Page:Eleven years in the Rocky Mountains and a life on the frontier.djvu/369

Rh out of the river. And lose her he did. Schenck was released after the vessel struck, escaping with the other officers and crew by means of small boats. Very few articles were saved from the wreck, but among those few was the stand of colors, which Lieut. Howison subsequently presented to Gov. Abernethy for the colony.

There sinks the sun; like cavalier of old,

Servant of crafty Spain,

He flaunts his banner, barred with blood and gold,

Wide o'er the western main;

A thousand spear heads glint beyond the trees

In columns bright and long,

While kindling fancy hears upon the breeze

The swell of shout and song.

And yet not here Spain's gay, adventurous host

Dipped sword or planted cross;

The treasures guarded by this rock-bound coast

Counted them gain nor loss.

The blue Columbia, sired by the eternal hills

And wedded with the sea,

O'er golden sands, tithes from a thousand rills,

Boiled in lone majesty—

Through deep ravine, through burning, barren plain,

Through wild and rocky strait,

Through forest dark, and mountain rent in twain

Toward the sunset gate;

While curious eyes, keen with the lust of gold,

Caught not the informing gleam,

These mighty breakers age on age have rolled

To meet this mighty stream.

Age after age these noble hills have kept,

The same majestic lines;

Age after age the horizon's edge been swept

By fringe of pointed pines.

Summers and Winters circling came and went,

Bringing no change of scene;

Unresting, and unhasting, and unspent,

Dwelt Nature here serene!