The pages leave the rude accommodations of the social for the cosmological dream energy of a focused realism. Our ignorance not only remains vast, but becomes pretentious as well. But Metcalf condensed the spacious geography of American conflict, redirecting that focus into him in an investigation of time and the intercontinental pressures of an expansive movement outward. Men must put out space, and nations ships . . . The whispering-by traffic spreads light into blurry darkness.
Dandelions impregnate the yard.
He would be governor and viceroy of a new and great colonial venture, differing from Portuguese pattern. It would be the future seat of his operations. Its gentle and timorous natives would be made to do the labor. It would yield the gold which had been the object of his search. From it other gold regions would be discovered and taken, and a trade in Carib slaves was to be developed.