DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE IN ERCILLA's ARAUCi^NA. 71 



together with useful products of commerce, are alone noticed 

 The episode of the magic island^ certainly presents the most 

 charming pictures of natural scenery, but the vegetation, as 

 befits an I Ilia de Venus, is composed of " myrtles, citrons, 

 fragrant lemon-trees, and pomegranates," all belonging to the 

 climate of Southern Europe. We find a greater sense of en- 

 joym.ent from the littoral woods, and more attention devoted 

 to the forms of the vegetable kingdom, in the writings of the 

 greatest navigator of his day, Columbus ; but then, it must 

 be admitted, while the latter notes dovv^n in his journal the 

 vivid impressions of each day as they arose, the poem of Ca- 

 moens was written to do honor to the great achievements oi 

 the Portuguese. The poet, accustomed to harmonious sounds, 

 could not either have felt much disposed to borrow from the lan- 

 guage of the natives strange nam.es of plants, or to have inter- 

 woven them in the description of landscapes, which were design- 

 ed as back-grounds for the main subjects of which he treated. 

 By the side of the image of the knightly Camoens has often 

 been placed the equally romantic one of a Spanish warrior, 

 who served under the banners of the great Emperor in Peru 

 and Chili, and sang in those distant climes the deeds in which 

 he had himself taken so honorable a share. But in the whole 

 epic poem of the Araucana, by Don Alonso de Ercilla, the 

 aspect of volcanoes covered with eternal snow, of torrid sylvan 

 valleys, and of arms of the sea extending far into the land, 

 has not been productive of any descriptions which may be re- 

 garded as graphical. The exaggerated praise which Cer- 

 vantes takes occasion to expend on Ercilla in the ingenious 

 satirical review of Don Quixote's books, is probably merely 

 the result of the rivalry subsisting between the Spanish and 

 Italian schools of poetry, but it would almost appear to have 

 deceived Voltaire and many modern critics. The Araucana 

 is certainly penetrated by a noble feeling of nationality. The 

 description of the manners of a wild race, who perish in 

 struggling for the liberty of their country, is not devoid of an- 

 imation, but Ercilla's style is not smooth or easy, while it is 

 overloaded with proper n^.mes, and is devoid of all trace of 

 poetic enthusiasm.'' 



* Canto ix., est. 51-o3. (Consult Ludwig Kriegk, Schr%ftf% zur all 

 emeinen Erdkunde, 1810, s. 338.) The whole Ilha de Venus is an al- 

 egorical table, as is clearly shown in est. 89; but the beginning of the 

 relation of Dom Manoel's dream describes an Indian mountain and for- 

 est district (canto iv., est. 70). 



1 A predilection for' the old literature of Spain, and for the enchant- 

 ing region in which the Araucana of Alonso de Ercilla y Zuiiiga wa» 



fe 



