It
came to the ear of the Admiral, who said, " `In dreams will
I instruct thee.'--I have had dreams far statelier than
his."
Pedro Gutierrez too began to dream,--fantastic things
which he told with an idle gusto. They were of wine and gold
and women, though often these were to be guessed through
strange, jumbled masks and phantasies. "Those are ill
dreams," said the Admiral. "Dream straight and high!"
Fray Ignatio, too, said wisely, "It is not always God who
cometh in dreams!"
But the images of Gutierrez's dreams seemed to him to
be seated in Cathay and India. They bred in him belief
that he was coming to happiness by that sea road that
glistered before us. He and Roderigo de Escobedo began
to talk with assurance of what they should find. Having
small knowledge of travelers' tales they made application
to the Admiral who, nothing loth, answered them out of
Marco Polo, Mandeville and Pedro de Aliaco.
But the ardor of his mind was such that he outwent his
authors. Where the Venetian said "gold" the Genoese
said "Much gold." Where the one saw powerful peoples
with their own customs, courts, armies, temples, ships and
trade, the other gave to these an unearthly tinge of splendor.
Often as he sat in cabin or on deck, or rising paced to and
fro, we who listened to his account, listened to poet and
enthusiast speaking of earths to come.
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