University of Virginia Library

Some excellent Verses on Admiral Vernon's taking the Forts and Castles of Carthagena, in the Month of March. 1742,3.

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The attribution of this poem is uncertain.

Attend all nations round about,
who dwell on ev'ry shore;
Where're old Neptune's waves can float,
Or Britain's cannons roar.

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I sound great Vernon's spreading fame,
round heav'ns expanded arch;
Who thund'ring on the Spaniards came
on the last ninth of March.
Four ships against two sorts sail'd on,
And took them as they stood;
Tho' both the forts were built with stone
and th' ships were made of wood.
St. Philip gone, and Terra-Bomba,
(was ever seen the like—O!)
Resolv'd to cut the Spaniard's comb—a,
they fir'd at Boco-Chico.
The Spaniards star'd at the loud ring,
as at a rod stares dunce;
Like frighted pidgeons they took wing,
and vanish'd all at once.
Castle Legrand to guard the boom,
stood threat'ning far and wide;
Two men of war did boldly come
and pour'd a whole broad-side.
But, gen'rous, give the foes their due,
there was no sign of fear;
Vernon fire on, a fig for you!
for not a man was there.

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This castle was their greatest strain,
Don Blass concluded right;
He ran away with all his men,
and left the sort to fight.
Into his ship the hero got,
then sail'd away to town,
Then bid them fire, then bid them not,
then run, then stop'd, then run.
So a young lady in new stays
tail-nestling keeps a rout;
And so a maggot in a cheese
rolls wriggling round about.
You said, Don Blass, you'd drink a glass
with Vernon, could you catch him:
He's coming on, why do you run?
pray can't you stay and pledge him?
Fastned in Carthagena close,
no further can you fly;
Armies by land, or fleets let loose
will catch you by and by.
How dolefully with eighty guns,
Don Blass's ship was seen!
Taken from seventy Spanish Dons,
by five and twenty men.

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Don Blass beheld, he sob'd and whin'd,
his huge black whiskers tore;
And had he not fear'd to be fin'd,
he would have curs'd and swore.
In haste they sunk three men of war,
to stop the channel up;
Each vessel else they set on fire,
viz. ship, brig, snow, and sloop.
While these brave things were done at sea,
our soldiers work'd for blood,
Built on the land a battery,
behind a hideous wood.
Wentworth commands, down go the trees,
with horrible report;
Agast, the trembling Spaniard sees
the negroes and the fort.
As ghost stalks on by moon-light gleam
still terrible to nurse,
So frightful did each soldier seem
that went away from us.
Our picture shows all this with art,
(was ever work so pretty!)
And soon you'l see the second part,
when we have took the city.