Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/79

 NOTES.

��PART I.

��Note '. Page 1, line 6,—^far cs Niger rolls his eastern tide. — Mungo Parke, in his travels, ascertained that " the great river of theNegroes" flows eastward. It is probable, therefore, that this river is either lost among the sands, or empties itself into some inland sea, in the undiscover- ed regions of Africa. — See also Part II., line 64.

Note ^. Page 8, line 6. — Denied to ages, but betroth'd to me. — When the Author of The West Indies conceived the plan of this introduction of Columbus, he was not aware that he was indebted to any preceding poet for a hint on the subject; but, some time afterwards, on a se« cond perusal of Southey's Madoc, it struck him that the idea of Columbus walking on the shore at sunset, which he had hitherto imagined his own, might be only a I'eflection of the impression made upon his mind long before, by the first reading of the following splendid pas- sage. He therefore gladly makes this acknowledgment,

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