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MERCEDES OF CASTILE;
OR,
THE VOYAGE TO CATHAY.
BY J. FENIMORE COOPER.
"I fill this cup to one made up of loveliness alone, A woman, of her gentle sex the seeming paragon; To whom the better elements and kindly stars have given A form so fair, that, like the air, 'tis less of earth than heaven."
PINKNEY.
ILLUSTRATED FROM DRAWINGS BY F.O.C. Darley.
NEW YORK: W. A. TOWNSEND AND COMPANY. 1861.
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by W. A. TOWNSEND AND COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
G. A. ALVORD, STEREOTYPER & PRINTER, NEW YORK.
List of Illustrations
"Columbus kneeled on the sands, and received the benediction."
"In vain Luis endeavored to persuade the devoted girl to withdraw."
PREFACE.
So much has been written of late years, touching the discovery ofAmerica, that it would not be at all surprising should there exist adisposition in a certain class of readers to deny the accuracy of allthe statements in this work. Some may refer to history, with a view toprove that there never were such persons as our hero and heroine, andfancy that by establishing these facts, they completely destroy theauthenticity of the whole book. In answer to this anticipated objection,we will state, that after carefully perusing several of the Spanishwriters--from Cervantes to the translator of the journal of Columbus,the Alpha and Omega of peninsular literature--and after having read bothIrving and Prescott from beginning to end, we do not find a syllable ineither of them, that we understand to be conclusive evidence, or indeedto be any evidence at all, on the portions of our subject that arelikely to be disputed. Until some solid affirmative proof, therefore,can be produced against us, we shall hold our case to be made out, andrest our claims to be believed on the authority of our own statements.Nor do we think there is any thing either unreasonable or unusual inthis course, as perhaps the greater portion of that which is daily andhourly offered to the credence of the American public, rests on the samespecies of testimony--with the trifling difference that we state truths,with a profession of fiction, while the great moral caterers of the agestate fiction with the profession of truth. If any advantage can befairly obtained over us, in consequence of this trifling discrepancy, wemust submit.
There is one point, notwithstanding, concerning which it may be well tobe frank at once. The narrative of the "Voyage to Cathay," has beenwritten with the journal of the Admiral before us; or, rather, with allof that journal that has been given to the world through the agency of avery incompetent and meagre editor. Nothing is plainer than the generalfact that this person did not always understand his author, and in oneparticular circumstance he has written so obscurely, as not a little toembarrass even a novelist, whose functions naturally include an entirefamiliarity with the thoughts, emotions, characters, and, occasionally,with the unknown fates of the subjects of his pen. The nautical dayformerly commenced at meridian, and, with all our native ingenuity andhigh professional prerogatives, we have not been able to discoverwhether the editor of the journal has adopted that mode of countingtime, or whether he has condescended to use the more vulgar andirrational practice of landsmen. It is our opinion, however, that in thespirit of impartiality which becomes an historian, he has adopted both.This little peculiarity might possibly embarrass a superficial critic;but accurate critics being so very common, we feel no concern on thishead, well knowing that they will be much more apt to wink at theseminor inconsistencies, than to pass over an error of the press, or acomma with a broken tail. As we wish to live on good terms with thisuseful class of our fellow-creatures, we have directed the printers tomis-spell some eight or ten words for their convenience, and to savethem from headaches, have honestly stated this principal difficultyourselves.
Should the publicity which is now given to the consequences ofcommencing a day in the middle have the effect to induce the governmentto order that it shall, in future, with all American seamen, commence atone of its ends, something will be gained in the way of simplicity, andthe writing of novels will, in-so-much, be rendered easier and moreagreeable.
As respects the minor characters of this work, very little need be said.Every one knows that Columbus had seamen in his vessels, and that hebrought some of the natives of the islands he had discovered, back withhim to Spain. The reader is now made much more intimately acquaintedwith certain of these individuals, we will venture to say, than he canbe possibly by the perusal of any work previously written. As for thesubordinate incidents connected with the more familiar events of theage, it is hoped they will be found so completely to fill up this branchof the subject, as to render future investigations unnecessary.
MERCEDES OF CASTILE.
"In vain Luis endeavored to persuade the devoted girl towithdraw."]