The war was not fairly
over when a Cadiz warship, in 1527, caught Verrazzano and hanged him as
a pirate.
NOTE
The not unnatural conclusion of Verrazzano that what he saw was an ocean
or a great inland sea led to extraordinary misconceptions in the maps
and charts of the time. It was not until the early part of the
seventeenth century that the region was actually explored, by Newport
and Smith, and found to be only Chesapeake Bay.
THE DRUM
I wake the gods with my sullen boom--
I am the Drum!
They wait for the blood-red flowers that bloom
In the heart of the sacrifice, there in the gloom
With terror dumb--
I sound the call to his dreadful doom--
I am the Drum!
I was the Serpent, the Sacred Snake--
Wolf, bear and fox
By the silent shores of river and lake
Tread softly, listening lest they wake
My voice that mocks
The rattle that falling bones will make
On barren rocks.
My banded skin is the voice of the Priest--
I am the Drum!
I sound the call to the War-God's feast
Till Tezcatlipoca's power hath ceased
And the White Gods come
Out of the fire of the burning East--
Hear me, the Drum!
X
THE GODS OF TAXMAR
If the Fathers of the Church had ever been on the other side of the
world, they would have made new rules for it.
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