300 OLD HARBOUR. 



the noble-minded Cacique who proposed to leave his 

 country and to visit, in the protection of Columbus, 

 the distant land of the v^^ondrous strangers, of which 

 he had heard such reports. No carved and painted 

 canoes now steer out upon the glassy bay, from the 

 bowery coves and verdant islets ; but the mind de- 

 lights to recal the picture so vividly, yet so simply, 

 drawn by the illustrious World-finder, of the spon- 

 taneous homage paid by the confiding Lord of the 

 Isles to the power and genius of the white men. 

 The barbaric pomp of the stately procession ; the 

 richly ornamented canoes paddling in slow time and 

 perfect order ; the Cacique himself, in naked majesty, 

 yet decorated with a coronet, a necklace, and a girdle 

 of gold and gems ; his sons and brothers supporting 

 his dignity in loyal fealty ; his lovely daughters, in 

 native modesty, grace, and beauty, 



" when unadorned, adorned the most ; " 



musicians in curious helmets of feathers, playing on 

 tabors and trumpets of ebony ; and the standard- 

 bearer in the prow of the royal barge, clad in his 

 mantle of variegated feathers, with a tuft of gay 

 plumes on his head, and bearing in his hand a white 

 banner that fluttered in the breeze ; — all come up 

 before the imagination, and combine with the lovely 

 scene, the brilliant sun and sky, the sparkling sea, 

 and the soft landscape, to make one almost wish that 

 these fine and fertile lands could be put back again 

 into their primitive simplicity and wildness, and the 

 pristine inhabitants restored in their happy thought- 

 less independence. 



