COLUMBUS* JOAQUIN MILLER Behind him lay the gray Azores, Behind, the Gates of Hercules; 5 The good mate said: "Now must we pray, 10 Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?" "My men grow mutinous day by day; My men grow ghastly wan and weak." Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. If we sight naught but seas at dawn?" They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, "Why, now not even God would know *Permission to print granted by Harr Wagner Publishing Co., publishers of Joaquin Miller's poems. Should I and all my men fall dead. For God from these dread seas is gone; Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say"- They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: With lifted teeth, as if to bite! 10 Brave Admiral, say but one good word; 15 Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, And peered through darkness. Ah, that night A light! A light! A light! A light! It grew to be Time's burst of dawn. Biography. NOTES AND QUESTIONS Cincinnatus Heine Miller was born in Wabash District, Indiana, in 1841. When about thirteen he went to the Willamette Valley, Oregon, to live. Later he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Canyon City. He wrote a defense of the Mexican brigand, Joaquin Murietta, and adopted his first name as a pseudonym. After traveling in Europe, he published his first volume of poems, Songs of the Sierras. Discussion. 1. Do you like the way this poem begins? 2. Why did not the poet begin at the beginning of the voyage? 3. What are the Gates of Hercules? 4. To whom did the mate expect to repeat what Columbus said? 5. How had a crew been secured for this voyage? 6. How did the men stand the test of the voyage? 7. What report of them did the mate give to Columbus? 8. What did he want Columbus to do if they should "sight naught but seas at dawn"? 9. What made the mate think that God had gone from those seas? 10. When did the events narrated in the fourth stanza take place? 11. What is the last question asked by the mate? How did Columbus answer the question? 12. What thought does the "leaping sword" give you? 13. Does the description of Columbus with which the last stanza opens seem in contrast with the "leaping sword"? 14. What did Columbus see that night? 15. What did that light tell him? 16. What does the poet mean when he says "It grew"? 17. What is the "star-lit flag"? 18. What lesson did he teach that world? 19. How has the poet made us feel the wonder, the triumph, and the thankfulness of Columbus when the light appeared? 20. Why does the poet stop at this point? 21. Find in the Glossary: very; blanched; dread. 22. Pronounce: Joaquin. Leaving the unsuspecting Heyward and his confiding companions to penetrate still deeper into a forest that contained such treacherous inmates, we must use an author's privilege and shift the scene a few miles to the westward of the place where we have 5 last seen them. On that day, two men were lingering on the banks of a small but rapid stream, within an hour's journey of the encampment of Webb, like those who awaited the appearance of an absent person or the approach of some expected event. The vast canopy of 1 woods spread itself to the margin of the river, overhanging the water and shadowing its dark current with a deeper hue. The rays of the sun were beginning to grow less fierce, and the intense heat of the day was lessened, as the cooler vapors of the springs and fountains rose above their leafy beds and rested in the atmosphere. Still, that breathing silence which marks the drowsy sultriness of an American landscape in July pervaded the secluded spot, 5 interrupted only by the low voices of the men, the occasional and lazy tap of a woodpecker, the discordant cry of some gaudy jay, or a swelling on the ear from the dull roar of a distant waterfall. These feeble and broken sounds were, however, too familiar to the foresters to draw their attention from the more interesting 10 matter of their dialogue. While one of these loiterers showed the red skin and wild accouterments of a native of the woods, the other exhibited, through the mask of his rude and nearly savage equipments, the brighter, though sunburned and long-faded complexion of one who might claim descent from a European paren15 tage. The former was seated on the end of a mossy log, in a posture that permitted him to heighten the effect of his earnest language by the calm but expressive gestures of an Indian engaged in debate. His body, which was nearly naked, presented a terrific emblem of death, drawn in intermingled colors of white 20 and black. His closely shaved head, on which no other hair than the well-known and chivalrous scalping-tuft was preserved, was without ornament of any kind, with the exception of a solitary eagle's plume that crossed his crown and depended over the left shoulder. A tomahawk and scalping-knife, of English manufac25 ture, were in his girdle, while a short military rifle, of that sort with which the policy of the whites armed their savage allies, lay carelessly across his bare and sinewy knee. The expanded chest, full-formed limbs, and grave countenance of this warrior would denote that he had reached the vigor of his days, though no 30 symptoms of decay appeared yet to have weakened his manhood. The frame of the white man, judging by such parts as were not concealed by his clothes, was like that of one who had known hardships and exertion from his earliest youth. His person, though muscular, was rather attenuated than full; but every nerve 35 and muscle appeared strung and indurated by unremitted exposure and toil. He wore a hunting-shirt of forest green, fringed with faded yellow, and a summer cap of skins which had been shorn of their fur. He also bore a knife in a girdle of wampum, like that which confined the scanty garments of the Indian, but no tomahawk. His moccasins were ornamented after the gay fashion of the natives, while the only part of his underdress which 5 appeared below the hunting-frock was a pair of buckskin leggings that laced at the sides, and which were gartered above the knees with the sinews of a deer. A pouch and horn completed his personal accouterments, though a rifle of great length, which the theory of the more ingenious whites had taught them was the 10 most dangerous of all firearms, leaned against a neighboring sapling. The eye of the hunter, or scout, whichever he might be, was small, quick, keen, and restless, roving while he spoke, on every side of him, as if in quest of game or distrusting the sudden approach of some lurking enemy. Notwithstanding the symp15 toms of habitual suspicion, his countenance was not only without guile, but at the moment at which he is introduced it was charged with an expression of sturdy honesty. "Even your traditions make the case in my favor, Chingachgook," he said, speaking in the tongue which was known to all 20 the natives whe formerly inhabited the country between the Hudson and the Potomac, and of which we shall give a free translation for the benefit of the reader, endeavoring, at the same time, to preserve some of the peculiarities, both of the individual and of the language. "Your fathers came from the setting sun, crossed 25 the big river, fought the people of the country, and took the land; and mine came from the red sky of the morning, over the salt lake, and did their work much after the fashion that had been set them by yours; then let God judge the matter between us, and friends spare their words!" 30 "My fathers fought with the naked red man!" returned the Indian sternly, in the same language. "Is there no difference, Hawkeye, between the stone-headed arrow of the warrior and the leaden bullet with which you kill?" "There is reason in an Indian, though nature has made him 35 with a red skin!" said the white man, shaking his head like one on whom such an appeal to his justice was not thrown away. For a moment he appeared to be conscious of having the worst of |