294 ROBERTSON. 



structed the execution of his well-concerted plan ; and 

 passing in the warmth of their admiration from one 

 extreme to another, they now pronounced the man 

 whom they had so lately reviled and threatened, to be a 

 person inspired by Heaven with sagacity and fortitude 

 more than human in order to accomplish a design so far 

 beyond the ideas and conception of all former ages." 



In like manner is the landing and the meeting 

 with the natives painted rather than described. The 

 impression made, for instance, by the Spaniards on the 

 minds of these simple folk shows that the great writer 

 can place himself in the position of the savage as well 

 as the sage. " The vast machines in which they had 

 traversed the ocean, that seemed to move upon the 

 waters with wings, and uttered a dreadful sound like 

 thunder, accompanied with lightning and smoke, 

 struck them with such terror, that they began to 

 respect their new guests as a superior order of beings, 

 and concluded that they were children of the sun, who 

 had descended to visit the earth." 



The simple language of these passages, to make but 

 one observation, is remarkable ; and their dignity is 

 with this perfect plainness perfectly sustained. It is 

 always in such language that a master of diction will 

 make his impression ; and the near approach of any 

 catastrophe, whether awful or pathetic, may always 

 be suspected when the language becomes very simple, 

 and the particulars begin to abound. There is but 

 one word above the most homely style of the most 

 ordinary conversation in all that I have cited. The 

 fields are "verdant," not green ; and this word is cor- 

 rectly chosen for the rhythm, which would not allow 



