In that proud moment, his transported mind
The morning and the evening worlds combined;
And made the sea, that sundered them before,
A bond of peace, uniting shore to shore.
Vain, visionary hope! rapacious Spain
Followed her hero's triumph o'er the main;
Her hardy sons in fields of battle tried,
Where Moor and Christian desperately died;—
A rabid race, fanatically bold,
And steeled to cruelty by lust of gold.
Traversed the waves, the unknown world explored;
The cross their standard, but their faith the sword;
Their steps were graves; o'er prostrate realms they trod;
They worshipped Mammon, while they vowed to God.
To estimate the effect of his theological education on such a man as Columbus, we have only to pause a moment, to witness the manner of his first landing in the new world, and his reception there. On discovering the island of Guanahani, one of the Bahamas, the Spaniards raised the hymn of Te Deum. At sunrise they rowed towards land with colours flying, and the sound of martial music; and amid the crowds of wondering natives assembled on the shores and hills around, Columbus, like another Mahomet, set foot on the beach, sword in hand, and followed by a crucifix, which his followers planted in the earth, and then prostrating themselves before it, took possession of the country in the name of his sovereign. The inhabitants gazed in silent wonder on ceremonies so pregnant with calamity to them, but without any suspicion of their real nature. Living in a delightful climate, hidden through all the ages of their world from the other world of labour and commerce, of art and artifice, of avarice and cruelty, they appeared in the primitive
