Poems by Samuel Rogers Part 21

_When towers and temples, thro' the closing wave,_

Si quaeras Helicen et Burin, Achadas urbes, Invenies sub aquis.

At the destruction of Callao, in 1747, no more than one of all the inhabitants escaped; and he, by a providence the most extraordinary.

This man was on the fort that overlooked the harbour, going to strike the flag, when he perceived the sea to retire to a considerable distance; and then, swelling mountain high, it returned with great violence. The people ran from their houses in terror and confusion; he heard a cry of _Miserere_ rise from all parts of the city; and immediately all was silent; the sea had entirely overwhelmed it, and buried it for ever in its bosom: but the same wave that destroyed it, drove a little boat by the place where he stood, into which he threw himself and was saved. Europ. Settlements.

NOTE m.

_"Land!" and his voice in faltering accents died._

Historians are not silent on the subject. The sailors, according to Herrera, saw the signs of an inundated country (tierras anegadas); and it was the general expectation that they should end their lives there, as others had done in the frozen sea, 'where St. Amaro suffers no s.h.i.+p to stir backwards or forwards.' F. Columbus, c. 19.

NOTE n.

_Tho' chang'd my cloth of gold for amice grey--_

Many of the first discoverers, if we may believe B. Diaz and other contemporary writers, ended their days in a hermitage, or a cloister.

NOTE o.

_'Twas in the deep, immeasurable cave Of ANDES,_

Vast indeed must be those dismal regions, if it be true, as conjectured (Kircher. Mund. Subt. I. 202), that Etna, in her eruptions, has discharged twenty times her original bulk. Well might she be called by Euripides (Troades, v. 222) the _Mother of Mountains;_ yet Etna herself is but 'a mere firework, when compared to the burning summits of the Andes.'

NOTE p.

_Where PLATA and MARAGNON meet the Main._

Rivers of South America. Their collision with the tide has the effect of a tempest.

NOTE q.

_Of HURON or ONTARIO, inland seas,_

Lakes of North America. Huron is above a thousand miles in circ.u.mference. Ontario receives the waters of the Niagara, so famous for its falls; and discharges itself into the Atlantic by the river St. Lawrence.

NOTE r.

_Hung in the tempest o'er the troubled main;_

The dominion of a bad angel over an unknown sea, _infestandole con sus torbellinos y tempestades_, and his flight before a Christian hero, are described in glowing language by Ovalle. Hist, de Chile.

IV. 8.

NOTE s.

_He spoke; and all was silence, all was night!_

These scattered fragments may be compared to shreds of old arras, or reflections from a river broken and confused by the oar; and now and then perhaps the imagination of the reader may supply more than is lost. Si qua latent, meliora putat.

Illud vero perquam rarum ac memoria dignum, etiam suprema opera artific.u.m imperfectasque tabulas, sicut Irin Aristidis, Tyndaridas Nicomachi, Medeam Timomachi, et quam diximus Venerem Apellis, in majori admiratione esse, quam perfecta.

NOTE t.

_The soldier, &c._

In the Lusiad, to beguile the heavy hours at sea, Veloso relates to his companions of the second watch the story of the Twelve Knights.

L. vi.

NOTE u.

_So Fortune smil'd, careless of sea or land!_

Among those, who went with Columbus, were many adventurers, and gentlemen of the court. Primero was the game then in fas.h.i.+on. See Vega, p. 2, lib. iii. c. 9.

NOTE x.

_Yet who but He undaunted could explore_

Many sighed and wept; and every hour seemed a year, says Herrera.

I. i. 9 and 10.

NOTE y.

_While his dear boys--ah, on his neck they hung,_

'But I was most afflicted, when I thought of my two sons, whom I had left behind me in a strange country....before I had done, or at least could be known to have done, any thing which might incline your highnesses to remember them. And though I comforted myself with the reflection that our Lord would not suffer so earnest an endeavour for the exaltation of his church to come to nothing, yet I considered that, on account of my unworthiness,' &c.--F. Columbus, c. 37.

NOTE z.

_Roc of the West! to him all empire giv'n!_

Le Condor est le meme oiseau que le Roc des Orientaux. Buffon. 'By the Peruvians,' says Vega, 'he was antiently wors.h.i.+pped; and there were those who claimed their descent from him.' In these degenerate days he still ranks above the Eagle.

NOTE a.

_High-hung in forests to the casing snows._

A custom not peculiar to the Western Hemisphere. The Tunguses of Siberia hang their dead on trees; 'parceque la terre ne se laisse point ouvrir.' Recherches Philos. sur les Americ. I. 140.

NOTE b.

_----and, thro' that dismal night,_

'Aquella noche triste.' The night, on which Cortes made his famous retreat from Mexico through the street of Tlacopan, still goes by the name of LA NOCHE TRISTE.

HUMBOLDT.

NOTE c.