Part 13 (2/2)

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

48. Behold! they come--those sainted forms, Unshaken through the strife of storms; Heaven's winter cloud hangs coldly down, And earth puts on its rudest frown; But colder, ruder, was the hand That drove them from their own fair land; Their own fair land--Refinement's chosen seat, Art's trophied dwelling, Learning's green retreat; By Valor guarded and by Victory crowned, For all but gentle Charity renowned.

49. With streaming eye, yet steadfast heart, Even from that land they dared to part, And burst each tender tie; Haunts, where their sunny youth was pa.s.sed, Homes, where they fondly hoped at last In peaceful age to die.

Friends, kindred, comfort, all they spurned, Their fathers' hallowed graves, And to a world of darkness turned, Beyond a world of waves.

50. When Israel's race from bondage fled, Signs from on high the wanderers led; But here--Heaven hung no symbol here, Their steps to guide, their souls to cheer; They saw, through sorrow's lengthening night, Naught but the f.a.got's guilty light; The cloud they gazed at was the smoke.

Nor power above, nor power below, Sustained them in their hour of woe; A fearful path they trod, And dared a fearful doom; To build an altar to their G.o.d, And find a quiet tomb.

51. Yet, strong in weakness, there they stand On yonder ice--bound rock, Stern and resolved, that faithful band, To meet Fate's rudest shock.

Though anguish rends the father's breast, For them, his dearest and his best, With him the waste who trod-- Though tears that freeze the mother sheds Upon her children's houseless heads-- The Christian turns to G.o.d.

52. In grateful adoration now Upon the barren sands they bow.

What tongue of joy e'er woke such prayer As bursts in desolation there?

What arm of strength e'er wrought such power As waits to crown that feeble hour?

When into life an infant empire springs, There falls the iron from the soul, There Liberty's young accents roll Up to the King of kings!

53. Spread out earth's holiest record here, Of days and deeds to reverence dear; A zeal like this, what pious legends tell?

On kingdoms built In blood and guilt, The wors.h.i.+pers of vulgar triumph dwell: But what exploit with them shall page Who rose to bless their kind-- Who left their nation and their age Man's spirit to unbind Who boundless seas pa.s.sed o'er, And boldly met in every path, Famine, and frost, and heathen wrath, To dedicate a sh.o.r.e Where Piety's meek train might breathe their vow, And seek their Maker with an unshamed brow; Where Liberty's glad race might come, And set up there an everlasting home!

_Charles Sprague_.

CHAPTER IX.

_PLa.s.sEY; AND HOW AN EMPIRE WAS WON._

1. India, the great peninsula stretching from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, is nearly half as large as Europe, and contains a population of 150,000,000. Myth and tradition claim for this people a very great antiquity, and there are many evidences that in arts, government, and literature, India is at least coeval with China and Egypt, the three const.i.tuting the most ancient civilizations of the world. While Western Europe was still the abode of barbarians, and while even Greece had scarcely felt the impulse which aroused her to intellectual life, the fabrics of India had reached a marvelous degree of fineness and beauty; and the monarchs of the West counted it a great privilege to be clothed in the ”purple and fine linen” of the Orient.

EARLY HISTORY.

2. The early history of India seems a confused tangle of strifes and contentions between different nations and races for the possession of this region, inexpressibly rich in all that makes a land desirable for the occupation of man, and of wars between local rulers striving for dominion. In the midst of this confusion, however, there seems to be good evidence that the early civilization made its first appearance in the valleys of the Upper Indus; that all invasions, until recent times, were from the fierce tribes of the table-lands to the northwest; that the industrious people of the valleys were driven from their homes by successive incursions of barbarians, extending through many centuries; that each horde, becoming partially civilized, was in turn driven forward; and that the migrations were continuous from the north to the south. Thus it happens that at present the population of India consists of at least thirty distinct nationalities, and that the aboriginal possessors of the Vale of Cashmere have been driven forward, until now they are found only upon the summits of the Neilgherry Mountains, in the extreme southern part of the peninsula.

THE MOGUL EMPIRE.

3. The Brahminical religion has prevailed in India from the earliest period. The first literary productions of the people are the Vedas, the sacred books of the Brahmins. This religion is tolerant and inclusive. Its pantheon recognizes so many G.o.ds that each barbarous tribe from the North found their own deity represented, so that their crude religious notions readily merged in the more complicated system of the people they had conquered. The great Buddhistic reform spent its force, and, although triumphant in other lands, it left but little impress in India where it originated. The whole people believed the Brahminical creed and practiced the Brahminical precepts. It was a religion that included the purest abstractions and the grossest form of idolatry. While absorbing all other creeds, it never sought to make converts to its own.

4. The later incursions from the northwest were essentially different from their predecessors. The tribes of the table-lands had been converted to the fanatical and proselyting faith of Mohammed. About the middle of the sixteenth century, a Mongol tribe, strong and stalwart from late successful wars, and full of the fierce zeal of recent converts to Moslemism, appeared at the northern gate of India, and in a short time overspread the country and established the Mogul Empire, with its capital at Delhi. The stern conquerors never rested until they had firmly established their authority over the whole country.

5. The first great Sultan, Baber, had a genius for government. He was firm and temperate in his administration, and he protected the common people from the worst rapacity of their former rulers. Out of the chaos of native rule he evoked something like civilized order, and he established the Mogul Empire upon the foundation of a higher form of justice than had ever before been practiced in the East. After a reign of fifty years, this great monarch died in 1605, two years before the adventurous John Smith set foot upon the territory of Virginia.

6. For another hundred years, the Mogul Emperors, descendants of Baber, held firm possession of India, and in that time the country reached the height of its power in wealth and influence. Temples and palaces, in richness and beauty surpa.s.sing the most gorgeous dreams of western-bred people, arose on every side. Arts flourished as never before, and the commerce of India overland to the West was so great that large cities sprung up along its track, solely supported by the trading caravans. The gold from all the nations toward the setting sun was drained to pay for Indian fabrics, and India became the richest country of the world.

7. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the Mogul Empire began to decline. Weak and effeminate monarchs occupied the throne of Baber and Shah Jehan. The governors of great provinces, while ruling under the name of the Mogul, became really independent, and in turn sub-provinces revolted and set up an independent rule. From 1700 to 1750, the whole country was ablaze with civil war. Rapacious chieftains plundered the people, the arts declined, industry of all kinds languished, and the country upon which Nature had lavished her richest blessings seemed to be surrendered hopelessly to oppression and misrule.

EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN INDIA.

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