| |
(From Christopher Columbus)
IT was a land unmarred by art, | |
| To please the eye and cheer the heart: | |
| The natives’ simple huts were seen | |
| Peeping their palmy groves between,— | |
| Groves, where each dome of sweepy leaves | 5 |
| In air of morning gently heaves, | |
| And, as the deep vans fall and rise, | |
| Changes its richly verdant dyes; | |
| A land whose simple sons till now | |
| Had scarcely seen a careful brow; | 10 |
| They spent at will each passing day | |
| In lightsome toil or active play. | |
| Some their light canoes were guiding, | |
| Along the shore’s sweet margin gliding. | |
| Some in the sunny sea were swimming, | 15 |
| The bright waves o’er their dark forms gleaming; | |
| Some on the beach for shell-fish stooping, | |
| Or on the smooth sand gayly trooping; | |
| Or in linked circles featly dancing | |
| With golden braid and bracelet glancing. | 20 |
| By sheltered door were infants creeping, | |
| Or on the shaded herbage sleeping; | |
| Gay feathered birds the air were winging, | |
| And parrots on their high perch swinging, | |
| While humming-birds, like sparks of light, | 25 |
| Twinkled and vanished from the sight. | |
| |
