The Columbiad: A Poem Part 3

And brineless rivers furrow down its sides; The thirsty sailor steals a glad supply, And sultry trade winds quaff the boreal sky.

But oft insidious death, with mist o'erstrown, Rides the dark ocean on this icy throne; When ships thro vernal seas with light airs steer Their midnight march, and deem no danger near.

The steerman gaily helms his course along, And laughs and listens to the watchman's song, Who walks the deck, enjoys the murky fog, Sure of his chart, his magnet and his log; Their shipmates dreaming, while their slumbers last, Of joys to come, of toils and dangers past.

Sudden a chilling blast comes roaring thro The trembling shrouds, and startles all the crew; They spring to quarters, and perceive too late The mount of death, the giant strides of fate.

The fullsail'd ship, with instantaneous shock, Dash'd into fragments by the floating rock, Plunges beneath its bas.e.m.e.nt thro the wave, And crew and cargo glut the watery grave.

Say, Palfrey, brave good man, was this thy doom?

Dwells here the secret of thy midsea tomb?

But, Susan, why that tear? my lovely friend, Regret may last, but grief should have an end.

An infant then, thy memory scarce can trace The lines, tho sacred, of thy father's face; A generous spouse has well replaced the sire; New duties hence new sentiments require.

Now where the lakes, those midland oceans, lie, Columbus turn'd his heaven-illumined eye.

Ontario's banks, unable to retain The five great Caspians from the distant main, Burst with the ponderous ma.s.s, and forceful whirl'd His Laurence forth, to balance thus the world.

Above, bold Erie's wave sublimely stood, Look'd o'er the cliff, and heaved his headlong flood; Where dread Niagara bluffs high his brow, And frowns defiance to the world below.

White clouds of mist expanding o'er him play, That tinge their skirts in all the beams of day; Pleased Iris wantons in perpetual pride, And bends her rainbows o'er the dashing tide.

Far glimmering in the north, bleak Huron runs, Clear Michigan reflects a thousand suns, And bason'd high, on earth's broad bosom gay, The bright Superior silvers down the day.

Blue mounds beyond them far in ether fade, Deep groves between them cast a solemn shade, Slow moves their settling mist in lurid streams, And dusky radiance streaks the solar beams.

Fixt on the view the great discoverer stood, And thus addrest the messenger of good: But why these seats, that seem reserved to grace The social toils of some ill.u.s.trious race, Why spread so wide and form'd so fair in vain?

And why so distant rolls the bounteous main?

These happy regions must forever rest, Of man unseen, by native beasts possest; And the best heritage my sons could boast Illude their search in far dim deserts lost, For see, no ship can point her pendants here, No stream conducts nor ocean wanders near; Frost, crags and cataracts their north invest, And the tired sun scarce finds their bounds awest.

To whom the Seraph: Here indeed retires The happiest land that feels my fostering fires; Here too shall numerous nations found their seat, And peace and freedom bless the kind retreat.

Led by this arm thy sons shall hither come, And streams obedient yield the heroes room, Spread a broad pa.s.sage to their well known main, Nor sluice their lakes, nor form their soils in vain.

Here my bold Missisippi bends his way, Scorns the dim bounds of yon bleak boreal day, And calls from western heavens, to feed his stream, The rains and floods that Asian seas might claim.

Strong in his march, and charged with all the fates Of regions pregnant with a hundred states.

He holds in balance, ranged on either hand, Two distant oceans and their sundering land; Commands and drains the interior tracts that lie Outmeasuring Europe's total breadth of sky.

High in the north his parent fountains wed, And oozing urns adorn his infant head; In vain proud Frost his nursing lakes would close, And choke his channel with perennial snows; From all their slopes he curves his countless rills, Sweeps their long marshes, saps their settling hills; Then stretching, straighteningsouth, he gaily gleams, Swells thro the climes, and swallows all their streams; From zone to zone, o'er earth's broad surface curl'd, He cleaves his course, he furrows half the world, Now roaring wild thro bursting mountains driven, Now calm reflecting all the host of heaven; Where Cynthia pausing, her own face admires, And suns and stars repeat their dancing fires.

Wide o'er his meadowy lawns he spreads and feeds His realms of canes, his waving world of reeds; Where mammoth grazed the renovating groves, Slaked his huge thirst, and chill'd his fruitless loves; Where elks, rejoicing o'er the extinguished race, By myriads rise to fill the vacant s.p.a.ce.

Earth's widest gulph expands to meet his wave, Vast isles of ocean in his current lave; Glad Thetis greets him from his finish'd course, And bathes her Nereids in his freshening source.

To his broad bed their tributary stores Wisconsin here, there lonely Peter pours; Croix, from the northeast wilds his channel fills, Ohio, gather'd from his myriad hills, Yazoo and Black, surcharged by Georgian springs, Rich Illinois his copious treasure brings; Arkansa, measuring back the sun's long course, Moine, Francis, Rouge augment the father's force.

But chief of all his family of floods Missouri marches thro his world of woods; He scorns to mingle with the filial train, Takes every course to reach alone the main; Orient awhile his bending swreep he tries, Now drains the southern, now the northern skies, Searches and sunders far the globe's vast frame, Reluctant joins the sire, and takes at last his name.

There lies the path thy future sons shall trace, Plant here their arts, and rear their vigorous race: A race predestined, in these choice abodes, To teach mankind to tame their fluvial floods, Retain from ocean, as their work requires, These great auxiliars, raised by solar fires, Force them to form ten thousand roads, and girth With liquid belts each verdant mound of earth, To aid the colon's as the carrier's toil, To drive the coulter, and to fat the soil, Learn all mechanic arts, and oft regain Their native hills in vapor and in rain.

So taught the Saint. The regions nearer drew, And raised resplendent to their Hero's view Rich nature's triple reign; for here elate She stored the n.o.blest treasures of her state, Adorn'd exuberant this her last domain, As yet unalter'd by her mimic man, Sow'd liveliest gems, and plants of proudest grace, And strung with strongest nerves her animated race.

Retiring far round Hudson's frozen bay, Earth's lessening circles shrink beyond the day; Snows ever rising with the toils of time Choke the chill shrubs that brave the dismal clime; The beasts all whitening roam the lifeless plain, And caves unfrequent scoop the couch for man.

Where Spring's coy steps in cold Canadia stray, And joyless seasons hold unequal sway, He saw the pine its daring mantle rear, Break the rude blast, and mock the brumal year, s.h.a.g the green zone that bounds the boreal skies, And bid all southern vegetation rise.

Wild o'er the vast impenetrable round The untrod bowers of shadowy nature frown'd; Millennial cedars wave their honors wide, The fir's tall boughs, the oak's umbrageous pride, The branching beech, the aspen's trembling shade Veil the dim heaven, and brown the dusky glade.

For in dense crowds these st.u.r.dy sons of earth, In frosty regions, claim a stronger birth; Where heavy beams the sheltering dome requires, And copious trunks to feed its wintry fires.

But warmer suns, that southern zones emblaze, A cool thin umbrage o'er their woodland raise; Floridia's sh.o.r.es their blooms around him spread.

And Georgian hills erect their shady head; Whose flowery shrubs regale the pa.s.sing air With all the untasted fragrance of the year.

Beneath tall trees, dispersed in loose array, The rice-grown lawns their humble garb display; The infant maize, unconscious of its worth, Points the green spire and bends the foliage forth; In various forms unbidden harvests rise, And blooming life repays the genial skies.

Where Mexic hills the breezy gulph defend, Spontaneous groves with richer burdens bend.

Anana's stalk its s.h.a.ggy honors yields, Aca.s.sia's flowers perfume a thousand fields, Their cl.u.s.ter'd dates the mast-like palms unfold, The spreading orange waves a load of gold, Connubial vines o'ertop the larch they climb, The long-lived olive mocks the moth of time, Pomona's pride, that old Grenada claims, Here smiles and reddens in diviner flames; Pimento, citron scent the sky serene, White woolly cl.u.s.ters fringe the cotton's green, The st.u.r.dy fig, the frail deciduous cane And foodful cocoa fan the sultry plain.

Here, in one view, the same glad branches bring The fruits of autumn and the flowers of spring; No wintry blasts the unchanging year deform, Nor beasts unshelter'd fear the pinching storm; But vernal breezes o'er the blossoms rove, And breathe the ripen'd juices thro the grove.

Beneath the crystal wave's inconstant light Pearls burst their sh.e.l.ls to greet the Hero's sight; From opening earth in living l.u.s.tre shine The various treasures of the blazing mine; Hills cleft before him all their stores unfold, The pale platina and the burning gold; Silver whole mounds, and gems of dazzling ray Illume the rocks and shed the beams of day.

Book II.

Argument

Natives of America appear in vision. Their manners and characters.

Columbus demands the cause of the dissimilarity of men in different countries, Hesper replies, That the human body is composed of a due proportion of the elements suited to the place of its first formation; that these elements, differently proportioned, produce all the changes of health, sickness, growth and decay; and may likewise produce any other changes which occasion the diversity of men; that these elemental proportions are varied, not more by climate than temperature and other local circ.u.mstances; that the mind is likewise in a state of change, and will take its physical character from the body and from external objects: examples. Inquiry concerning the first peopling of America.

View of Mexico. Its destruction by Cortez. View of Cusco and Quito, cities of Peru. Tradition of Capac and Oella, founders of the Peruvian empire. Columbus inquires into their real history. Hesper gives an account of their origin, and relates the stratagems they used in establishing that empire.

High o'er his world as thus Columbus gazed, And Hesper still the changing scene emblazed, Round all the realms increasing l.u.s.tre flew, And raised new wonders to the Patriarch's view.

He saw at once, as far as eye could rove, Like scattering herds, the swarthy people move In tribes innumerable; all the waste, Wide as their walks, a varying shadow cast.

As airy shapes, beneath the moon's pale eye, People the clouds that sail the midnight sky, Dance thro the grove and flit along the glade, And cast their grisly phantoms on the shade; So move the hordes, in thickets half conceal'd, Or vagrant stalking thro the fenceless field, Here tribes untamed, who scorn to fix their home, O'er shadowy streams and trackless deserts roam; While others there in settled hamlets rest, And corn-clad vales a happier state attest.

The painted chiefs, in guise terrific drest, Rise fierce to war, and beat their savage breast; Dark round their steps collecting warriors pour, Some fell revenge begins the hideous roar; From hill to hill the startling war-song flies, And tribes on tribes in dread disorder rise, Track the mute foe and scour the howling wood, Loud as a storm, ungovern'd as a flood; Or deep in groves the silent ambush lay, Lead the false flight, decoy and seize their prey, Their captives torture, butcher and devour, Drink the warm blood and paint their cheeks with gore.

Awhile he paused, with dubious thoughts opprest, And thus to Hesper's ear his doubts addrest: Say, to what cla.s.s of nature's sons belong The countless tribes of this untutor'd throng?

Where human frames and brutal souls combine, No force can tame them, and no arts refine.

Can these be fashion'd on the social plan, Or boast a lineage with the race of man?

When first we found them in yon hapless isle, They seem'd to know and seem'd to fear no guile; A timorous herd, like harmless roes, they ran, And call'd us G.o.ds, from whom their tribes began.

But when, their fears allay'd, in us they trace The well-known image of a mortal race, When Spanish blood their wondering eyes beheld, A frantic rage their changing bosoms swell'd; They roused their bands from numerous hills afar, To feast their souls on ruin, waste and war.

Nor plighted vows nor sure defeat control The same indignant savageness of soul.

Tell then, my Seer, from what dire sons of earth The brutal people drew their ancient birth; If these forgotten sh.o.r.es and useless tides Have form'd them different from the world besides, Born to subjection, when in happier time A n.o.bler race should reach their fruitful clime; Or, if a common source all nations claim, Their lineage, form and faculties the same, What sovereign secret cause, yet undisplay'd, This wondrous change in nature's work has made; Why various powers of soul and tints of face In different lands diversify the race; To whom the Guide: Unnumbered causes lie, In earth and sea, in climate, soil and sky, That fire the soul, or damp the genial flame, And work their wonders on the human frame.

See beauty, form and color change with place; Here charms of health the lively visage grace; There pale diseases float in every wind, Deform the figure, and degrade the mind.

From earth's own elements thy race at first Rose into life, the children of the dust; These kindred elements, by various use, Nourish the growth and every change produce; In each ascending stage the man sustain, His breath, his food, his physic and his bane.

In due proportions where these atoms lie, A certain form their equal aids supply; And while unchanged the efficient causes reign, Age following age the certain form maintain.

But where crude atoms disproportion'd rise, And cast their sickening vapors round the skies, Unlike that harmony of human frame, That moulded first and reproduce the same, The tribes ill form'd, attempering to the clime, Still vary downward with the years of time; More perfect some, and some less perfect yield Their reproductions in this wondrous field; Till fixt at last their characters abide, And local likeness feeds their local pride.

The soul too, varying with the change of clime, Feeble or fierce, or groveling or sublime, Forms with the body to a kindred plan, And lives the same, a nation or a man.

Yet think not clime alone the tint controls, On every sh.o.r.e, by alt.i.tude of poles; A different cast the glowing zone demands, In Paria's groves, from Tombut's burning sands, Unheeded agents, for the sense too fine, With every pulse, with every thought combine, Thro air and ocean, with their changes run, Breathe from the ground, or circle with the sun.

Where these long continents their sh.o.r.es outspread, See the same form all different tribes pervade; Thro all alike the fertile forests bloom, And all, uncultured, shed a solemn gloom; Thro all great nature's boldest features rise, Sink into vales or tower amid the skies; Streams darkly winding stretch a broader sway, The groves and mountains bolder walks display; A dread sublimity informs the whole, And rears a dread sublimity of soul.

Yet time and art shall other changes find, And open still and vary still the mind.

The countless clans that tread these dank abodes, Who glean spontaneous fruits and range the woods, Fixt here for ages, in their swarthy face Display the wild complexion of the place.