OF COLUMBUS. 61 



It is difficult even for the imagination to conceive the 

 feehngs of such a man, at the moment of so subhme a 

 discovery. What a bewildering crowd of conjectures 

 must have thronged upon his mind, as to the land which 

 lay before him, covered with darkness. That it was 

 fruitful was evident from the vegetables which floated 

 from its shores. He thought, too, that he perceived in 

 the balmy air the fragrance of aromatic groves. The 

 moving light which he had beheld, proved that it was the 

 residence of man. But what were its inhabitants? Were 

 they like those of other parts of the globe ; or were they 

 some strange and monstrous race, such as the imagina- 

 tion in those times was prone to give to all remote and 

 unknown regions? Had he come upon some wild island, 

 far in the Indian seas; or was this the famed Cipango 

 itself, the object of his golden fancies? A thousand 

 speculations of the kind must have swarmed upon him, 

 as he w^atched for the night to pass away; wondering 

 whether the morning light would reveal a savage wilder- 

 ness, or dawn upon spicy groves, and glittering fanes, and 

 gilded cities, and all the splendors of oriental civihzation. 



CHAPTER XI. 



First Landing of Columbus in the J\*ew World. — Cruise 

 among the Bahama Islands. — Discovery of Cuba and 

 Hispaniola. [1492.] 



When the day dawned, Columbus saw before him a 

 level and beautiful island, several leagues in extent, of 

 great freshness and verdure, and covered w'nh trees like 

 a continual orchard. Though every thing appeared in 

 the wild luxuriance of untamed nature, yet the island was 

 evidently populous, for the inhabitants were seen issuing 

 from the woods, and running from all parts to the shore. 

 They were all perfectly naked, and from their attitudes 

 6 I. 



