DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE BY COLUMBUS. 67 



there were pines on the mountains of Cibao whose fruits are 

 not fir-cones, but berries like the olives of the Axarafe dc Se- 

 villa ; and further, as I have already remarked, Columbus* 

 already separated the genus Podocarpus from the family of 

 Abietineae. 



" The beauty of the new land," says the discoverer, " far 

 surpasses the Campina de Cordova. The trees are bright, 

 with an ever-verdant foliage, and are always laden with fruit. 

 The plants on the ground are high and flowering. The air 

 is warm as that of April in Castile, and the nightingale sings 

 more melodiously than words can describe. At night the 

 song of other smaller birds resounds sweetly, and I have also 

 heard our grasshoppers and frogs. Once I came to a deeply- 

 inclosed harbor, and saw a high mountain that had never 

 been seen by any mortal eye, and from whence gentle waters 

 (Lindas aguas) flowed down. The mountain was covered 

 with firs and variously-formed trees adorned with beautiful 

 blossoms. On sailing up the stream, which empties itself 

 into the bay, I was astonished at the cool shade, the clear, 

 crystal-like water, and the number of the singing birds. 1 

 felt as if I c"ould never leave so charming a spot, as if a thou- 

 sand tongues would fail to describe all these things, and as if 

 my hand were spell-bound and refused to write (para hacer 

 relation a los Reyes de las cosas que man no bastaran mil 

 lenguas a referillo, ni la mano para lo escribir, que le pare- 

 cia quest aba encantado)."^ 



We here learn, from the journal of a wholly unlettered sea- 

 man, the power which the beauty of nature, in its individual 

 forms, may exercise on a susceptible mind. Feelings ennoble 

 language ; for the style of the Admiral, especially when, at 

 the age of sixty-seven, on his fourth voyage, he relates his 

 wonderful dream| on the shore of Veragua, if not more elo- 

 quent, is at any rate more interesting than the allegorical, 

 pastoral romances of Boccacio, and the two poems of Arcadia 

 by Sannazaro and Sydney, than Garcilasso's Salicio y Ne- 

 moroso, or than the Diana of Jorge de Montemayor. The 



* See vol. i., p. 282. 



t Journal of Columbus on his first voyage (Oct. 29, 1492 ; Nov. 

 25-29; Dec. 7-16; Dec. 21). See, also, his letter to Dona Maria cle 

 Guzman, ama del Principe D Juau, Dec., 1500, in Navarrete, Colec- 

 cion de los Viages que hicieron par mar los-Espanoles, t. i., p. 43, 6^22, 

 82, 92, 100, and 266. 



t Navarrete, op. cit., p. 303-304, Carta del Almirante a los Reyes es~ 

 crita en Jamaica a 7 de Julio, 1503 ; Humboldt, Examtn Crit., t. iii. t 

 p. 231-236. 



