POEMS OF AMERICAN HISTORY

AMERICA

POEMS OF AMERICAN HISTORY

COLLECTED AND EDITED

BY

BURTON EGBERT STEVENSON

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
The Riverside Press Cambridge

COPYRIGHT, 1908 AND 1922, BY BURTON EGBERT STEVENSON

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Riverside Press

CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

All rights on poems in this volume are reserved by the holders of the copyright. The publishers and others named in the following list are the proprietors, either in their own right or as agents for the authors, of the poems of which the authorship and titles are given, and of which the ownership is thus specifically noted and is hereby acknowledged.

Messrs. D. Appleton & Co., New York.—William Cullen Bryant: "The Green Mountain Boys," "Seventy-Six," "Song of Marion's Men," "Oh Mother of a Mighty Race," "Our Country's Call," "Abraham Lincoln," "Centennial Hymn."

Messrs. Richard D. Badger & Co., Boston.—Edwin Arlington Robinson: "The Klondike."

The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis.—Charles Edward Russell: "The Fleet at Santiago," from "Such Stuff as Dreams."

The Century Company, New York.—Richard Watson Gilder: "At the President's Grave," "Charleston," "The White City," "The Comfort of the Trees"; Robert Underwood Johnson: "Dewey at Manila"; Silas Weir Mitchell: "Herndon," "How the Cumberland went down," "Kearsarge," "Lincoln," "The Song of the Flags." From the Century Magazine.—William Tuckey Meredith: "Farragut"; Helen F. More: "What's in a Name"; Will Henry Thompson: "The High Tide at Gettysburg."

The Robert Clarke Company, Cincinnati.—William Davis Gallagher: "The Mothers of the West"; William Haines Lytle: "The Siege of Chapultepec," "The Volunteers."

Messrs. Henry T. Coates & Co., Philadelphia.—Ethel Lynn Beers: "The Picket-Guard"; Charles Fenno Hoffman: "Rio Bravo," "Monterey."

Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York.—Ernest McGaffey: "Little Big Horn," "Geronimo"; William Henry Venable: "John Filson," "Johnny Appleseed," "The Founders of Ohio," "El Emplazado," "Battle-Cry," "National Song."

The R. R. Donnelly & Sons Company, Chicago.—Francis Brooks: "Down the Little Big Horn."

Messrs. Dana Estes & Co., Boston.—Hezekiah Butterworth: "The Thanksgiving for America," "The Legend of Waukulla," "The Fountain of Youth," "Verazzano," "Ortiz," "Five Kernels of Corn," "The Thanksgiving in Boston Harbor," "Roger Williams," "Whitman's Ride for Oregon," "The Death of Jefferson," "Garfield's Ride at Chickamauga," "The Church of the Revolution."

Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls, New York.—Richard Realf: "The Defence of Lawrence."

Messrs. Harper & Brothers, New York.—Wallace Bruce: "Parson Allen's Ride"; Will Carleton: "The Prize of the Margaretta," "Across the Delaware," "The Little Black-Eyed Rebel," "Cuba to Columbia," "The Victory-Wreck"; William Dean Howells: "The Battle in the Clouds"; Herman Melville: "Malvern Hill," "The Victor of Antietam," "The Cumberland," "Running the Batteries," "A Dirge for McPherson," "Sheridan at Cedar Creek," "The Fall of Richmond," "The Surrender at Appomattox," "At the Cannon's Mouth." From Harper's Magazine and Harper's Weekly.—Guy Wetmore Carryl: "When the Great Gray Ships come in"; Joseph B. Gilder: "The Parting of the Ways"; Thomas A. Janvier: "Santiago"; Thomas Dunn English: "Arnold at Stillwater," "The Charge by the Ford," "The Fall of Maubila," "The Battle of the Cowpens," "The Battle of New Orleans"; John Eliot Bowen: "The Man who rode to Conemaugh."

Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.—Thomas Bailey Aldrich: "Fredericksburg," "By the Potomac," "The Bells at Midnight," "An Ode on the Unveiling of the Shaw Memorial," "Unguarded Gates"; Phœbe Cary: "Ready," "Peace"; John White Chadwick: "Mugford's Victory," "Full Cycle"; Mrs. Florence Earle Coates: "Columbus," "Buffalo," "By the Conemaugh"; Christopher Pearse Cranch: "After the Centennial"; Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Concord Hymn," "Boston Hymn"; Annie Fields: "Cedar Mountain"; Louise Imogen Guiney: "John Brown"; Francis Bret Harte: "Caldwell of Springfield," "The Reveille," "John Burns of Gettysburg," "A Second Review of the Grand Army," "An Arctic Vision," "Chicago"; John Hay: "Miles Keogh's Horse"; Oliver Wendell Holmes: "A Ballad of the Boston Tea-Party," "Lexington," "Grandmother's Story of Bunker-Hill Battle," "Old Ironsides," "Daniel Webster," "Brother Jonathan's Lament for Sister Caroline," "Sherman's in Savannah," "After the Fire," "Welcome to the Nations," "On the Death of President Garfield," "Additional Verses to Hail Columbia"; Mrs. Julia Ward Howe: "Our Country," "Battle-Hymn of the Republic," "Robert E. Lee," "Pardon," "Parricide," "J. A. G."; William Dean Howells: "The Battle in the Clouds"; Lucy Larcom: "Mistress Hale of Beverly," "The Nineteenth of April," "The Sinking of the Merrimack"; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "The Skeleton in Armor," "Sir Humphrey Gilbert," "The War-Token," "The Expedition to Wessagusset," "Prologue," "The Proclamation," "Prologue," "The Trial," "The Battle of Lovell's Pond," "A Ballad of the French Fleet," "The Embarkation," "Paul Revere's Ride," "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem," "The Wreck of the Hesperus," "Victor Galbraith," "The Cumberland," "The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face," "President Garfield," "The Republic"; James Russell Lowell: "Flawless his Heart," "The New-Come Chief," "Mr. Hosea Biglow speaks," "What Mr. Robinson thinks," "Jonathan to John," "The Washers of the Shroud," "Ode recited at the Harvard Commemoration"; William Vaughn Moody: "On a Soldier fallen in the Philippines," "An Ode in Time of Hesitation"; Nora Perry: "Running the Blockade"; Edna Dean Proctor: "Columbus Dying," "The Captive's Hymn," "The Lost War-Sloop," "Sa-cá-ga-we-a," "John Brown," "The Brooklyn Bridge"; Margaret Junkin Preston: "The Mystery of Cro-a-tàn," "The Last Meeting of Pocahontas and the Great Captain," "The First Proclamation of Miles Standish," "The First Thanksgiving Day," "Dirge for Ashby," "Under the Shade of the Trees," "Virginia Capta," "Acceptation"; John Godfrey Saxe: "How Cyrus laid the Cable"; Edward Rowland Sill: "The Dead President"; Harriet Prescott Spofford: "How we became a Nation," "Can't"; Edmund Clarence Stedman: "Peter Stuyvesant's New Year's Call," "Salem," "Aaron Burr's Wooing," "How Old Brown took Harper's Ferry," "Sumter," "Wanted—A Man," "Kearny at Seven Pines," "Treason's Last Device," "Gettysburg," "Abraham Lincoln," "Israel Freyer's Bid for Gold," "Custer," "Liberty Enlightening the World," "Cuba," "Hymn of the West"; Bayard Taylor: "Through Baltimore," "Lincoln at Gettysburg," "The National Ode"; Joseph Russell Taylor: "Breath on the Oat"; Edith M. Thomas: "A Christopher of the Shenandoah," "To Spain—A Last Word"; Maurice Thompson: "The Ballad of Chickamauga"; J. T. Trowbridge: "Columbus at the Convent"; Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward: "Conemaugh"; Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney: "Peace"; John G. Whittier: "The Norsemen," "Norembega," "John Underhill," "Cassandra Southwick," "The King's Missive," "St. John," "Pentucket," "Lexington," "The Vow of Washington," "Skipper Ireson's Ride," "Texas," "The Angels of Buena Vista," "The Crisis," "To William Lloyd Garrison," "Ichabod," "The Kansas Emigrants," "Burial of Barber," "Le Marais du Cygne," "Brown of Ossawatomie," "Barbara Frietchie," "The Battle Autumn of 1862," "At Port Royal," "To John C. Frémont," "Astræa at the Capitol," "The Proclamation," "Laus Deo," "To the Thirty-Ninth Congress," "The Cable Hymn," "Chicago," "Centennial Hymn," "On the Big Horn," "The Bartholdi Statue"; Forceythe Willson: "Boy Brittan"; Constance Fenimore Woolson: "Kentucky Belle." From the Atlantic Monthly.—George Houghton: "The Legend of Walbach Tower"; Henry Newbolt: "Craven"; Thomas William Parsons: "Dirge."

Mr. P. J. Kenedy, New York.—Abram J. Ryan: "The Conquered Banner."

The Ladies' Home Journal, Philadelphia.—Virginia Woodward Cloud: "The Ballad of Sweet P."

The J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.—George Henry Boker: "Upon the Hill before Centreville," "Dirge for a Soldier," "Zagonyi," "On Board the Cumberland," "The Cruise of the Monitor," "The Ballad of New Orleans," "The Varuna," "Hooker's Across," "Before Vicksburg," "The Black Regiment," "The Battle of Lookout Mountain"; William C. Elam: "The Mecklenburg Declaration"; Robert Loveman: "Hobson and his Men"; Marion Manville: "The Surrender of New Orleans," "Lee's Parole"; Henry Peterson: "The Death of Lyon"; Thomas Buchanan Read: "The Rising," "Valley Forge," "Blennerhassett's Island," "The Attack," "Sheridan's Ride," "The Eagle and Vulture"; Francis Orrery Ticknor: "The Virginians of the Valley," "A Battle Ballad," "Our Left," "Little Giffen."

The Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, Boston.—Richard Burton: "The Old Santa Fé Trail"; Paul Hamilton Hayne: "Macdonald's Raid," "Beyond the Potomac," "Vicksburg," "The Battle of Charleston Harbor," "Charleston," "The Stricken South to the North," "South Carolina to the States of the North," "Yorktown Centennial Lyric"; William Hamilton Hayne: "The Charge at Santiago."

The McClure Company, New York.—Edwin Markham: "Lincoln."

Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago.—Kate Brownlee Sherwood: "Albert Sidney Johnston," "Thomas at Chickamauga."

The Macmillan Company, New York.—Hamlin Garland: "Logan at Peach Tree Creek"; George Edward Woodberry: "Our First Century," "Essex Regiment March," "The Islands of the Sea," "O Land Beloved."

The Mershon Company, New York.—John Boyle O'Reilly: "Crispus Attucks," "At Fredericksburg," "Chicago," "Boston," "Midnight—September 19, 1881," "The Ride of Collins Graves," "Mayflower."

The Oliver Ditson Company, New York.—Kate Brownlee Sherwood: "Molly Pitcher."

Out West, Los Angeles.—Sharlot M. Hall: "Arizona."

Messrs. L. C. Page & Co., Boston.—Charles G. D. Roberts: "Brooklyn Bridge," "In Apia Bay," "A Ballad of Manila Bay."

Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.—Louis James Block: "The Final Struggle"; Guy Wetmore Carryl: "When the Great Gray Ships come in."

Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.—William Ernest Henley: "Romance"; George Parsons Lathrop: "Keenan's Charge"; Sidney Lanier: "The Story of Vinland," "The Triumph," "Lexington," "Land of the Wilful Gospel," "The Dying Words of Stonewall Jackson," "The Centennial Meditation of Columbia"; Thomas Nelson Page: "The Dragon of the Seas"; James Jeffrey Roche: "Panama"; Richard Henry Stoddard: "Abraham Lincoln," "Men of the North and West," "The Little Drummer."

Messrs. Small, Maynard & Co., Boston.—Richard Hovey: "The Word of the Lord from Havana," "The Battle of Manila"; Walt Whitman: "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors," "O Captain! My Captain!" "The Sobbing of the Bells."

Messrs. Herbert S. Stone & Co., Chicago.—John Williamson Palmer: "The Fight at San Jacinto."

The Whitaker & Ray Company, San Francisco.—Joaquin Miller: "Columbus," "The Defence of the Alamo," "Alaska," "Rejoice," "Cuba Libre," "San Francisco," "Resurge San Francisco." The Youth's Companion, Boston.—Mary A. P. Stansbury: "The Surprise at Ticonderoga"; Thomas Tracy Bouvé: "The Shannon and the Chesapeake."

In addition to the above, the compiler begs to acknowledge express permission from the following authors for the use of such of their poems as appear in this volume:

Joel Benton, Louis James Block, Virginia Fraser Boyle, Robert Bridges, Wallace Bruce, Richard Burton, S. H. M. Byers, Will Carleton, Madison Cawein, Robert W. Chambers, John Vance Cheney, Joseph I. C. Clarke, Virginia Woodward Cloud, Florence Earle Coates, Kinahan Cornwallis, F. Marion Crawford, Mrs. Ernest Crosby (for Ernest Crosby), Caroline Duer, Barrett Eastman, Francis Miles Finch, Hamlin Garland, Joseph D. Gilder, Richard Watson Gilder, Arthur Guiterman, Sharlot M. Hall, Edward Everett Hale, William Hamilton Hayne (for himself and Paul Hamilton Hayne), Caroline Hazard, Rupert Hughes, Minna Irving, Thomas A. Janvier, Tudor Jenks, John Howard Jewett, Robert Underwood Johnson, Walter Learned, Robert Loveman, Charles F. Lummis, Ernest McGaffey, Edwin Markham, John James Meehan, Lloyd Mifflin, William Vaughn Moody, Thomas Nelson Page, Mrs. John W. Palmer (for John Williamson Palmer), John James Piatt, Wallace Rice, Laura E. Richards, Edwin Arlington Robinson, James Jeffrey Roche, John Jerome Rooney, Alfred D. Runyon, Charles Edward Russell, Clinton Scollard, Mrs. Katherine Brownlee Sherwood, Lewis Worthington Smith, Joseph Russell Taylor, Richard H. Titherington, William Henry Venable, Robert Burns Wilson.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE FOR NEW EDITION

The Editor is indebted to the following authors and publishers for permission to use the poems mentioned, all rights in which are reserved:

Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews: "A Call to Arms."

Robert Bridges: "To the United States of America."

Dana Burnet: "Marching Song."

Amelia Josephine Burr: "Pershing at the Tomb of Lafayette."

Witter Bynner (by Anne L. Wellington): "Republic to Republic."

Eleanor Rogers Cox: "The Return."

George H. Doran Company: "The White Ships and the Red," from Main Street, and Other Poems, by Joyce Kilmer, copyright 1917.

John Chipman Farrar: "Brest Left Behind," from Contemporary Verse.

Richard Butler Glaenzer: "A Ballad of Redhead's Day."

Daniel Henderson: "The Road to France."

Houghton Mifflin Company: "Victory Bells," from Wilderness Songs, by Grace Hazard Conkling.

Robert Underwood Johnson: "To the Returning Brave."

Aline Kilmer (for Joyce Kilmer): "The White Ships and the Red," "Rouge Bouquet."

Richard Le Gallienne: "After the War."

Vachel Lindsay: "Abraham Lincoln walks at Midnight."

J. Corson Miller: "Epicedium."

Randall Parrish: "Your Lad and My Lad."

Clinton Scollard: "The First Three," "The Unreturning."

Charles Scribner's Sons: "A Call to Arms," by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews; "Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen for France," by Alan Seeger; "Mare Liberum," by Henry van Dyke.

Marion Couthouy Smith: "The Star," "King of the Belgians."

Henry van Dyke: "Mare Liberum."

Willard Wattles: "The Family of Nations."

George Edward Woodberry: "Sonnets written in the Fall of 1914."

TO

E. B. S.

HELPMATE

[xi]

One who underrates the significance of our literature, prose or verse, as both the expression and stimulant of national feeling, as of import in the past and to the future of America, and therefore of the world, is deficient in that critical insight which can judge even of its own day unwarped by personal taste or deference to public impression. He shuts his eyes to the fact that at times, notably throughout the years resulting in the Civil War, this literature has been a "force."—Edmund Clarence Stedman.

INTRODUCTION

The poetry relating to American history falls naturally into two classes: that written, so to speak, from the inside, on the spot, and that written from the outside, long afterwards. Of the first class, "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the most famous example, as well as perhaps the best. Even at this distant day, reading it with a knowledge of the circumstances which produced it, it has a power of touching the heart and gripping the imagination which goes far toward proving the genuineness of its art. Of the second class, "Paul Revere's Ride" is probably the most widely known, though Mr. Longfellow's own "Ballad of the French Fleet" is a better poem.

It is evident that, in compiling an anthology such as this, different standards must be used in judging these two classes. The first, aside from any quality as poetry which it may have, is of value because of its historical or political interest, because it is an expression and an interpretation of the hour which gave it birth. With it, poetic merit is not the first consideration, which is, perhaps, as well. Yet, however slight their merit as poetry may be, many of the early ballads possess an admirable energy, directness, and aptness of phrase, and there is about them a childlike simplicity impossible of reproduction in this sophisticated age—as where Stephen Tilden, in his epitaph on Braddock, requests the great commanders who have preceded that unfortunate soldier to the grave to

"Edge close and give him room."

With the retrospective ballad, on the other hand, poetic merit is a sine qua non. It has little value historically, however accurate its facts. It differs from the contemporary ballad in the same way that the "New Canterbury Tales" differ from Froissart; or as the "Idylls of the King" differ from "Le Morte Arthur." It is less authentic, less convincing, less vital. It may have atmosphere, but there is no infallible way of telling whether the atmosphere is right. Unless it is something more, then, than mere metrical history, the modern ballad has little claim to consideration.

These are the two principles which the present compiler has had constantly in mind. Yet the second principle has been violated more than once, since, in a collection such as this, one must cut one's coat according to the cloth; or, rather, one must make sure that one is decently covered, though the covering may here and there be somewhat inferior in quality. So it has been necessary, in order to keep the thread of history unbroken, to admit some strands anything but silken; and if the choice has sometimes been of ills, rather than of goods, the compiler can only hope that he chose wisely.

[xii]

The most difficult and trying portion of his task has been, not to get his material together, but to compress it into reasonable limits. Especially in the colonial period was the temptation great to include more early American verse. Peter Folger's "A Looking-Glass for the Times," Benjamin Tompson's "New England's Crisis," Michael Wigglesworth's "God's Controversy with New England," the "Sot-Weed Factor," and many others, which it is recalling an old sorrow to name here, were excluded only after long and bitter debate. No doubt other exclusions will be noticed by nearly every reader of the volume—and it may interest him to know that the material gathered together would have made four such books as this.

The thread of narrative upon which the poems have been strung together has been made as slight as possible, just strong enough to carry the reader understandingly from one poem to the next. The notes, too, have been limited to the explanation of such allusions as are not likely to be found in the ordinary works of reference, with here and there an account of the circumstances which caused the lines to be written, or an indication of source, where the source is unusual. Every available source has been drawn upon—the works of all the better known and many of the minor American and English poets, anthologies, newspaper collections, magazines, collections of Americana and especially of broadsides—in a word, American and English poetry generally.

In this connection, the compiler wishes to make grateful acknowledgment of the assistance he has received on every hand, especially from Mr. Herbert Putnam and Miss Margaret McGuffey, of the Library of Congress; Mr. N. D. C. Hodges, librarian of the Cincinnati, Ohio, Public Library; Mr. C. B. Galbreath, librarian of the Ohio State Library; Mr. Charles F. Lummis, librarian of the Los Angeles, California, Public Library; Dr. Edward Everett Hale, Mr. William Henry Venable, Mr. Isaac R. Pennypacker, Mr. Arthur Guiterman, and Mr. Wallace Rice. He might add that it is a matter of deep personal gratification to him that in no instance has any author refused to permit the use of his work in this collection. On the contrary, many of them have been most helpful in suggestions.

A special effort has been made to secure accuracy of text,—no light task, especially with the early ballads. Where the text varied, as was often the case, that has been followed which seemed to have the greater authority, except that obvious misprints have been corrected. In this, the compiler has had the coöperation of The Riverside Press, and has had frequent occasion to admire the care and knowledge of the corrector and his assistants.

B. E. S.

Chillicothe, Ohio, July 23, 1908.

[xiii]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[1]

PART I
THE COLONIAL PERIOD

[2]

AMERICA

[3]

POEMS OF AMERICAN HISTORY

CHAPTER I

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

Bjarni, son of Herjulf, speeding westward from Iceland in 986, to spend the Yuletide in Greenland with his father, encountered foggy weather and steered by guesswork for many days. At last he sighted land, but a land covered with dense woods,—not at all the land of fiords and glaciers he was seeking. So, without stopping, he turned his prow to the north, and ten days later was telling his story to the listening circle before the blazing logs in his father's house at Brattahlid. The tale came, in time, to the ears of Leif, the famous son of Red Eric, and in the year 1000 he set out from Greenland, with a crew of thirty-five, in search of the strange land to the south. He reached the barren coast of Labrador and named it Helluland, or "slate-land;" south of it was a coast so densely wooded that he named it Markland, or "woodland." At last he ran his ship ashore at a spot where "a river, issuing from a lake, fell into the sea." Wild grapes abounded, and he named the country Vinland.

THE STORY OF VINLAND[1]

From "Psalm of the West"

Leif and his crew spent the winter in Vinland, and in the following spring took back to Greenland news of the pleasant country they had discovered. Other voyages followed, but the newcomers became embroiled with the natives, who attacked them in such numbers that all projects of colonization were abandoned; and finally, in 1012, the Norsemen sailed away forever from this land of promise.

THE NORSEMEN

[On a fragment of statue found at Bradford.]

[6]

This, in mere outline, is the story of Vinland, as told in the Icelandic Chronicle. Of its substantial accuracy there can be little doubt. Many proofs of Norse occupation have been found on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. The "skeleton in armor," however, which was unearthed in 1835 near Fall River, Mass., was probably that of an Indian.

THE SKELETON IN ARMOR

The centuries passed, and no more of the white-skinned race came to the New World. But a new era was at hand; the day drew near when a little fleet was to put out from Spain and turn its prows westward on the grandest voyage the world has ever known.

PROPHECY

From "Il Morgante Maggiore"

1485

About 1436 a son was born to Dominico Colombo, wool-comber, of Genoa, and in due time christened Cristoforo. Of his boyhood little is known save that he early went to sea. About 1470 he followed his brother Bartholomew to Lisbon, and in 1474 he was given a map by Toscanelli, the Florentine astronomer, showing Japan and the Indies directly west of Portugal, together with a long letter in which Toscanelli explained his reasons for believing that by sailing west one could reach the East. Columbus, studying the problem month by month, became convinced of the feasibility of such a route to the Indies, and determined himself to traverse it.

THE INSPIRATION

From "The West Indies"

In 1484 Columbus laid his plan before King John II, of Portugal, but became so disgusted with his treachery and double-dealing, that he left Portugal and entered the service of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Spanish monarchs listened to him with attention, and ordered that the greatest astronomers and cosmographers of the kingdom should assemble at Salamanca and pass upon the feasibility of the project.

COLUMBUS

[January, 1487]

The council convened at Salamanca and examined Columbus; but it presented to him an almost impenetrable wall of bigotry and prejudice. Long delays and adjournments followed; and for three years the suppliant was put off with excuses and evasions. At last, worn out with waiting and anxiety, he appealed to Ferdinand to give him a definite answer.

COLUMBUS TO FERDINAND

[January, 1491]

Early in 1491 the council of Salamanca reported that the proposed enterprise was vain and impossible of execution, and Ferdinand accepted the decision. Indignant at thought of the years he had wasted, Columbus started for Paris, to lay his plan before the King of France. He was accompanied by his son, Diego, and stopped one night at the convent of La Rabida, near Palos, to ask for food and shelter. The prior, Juan Perez de Marchena, became interested in his project, detained him, and finally secured for him another audience of Isabella.

COLUMBUS AT THE CONVENT

[July, 1491]

Isabella and Ferdinand were with their army before Granada, and received Columbus well; but his demands for emoluments and honors in the event of success were pronounced absurd; the negotiations were broken off, and again Columbus started for France. The few converts to his theories were in despair, and one of them, Luis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues of Aragon, obtained an audience of the Queen, and enkindled her patriotic spirit. When Ferdinand still hesitated, she exclaimed, "I undertake the enterprise for my own crown of Castile. I will pledge my jewels to raise the money that is needed!" Santangel assured her that he himself was ready to provide the money, and advanced seventeen thousand florins from the coffers of Aragon, so that Ferdinand really paid for the expedition, after all.

THE FINAL STRUGGLE

From "The New World"

[January 6—April 17, 1492]

With the greatest difficulty, Columbus managed to secure three little vessels, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Niña, and to enlist about a hundred and twenty men for the enterprise. Early in the morning of Friday, August 3, 1492, this tiny fleet sailed out from Palos and turned their prows to the west.

STEER, BOLD MARINER, ON!

[August 3, 1492]

The fleet reached the Canaries without misadventure, but when the shores of Ferro sank from sight, the sailors gave themselves up for lost. Their terror increased day by day; the compass behaved strangely, the boats became entangled in vast meadows of floating seaweed; and finally the trade-winds wafted them so steadily westward that they became convinced they could never return. By October 4 there were ominous signs of mutiny, and finally, on the 11th, affairs reached a crisis.

THE TRIUMPH[2]

From "Psalm of the West"

[Dawn, October 12, 1492]

At daybreak of Friday, October 12 (N. S. October 22), the boats were lowered and Columbus, with a large part of his company, went ashore, wild with exultation. They found that they were on a small island, and Columbus named it San Salvador. It was one of the Bahamas, but which one is not certainly known.

COLUMBUS

Columbus reached Spain again on March 15, 1493, and at once sent word of his arrival to Ferdinand and Isabella, who were at Barcelona. He was summoned to appear before them and was received with triumphal honors. The King and Queen arose at his approach, directed him to seat himself in their presence, and listened with intense interest to his story of the voyage. When he had finished, they sank to their knees, as did all present, and thanked God for this mark of his favor.

THE THANKSGIVING FOR AMERICA

[Barcelona, April, 1493]

Royal favor is capricious and Columbus had his full share of enemies at court. These, in the end, succeeded in gaining the King's ear; Columbus was arrested in San Domingo and sent back to Spain in chains. Isabella ordered them struck off, and promised him that he should be reimbursed for his losses and restored to all his dignities; but the promise was never kept.

COLUMBUS IN CHAINS

[August, 1500]

[18]

On November 7, 1504, Columbus landed in Spain after a fourth voyage to America, during which he had endured sufferings and privations almost beyond description. He was a broken man, and the last blow was the death of Isabella, nineteen days after he reached Seville. Her death left him without patron or protector, and the last eighteen months of his life were spent in sickness and poverty. He died at Valladolid, May 20, 1506.

COLUMBUS DYING

[May 20, 1506]

COLUMBUS

COLUMBUS AND THE MAYFLOWER

CHAPTER II

IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS

The news of Columbus's discoveries soon spread through western Europe, and in May, 1497, John Cabot sailed from Bristol, England, in the Matthew, and discovered what he supposed to be the Chinese coast on June 24. The thrifty Henry VII gave him the sum of £10 as a reward for this achievement. Cabot was the first European since the vikings to set foot on the North American continent.

THE FIRST VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT

[1497]

Colonies were planted by the Spaniards in Cuba and Hispaniola, but the New World continued to be for them a land of wonder and mystery. They were quite ready to believe any marvel,—among others, that somewhere to the north lay an island named Bimini, on which was a fountain whose waters gave perpetual youth to all who bathed therein.

THE LEGEND OF WAUKULLA

[1513]

In 1512 Juan Ponce de Leon received a grant to discover and settle this fabulous island. He sailed from Porto Rico in search of it in March, 1513, and found an island but no fountain. Pushing on, he discovered the mainland March 27, and, on April 2, landed and took possession of the country for the King of Spain, calling it Florida.

THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

A DREAM OF PONCE DE LEON

[1513]