DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE BY COLUMBUS. 423 



enclosed harbour 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 blos- 

 soms. 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 thousand 

 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 lastaran mil 

 lenguas a referilfa, ni la mano para lo escribir, que le parecia 

 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 voyago, he relates his won- 

 derful dream,! on the shore of Veragua, if not more eloquent, 

 is at any rate more interesting than the allegorical, pastoral 

 romances of Boccacio, and the two poems of Arcadia by San- 

 nazaro and Sydney, than Garcilasso's Salicio y Nemoroso, or 

 than the Diana of Jorge de Montemayor. The elegiac idyllic 

 element unfortunately predominated too long in the literature 

 of the Spaniards and Italians. It required all the freshness of 

 delineation which characterised the adventures of Cervantes' 

 Knight of La Mancha to atone for the Galatea of the same 

 author. Pastoral romance, however it may be ennobled by 

 the beauty of language and tenderness of sentiment manifested 

 in the works of the above-named great writers, must, from its 

 very nature, remain cold and wearisome, like the allegorical 

 and artificial productions of the middle ages. Individuality 

 of observation can alone lead to a truthful representation of 



* 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 Guz- 

 man, ama del Principe D. Juan, Dec. 1 500, in Navarrete, Coleccion de los 

 Viayes que hicieron por mar los Espa^oles, t. i. pp. 43, Q5, 72, 82, 92, 

 100, and 266. 



h Navarrete, op. cit., pp. 303-304, Carlo, del Almiranle a los Reyes 

 escrna en Jamaica a 7 de Jidio, 1503) ; Humboldt, Examen wit., 

 i. iii. pp. 231-236. 



