5. Nor dome, nor tower in twilight shade, Can with such pathos touch my breast, Osborne. SECTION XVI. A Summer Evening Meditation. 1. "Tis past! The sultry tyrant of the south Has spent his short-lived rage; more grateful hours Move silent on: the skies no more repel The dazzled sight, but with mild maiden beams New strung in heaven, lifts high its beamy horns, 2. Fair Venus shines Even in the eye of day; with sweetest beam 3. And dancing lusters, where th' unsteady eye, 4. How deep the silence, yet how loud the praise⚫ But are they silent all? or is there not A tongue in every star, that talks with man 5. Has closed his golden eye, and, wrapt in shades, Sits like an exiled monarch. Fearless thence 6. But 0 thou mighty mind! whose powerful word Said, "Thus let all things be," and thus they were Where shall I seek thy presence? how, unblamed, Invoke thy dread perfection? Have the broad eye-lids of the morn beheld thee? Support thy throne? Oh! look with pity down Of terror clad; nor with those thunders armed 7. But now my soul, unused to stretch her powers Barbauld 220 PART III. CHAPTER I. AMERICAN HISTORY. The Discovery of America:-Settlement of Virginia by the English. 1. AMERICA was discovered in the year 1492, by Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa-an expedition having been fitted out for that purpose, at his most earnest solicitations, by the Spanish government. The project of seeking for a Continent west of the Atlantic, had long been entertained by Columbus; but notwithstanding the perseverance and fortitude with which he brought it to a successful termination, he was defrauded of the just right of associating his name with this vast portion of the earth. In this he was supplanted by Amerigo Vespucci, a native of Florence, who in 1499 went on a voyage to America, and who published an accoun of his adventures so ingeniously framed, as to make it appear that he had the glory of first discovering the continent. 2. But the English were the second people that discovered the new world, and the first that discovered the continent of America. On the 24th of June, 1497, Giovanni Caboto, (or Cabot,) and his son Sebastian, who were commissioned by Henry VIII. to sail in quest of new countries, discovered a large island, to which they gave the name of Prima Vesta, or first seen; now called Newfoundland. From this, they steered to the north, in search of a passage to India; but finding no appearance of a passage, they tacked about, and ran as far as Florida, the island of Cuba, as he relates, being on his left. 3. On the accession of Elizabeth to the crown of England, a period commenced, highly auspicious to mercantile extension. The coast of Labrador was explored by Martin Frobisher, under her auspices, in the years 1576, 7, 8; and Sir Francis Drake, about this time, accomplished his celebrated voyage around the globe. 4. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh, a favorite at that time of the queen, despatched two small vessels, under the command of Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow, which reached the coast of North Carolina on the 4th of July, making their passage in sixty-seven days by way of the Canary islands and the West Indies. On their return, Anidas and Barlow gave a splendid description of the country-of its beauty, fertility, mildness of climate, and serenity of atmosphere; and Eliza-` beth gave it the name of Virginia. 5. In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh fitted out a squadron of se ven small vessels, with one hundred and eighty adventurers, which sailed from Plymouth, under the command of Sir Richard Greenville. This colony was left on the island of Roanoke, under the care of Captain Lane; but through bad man agement, turning all their attention to the search for gold and silver, they were soon assailed by a two-fold calamity-the hostility of the natives and the prospect of famine. Sir Francis Drake, on his return from the West Indies, at the unanimous request of the colonists, carried them back to England, and thus ended the ill-conducted experiment, after a trial of nine months. Early in the following year, three more vessels arrived at the same spot, with one hundred and fifty settlers; but misfortune pursued this infant settlement. The threatened Spanish armada engrossed the attention of the parent country, the colony received no supplies, and the inhabitants perished miserably by famine, or by the hands of their surrounding enemies. 6. Sir Walter Raleigh being engaged in other ambitious undertakings, so vast and various as were beyond his power to accomplish, and becoming cold to the unprofitable scheme of effecting settlements in America, assigned his interest that country to Sir Thomas Smith and a company of r chants in London, in 1596. These were satisfied for the sent to pursue a petty traffic with the natives, and made attempt to take possession of the soil. 7. But in the succeeding reign of James, who having concluded an amicable treaty with Spain, and terminated a tedious war, the period was more auspicious for settlements in America. The attention of the monarch was called to this subject by the efforts of distinguished geographers and men of science. James divided into districts of nearly equal extent that portion of North America which stretches from the 34th to the 45th degree of north latitude, excepting the territory of any other Christian prince or people already occupied; one called the First, or South Colony, the other the Second or North Colony of Virginia. 8. In 1606, he authorized certain gentlemen, mostly resi dents of London, to settle in a limited district of the former an equal extent of the latter he allotted to several gentlemen of Bristol, Plymouth, and other parts of the west of England |