sus torbellinos y tempestades_, and his flight before a Christian
hero, are described in glowing language by Ovalle. Hist, de Chile.
IV. 8.
[r]
_He spoke; and all was silence, all was night!_
These scattered fragments may be compared to shreds of old arras, or
reflections from a river broken and confused by the oar; and now and
then perhaps the imagination of the reader may supply more than is
lost. Si qua latent, meliora putat.
Illud vero perquam rarum ac memoria dignum, etiam suprema opera
artificum imperfectasque tabulas, sicut Irin Aristidis, Tyndaridas
Nicomachi, Medeam Timomachi, et quam diximus Venerem Apellis, in
majori admiratione esse, quam perfecta.
[s]
_The soldier, &c._
So Fortune smil
In the Lusiad, to beguile the heavy hours at sea, Veloso relates to
his companions of the second watch the story of the Twelve Knights.
L. vi.
[t]
_So Fortune smil’d, careless of sea or land!_
Among those, who went with Columbus, were many adventurers, and
gentlemen of the court. Primero was the game then in fashion. See
Vega, p. 2, lib. iii. c. 9.
[u]
_Yet who but He undaunted could explore_
Many sighed and wept; and every hour seemed a year, says Herrera.
I. i. 9 and 10.
[v]
_While his dear boys—ah, on his neck they hung,_
‘But I was most afflicted, when I thought of my two sons, whom I had
left behind me in a strange country….before I had done, or at least
could be known to have done, any thing which might incline your
highnesses to remember them. And though I comforted myself with the
reflection that our Lord would not suffer so earnest an endeavour for
the exaltation of his church to come to nothing, yet I considered
that, on account of my unworthiness,’ &c.—F. Columbus, c. 37.
[w]
_Roc of the West! to him all empire giv’n!_
Le Condor est le même oiseau que le Roc des Orientaux. Buffon. ‘By the
Peruvians,’ says Vega, ‘he was antiently worshipped; and there were
those who claimed their descent from him.’ In these degenerate days he
still ranks above the Eagle.
[x]
_High-hung in forests to the casing snows._
A custom not peculiar to the Western Hemisphere. The Tunguses of
Siberia hang their dead on trees; ‘parceque la terre ne se laisse
point ouvrir.’ Recherches Philos. sur les Americ. I. 140.
[y]
_——and, thro’ that dismal night,_
‘Aquella noche triste.’ The night, on which Cortes made his famous
retreat from Mexico through the street of Tlacopan, still goes by the
name of LA NOCHE TRISTE.
HUMBOLDT.
[z]
_By his white plume reveal’d and buskins white,_
It is said that Pizarro used to dress in this fashion; after Gonzalo,
whom he had served under in Italy.
[a]
_’Twas MERION’S self, covering with dreadful shade._
Now one,
Now other, as their shape serv’d best his end.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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