ntrated their
forces, with a determination to strike nearer the mines themselves.
Powerful expeditions were therefore openly organized at Jamaica and
elsewhere, for the purpose of making descents upon the cities and towns
of the Spanish main. The temptations to such a course were indeed
strong; and the Spaniards, by their ostentatious display, materially
assisted in their own ruin. For instance, the city of Lima, in 1682, on
the occasion of the public entry of the viceroy, actually had the
streets paved with ingots of silver, to the amount of seventeen millions
sterling! 'What a pretty prize,' exclaims the _London Times_, 'for a few
honest tars!' Then the splendor and magnificence of their churches,
ornamented with immense gold and silver images, crucifixes, and
candlesticks, and not unfrequently large altars of massive silver,
became objects of a _devout regard_. Nor did the pirates fail to present
themselves before every accessible shrine; for in truth, they swept over
the vast central portion of the continent from Florida to Peru,
plundering and laying in waste the most populous regions, and the
wealthiest cities--meeting, moreover, with less resistance than attended
the march of Cortez and Alvarado in achieving the conquest. Their
visitations were sudden, and wherever they struck their blows fell like
the thunderbolt. The consequence was that the consternation of the
people upon the land became as great as their terror upon the ocean. The
great roads were deserted; and the lands were no more ploughed than the
sea.

VIRGINIA.

(SUGGESTED BY A PAINTING BY J. McENTEE.)

'The tree has lost its blossoms,...
But the sap lasts,--and still the seed we find
Sown deep even in the bosom of the North;
So shall a bitter spring less bitter fruit bring forth.'

_Childe Harold._

Wan and weird the solemn twilight gleameth in the dreary sky,
Dusky shadows growing deeper, sad night-breezes sorrowing by,
Sighing 'mid the leafless bushes bending o'er the sullen stream,
Wailing 'mid the fire-stained ruins darkly rising 'gainst the gleam
Of the wild unearthly twilight. In the shivering evening air
Cheerless lie the gloomy meadows--blight and ruin everywhere!

Far away the wide plain stretches, dark and desolate it lies
'Neath the shuddering winds that murmur, 'neath the gleaming of
the skies;
Hark to the swollen river, how it moaneth in its flow,
'Mid the bridge's fallen arches, 'neath