And at the harmless stranger wondering gaze.
Peaceful, beneath primeval trees, that cast
Their ample shade o'er Niger's yellow stream,
And where the Ganges rolls his sacred wave;
Or mid the central depth of blackening woods,
High-rais'd in solemn theatre around,
Leans the huge elephant : wisest of brutes!
O truly wise! with gentle might endow'd,
Tho' powerful, not destructive! Here he sees
Revolving ages sweep the changeful earth,
And empires rise and fall; regardless he
Of what the never resting race of men
Project: thrice happy! could he scape their guile,
Who mine, from cruel avarice, his steps;

Or with his towery grandeur swell their state,
The pride of kings! or else his strength pervert,
And bid him rage amid the mortal fray,
Astonish'd at the madness of mankind.

Wide o'er the winding umbrage of the floods,
Like vivid blossoms glowing from afar,
Thick-swarm the brighter birds. For Nature's hand,
That with a sportive vanity has deck'd
The plumy nations, there her gayest hues

Profusely pours. (1) But, if she bids them shine,
Array'd in all the beauteous beams of day,
Yet frugal still, she humbles them in song.
Nor envy we the gaudy robes they lent
Proud Montezuma's realm, whose legions cast

(1) In all the regions of the torrid zone, the birds, though more beautiful in their plumage, are observed to be less melodious than ours.

A boundless radiance waving on the sun,
While philomel is ours; while in our shades,
Thro' the soft silence of the listening night,
The sober-suited songstress trills her lay.

But come, my Muse, the desart-barrier burst,
A wild expanse of lifeless sand and sky:
And, swifter than the toiling caravan,
Shoot o'er the vale of Sennar; ardent climb
The Nubian mountains, and the secret bounds
Of jealous Abyssinia boldly pierce.

Thou art no ruffian, who beneath the mask
Of social commerce com❜st to rob their wealth;
No holy Fury thou, blaspheming HEAVEN,
With consecrated steel to stab their peace,
And thro' the land, yet red from civil wounds,
To spread the purple tyranny of Rome.
Thou, like the harmless bee, mayʼst freely range,
From mead to mead bright with exalted flowers,
From jasmine grove to grove, may'st wander gay,
Thro' palmy shades and aromatic woods,

That
grace the plains, invest the peopled hills,
And up the more than Alpine mountains wave.
There on the breezy summit, spreading fair,
For many a league; or on stupendous rocks,
That from the sun-redoubling valley lift,
Cool to the middle air, their lawny tops;
Where palaces, and fanes, and villas rise;
And gardens smile around, and cultur'd fields
And fountains gush; and careless herds and flocks
Securely stray; a world within itself,

Disdaining all assault : there let me draw

First Part.

E

97

Ethereal soul, there drink reviving gales,
Profusely breathing from the spicy groves,
And vales of fragrance; there at distance hear
The roaring floods, and cataracts, that sweep
From disembowel'd earth the virgin gold;
And o'er the varied landskip, restless, rove,
Fervent with life of every fairer kind:
A land of wonders! which the sun still eyes
With ray direct, as of the lovely realm
inamour'd, and delighting there to dwell.

How chang'd the scene! In blazing height of noon,
The sun, oppress'd, is plung'd in thickest gloom.
Still Horror reigns, a dreary twilight round,
Of struggling night and day malignant mix'd.
For to the hot equator crouding fast,
Where, highly rarefy'd, the yielding air
Admits their stream, incessant vapours roll;
Amazing clouds on clouds continual heap'd;
Or whirl'd tempestuous by the gusty wind,
. Or silent borne along, heavy, and slow,
With the big stores of steaming oceans charg'd.
Meantime, amid these upper seas, condens'd
Around the cold aërial mountain's brow,

And by conflicting winds together dash'd,

The Thunder holds his black tremendous throne,
From cloud to cloud the rending Lightnings rage;
Till, in the furious elemental war

Dissolv'd, the whole precipitated mass
Unbroken floods and solid torrents pours.

The treasures these, hid from the bounded search Of ancient knowledge; whence, with annual

pomp,

Rich king of floods! o'er flows the swelling Nile.
From his two springs, in Gojam's sunny realm,
Pure-welling out, he thro' the lucid lake
Of fair Dambea rolls his infant-stream.
There, by the Naiads nurs'd, he sports away
His playful youth, amid the fragrant isles,
That with unfading verdure smile around.
Ambitious, thence the manly river breaks
And gathering many a flood, and copious fed
With all the mellowed treasures of the sky,
Winds in progressive majesty along :
Thro' splendid kingdoms now devolves his maze,
Nowwanders wild o'er solitary tracts

Of life-deserted sand; till, glad to quit

The joyless desart, down the Nubian rocks, w
From thundering steep to steep, he pours his urn, :
And Egypt joys beneath the spreading wave.
His brother Niger too, and all the floods
In which the full-form'd maids of Afric lave
Their jetty limbs; and all that from the tract,
Of woody mountains stretch'd thro' gorgeous Ind
Fall on Cormandel's coast, or Malabar;

99

From (1) Menam's orient stream, that nightly shines
With insect-lamps, to where Aurora sheds
On Indus' smiling banks the rosy shower:
All, at this bounteous season, ope their urns,
And pour untoiling harvest o'er the land.

'}

Nor less thy world, COLUMBUS, drinks refresh'd,

་་་

3

(1) The river that runs through Siam; on whose banks a vast multitude of those insects called Fire-flies make a beautiful appearance in the night.

The lavish moisture of the melting year.
Wide o'er his isles, the branching, Oronoque
Rolls a brown deluge; and the native drives
To dwell aloft on life-sufficing trees,

At once his dome, his robe,h is food, and arms.
Swell'd by a thousand streams, impetuous hurl'd
From all the roaring Andes, huge descends
The mighty (1) Orellana. Scarce the Muse
Dares stretch her wing o'er this enormous mass
Of rushing water; scarce she dares attempt
The sea-like Plata; to whose dread expanse,
Continuous depth, and wondrous length of course,
Our floods are rills. With unabated force, SDUBAY
In silent dignity they sweep along,

And traverse realms unknown, and blooming wilds,
And fruitful desarts, worlds of solitude,

Where the sun smiles and seasons teem in vain,ALA
Unseen, and unenjoy'd. Forsaking these,tode!!
O'er peopled plains they fair-diffusive flow does
And many a nation feed, and circle safe,
«ì
In their soft bosom, many a happy islegro y
The seat of blameless Pan: yet undisturb'de.
By christian crimes and Europe's cruel sons.
Thus pouring on, they proudly seek the deep,
Whose vanquish'd tide, recoiling from the shock,
Yields to the liquid weight of half the globe gi
And Ocean trembles for his green domain

1

But what avails this wondrous waste of wealth? This gay profusion of luxurious bliss?

(1) The river of the Amazons.

AD