300 
OLD HARBOUK. 
the noble-minded Cacique who proposed to leave his 
country and to visit, in the protection of Columbus, 
the distant land of the wondrous 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. 
