Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1883 — The Diseovery of America. [ARTICLE]

The Diseovery of America.

Now for the last time the sun goes down into a realm of intangible mystery; but there is no sleep Jor eyes that are kindled with the fever of an intolerable suspense. So the Admiral 'takes post. in the deck-house on the poop, where he can sweep the forward hori/on with his craving glance. Hoftrt there, low down in the dimness between sea and sky—what is that? As God lives it is a light; it cannot be a star! Jt is not diamond-like as God's stars;it is ragged and flickering like every light pf human kindling. Alas! it .is gone. It was an illusion of an over-wrought brain. No; there it comes again; it moves, it waves, it is a, torch-lght upon .pome shore. Trembling with a joy not Vet certain of itself, the Admiral calls softly to an officer on deck, Peter jGutiers by name. He moral ts the poop, looks in the direction indicated, and, after an instant, secs the spark. "GST foe praised 1 it must be a light on land. It comes and goes, it rises and falls, as though it were a torch in some fisherman's boat, or carried' by' hand from fiouse to bouse on the shore. Another comrade is called, but when he mounts to the post of observation the light can be seen by no one and re-appears no more. In these strange regions even the senses cannot be trusted,on evidence so evanescent. But hark I a gun booms from the Pints on in front. She

stays her cautious corpse. She lies to she has seen the land. The weary days of suspense are past, and an unknown world w aits the unveiling of the dawn.' — Anonymous.