While little Wilhelmine looks up And what they killed each other for." 6 "It was the English," Kaspar cried, 7 "My father lived at Blenheim then, So, with his wife and child he fled, 8 "With fire and sword the country round Was wasted far and wide, And many a childing mother there, And new-born baby died; But things like that, you know, must be After the field was won; For many thousand bodies here Lay rotting in the sun; But things like that, you know, must be 10 "Great praise the Duke of Marlbro' won, Said little Wilhelmine. "Nay, nay, my little girl," quoth he, "It was a famous victory. 11 "And everybody praised the Duke "Why, that I cannot tell," said he, "But 't was a famous victory." -Robert Southey. COLUMBUS To read this inspiring poem with the understanding one must think of the dangers of the voyage-of how the sailors thought the sea was filled with awful monsters, of how they threatened to throw Columbus overboard if he did not take them back home, and of the matchless courage of Columbus. These things are best revealed in the journal or diary kept by Columbus. In it he speaks of himself in the third person, as the Admiral, and he begins every day's journal with the simple statement that that day he sailed westward. Then follows an account of the terrors of the trip; but the next day's journal starts off calmly with the statement that that day he sailed westward. No mutiny of the sailors and no horror of the seas could keep him from sailing westward, for that was his course. Joaquin Miller has caught the spirit of the heroic event and put it into stirring rhyme. Here are four brief extracts from the Columbus journal: THURSDAY, Sept. 13, 1492. That day and night, steering their course, which was west, they made 33 leagues. The currents were against them. On this day at the commencement of the night, the needles turned a half point to north-west, and in the morning they turned somewhat more north-west. [Elsewhere he notes that this variation had never been observed by anyone up to that time, and that it caused much consternation among the sailors.] SATURDAY, Sept. 15, 1492. That day and night they made 27 leagues and rather more on their west course; and in the early part of the night there fell from heaven into the sea a marvelous flame of fire, at a distance of about 4 or 5 leagues from them. WEDNESDAY, Oct. 10, 1492. Here the crew could stand He sailed west-southwest. it no longer. They complained of the long voyage, but the Admiral encouraged them as best he could, giving them hopes of the profits they might have. And he added that it was useless to murmur, because he had come in quest of the Indies, and was going to continue until he found them, with God's help. THURSDAY, October 11, 1492. He sailed to the west-southwest, but a high sea, higher than hitherto. The Admiral at ten o'clock at night, standing on the castle of the poop, saw a light, but so indistinct that he did not dare to affirm that it was land; yet he called the attention of Pedro Gutierrez, a king's butler, to it and told him that it seemed to be a light, and told him to look; he did so and saw it. After the Admiral said this it was seen once or twice, and it was like a small wax candle that was being hoisted and raised. The Admiral, however, was quite convinced of the proximity of land. Two COLUMBUS 1 Behind him lay the gray Azores, Behind the Gates of Hercules; Before him not the ghost of shores, Before him only shoreless seas. The good mate said: "Now must we pray, Brave Adm'r'l, speak, what shall I say?" 2 "My men grow mutinous day by day; My men grow ghastly wan and weak." The stout mate thought of home; a spray Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. "What shall I say, brave Adm'r'l, say, If we sight naught but seas at dawn?" "Why, you shall say at break of day: 'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"" They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, For God from these dread seas is gone. 4 They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: "This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. He curls his lip, he lies in wait, With lifted teeth, as if to bite! |