El Dorado

This is the story

Of Santo Domingo,

The first established

Permanent city

Built in the New World.

Miguel Dias,

A Spanish sailor

In the fleet of Columbus,

Fought with a captain,

Wounded him, then in fear

Fled from his punishment.

Ranging the wilds, he came

On a secluded

Indian village

Of the peace-loving

Comely Caguisas.

There he found shelter,

Food, fire, and hiding,—

Welcome unstinted.

Over this tribe ruled —

No cunning chieftain

Grown gray in world-craft,

But a young soft-eyed

Girl, tender-hearted,

Loving, and regal

Only in beauty,

With no suspicion

Of the perfidious

Merciless gold-lust

Of the white sea-wolves,—

Roving, rapacious,

Conquerors, destroyers.

Strongly the stranger

Wooed with his foreign

Manners, his Latin

Fervor and graces;

Beat down her gentle,

Unreserved strangeness;

Made himself consort

Of a young queen, all

Loveliness, ardor,

And generous devotion.

Her world she gave him,

Nothing denied him,

All, all for love's sake

Poured out before him,—

Lived but to pleasure

And worship her lover.

Such is the way

Of free-hearted women,

Radiant beings

Who carry God's secret;

All their seraphic

Unworldly wisdom

Spent without fearing

Or calculation

For the enrichment

Of — whom, what, and wherefore?

Ask why the sun shines

And is not measured,

Ask why the rain falls

Aeon by aeon,

Ask why the wind comes

Making the strong trees

Blossom in springtime,

Forever unwearied!

Whoever earned these gifts,

Air, sun, and water?

Whoever earned his share

In that unfathomed

Full benediction,

Passing the old earth's

Cunningest knowledge,

Greater than all

The ambition of ages,

Light as a thistle-seed,

Strong as a tide-run,

Vast and mysterious

As the night sky,—

The love of woman?

Not long did Miguel

Dias abide content

With his good fortune.

Back to his voyaging

Turned his desire,

Restless once more to rove

With boon companions,

Filled with the covetous

Thirst for adventure,—

The white man's folly.

Then poor Zamcaca,

In consternation

Lest she lack merit

Worthy to tether

His wayward fancy,

Knowing no way but love,

Guileless, and sedulous

Only to gladden,

Quick and sweet-souled

As another madonna,

Gave him the secret

Of her realm's treasure,—

Raw gold unweighed,

Stored wealth unimagined;

Decked him with trappings

Of that yellow peril;

And bade him go

Bring his comrades to settle

In her dominion.

Not long the Spaniards

Stood on that bidding.

Gold was their madness,

Their Siren and Pandar.

Trooping they followed

Their friend the explorer,

Greed-fevered ravagers

Of all things goodly,

Hot-foot to plunder

The land of his love-dream.

They swooped on that country,

Founded their city,

Made Miguel Dias

Its first Alcalde,—

Flattered and fooled him,

Loud in false praises

For the great wealth he had

By his love's bounty.

Then the old story,

Older than Adam,—

Treachery, rapine,

Ingratitude, bloodshed,

Wrought by the strong man

On unsuspecting

And gentler brothers.

The rabid Spaniard,

Christian and ruthless

( Like any modern

Magnate of Mammon ),

Harried that fearless,

Light-hearted, trustful folk

Under his booted heel.

Tears ( ah, a woman's tears,—

The grief of angels,—)

Fell from Zamcaca,

Sorrowing, hopeless,

Alone, for her people.

Sick from injustice,

Distraught, and disheartened,

Tortured by sight and sound

Of wrong and ruin,

When the kind, silent,

Tropical moonlight,

Lay on the city,

In the dead hour

When the soul trembles

Within the portals

Of its own province,

While far away seem

All deeds of daytime,

She rose and wondered;

Gazed on the sleeping

Face of her loved one,

Alien and cruel;

Kissed her strange children,

Longingly laying a hand

In farewell on each,

Crept to the door, and fled

Back to the forest.

Only the deep heart

Of the World-mother,

Brooding below the storms

Of human madness,

Can know what desolate

Anguish possessed her.

Only the far mind

Of the World-father,

Seeing the mystic

End and beginning,

Knows why the pageant

Is so betattered

With mortal sorrow.