Silver Strands

SILVER STRANDS We left the dusty strands of Santander * And struck west, seeking Peru, the far shining land, Our carracks riding high in the water, Hungry to ground our boats on its silver strand. Pack mules groaned under their silver load, Barges of silver threaded the palmed rivers, manned By dusky Inca slaves on their road Down to Peru’s glistening silver strand. Dipping in the warm sea up to our rails, The holds cracking open with chest and cask Of gleaming Spanish reales, the creaking sails * Pulling carracks full-laden for the task, We slipped out of sight of New Spain And its mines of silver, that silver land, Glinting hills, glittering cities, far over the Main, * And said adieu to its coasts and silver strands; Struck out for Santander, and unfurled Tall curtained palaces in Aragon and Castile - grand * And reaching to the sky from the New World - That far horizon with its silver strands. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. NOTES *Santander is a big port in Spain *Spanish money of the period was counted in REALES and was used everywhere as currency and as a reserve store of wealth, like the US dollar today. In the sixteenth century over 300 tons of silver each year were brought to Spain in fleets of ships from America. *The Atlantic Ocean was commonly called the (Spanish) Main. *Castile and Aragon were the two main kingdoms of Iberia which united and became “Spain”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . Written for, and entered in, Susan Burch’s Contest “ Silver Strands”