DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE IN ERCILLA's ARAUCANA. 427 



peculiar physiognomy. Spices and other aromatic substances, 

 together with useful products of commerce, are alone noticed. 

 The episode of the magic island* 1 certainly presents the most 

 charming pictures of natural scenery, but the vegetation, as 

 befits an Ilka de Venus, is composed of " myrtles, citrons, 

 fragrant lemon-trees, and pomegranates," all belonging to the 

 climate of Southern Europe. We find a greater sense of en- 

 joyment from the littoral woods, and more attention devoted 

 to the forms of the vegetable kingdom, in the writings of the 

 greatest navigator of his day, Columbus; but then, it must be 

 admitted, whilst the latter notes down in his journal the vivid 

 impressions of each day as they arose, the poem of Camoens 

 was written to do honour to the great achievements of the Por- 

 tuguese. The poet, accustomed to harmonious sounds, could 

 not either have felt much disposed to borrow from the language 

 of the natives strange names of plants, or to have interwoven 

 them in the description of landscapes, which were designed 

 as backgrounds for the main subjects of which he treated. 



By the side of the image of the knightly Camoens has often 

 been placed the equally romantic one of a Spanish warrior, 

 who served under the banners of the great Emperor in Peru 

 and Chili, and sang in those distant climes the deeds in 

 which he had himself taken so honourable a share. But in 

 the whole epic poem of the Araucana, by Don Alonso de 

 Ercilla, the aspect of volcanoes covered with eternal snow, of 

 torrid sylvan valleys, and of arms of the sea extending far 

 into the land, has not been productive of any descriptions 

 which may be regarded as graphical. The exaggerated praise 

 which Cervantes takes occasion to expend on Ercillo in the 

 ingenious satirical review of Don Quixote's books, is pro- 

 bably merely the result of the rivalry subsisting between the 

 Spanish and Italian schools of poetry, but it w r ould almost 

 appear to have deceived Voltaire and many modern critics. 

 The Araucana is certainly penetrated by a noble feeling of 

 nationality. The description of the manners of a wild race, who 

 perish in struggling for the liberty of their country, is not 



* Canto ix. est. 51-63. (Consult Ludwig Kriegk, ScJiriften zur 

 allgemeinen Erdkunde, 1840, s. 338.) The whole Ilha de Venus is 

 an allegorical fable, as is clearly shown in est. 89; but the beginning of 

 the relation of Dom Manoel's dream describes an Indian mountain and 

 forest district (canto iv. est. 70). 



