COSMOS, VOL. II - World eBook Library
COSMOS, VOL. II - World eBook Library COSMOS, VOL. II - World eBook Library
DESCRIPTIONS OF NATUEE BY COLUMBUS. 421 the persecutions which he had to encounter, into a feeling of melancholy and morbid enthusiasm. In the heroic ages of the Portuguese and Castilian races it was not thirst for gold alone, as has been asserted from ignorance of the national character at that period, but rather a general spirit of daring, that led to the prosecution of distant voyages. The names of Hayti, Cubagua, and Darien, acted on the imaginations of men in the beginning of the sixteenth century in the same manner as those of Tinian and Otaheite have done in more recent times, since Anson and Cook. If the narrations of far distant lands then drew the youth of the and Southern Ger- Spanish peninsula, Flanders, Lombardy, many, to rally around the victorious standard of an imperial leader on the ridges of the Andes, or the burning plains of Uraba and Coro, the milder influence of a more modern civilisation, when all portions of the earth's surface were more generally accessible, gave other motives and directions to the restless longing for distant travels. A passionate love of the study of nature, which originated chiefly in the north, glowed in the breast of all ; intellectual expansion of views became associated with enlargement of knowledge ; whilst the poetic and sentimental tone of feeling, peculiar to the epoch of which we speak, has, since the close of the last century, been identified with literary compositions, whose forms were unknown to former ages. On casting a retrospective glance on the great discoveries which prepared the way for this modern tone of feeling, our attention is especially attracted by the descriptions of nature which we owe to the pen of Columbus. It is only recently that we have been in possession of his own ship's journal, his letters to the Chancellor Sanchez, to the Donna Juana de la Torre, governess of the Infant Don Juan, and to Queen Isabella. I have already attempted, in my critical investigation of the history of the geography of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,* to show with what depth of feeling for nature the great discoverer was endowed, and how he described the earth and the new heaven opened to his eyes, (viage nuevo al nuevo cielo i mundo quefasta entonces estaba en occulto,} with a beauty and simplicity of expression which can only be ade- * Humboldt, Examen critique de Vhistoire de la Geographic du nouveau Continent t. iii. pp. 227-248,
422 COSMOS. quately appreciated by those who are conversant with the ancient vigour of the language at the period in which ho wrote. The physiognomy and forms of the vegetation, the impenetrable thickets of the forests " in which one can scarcely distinguish the stems to which the several blossoms and leaves belong," the wild luxuriance of the flowering soil along the humid shores, and the rose-coloured flamingoes which, fishing at early morn at the mouth of the rivers, impart animation to the scenery all in turn arrested the attention of the old mariner as he sailed along the shores of Cuba, between the small Lucayan islands and the Jardinillos, which I too have visited. Each newly discovered land seems to him more beautiful than the one last described, and he deplores his inability to find words in which to express the sweet impressions awakened in his mind. Wholly unacquainted with botany (although, through the influence of Arabian and Jewish physicians, some superficial knowledge of plants had been diffused in Spain), he was led, by a simple love of nature, to individualise all the unknown forms he beheld. Thus, in Cuba alone, he distinguishes seven or eight different species of palms, more beautiful and taller than the date-tree (variedades de palmas superiores a las nuestras en su belleza y altura). He informs his learned friend Anghiera, that he has seen pines and palms (palmeta et pinetd] wonderfully associated together in one and the same plain; and he even so acutely observed the vegetation around him, that he was the first to notice that there were pines 011 the mountains of Cibao, whose fruits are not fir-cones but berries like the olives of the Axarafe de Sevilla; and further, as I have already remarked, Columbus* already separated the genus Podocarpus from the family of Abietineee. " The beauty of the new land," says the discoverer, " far surpasses the Campina de Cordova. The trees are bright, with an ever-verdant foliage, and are always laden with fruit. The plants on the ground are high and flowering. The air is warm as that of April in Castile, and the nightingale sings more melodiously than words can describe. At night the song of other smaller birds resounds sweetly, and I have also heard our grasshoppers and frogs. Once I came to a deeply * See p. 285.
- Page 25 and 26: 370 COSMOS. INCITEMENTS TO THE STUD
- Page 27 and 28: 372 COSMOS. desire to visit the lan
- Page 29 and 30: 374 COSMOS. action, riveted their a
- Page 31 and 32: 376 COSMOS. the stillness of night,
- Page 33 and 34: 378 COSMOS. and fatal passion. Euri
- Page 35 and 36: 380 COSMOS. wooded valley of Tempe,
- Page 37 and 38: S82 COSMOS. That which we miss in t
- Page 39 and 40: 384 cosmos. that account lose any o
- Page 41 and 42: 386 COSMOS. been transmitted to us
- Page 43 and 44: 388 COSMOS. tanian Gaul, the poet h
- Page 45 and 46: 390 COSMOS. nature amongst the Roma
- Page 47 and 48: 392 COSMOS. was adopted as the reli
- Page 49 and 50: 394 COSMOS. the other, all access i
- Page 51 and 52: 896 COSMOS. earlier ages of their n
- Page 53 and 54: 398 COSMOS. selves over the inhospi
- Page 55 and 56: 400 COSMOS. in which the giant mons
- Page 57 and 58: 402 COSMOS. be gifted with voice, f
- Page 59 and 60: 404 COSMOS. schools constitute one
- Page 61 and 62: 406 COSMOS. Indians, and the marked
- Page 63 and 64: 408 COSM08- poetry have perished. I
- Page 65 and 66: 410 COSMOS. and even to attempt a n
- Page 67 and 68: 412 COSMOS. presents the nations of
- Page 69 and 70: 414 COSMOS. generalisation in the c
- Page 71 and 72: 416 COSMOS. desert go to Constantin
- Page 73 and 74: 418 COSMOS. "When the glory of the
- Page 75: 420 COSMOS. When classical literatu
- Page 79 and 80: 424 COSMOS. nature ; thus it is sup
- Page 81 and 82: 426 COSMOS. and the strait where He
- Page 83 and 84: 428 COSMOS*. devoid of animation, b
- Page 85 and 86: 430 COSMOS. treats chiefly of event
- Page 87 and 88: 432 COSMOS. versed in physical inve
- Page 89 and 90: 434 COSMOS, ind Les Voyages a V Ori
- Page 91 and 92: 436 COSMOS. seamen individualise th
- Page 93 and 94: 438 COSMOS. left unemployed, by whi
- Page 95 and 96: 440 COSMOS. LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN I
- Page 97 and 98: 442 COSMOS. of the master-works of
- Page 99 and 100: 444 COSMOS. between Nero and Titus,
- Page 101 and 102: 446 . COSMOS. artists at this epoch
- Page 103 and 104: 448 COSMOS. oranges and laurels, wi
- Page 105 and 106: 450 COSMOS. These studies he himsel
- Page 107 and 108: 452 COSMOS. and how all the spirite
- Page 109 and 110: 454 COSMOS. only with the simpler f
- Page 111 and 112: 456 COSMOS. the greatest contractio
- Page 113 and 114: 458 COSMOS. CULTIVATION OF TROPICAL
- Page 115 and 116: 460 COSMOS. ting effect of the ligh
- Page 117 and 118: 462 COSMOS. guard.* The ancient ado
- Page 119 and 120: 464 COSMOS. so deeply rooted amongs
- Page 121 and 122: 466 COSMOS. HISTORY OF THE PHYSICAL
- Page 123 and 124: 468 COSMOS. often guides almost imp
- Page 125 and 126: 470 COSMOS. speedily established. W
422 <strong>COSMOS</strong>.<br />
quately appreciated by those who are conversant with the<br />
ancient vigour of the language at the period in which ho<br />
wrote.<br />
The physiognomy and forms of the vegetation, the impenetrable<br />
thickets of the forests " in which one can scarcely distinguish<br />
the stems to which the several blossoms and leaves<br />
belong," the wild luxuriance of the flowering soil along the<br />
humid shores, and the rose-coloured flamingoes which, fishing<br />
at early morn at the mouth of the rivers, impart animation to<br />
the scenery all in turn arrested the attention of the old<br />
mariner as he sailed along the shores of Cuba, between the<br />
small Lucayan islands and the Jardinillos, which I too have<br />
visited. Each newly discovered land seems to him more<br />
beautiful than the one last described, and he deplores his<br />
inability to find words in which to express the sweet impressions<br />
awakened in his mind. Wholly unacquainted with<br />
botany (although, through the influence of Arabian and Jewish<br />
physicians, some superficial knowledge of plants had been<br />
diffused in Spain), he was led, by a simple love of nature, to<br />
individualise all the unknown forms he beheld. Thus, in<br />
Cuba alone, he distinguishes seven or eight different species<br />
of palms, more beautiful and taller than the date-tree (variedades<br />
de palmas superiores a las nuestras en su belleza y altura).<br />
He informs his learned friend Anghiera, that he has seen<br />
pines and palms (palmeta et pinetd] wonderfully associated<br />
together in one and the same plain; and he even so acutely<br />
observed the vegetation around him, that he was the first to<br />
notice that there were pines 011 the mountains of Cibao,<br />
whose fruits are not fir-cones but berries like the olives of the<br />
Axarafe de Sevilla; and further, as I have already remarked,<br />
Columbus* already separated the genus Podocarpus from the<br />
family of Abietineee.<br />
" The beauty of the new land," says the discoverer, " far<br />
surpasses the Campina de Cordova. The trees are bright,<br />
with an ever-verdant foliage, and are always laden with fruit.<br />
The plants on the ground are high and flowering. The air is<br />
warm as that of April in Castile, and the nightingale sings<br />
more melodiously than words can describe. At night the<br />
song of other smaller birds resounds sweetly, and I have also<br />
heard our grasshoppers and frogs. Once I came to a deeply<br />
* See p. 285.
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