Literary Notices [pp. 646-651]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
ed by him in the garden of Newstead Abbey. His
executors showed better judgment and feeling, in consigning his ashes to the family sepulchre, to mingle
with those of his mother and his kindred.
* * * * * *
"How nearly did his dying hour realize the wish
made by him but a few years previously in one of his
fitful moods of melancholy and misanthropy:
"' When time, or soon or late, shall bring,
The dreamless sleep that lulls the dead,
Oblivion! may thy languid wing
Wave gently o'er my dying bed!
No band of friends or heirs be there,
To weep or wish the coming blow:
No maiden with dishevelled hair,
To feel or feign decorous woe.
But silent let me sink to earth,
With no officious mourners near:
I would not mar one hour of mirth,
Nor startle friendship with a fear.'
"He died among strangers, in a foreign land, without a kindred hand to close his eyes, yet he did not die
unwept. With all his faults, and errors, and passions,
and caprices, he had the gift of attaching his humble dependants warmly to him. One of them, a poor Greek,
accompanied his remains to England, and followed
them to the grave. I am told that during the ceremony, he stood holding on by a pew in an agony of
grief, and when all was over, seemed as if he would
have gone down into the tomb with his master.-A
nature that could inspire such attachments, must have
been generous and beneficent."
THE CONQUEST OF FLORIDA, by Hernando de Soto; by
Theodore Irving. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard.
There is so much of romance in the details of Spanish conquests in America, that a history of any one of
the numerous expeditions for discovery and conquest,
possesses the charm of the most elaborate fiction, even
while it bears the marks of general truth. These adventures occurred during the age of chivalry, when
danger was courted for distinction, before the progress
of science and literature had opened other avenues to
renown, and when personal valor was looked upon as
the pre-eminent quality-skill in arms as the highest
accomplishment of an aspiring spirit. No nation was,
more celebrated during that chivalrous age than Spain,
and in none did the genius of chivalry longer resist the
influences under which it finally fell into decay. Upon
the discovery of America, a wide field was opened for
the warlike spirit of the age, and Spain sent forth her
hosts of adventurers, filled with wild visions of bound:
less wealth, and the easy conquest of the barbarian nations of those golden regions. There are in the histories of their exploits, so many displays of dauntless
courage-of skill in overcoming difficulties-of the
power of a few disciplined warriors, to contend successfully with hosts of equally brave, but untutored
savages-and so many exhibitions of the generous
qualities of the soldier, that in the glare of brilliant
achievements, and the excitement of thrilling incident,
we are tempted to overlook the injustice and cruelty
which marked the footsteps of the conquerors.
Mr. Irving's work is one of great interest. The conquest of Florida by De Soto, while it is contrasted with
the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, (which immediately
preceded it) in regard to its results to those engaged in it,
resembles it in the patient suffering and indomitable
bravery of the adventurers, and in the numerous thrilling scenes through which they passed. While the
conquest of Mexico enriched the followers of Cortez,
and poured the wealth of the new world into the lap of
Spain, that of Florida proved fatal to all who attempted
it, and ended in disaster to the ultimate conquerors
Ponce de Leon, the visionary, who sought in Florida
the Fountain of Youth, Vasques de Ayllon, the ruthless kidnapper, and Pamphilo de Narvaez, the well
known rival and opponent of Cortez, had made fruitless attempts to colonize this disastrous coast. But the
last and most splendid effort of that day, was made by
Hernando de Soto, a cavalier who had served with
Cortez, and had returned to Spain in the possession of
immense wealth derived from the spoil of Mexico.
The enjoyment of the highest favor at the court of his
sovereign, the charms of a young and lovely bride, and
the allurements of his splendid position at home, were
insufficient to repress the spirit of adventure which he
had imbibed in the wars in Mexico, and the prevalent
belief that Florida presented a scene for conquest still
more magnificent than Mexico. De Soto was doomed to prove that the golden dreams of wealth with
which the unexplored regions of Florida had been invested, were baseless illusions. But his adventures and
achievements afford a rich mine of romantic incidents
which Mr. Irving has presented in a most attractive
form:
"Of all the enterprises," says he, "undertaken in
this spirit of daring adventure, none has surpassed for
hardihood and variety of incident, that of the renowned Hernando de Soto and his band of cavaliers. It
was poetry put in action; it was the knight-errantry of
the old world carried into the depths of the American
wilderness: indeed, the personal adventures, the feats
of individual prowess, the picturesque descriptions of
steel-clad cavaliers, with lance and helm and prancing
steed, glittering through the wildernesses of Florida,
Georgia, Alabama, and the prairies of the Far West,
would seem to us mere fictions of romance, did they
not come to us recorded in matter-of-fact narratives of
cotemporaries, and corroborated by minute and daily
memoranda of eye witnesses."
Hernando de Soto was in every respect qualified for
the task he undertook in this ill-stalTed expedition.
But the Floridian savage was a more formidable foe
than his Mexican brother-more hardy of frame, and
more implacable in his revenge. Hence, although the
imagination is not dazzled in the conquest of Florida,
with descriptions of boundless wealth and regal mag nificence-although the chiefs are not decked in "bar baric pearls and gold"-their sturdy resistance, and the
varied vicissitudes created by the obstacles which na ture presented to the conqueror's march, afford num berless details of great interest. The book abounds with
thrilling passages, from which, but for the crowded state
of our pages, we should make a few extracts. Whether
it is themerit of the writer or his subject, (probably it is
a combination of both,) which gives to this work so much
fascination, we will not decide; but it is scarcely possi ble to commence it, (at least we found it so) and lay it
aside until its perusal is concluded.
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