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University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 (1)
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1Author:  Simms William Gilmore 1806-1870Add
 Title:  The damsel of Darien  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: “Nothing,” remarks a distinguished modern writer of our own country, “could be more chivalrous, urbane and charitable; nothing more pregnant with noble sacrifices of passion and interest, with magnanimous instances of forgiveness of injuries, and noble contests of generosity, than the transactions of the Spanish discoverers of America with each other:—” he adds—“it was with the Indians alone that they were vindictive, blood-thirsty, and implacable.” In other words, when dealing with their equals—with those who could strike hard and avenge,—they forbore offence and injury; to the feeble and unoffending, alone, they were cruel and unforgiving. Such being the case, according to the writer's own showing, the eulogium upon their chivalry, charity, and urbanity, is in very doubtful propriety, coming from the lips of a Christian historian; and our charity would be as singularly misplaced as his, were we to suffer its utterance unquestioned. But the alleged characteristics of these Spanish adventurers in regard to their dealings with each other, are any thing but true, according to our readings of history; and with all deference to the urbane and usually excellent authority referred to, we must be permitted, in this place, to record our dissent from his conclusions. It will not diminish, perhaps, but rather elevate the character of these discoverers, to show that their transactions with each other were, with a few generous exceptions, distinguished by a baseness and vindictiveness quite as shameless and unequivocal as marked their treatment of the Indians:—that nearly every departure from their usual faithlessness of conduct, was induced by fear, by favour, or the hope of ultimate reward;—that, devouring the Indians for their treasure, they scrupled not to exhibit a like rapacity towards their own comrades, in its attainment, or upon its division; and that, in short, a more inhuman, faithless, blood-thirsty and unmitigated gang of savages never yet dishonoured the name of man or debased his nature. The very volume which contains the eulogy upon which we comment—Irving's “Companions of Columbus,”—a misnomer, by the way, since none of them were, or could be, properly speaking, his companions— abounds in testimonies which refute and falsify it. The history of these “companions” is a history of crime and perfidy from the beginning; of professions made without sincerity, and pledges violated without scruple; of crimes committed without hesitation, and, seemingly, without remorse; of frauds perpetrated upon the confiding, and injuries inflicted without number upon the defenceless; and these, too, not in their dealings merely with the natives, for these they only destroyed, but in their intercourse with their own comrades; with those countrymen to whom nature and a common interest should have bound them, to the fullest extent of their best abilities and strongest sympathies; but whom they did not scruple to plunder and abuse, at the instance of motives the most mercenary and dishonourable. With but a few, and those not very remarkable exceptions, all the doings of this “ocean chivalry” are obnoxious to these reproaches. It is enough, in proof, to instance the fortunes of Cortes, Ojeda, Ponce de Leon, Balboa, Nienesa, Pizarro, Almagro, and the “great admiral” himself; most of them hostile to each other, and all of them victims to the slavish, selfish hates and festering jealousies, the base avarice, and scarcely less base ambition of the followers whom they led to wealth, and victory, and fame. Like most fanatics, who are generally the creatures of vexing and variable moods, rather than of principle and a just desire for renown, none of them, with the single exception of Columbus, seem to have been above the force of circumstances, which moved them hourly, as easily to a disregard of right, as to a fearlessness of danger. At such periods they invariably proved themselves indifferent to all the ties of country, to all the sentiments of affection, to all the laws of God: a mere blood-thirsty soldiery, drunk with the frequent indulgence of a morbid appetite, and as utterly indifferent, in their frenzy, to their sworn fellowships as to the common cause. Of the whole chivalry of this period and nation, but little that is favourable can be said. That they were brave and fearless, daring and elastic, cannot be denied. But here eulogium must cease. From the bigot monarch upon the throne, to the lowest soldier serving under his banner, they seem all to have been without faith. The sovereign had no scruple, when interest moved him and occasion served, to break the pledges which he might not so easily evade; and the morals of his people furnished no reproachful commentary upon the laxity of his own. Let us but once close our eyes upon the bold deeds and uncalculating courage of these warriors, and the picture of their performances becomes one loaded with infamy and shame. The mind revolts from the loathsome spectacle of perfidy and brute-baseness which every where remains; and it is even a relief, though but a momentary one, once more to look upon the scene of strife, and forget, as we are but too apt to do, in the gallant passage of arms, the meanness and the malice of him who delights us with his froward valour, and astounds us with admiration of his skill and strength. The relief is but transient, however, and the next moment reveals to us a reenactment of the sin and the shame, from which the bravest and the boldest among them could not long maintain the “whiteness of their souls.”
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