ON the snow-line of the summit stood the Spaniard’s English slave; And the frighted condor westward flew afar— Where the torch of Cotopaxi lit the wide Pacific wave, And the tender moon embraced a new-born star.
Blanched the cheek that Austral breezes off Van Diemen’s coast had tanned,
From the forest far beneath him came the baffled bloodhound’s bay,
“Mine the secret of the Incas—to the tyrants never told;
Freedom’s threshold!—yet he tarries—gazes seaward, southward still,
Never, never, gallant seaman, may the land that lit thy dreams
Nevermore the settler’s welcome, at the sinking of the sun, |
The Fate of Bass—George Bass came to Australia as a surgeon of the Reliance (1795). Brave and eager for adventure, he made some exploration on land, and attempted to cross the Blue Mountains before Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth found a way. In a small boat Bass sailed down the coast from Sydney as far as Western Port, and concluded that Tasmania was separated from the mainland. Then with Lieutenant Flinders he sailed through the straits named after him, and circumnavigated Tasmania (1798). After his return from that voyage Bass left Sydney in the Venus (Feb. 1803). He was induced to join a commercial expedition to South America, and it is believed that he was captured by the Spaniards and sent to work in the mines of Peru as a slave. The author here assumes that he escaped. [back]
Cotopaxi—A very high volcanic peak in the Andes, South America. [back] Van Diemen’s coast—Abel Tasman named the land discovered by him (24th November, 1642) Van Diemen’s Land, after the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. The name was changed to Tasmania in 1856. [back] The Mighty River—The Amazon. [back] Secret of the Incas—Mrs. Foott states that the Cloven Rock “secret” and places are Sculptured Way imaginary. [back] |