With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.
Th' unwearied Sun from day to day
Does his Creator's power display;
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty hand.
Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The Moon takes up the wondrous tale;
And nightly to the listening Earth
Repeats the story of her birth:
Whilst all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
What though in solemn silence all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball;
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid their radiant orbs be found?
In Reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice;
Forever singing as they shine,
"The Hand that made us is divine."
Addison
JUNE
--What is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;
The flush of life may well be seen
Thrilling back over hills and valleys;
The cowslip startles in meadows green,
The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,
And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean
To be some happy creature's palace;
The little bird sits at his door in the sun,
Atilt like a blossom among the leaves,
And lets his illumined being o'errun
With the deluge of summer it receives;
His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,
And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,--
In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?
Now is the high-tide of the year,
And whatever of life hath ebbed away
Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer,
Into every bare inlet and creek and bay;
Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it,
We are happy now because God wills it;
No matter how barren the past may have been,
'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green;
We sit in the warm shade and feel right well
How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell;
We may shut our eyes, but we cannot help knowing
That skies are clear and grass is growing;
The breeze comes whispering in our ear,
That dandelions are blossoming near,
That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing,
That the river is bluer than the sky,
That the robin is plastering his house hard by;
And if the breeze kept the good news back,
For other couriers we should not lack;
We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing.--
And hark! how clear bold chanticleer,
Warmed with the new wine of the year,
Tells all in his lusty crowing!
Lowell
THE FIFTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD THE SAILOR
All the troubles and calamities I had undergone could not cure me of my
inclination to make new voyages. I therefore bought goods, departed with
them for the best seaport, and there, that I might not be obliged to
depend upon a captain, but have a ship at my own command, I remained
till one was built on purpose at my own charge. When the ship was ready,
I went on board with my goods: but not having enough to load her, I
agreed to take with me several merchants of different nations, with
their merchandise.
We sailed with the first fair wind, and after a long navigation the
first place we touched at was a desert island, where we found an egg of
a roc, equal in size to that I saw on a former voyage, fifty paces
round, and shining as a great white dome when seen even from afar. There
was a young roc in it, just ready to be hatched, and its bill had begun
to appear.
The merchants whom I had taken on board, and who landed with me, broke
the egg with hatchets, and having made a hole in it, pulled out the
young roc piecemeal and roasted it. I had earnestly entreated them not
to meddle with the egg, but they would not listen to me.
Scarcely had they finished their repast, when there appeared in the air,
at a considerable distance from us, two great clouds. The captain whom I
had hired to navigate my ship, knowing by experience what they meant,
said they were the male and female roc that belonged to the young one,
and pressed us to re-embark with all speed, to prevent the misfortune
which he saw would otherwise befall us. We hastened on board and set
sail with all possible expedition. In the meantime, the two rocs
approached with a frightful noise, which they redoubled when they saw
the egg broken and their young one gone. They flew back in the direction
they had come, and disappeared for some time, while we made all the sail
we could to endeavour to prevent that which unhappily befell us.
They soon returned, and we observed that each of them carried between
its talons, stones, or rather rocks, of a monstrous size. When they came
directly over my ship they hovered, and one of them let fall a stone,
but by the dexterity of the steersman it missed us, and, falling into
the sea, divided the water so that we could almost see the bottom. The
other roc, to our misfortune, threw his massy burden so exactly into the
middle of the ship as to split it into a thousand pieces. The mariners
and passengers were all crushed to death, or sunk. I myself was of the
number of the latter, but, as I came up again, I fortunately caught hold
of a piece of the wreck, and swimming, sometimes with one hand and
sometimes with the other, but always holding fast my board, the wind and
tide favouring me, I came to an island whose shore was very steep. I
overcame that difficulty, however, and got ashore.
I sat down upon the grass to recover myself from my fatigue, after which
I went into the island to explore it. It seemed to be a delicious
garden. I found trees everywhere, some of them bearing green, and others
ripe fruits; and there were streams of fresh, pure water running in
pleasant meanders. I ate of the fruits, which I found excellent; and
drank of the water, which was very light and good.
When I was a little advanced into the island I saw an old man, who
appeared very weak and infirm. He was sitting on the bank of a stream,
and at first I took him to be one who had been shipwrecked like myself.
I went towards him and saluted him, but he only slightly bowed his
head. I asked him why he sat so still; but instead of answering me, he
made a sign for me to take him upon my back and carry him over the
brook, signifying that it was to gather fruit.
I believed him really to stand in need of my assistance, took him upon
my back, and having carried him over, bade him get down, and for that
end stooped, that he might get off with ease; but instead of doing so
(which I laugh at every time I think of it), the old man who appeared to
me quite decrepit, threw his legs nimbly about my neck. He sat astride
upon my shoulders, and held my throat so tight that I thought he would
have strangled me, the apprehension of which made me swoon and fall
down.
Notwithstanding my fainting, the ill-natured old fellow kept fast about
my neck. When I had recovered my breath, he thrust one of his feet
against my stomach, and struck me so rudely on the side with the other,
that he forced me to rise up against my will. Having arisen, he made me
carry him under the trees, and forced me now and then to stop, to gather
and eat fruit such as we found. He never left me all day, and when I lay
down to rest at night, he laid himself down with me, holding always
fast about my neck. Every morning he pushed me to make me awake, and
afterwards obliged me to get up and walk, and pressed me with his feet.
You may judge then, what trouble I was in to be loaded with such a
burden of which I could not get rid.
One day I found in my way several dry calabashes that had fallen from a
tree. I took a large one, and after cleaning it, pressed into it some
juice of grapes, which abounded in the island. Having filled the
calabash, I put it by in a convenient place; and going thither again
some days after, I tasted it and found the wine so good that it soon
made me forget my sorrow, gave me new vigour, and so exhilarated my
spirits, that I began to sing and dance as I walked along.
The old man, perceiving the effect which this liquor had upon me, and
that I carried him with more ease than before, made me a sign to give
him some of it. I handed him the calabash, and the liquor pleasing his
palate, he drank it all off. There being a considerable quantity of it,
and the fumes getting into his head, he began to sing and dance upon my
shoulders, and to loosen his legs from about me by degrees. Finding
that he did not press me as before, I threw him upon the ground, where
he lay without motion; then I took up a great stone and crushed his
head.
I was extremely glad to be thus freed for ever from this troublesome
fellow. I now walked towards the beach, where I met the crew of a ship
that had cast anchor, to take water. They were surprised to see me, but
more so at the particulars of my adventures. "You fell," said they,
"into the hands of the old man of the sea, and are the first who ever
escaped strangling by his malicious tricks. He never quitted those he
had once made himself master of till he had destroyed them, and he has
made this island notorious by the number of men he has slain."
After having informed me of these things, they carried me with them to
the ship; the captain received me with great kindness when they told him
what had befallen me. He put out again to sea, and after some days'
sail, we arrived at the harbour of a great city, the houses of which
were built with hewn stone.
One of the merchants who had taken me into his friendship invited me to
go along with him and carried me to a place appointed for the
accommodation of foreign merchants. He gave me a large bag, and having
recommended me to some people of the town, who used to gather
cocoa-nuts, desired them to take me with them. "Go," said he, "follow
them, and act as you see them do; but do not part from them, otherwise
you may endanger your life." Having thus spoken, he gave me provisions
for the journey, and I went with them.
We came to a thick forest of cocoa trees, very lofty, with trunks so
smooth that it was not possible to climb to the branches that bore the
fruit. When we entered the forest, we saw a great number of apes of
several sizes, who fled as soon as they perceived us and climbed up to
the tops of the trees with surprising swiftness.
The merchants gathered stones and threw them at the apes in the trees. I
did the same, and the apes, out of revenge, threw cocoa-nuts at us so
fast, and with such gestures, as sufficiently testified their anger and
resentment. We gathered up the cocoa-nuts, and from time to time threw
stones to provoke the apes; so that by this stratagem we filled our bags
with cocoa-nuts, which it had been impossible otherwise to have done. I
thus gradually collected as many cocoa-nuts as produced me a
considerable sum.
We sailed towards the islands, where pepper grows in great plenty. From
thence we went to the isle of Comari, where the best species of wood of
aloes grows. I exchanged my cocoa in those islands for pepper and wood
of aloes, and went with other merchants a-pearl-fishing. I hired divers,
who brought me up some that were very large and pure. I embarked in a
vessel that happily arrived at Bussorah; from thence I returned to
Bagdat, where I made vast sums of my pepper, wood of aloes, and pearls.
I gave the tenth of my gains in alms, as I had done upon my return from
my other voyages, and endeavoured to dissipate my fatigues by amusements
of different kinds.
"The Arabian Nights Entertainments."
All are needed by each one;
Nothing is fair or good alone.
I thought the sparrow's note from heaven,
Singing at dawn on the alder bough;
I brought him home, in his nest, at even;
He sings the song, but it cheers not now,
For I did not bring home the river and sky;--
He sang to my ear,--they sang to my eye.
Emerson
OCEAN
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin,--his control
Stops with the shore; upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,
When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan--
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.
His steps are not upon thy paths,--thy fields,
Are not a spoil for him,--thou dost arise
And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields
For earth's destruction, thou dost all despise,
Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies,
And send'st him, shivering in thy playful spray,
And howling to his gods, where haply lies
His petty hope in some near port or bay,
And dashest him again to earth; there let him lay.
The armaments which thunderstrike the walls
Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake,
And monarchs tremble in their capitals;
The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make
Their clay creator the vain title take
Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war:
These are thy toys, and, as the snowy flake,
They melt into thy yeast of waves, which mar
Alike the Armada's pride or spoils of Trafalgar.
Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee--
Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they?
Thy waters washed them power while they were free,
And many a tyrant since; their shores obey
The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay
Has dried up realms to deserts: not so, thou;
Unchangeable save to thy wild waves' play.
Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow;
Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now.
Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form
Glasses itself in tempests; in all time,
Calm or convulsed--in breeze or gale or storm,
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime,
Dark-heaving, boundless, endless and sublime--
The image of eternity--the throne
Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime
The monsters of the deep are made; each zone
Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone.
And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne, like thy bubbles onward: from a boy
I wantoned with thy breakers; they to me
Were a delight; and, if the freshening sea
Made them a terror--'twas a pleasing fear;
For I was as it were a child of thee
And trusted to thy billows far and near,
And laid my hand upon thy mane--as I do here.
Byron: "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage."
Britain's myriad voices call
"Sons be welded each and all,
Into one imperial whole,
One with Britain, heart and soul!
One life, one flag, one fleet, one Throne!"
Britons, hold your own!
Tennyson
[Illustration: HOMEWARD BOUND]
PONTIAC'S ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE FORT DETROIT
In the year 1763, a celebrated chief of the Ottawas, called Pontiac,
succeeded in forming a confederacy of the Ottawas, Hurons, Chippewas,
and some other tribes, with the avowed object of expelling the British
from the lake regions of the country. With the craftiness peculiar to
the Indian race, an ingenious stratagem was devised, by means of which
it was hoped that the allies would easily gain possession of the forts.
For this purpose a grand Lacrosse match was organized at each post, and
the officers of the garrison invited to become participators in the
game.
Pontiac and his attendant chiefs had, while the warriors and braves were
engaged in the game of Lacrosse on the common, sought an audience of the
governor of the fort. He received them in the mess-room, apparently not
suspecting any artifice on their part.
"The pale warrior, the friend of the Ottawa chief, is not here," said
the governor, as he glanced his eye along the semi-circle of Indians.
"How is this? Is his voice still sick, that he cannot come? or has the
great chief of the Ottawas forgotten to tell him?"
"The voice of the pale warrior is still sick, and he cannot speak,"
replied the Indian. "The Ottawa chief is very sorry; for the tongue of
his friend, the pale-face, is full of wisdom."
Scarcely had the last words escaped his lips when a wild, shrill cry
from without the fort rang on the ears of the assembled council, and
caused a momentary commotion among the officers. It arose from a single
voice, and that voice could not be mistaken by any who had heard it once
before. A second or two, during which the officers and chiefs kept their
eyes intently fixed on one another, passed anxiously away; and then
nearer to the gate, apparently on the very drawbridge itself, was pealed
forth the wild and deafening yell of a legion of fiendish voices. At
that sound, the Ottawa and the other chiefs sprang to their feet, and
their own fierce cry responded to that yet vibrating on the ears of all.
Already were their gleaming tomahawks brandished wildly over their
heads, and Pontiac had even bounded a pace forward to reach the governor
with the deadly weapon, when, at the sudden stamping of the foot of the
latter upon the floor, the scarlet cloth in the rear was thrown aside,
and twenty soldiers, their eyes glancing along the barrels of their
levelled muskets, met the startled gaze of the astonished Indians.
An instant was enough to satisfy the keen chief of the true state of the
case. The calm, composed mien of the officers, not one of whom had even
attempted to quit his seat amid the din by which his ears were so
alarmingly assailed,--the triumphant, yet dignified, and even severe
expression of the governor's countenance; and, above all, the unexpected
presence of the prepared soldiery,--all these at once assured him of the
discovery of his treachery, and the danger that awaited him. The
necessity for an immediate attempt to join his warriors without was now
obvious to the Ottawa; and scarcely had he conceived the idea before he
sought to execute it. In a single spring he gained the door of the
mess-room, and, followed eagerly and tumultuously by the other chiefs,
to whose departure no opposition was offered, in the next moment stood
on the steps of the piazza that ran along the front of the building
whence he had issued. The surprise of the Indians on reaching this point
was now too powerful to be dissembled; and incapable either of
advancing or receding, they remained gazing on the scene before them
with an air of mingled stupefaction, rage, and alarm. Scarcely ten
minutes had elapsed since they had proudly strode through the naked area
of the fort, and yet even in that short space of time its appearance had
been entirely changed. Not a part was there now of the surrounding
buildings that was not replete with human life and hostile preparation.
Through every window of the officers' low rooms was to be seen the dark
and frowning muzzle of a field-piece bearing upon the gateway, and
behind these were artillerymen holding their lighted matches, supported
again by files of bayonets that glittered in their rear. In the
block-houses the same formidable array of field-pieces and muskets was
visible; while from the four angles of the square as many heavy guns,
that had been artfully masked at the entrance of the chiefs, seemed
ready to sweep away everything that should come before them. The
guard-room near the gate presented the same hostile front. The doors of
this, as well as of the other buildings, had been firmly secured within;
and from every window affording cover to the troops gleamed a line of
bayonets, rising above the threatening field-pieces, pointed, at a
distance of little more than twelve feet, directly upon the gateway. In
addition to his musket, each man of the guard held a hand grenade,
provided with a short fuse that could be ignited in a moment from the
matches of the gunners, with immediate effect. The soldiers in the
block-houses were similarly provided.
Almost magical as was the change thus suddenly effected in the
appearance of the garrison, it was not the most interesting feature in
the exciting scene. Choking up the gateway, in which they were
completely wedged, and crowding the drawbridge, a dense mass of "husky"
Indians were to be seen casting their fierce glances around, yet
paralyzed in their movements by the unlooked-for display of resisting
force, threatening instant annihilation to those who should attempt
either to advance or recede. Never, perhaps, were astonishment and
disappointment more forcibly depicted on the human countenance, than
they were now exhibited by these men, who had already in imagination
secured to themselves an easy conquest. They were the warriors who had
so recently been engaged in the manly yet innocent exercise of the ball;
but, instead of the harmless hurdle, each now carried a short gun in
one hand and a gleaming tomahawk in the other.
After the first general yelling heard in the council-room, not a sound
was uttered. Their burst of rage and triumph had evidently been checked
by the unexpected manner of their reception; and they now stood on the
spot on which the further advance of each had been arrested, so silent
and motionless, that, but for the rolling of their dark eyes, as they
keenly measured the insurmountable barriers that were opposed to their
progress, they might almost have been taken for a wild group of
statuary. Conspicuous at the head of these was he who wore the blanket;
a tall warrior on whom rested the startled eye of every officer and
soldier who was so situated as to behold him. His face was painted black
as death; and as he stood under the arch of the gateway, with his white
turbaned head towering far above those of his companions, this
formidable and mysterious enemy might have been likened to the spirit of
darkness presiding over his terrible legions.
In order to account for the extraordinary appearance of the Indians,
armed in every way for death, at a moment when neither gun nor tomahawk
was apparently within miles of their reach, it was necessary to revert
to the first entrance of the chiefs into the fort. The fall of Pontiac
had been the effect of design; and the yell pealed forth by him, on
recovering his feet, as if in taunting reply to the laugh of his
comrades, was in reality a signal intended for the guidance of the
Indians without. These now following up their game with increasing
spirit, at once changed the direction of their line, bringing the ball
nearer to the fort. In their eagerness to effect this object, they had
overlooked the gradual secession of the unarmed troops, spectators of
their sport from the ramparts, until scarcely more than twenty
stragglers were left. As they neared the gate, the squaws broke up their
several groups, and, forming a line on either hand of the road leading
to the drawbridge, appeared to separate solely with a view not to impede
the players. For an instant a dense group collected around the ball,
which had been drawn to within a hundred yards of the gate, and fifty
hurdles were crossed in their endeavour to secure it, when the warrior,
who formed the solitary exception to the multitude, in his blanket
covering, and who had been lingering in the extreme rear of the party,
came rapidly up to the spot where the well-affected struggle was
maintained. At his approach the hurdles of the other players were
withdrawn, when, at a single blow from his powerful arm, the ball was
seen flying in an oblique direction and was for a moment lost altogether
to the view. When it again met the eye, it was descending into the very
centre of the fort.
With the fleetness of thought now commenced a race which had ostensibly
for its object the recovery of the lost ball, and in which he who had
driven it with resistless force outstripped them all. Their course lay
between the two lines of squaws; and scarcely had the head of the
bounding Indians reached the opposite extremity of those lines, when the
women suddenly threw back their blankets, and disclosed each a short gun
and tomahawk. To throw away their hurdles and seize upon these, was the
work of an instant. Already, in imagination, was the fort their own;
and, such, was the peculiar exaltation of the black and turbaned warrior
when he felt the planks of the drawbridge bending beneath his feet, all
the ferocious joy of his soul was pealed forth in the terrible cry
which, rapidly succeeded by that of the other Indians, had resounded so
fearfully through the council-room.
What their disappointment was, when, on gaining the interior, they found
the garrison prepared for their reception, has already been shown.
Major Richardson
MY NATIVE LAND