PREFACE.
The following Poem (or, to speak more properly, what remains of
it) has here and there a lyrical turn of thought and expression. It
is sudden in its transitions, and full of historical allusions; leaving
much to be imagined by the reader.
The subject is a voyage the most memorable in the annals of mankind.
Columbus was a person of extraordinary virtue and piety,
acting, as he conceived, under the sense of a divine impulse; and his
achievement the discovery of a New World, the inhabitants of which
were shut out from the light of Revelation, and given up, as they believed,
to the dominion of malignant spirits.
Many of the incidents will now be thought extravagant; yet they
were once perhaps received with something more than indulgence.
It was an age of miracles; and who can say that among the venerable
legends in the library of the Escurial, or the more authentic records
which fill the great chamber in the Archivo of Seville, and which relate
entirely to the deep tragedy of America, there are no volumes
that mention the marvellous things here described? Indeed the
story, as already told throughout Europe, admits of no heightening.
Such was the religious enthusiasm of the early writers, that the
Author had only to transfuse it into his verse; and he appears to
have done little more; though some of the circumstances, which he
alludes to as well-known, have long ceased to be so. By using the
language of that day, he has called up Columbus “in his habit as he
lived;” and the authorities, such as exist, are carefully given by the
Translator.
