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lightning rapidity he gave orders to cut away the mast and throw the cargo overboard. But the remedy was futile; it was no mere stranding, it was a wreck. With the desertion of the Pinta and the loss of the Santa María, only the smallest and frailest of the three caravels that had set sail from Palos remained. He went on board the Niña, and sent a fresh embassy to Guacanagarí, giving an account of the disaster, while he stood off and on till day broke. When the chief learned the misfortune, he sought in every way to alleviate it, sparing neither means nor sacrifice. Disastrous indeed it was to face such superstitious races, who confided in the prosperity and success of the supernatural, with the slender remnants of such a wreck, which showed how the sea overcomes all created things and bows us all to its sovereign power. But the sentiment of hospitality was uppermost in that faithful tribe and in their kindly monarch. All the succor needed in that sad hour, and all requisite provision for the future, were given to the sufferers with admirable orderliness. The salvage of the wreck was piled on shore and, under the chief's orders, scrupulously guarded by the natives as though it were their own. The cargo was rapidly discharged and stored in a place of safety, without the loss of a pin's point.

were they, to fancy they had tricked the Spaniards in giving gold for dross in that happy age, fitly comparable with the poetic era when riches were despised, and man was content with a handful of acorns and a draught of cool water from the crystal spring. So primitive an age seems impossible so near to our own materialistic times. "Of such cheating," says a monkish writer of twenty years later, "the Spaniards of that time were glad to have more and more day by day"; and I even think that those of our own day would not refuse to be so tricked. Anything of brass captivated their simple fancy. The clink and luster of that metal, joined to its flexibility, so charmed them that they sought it eagerly. They called it turey (heavenly). They offered to take it for their gold. It is needless to say that Columbus, delighted with the readiness of the Indians to give him such wealth as this for mere dross, looked upon his wreck as a heaven-sent blessing. Moreover, the cacique generously invited him to visit his dominions, and the reports of the gold that there abounded gladdened the discoverer's soul. After Guacanagari had supped with Columbus on the Niña, the admiral supped with the chief in his bohio, or village. On those occasions he told him of a place called Cibao, where gold was found strewn upon the earth's surface and freely to be gathered by any comer, for the natives attached no value to it. When the admiral heard the name Cibao, he at once fancied the chief spoke of Cipango, and began to build airy castles, and to suppose himself already arrived in the coveted realm of India. On inquiring of the simple natives in regard to the inhabitants and the characteristics of that region, he understood them, in his confused interpretation of their replies, to complain of their treatment by their Caribbean neighbors, and of their terrible and unnatural voracity. Thus, owing in part to his utter misinterpretation of what they told him, and in part to the fancies of his own fertile mind, he supposed them to speak of a race as perverse in moral nature as deformed in body, having a single eye in the forehead like the fabled Cyclops, a dog's head, and a long tail, and gorging on human flesh and blood. In gratitude for the tidings they gave him of the Cipango of his dreams, Columbus promised the potent aid of his sovereigns against the Caribs, and rich rewards for the gold they offered. Thereupon he set before them the advantages of such a civilization as the Spaniards possessed, and the benefits to flow to them from its adoption. In order to demonstrate this, he put a shirt on the back of his savage friend, and a pair of gloves on his hands. Custom has decreed that the raiment shall be adapted to the form, and hence an ill-fitting garment is ridiculous in our

On December 26, Guacanagarí visited Columbus, and, finding him much cast down, renewed his assurances of friendly aid. The discoverer thanked him heartily, and accepted his proffered assistance in furtherance of his continued discoveries. As there is no evil unfraught with good, this setback greatly aided the discoverer's plans by giving him information on which to base new explorations, and by affording him the means of cementing friendship with the natives. Indeed, scarcely had the chief regretfully quitted him when other Indians came out in a canoe, bringing gold in barter for hawk-bells. Being but degree above nature, the Indians were attracted by all that appealed to their senses, and enjoyed the cheery tinkle of the cascabels, being used to the much less musical rattling of pebbles in a hollow stem. The chroniclers of that time mention how the Indians mingled our strange words with their native speech, as primitive and instinctive as the first chirpings of nestling birds or the bleating of nursling lambs. "Chuca, chuca, cascabeles!" they cried, begging those gay and useless baubles with all a child's eagerness. It is narrated that some of them, bringing bits of gold to exchange for hawk-bells, gave up the priceless treasure as of little worth, and snatched the worthless toys, with which they hurried away, looking anxiously back as though fearing the Spaniard might repent his bargain. Simple creatures, and to be envied,

sight. Most laughable, then, must have been the design that the fort was soon raised before the appearance of the chief, framed for the air the eyes of those docile tribes in the bosom of and light of freedom, and belonging by nature that virgin land. It was called by Columbus to the animal and vegetative life about him, Fort Nativity, in memory of the day of the when thus arrayed in the vesture appropriate wreck. This act of taking possession, far from to the highest civilization, but wholly at odds dismaying the enslaved, only strengthened with the man as he was. Fancy an ape in their loyalty to their conqueror, while it served human attire, and you have this savage, be- Columbus as a means of inaugurating the conshirted and begloved after the Spanish fashion. quest and disposing of a crowd of sailors whom Some idea of the primitive life of those Indians he could not well transport back to Spain, havmay be formed from the fact that they pos- ing only the smallest of the caravels left to him, sessed no weapons of any kind, if we are to besides insuring him willing recruits in Spain credit what Columbus wrote in his journal for to join their predecessors who had so willingly the information of his sovereigns. This is some- remained in Haïti. The friendly disposition what at variance with what he elsewhere says of the Haïtians increased with their daily about the constant warfare between the Haï- intercourse. The cacique's brother took the tian and Caribbean tribes; but as Columbus discoverer to his hut, a large structure with is the sole witness of the facts of the discovery, hangings of plaited palm-leaves called yaguas, and as we have no evidence but his, we must where he treated him with much ceremony, perforce believe him. He adds that, the more and reverently seated him on a long wooden to astonish them, he sent to the caravel for a settle, as big as a bed and black and polished Turkish bow and Castilian arrows, and when as jet. The cacique, being informed by his one of the crew showed their use, these chil- brother of the visit of Columbus, repaired to dren of nature looked upon them as miracles. the hut, and, after saluting his honored guest, Their amazement became terror on hearing hung about his neck an ornament of gold. It the roar of the cannon and the rattle of the is superfluous to describe the delight of Colummuskets, fired by way of salute, and sounding bus. The honors paid him did not stop here. in their untutored ears like the awful crash of Other caciques being subject to Guacanagari, thunder in the storm. They fell upon the he speedily assembled them and led them to ground, with cries and signs of terror, as the admiral's presence, all like himself wearing though themselves smitten with death. No crowns; whereupon he, their natural chief, wonder, then, seeing and hearing these things, took off the golden circlet from his brows and that they believed in the divinity of him who set it on the newcomer's head in recognition could thus control the lightning and the thun- of his supernatural authority. In return for his derbolt. The fair skin, the look of command, gold, Columbus set strings of glass beads on the glistening armor, the manly beard, the the neck of the cacique, a fine woolen cloak flashing sword, the death-dealing carbine, all upon his shoulders, a silver ring on his finger, were so manifestly beyond aught they knew, and red buskins on his feet, to the intense deas to render supernatural and divine in their light of the poor deluded creature, who prized eyes these strangers cast up by the celestial and solitary ocean. So, therefore, the Haïtians knelt before the Spaniards and hailed them as their natural masters. To them any guest was sacred; how much more, then, these superhuman visitants? Columbus deemed his moral conquest of those Indians complete. Nothing more appropriate, then, than to seal it by some striking and visible sign, a castle or fortress, for example, the effective symbol of sovereignty in feudal and monarchical Europe. The timbers of the wreck served for this purpose, and the Indians so diligently helped to carry out

these gauds above all earthly riches.

After receiving this vassal tribute to the mastery of the Spaniards, Columbus deemed it high time to return, and to give in person to his sovereigns an authentic account of his discoveries, as well to enable him to continue in the favor he had won as to induce them to follow up and perfect the enterprise with ampler means than those he had brought from the peninsula, and which were now much reduced by the mishaps incident to his voyage, although, by divine grace, the outcome had been most fortunate.

Emilio Castelar.

COLUMBIA'S EMBLEM.

LAZON Columbia's emblem,

BLA

The bounteous, golden Corn!
Eons ago, of the great sun's glow
And the joy of the earth, 't was born.
From Superior's shore to Chili,

From the ocean of dawn to the west,
With its banners of green and tasseled sheen,
It sprang at the sun's behest;

And by dew and shower, from its natal hour,
With honey and wine 't was fed,

Till the gods were fain to share with men
The perfect feast outspread.

For the rarest boon to the land they loved
Was the Corn so rich and fair,

Nor star nor breeze o'er the farthest seas
Could find its like elsewhere.

In their holiest temples the Incas
Offered the heaven-sent maize—
Grains wrought of gold, in a silver fold,
For the sun's enraptured gaze;

And its harvest came to the wandering tribes
As the gods' own gift and seal;

And Montezuma's festal bread

Was made of its sacred meal.

Narrow their cherished fields; but ours

Are broad as the continent's breast,

And, lavish as leaves and flowers, the sheaves
Bring plenty and joy and rest.

For they strew the plains and crowd the wains
When the reapers meet at morn,

Till blithe cheers ring and west winds sing
A song for the garnered Corn.

The rose may bloom for England,
The lily for France unfold;
Ireland may honor the shamrock,
Scotland her thistle bold:

But the shield of the great Republic,

The glory of the West,

Shall bear a stalk of the tasseled Corn,

Of all our wealth the best.

The arbutus and the goldenrod

The heart of the North may cheer,

And the mountain-laurel for Maryland
Its royal clusters rear;

And jasmine and magnolia

The crest of the South adorn: But the wide Republic's emblem

Is the bounteous, golden Corn!

Edna Dean Proctor.

CLAUDE MONET.

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HEN the group of painters known as impressionists exhibited together for the first time twelve or fifteen years ago, they were greeted with much derision. In fact they were hardly taken seriously, being regarded either as mountebanks or as poseurs who served the purpose of furnishing the quickwitted but not infallible Parisians with something to laugh at once a year. But they have seen their influence increase steadily in a remarkable manner, first, as is always the case, with the painters, and latterly with the public. It is a very superficial observer who sees in the impressionists only a body of bad or inefficient painters who would attract attention at any cost except that of study. The sum total of talent represented by MM. Manet, Degas, Monet, Pizarro, Caillebotte, Sisley, Renoir, Mlle. Berthe Morisot, and the American Miss Cassatt, not to mention others, is very considerable. Of course there have appeared the men of small talent with their little invention, who have tacked themselves on to the movement, notably the genius who imagined the fly-speck or dot facture, while streaks and stripes have been considered a part of the new school's baggage. All this does not take away from the fact that the influence of the movement has been a healthy and much-needed one. It is to be thanked first, of course, for its independence and revolt from routine, the chic and habileté of the schools; next for its voice in behalf of pure, bright color and light, things of which painters as well as the public are more or less afraid. That refined color must necessarily be dull color; that one should not paint up too near white; that one should "husband his resources"; and that if any qualities must be sacrificed, let those be color and air-all these theories have been stoutly and efficiently combated by the impressionists.

Of them all M. Claude Monet is the most aggressive, forceful painter, the one whose work is influencing its epoch the most. If he has not, as M. Guy de Maupassant says with enthusiasm,

"discovered the art of painting," he has certainly painted moving waters, skies, air, and sunlight with a vividness and truth before unknown. Though occasionally painting indoors, he is, in my opinion, most original as an open-air painter, and he has scored his greatest success in that line. No one has given us quite such realism. Individual, and with the courage of his opinions from the first, his work, while remaining substantially the same in intention, has become larger and freer. In the beginning there was a visible influence of Corot, and certain mannerisms which have disappeared with increasing years. Superbly careless of facture, or at least with no preoccupation in that direction, he has arrived at that greatest of all factures, large, solid, and intangible, which best suggests the mystery of nature. And all painters working in the true impressionist spirit, absorbed by their subject, must feel that neat workmanship is not merely not worth the while, but is out of the question. "No man can serve two masters," and this noble indifference to facture comes sooner or later to all great painters of air, sea, and sky.

Most painters have been struck by the charm of a sketch done from nature at a sitting, a charm coming from the oneness of effect, the instantaneousness seldom seen in the completed landscape, as understood by the studio landscape-painter. M. Claude Monet was the first to imagine the possibility of obtaining this truth and charm on a fair-sized canvas with qualities and drawing unattainable in the small sketch. He found it attainable by working with method at the same time of day and not too long, never for more than an hour. Frequently he will be carrying on at the same time fifteen or twenty canvases. It is untrue that he is a painter of clever, large pochades. The canvas that does not go beyond the pochade state never leaves his studio, and the completed pictures are painted over many times.

Though these details may be of some interest, it is, of course, the spiritual side of the painter's work that is really worth dwelling on. M. Claude Monet's art is vital, robust, healthy. Like Corot's, but in more exuberant fashion, it shows the joy of living. It does not lack thought, and many of his pictures are painted with difficulty; but there is never that mysterious something

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