The ship suddenly sinketh. The ancient The boat came closer to the ship, Under the water it rumbled on, Stunn'd by that loud and dreadful sound, Like one that hath been seven days drown'd But swift as dreams, myself I found Upon the whirl, where sank the ship, The boat spun round and round; I moved my lips-the Pilot shriek'd I took the oars: the Pilot's boy, Laugh'd loud and long, and all the while "Ha! ha!" quoth he, "full plain I see The Devil knows how to row." 5 10 15 20 25 And now, all in my own countree, I stood on the firm land! The Hermit stepp'd forth from the boat, "O shrieve me, shrieve me, holy man!" The Hermit cross'd his brow. "Say quick," quoth he, "I bid thee say What manner of man art thou?" Forthwith this frame of mine was wrench'd Which forced me to begin my tale, Since then, at an uncertain hour, And till my ghastly tale is told, I pass, like night, from land to land; What loud uproar bursts from that door! Which biddeth me to prayer! by his own example, love O Wedding-guest! this soul hath been Oh, sweeter than the marriage-feast, To walk together to the kirk, While each to his great Father bends, And to teach, Farewell, farewell! but this I tell and reverence to all things that God made and loveth. He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small; He made and loveth all. The Mariner, whose eye is bright, Turn'd from the Bridegroom's door. He went like one that hath been stunn'd, And is of sense forlorn : A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn. 5 10 15 20 25 L. THE FIRST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. BY WILLIAM ROBERTSON.' On Friday, the 3d of August, in the year 1492, Columbus set sail, a little before sunrise, in presence of a vast crowd of spectators, who sent up their supplications to Heaven for the prosperous issue of the voyage, which they wished rather than expected. Columbus steered directly for the Canary Islands, and arrived there without any occurrence that would have deserved notice on any other occasion; but in a voyage of such expectation and importance every circumstance was the object of attention. The rudder of the Pinta broke loose the 10 day after she left the harbor, and that accident alarmed the crew, no less superstitious than unskilful, as a certain omen of the unfortunate destiny of the expedition. Even in the short run to the Canaries, the ships were found to be so crazy and ill-appointed as to be very im-15 proper for a navigation which was expected to be both long and dangerous. Columbus refitted them, however, to the best of his power, and having supplied himself with fresh provisions, he took his departure from Gomera, one of the most westerly of the Canary Islands, 20 on the 6th day of September. To unskilful Spanish sailors, accustomed only to coasting voyages in the Mediterranean, the maritime science of Columbus, the fruit of thirty years' experience, improved by an acquaintance with all the inventions of 25 the Portuguese, appeared immense. As soon as they put to sea he regulated everything by his sole authority; he superintended the execution of every order; and allowing himself only a few hours for sleep, he was at all other times upon deck. As his course lay through seas which had not formerly been visited, the soundingline or instruments for observation were continually in his hands. After the example of the Portuguese discoverers, he attended to the motion of tides and currents, watched the flight of birds, the appearance of fishes, of sea-weeds, and of everything that floated on 10 the waves, and entered every occurrence, with a minute exactness, in the journal which he kept. As the length of the voyage could not fail of alarming sailors habituated only to short excursions, Columbus endeavored to conceal from them the real progress which they made. 15 With this view, though they run eighteen leagues on the second day after they left Gomera, he gave out that they had advanced only fifteen, and he uniformly employed the same artifice of reckoning short during the voyage. By the 14th of September the fleet was above 20 two hundred leagues to the west of the Canary Isles, at a greater distance from land than any Spaniard had been before that time. There they were struck with an appearance no less astonishing than new. They observed that the magnetic needle in their compasses did 25 not point exactly to the polar star, but varied towards the west, and as they proceeded this variation increased. This appearance, which is now familiar, though it still remains one of the mysteries of nature, into the cause of which the sagacity of man hath not been able to pen-30 etrate, filled the companions of Columbus with terror. They were now in a boundless and unknown ocean, far from the usual course of navigation; nature itself seemed to be altered, and the only guide which they had left 5 |