Attempt > Volume 3

THE ATTEMPT. 69
sharp sting pierces his inmost soul;—he will not fear—he will not misbelieve his
dreams; but what, if the very morrow should not lead them to the land 1 He looks
up in speechless prayer unto the stars—they are all new, unknown; but all stars are
his friends. He looks down from them forward once more, vainly striving to pierce
the darkness. He starts ! Does he dream now ] Do his eyes deceive him, and
transplant the stars 1 He closes them ; he opens them ; it still is there, and redder
and more eai-th-like than any heaven-lit star. It moves along, it must be on some
shore. No phosphorescent gleam or spirit-lamp was this, but a torch thrust in the
hand of his marble statue, Hope—the Pharos-light of a new world. His Utopia then
is found ! His ambition no longer a chimera, altogether vain and impossible. He is
no "vain dreamer" of the night; what will the morning prove?
Faintly the daylight dawns o'er the waters, slowly the mist cloud rolls soft away,
with the speed of the tropics up rushes the sun, and bears across his glowing brow a
pale blue crowning band, and shouts rise out to greet the land, the long-sought, long-
expected land!
And humbled now in joy, many a proud spirit bows, and many a knee bends
low, craving forgiveness, with mutterings of praise and gratitude, before their great
commander, who heeds them not, nor moves his proud eye from the nearing shore.
For the rushing prows haste eagerly on, yet seeming slow to those they bear, to
whose longing eyes are disclosed palm trees, waving their feathery frondes along
the western shore, and other trees, with clustering fruits of brilliant hue; while
beneath them stretched rich verdure to the very shore, on which stood dark browed
men, in savage robes, with golden ornaments most plentifully decked. No murmurs
now, no vain repinings to return, but a glad haste to reach this new found land.
Oh, hope of rest for the weaiy mariners ! Hope of cool springs, and luscious fruit, and
leafy shade ! Hope of a free expanse for voyage-weakened limbs ! Hope of a future,
where immediate happiness and comfort is crowned with a sure prospect of riclies,
and gems, and fame to come ! Upon the unaccustomed air spontaneously there rose a
hymn, a song of praise—and clear, and full, and firm the notes of the " Gloria in
Excelsis" peal over the dancing waters, and die away amid the half circling water
there before. They land; the standard of Spain is placed upon the soil, and the 12th
of October, in that famed year of 1492, changes the heathen Guaualiani into the
Catholic St Salvador; and proves to all men, and all times in the earth, that this proud
glowing enthusiast, this learning-darkened student, was indeed "no vain dreamer."
Let him beware of further dreams, he has won his hope, but his future is very black.
Years, centuries have passed since Christopher Columbus first set his foot upon