Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/694

'The Queen gives life, if ye dare to sail
 In the ships of Colombo's fleet.'

"'Better,' we cried, 'a madman's voyage
 Over an unknown sea
Than to squirm and swing in a hempen string
 Under the gallows tree.'
Grim was the voyage of the fated fleet
 O'er an ocean silent and drear;
Sullen and black about our track
 Hovered the demons of Fear.

"West and west, on a madman's voyage,
 Under an unknown sky,
Till in the very heavens themselves
 The star groups hung awry.
No sound, no sight, save the heaving sea,
 Under the moonlit fog,
And under our prow the wavelets lapped
 And lapped, like a thirsty dog.

"We cursed the sky and the sea and ships,
 And each in his sullen breast,
Cursed the dreamer, whose fantasy
 Dragged us forth on the quest.
'Better to swing in a hempen string
 Under the gallows tree,'
We snarled, 'than rot in our rotting ships,
 Lost in a waste of sea.'

"We listened in fright for the sullen roar
 Out of the distance hurled,
Where pour the floods of the seven seas
 Over the brim of the world.
'Back, O Admiral, back!' we cried,
 'Ere the last hope be gone,'
Swift as a blow came the answer: 'No!
 Colombo will still sail on.'

"So in a night we rolled the dice,