* 
1808. ] Observations on the Columbiad. - 405 
Like heaven’s broad milky way he shines Commands and drains the interior tracts that 
alone, lie ’ 
Spreads o’er the globe its equatorial zone, 
Weighs the cleft continent, and pushes wide 
Its balanced mountains from each crumbling 
side, 
Sire Ocean hears his proud Maragnon roar, 
Moves up his bed, and seeks in vain the shore, 
Then surging strong, with high and hoary 
tide, 
Whelms back the stream and checks his rol- 
ling pride. 
The Stream ungovernable foams with ire, 
Climbs, combs tempestuous, and attacks the 
Sire ; 
Earth feels the conflict o’er her bosom spread, 
Her isies and uplands hide their woud-crown’d 
. head 5 
League after league from land to water 
change, 
From realm to realm the seaborn monsters 
range ; ‘ 
Vast midland heights but pierce the liquid 
plain, 
Old Andes tremble for theiz proud domain ; 
Till the fresh fluod regains his forceful sway, 
Drives back his father Ocean, lash’d with 
spray 5 
Whose ebbing waters lead the downward 
sweep, 
And waves and trees and banks roll whirling 
to the deep.” 
- The river St. Lawrence affords a noble 
opportunity for depicting the breaking up . 
» of winter in a northern latitude, and Mr. 
Barlow has made the most of it. The 
tremendous struggle of the ice-crusted 
gulph in the conflict between the legions 
of frost and the tides of ocean, exhibits 
an awful picture; and then the islands of 
ice accumulating into floating mountains 
as they drive out to sea, and move to 
southern latitudes, supplying thirsty ships 
with fresh water, or crushing and sinking 
them in the deep, shew that the poctic 
images of nature bad not been exhanst- 
t 
ed by preceding bards. Here he takes 
occasion to deplore the Joss of an Ameri- 
can officer, whose ship was supposed to 
have perished in the ice. 
The Mississippi is descriked with cir- 
cumstances more interesting, though not 
more majestic, than the other great ri- 
vers. As it runs through a vast and fer- 
tile country, and that the author’s coun- 
_ try, of which he takes many occasions to 
: 
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UJ 
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predict the future importance and feli- 
city, he dwells much on these ideas in 
marking the great features of that river, 
_. € Strong in his march, and charged with ali 
the fates 
Of regions pregnant with a hundred states, 
He holds in balance, ranged on either hand, 
Two distant Oceans and their sundering land, 
id ‘ 
« > e' 
Outmeasuring Europe’s total breadth of sky.” 
Mentioning the principal tributary 
streams that lose themselves in this river, 
he brings in with propriety the character 
of the Missouri, which having run a 
much longer journey than the Mississippi, 
and acquired twice his magnitude, joins 
him with reluctance, being by that junc- 
tion defrauded of his name :— 
*© But chief of all his family of floods 
Missouri marches thro” his world of woods ; 
He scorns to mingle with the filial train, 
Takes every course to reach alone the main, 
Orient awhile his bending sweep he tries, 
Now drains the southern, now the northern 
skies, 
Searches and sunders far the world’s vast 
frame, 
Reluctant joins the sife, and tales at last his 
name.”’ 
Here I quit the first book ; but to re- 
turn to it again for some examples of the 
descriptive powers of the author, and to 
express my disapprobation of some things 
I consider as defects. 
The second book opens with a view of 
the native tribes of America, followed by 
some questions on the diversity of men, 
and the first peopling of that quarter of 
the, world. I am then forced to pass 
in review the affecting scenes of Spanish 
devastation in Mexico and Peru. This 
leads to the interesting episode of Capac 
aud Oella, the founders of the Peruvian 
empire, and parents of the race of Incas. 
The story is concisely told, though copi- 
ously enriched with incidents. It rans 
through a thousand lines, and displays a 
varicty of heroic action, savage manners, 
sublime scenery, and beautiful sentiment, 
Tt ends with the third book. 
The fourth brings us back to Europe, 
and exhibits the state of society there, 
and its progress till the settlement of 
North America, That expansion of 
mind, and freedom of enquiry, accompa- 
nied with ideas of honestindustry, so ne- 
cessary for the advancement of science 
and morals, which took. place at that 
period, and which seemed to prepare 
the way for the great exhibition of 
human improvement, resulting from the 
British system of colonization, are repre- 
sented, perlraps justly, as the immediate 
consequences of the geographical disco- 
veries made by Columbus and his fullow- 
ers. ‘ 
The poet has not forgotten that the re- 
lifious persecutions,of Europe were 
‘ 
among the principal means of diving set- , 
tlers 
