MADOC had paused awhile; but every eye
Still watch'd his lips, and every voice was hush'd.
Soon as I leapt ashore, pursues the Lord
Of Ocean, prostrate on my face I fell,
Kiss'd the dear earth, and pray'd with thankful tears.
Hard by a brook was flowing; never yet,
Even from the gold-tipt horn of victory
With harp and song amid my father's hall,
Pledged I so sweet a draught, as lying there,
Beside that streamlet's brink!.. to feel the ground,
To quaff the cool clear water, to inhale
The breeze of land, while fears and dangers past
Recurr'd and heighten'd joy, as summer storms
Make the fresh evening lovelier!
To the shore
The natives throng'd; astonish'd, they beheld
Our winged barks, and gazed with wonderment
On the strange garb, the bearded countenance
And the white skin, in all unlike themselves.
I see with what enquiring eyes you ask
What men were they? Of dark-brown colour, tinged
With sunny redness; wild of eye; their brows
So smooth, as never yet anxiety
Nor busy thought had made a furrow there;
Beardless, and each to each of lineaments
So like, they seem'd but one great family.
Their loins were loosely cinctured, all beside
Bare to the sun and wind; and thus their limbs
Unmanacled display'd the truest forms
Of strength and beauty. Fearless sure they were,
And while they eyed us grasp'd their spears, as if,
Like Britain's injured but unconquer'd sons,
They too had known how perilous it was
To let a stranger, if he came in arms,
Set foot upon their land.
Of men nor purporting nor fearing ill,
Gain'd confidence; their wild distrustful looks
Assumed a milder meaning; over one
I cast my mantle, on another's head
The velvet bonnet placed, and all was joy.
We now besought for food; at once they read
Our gestures, but I cast a hopeless eye
On hills and thickets, woods, and marshy plains,
A waste of rank luxuriance all around.
Thus musing to a lake I follow'd them,
Left when the rivers to their summer course
Withdrew; they scatter'd on its water drugs
Of such strange potency, that soon the shoals
Coop'd there by Nature prodigally kind,
Floated inebriate. As I gazed, a deer
Sprung from the bordering thicket; the true shaft
Scarce with the distant victim's blood had stain'd
Its point, when instantly he dropt and died,
Such deadly juice imbued it; yet on this
We made our meal unharm'd; and I perceived
The wisest leech that ever in our world
Cull'd herbs of hidden virtue, was to these
A child in knowledge.
The night come on; but soon did night display
More wonders than it veil'd: innumerous tribes
From the wood-cover swarm'd, and darkness made
Their beauties visible; one while they stream'd
A bright blue radiance upon flowers which closed
Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day;
Now motionless and dark eluded search,
Self-shrouded; and anon starring the sky
Rose like a shower of fire.
Our friendly hosts
Now led us to the hut, our that night's home,
A rude and spacious dwelling: twisted boughs,
And canes and withies formed the walls and roof;
And from the unhewn trunks which pillar'd it,
Low nets of interwoven reeds were hung.
With shouts of honour here they gather'd round me,
Ungarmented my limbs, and in a net
With softest feathers lined, a pleasant couch,
They laid and left me.
To our ships return'd,
After soft sojourn here we coasted on,
Insatiate of the wonders and the charms
Of earth and air and sea. Thy summer woods
Are lovely, O my mother isle the birch.
Light bending on thy banks, thy elmy vales,
Thy venerable oaks ! . . . But there, what forms
Of beauty clothed the inlands and the shore!
All these in stateliest growth, and mixt with these
Dark spreading cedar, and the cypress tall,
Its pointed summit waving to the wind
Like a long beacon flame; and loveliest
Amid a thousand strange and lovely shapes,
The lofty palm, that with its nuts supplied
Beverage and food; they edged the shore and crown'd
The far-off highland summits, their straight stems
Bare without leaf or bough, erect and smooth,
Their tresses nodding like a crested helm,
The plumage of the grove.
The wonders of the ocean? how its shoals
Sprang from the wave, like flashing light,.. took wing,
And twinkling with a silver glitterance,
Flew through the air and sunshine? yet were these
To sight less wondrous than the tribe who swam,
Following like fowlers with uplifted eye
Their falling quarry: . . language cannot paint
Their splendid tints; though in blue ocean seen,
Blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue,
In all its rich variety of shades,
Suffused with glowing gold.
Its wonders: ... from a deep, black, heavy cloud,
say ? . a shoot, a trunk,
yea! like a Demon's arm, it seized
The waters, Ocean smoked beneath its touch,
And rose like dust before the whirlwind's force.
But we sail'd onward over tranquil seas,
Wafted by airs so exquisitely mild,
That even to breathe became an act of will
And sense and pleasure. Not a cloud by day
With purple islanded the dark-blue deep;
By night the quiet billows heaved and glanced
Under the moon,.. that heavenly Moon! so bright,
That many a midnight have I paced the deck,
Forgetful of the hours of due repose ;
Yea till the Sun in his full majesty
Went forth, like God beholding his own works.
Once when a chief was feasting us on shore, A captive served the food: I mark'd the youth, For he had features of a gentler race;
And oftentimes his eye was fix'd on me,
With looks of more than wonder. We return'd
At evening to our ships; at night a voice
Came from the sea, the intelligible voice
Of earnest supplication: he had swum
To trust our mercy; up the side he sprang,
And look'd among the crew, and singling me
Fell at my feet. Such friendly tokenings
As our short commerce with the native tribes
Had taught, I proffer'd, and sincerity
Gave force and meaning to the half-learnt forms.
For one we needed who might speak for us;
And well I liked the youth,—the open lines
Which character'd his face, the fearless heart,
Which gave at once and won full confidence.
So that night at my feet Lincoya slept.
When I display'd whate'er might gratify, Whate'er surprise, with most delight he view'd Our arms, the iron helm, the pliant mail,
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