DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE HY COI.UMBU.S. 0/ 



there were pines on the mountains of Cibao whose fruits are 

 not fir-cones, but berries like the oUves of the Axarafe de Sc- 

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

 already separated the genus Podocarpus from the family of 

 Abietinese, 



" 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. I 

 felt as if I could 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 

 relacion a los Reyes de las cosas que vian no hastaran mil 

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

 cia questaba 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 dreamf 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 de 

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

 don de los Viages que hiciiron por mar los Espanoles, t. i., p. 43, 65, 72, 

 82, 92, 100, and 266. 



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

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

 p. 231-236. 



