Miscellany Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Πωλειται τις δευρο [Νεων] αλιος Νημερτης
Αθανατος, Προτευς, ------ Ος τε θαλασσης
Πασης Βενθεα οιδε, Ποσειδαωνος Ψποδμως.
Homer. Odyss. D. V. 384. &c.

To the Right Honourable JOHN Lord ROOS Eldest-Son To the Earl of RUTLAND, &c.

I. PART I.

STANZA I.

Upon a Promontory's Point,
That stretch'd out far into the Sea;
That of perpetual War had bore the dint,
Of foming Waves, and angry Surges sway:
A Desolate and lonely Place,
Where Seales securely play'd,
And feathered Fowl their winged off-spring laid;
But unfrequented by all Human Race,
I stood: By wild Meanders thither led,
My wearied Feet had wandred with my Head,
Lost in the Maze of thought:
Steep headlong Cliffs my eager footsteps stayd,
And I a Scene of Seas survey'd,
Which mixed Fear and Pleasure brought:
Whose beauteous Bosom smooth and fair,
Did all the charms and flattery wear,
With which she us'd to cheat the credulous Mariner;
When Smiling she invited to betray.
The Wanton waves did with the Sun-beams play:
(If any Waves did there appear)

The liquid Plains were folded up to rest.
The wars of Nature seem'd to sleep:
Peace stretch'd her Downy feathers o're the Deep,
And the calm-brooding Halcyon built her Nest.

II.

A Sail far off dress'd in the height of pride
Top and Top Gallant did in triumph ride:
The subject Waves did groan beneath the weight,
Which soon should by the Change of Fate,
(Such a Vicissitude of things is laid)
Exalt themselves above her Lofty head.
The careless Crue within in Mirth and Joy
Their few short Moments did employ,
Nor e're dream'd of their hast'ning Destiny.
For lo! a suddain Storm did rend the Air:
The sullen Heaven, curling in frowns its brow,
Did dire presaging Omens show;
Ill-boding Helena alone was there.
The starting Sun deny'd his Light,
Not willing to behold the sight;
Nothing so merciless as Night!
Mountainous Waves came crowding from afar,
That threatned even to Heaven a War.
The bonds of Nature seemed broak,
And her foundations with the Tempest shook:
As thô the loose disjoynted World
Was to be once more in a Chaos hurl'd.
The labouring Bark in vain doth strive
In Cataracts of Seas to live:
Her Mizen's gone, the Sail-yard cracks,
Her Rudder's lost, the Mainmast breaks:
On the deaf Gods in vain they call,
The Gods to their own Empire look,
Are more with Fear than Pitty strook,

And the Tenth wave doth sink them all.
Into the vast Abyss they fall — —
They and their Great Designs:
The hopes of Merchandise and Gain,
The Dear-bought price of Dangerous pain,
Their Golden dreams of undiscover'd Mines.

III.

Bless me! cry'd I, what dubious Fate
On mortall Men doth wait.
Blindly in deadly Paths we walk,
The Messengers of Death about us stalk;
Unseen their Ambushments are laid,
Arrest us, when there seems least cause of Dread.
In other things alike; with anxious Pain
We strive Discoveries to gain,
Which mock our wearied Expectation.
Skin-deep we only pierce, and what's behind
Is unknown Regions, we can never find:
The floting Islands show themselves and then they'r gone.

IV.

How despicable is our State below;
What fetters choak the soaring Mind:
Little of Truth in all the Mass we find,
That may Rewards on Painfull years bestow.
Dark Mists and Errours us surround,
We walk upon Enchanted ground,
Spectres and Phantôms fill the Round.
Mormoes dress'd up in Antick shapes appear,
And what we grasp but fills our Arms with Air.
With wandring Eyes we Heaven behold,
And see the starry Orbs from far,
Percieve that they are rowl'd,
But yet the hidden Wheels a Secret are.

From what Materials they are bred;
Their Distance and their Magnitude;
And if they be inhabited, —
Are secrets that our Minds elude.

V.

So we the surface of the Earth behold:
Where Joy and Plenty hath her Bosom crown'd,
Where burning Sands do curse the Barren ground:
Where with Prolifick heat she smiles,
And where she's fetter'd up with cold:
Where Craggy rocks lift their aspiring head;
Where she sinks down into a fruitfull Mead,
And with soft joy the Mind beguiles:
Where Beauteous Nymphs with silver feet do tread:
We see her Civil and her Antick dress,
Where she's a Paradise, and where a Wilderness.

VI.

But this our Knowledge and our Sight confines,
What is below's a Secret made:
Where Precious stones in hidden beds are laid;
Where Quarries rise or Rivers wind,
That under Mighty rocks their passage find;
Or where's the Seat of undiscover'd Mines.
Where Princely Cities once did show their head,
Now in their Ruines buried.
Where Sacred Monuments of Kings were plac'd,
The false Repositories of the dead,
By Eating Time defac'd.
What is betwixt us and the Center set,
What are the Rocks, on which the Earth is rais'd:
How they endure the Subterraneous heat,
And keep in bounds the Central fire,
By which at last the Fabrick must expire.

These all are Mysteries, which we can't undoe;
For when we would below the surface know,
Our native Soil an unknown Land doth grow.

VII.

But who of Thee, false Element, can speak;
Thou treacherous Sea! that smil'st to wrack?
That dost new Faces every day put on,
As Variable, as thy Guide, the Moon.
What boundless Mind can fathom Thee,
That by thy Changing shun'st Discovery?
And why, Just Heaven, dost thou long Life bestow
O'th' senceless Hart and stupid Crow;
O'th' Serpent, that her Skin can cast,
And th' Eagle, that doth many Ages last:
To whom it nothing doth Import;
That can't to Noble Speculations rise,
Nor Nature's secrets view with sharp sagacious Eyes?
Why should swift Change snatch man's short Thread away,
That only can due Homage pay,
The great Attendant on thy Court:
And why should Art be long, and Life be short?
Why should Amphibious Creatures see
What doth to Man a Secret lye;
Into the Depth of the Abyss go down,
And in two Empires live, while Man's confin'd to one?

VIII.

May some kind Genius gratify
My daring Curiosity,
That would the Seas surprising Bottom see!
The Wonders, Nature secret keeps
In her vast Storehouse of the Deeps;
The various Plants, that Deck the watry Plain;
The Trees and Shrubs, that it adorn,
And precious Products, that on them are born;

The massy Heaps of Pearl and Golden Oar,
The working Sea hath driven up in store;
With all the scatter'd Riches of the Main:
The numerous subjects of the Realm of Waves,
The Fountains of the Deep and Subterranean Caves!

IX.

— — Scarce had I spoke,
When Neptune chanc'd my wish to hear,
That's often Deaf to shipwrack'd Wretches Prayer;
And lik'd my bold Ambition well.—
A sudden Numbness all my Members stroke:
The cheerfull Light, that welcome Comfort gives,
And th' wearied Mind with Joy relieves,
With an unpleasing force my Eyes did strike,
And the Sun's heat I did dislike.
Weary o'th' too-thin piercing Air,
Another Element my thoughts Employs:
The watry Plains I view'd with pleased Eyes.
Fearless the noise of Storms I hear,
The foaming Surges bring no cause of fear;
And Hurricanes become familiar.
I long'd to visit Neptune's Court,
And see the Tritons and the Sea-Nymphs sport.
Mean while within a Change I found;
Nature was working some new feat,
And summon'd all her Powers to meet,
Armour of scales enclos'd me round:
My Hands and Legs did nimble Fins display,
That could through yielding Water cut their way.
And from the Cliff, whose Downfall stemm'd the Eye,
And made even starting Nature fly,
Fearless I cast my self into the Sea.—

A Dolphin now I sport and play i'th' Main,
Do unto Man my Ancient Love retain:
And Reason still and Curiosity remain.

X.

But oh! what Language doth suffice to tell
The Rapine and Oppression,
The Armed Force and Violence,
That in those liquid Regions dwell?
Justice and Equity were flown,
And Right and Property not known:
No Laws to be the Poor's defence,
No Tenderness to Innocence:
The Less became the Greaters Prey,
Only because they could not fight:
And while these others swallow, They,
And what they had devour'd, became anothers Right.
No one by Might or Subtlety's secur'd;
The Greater still commands the Lesser's fate;
Now this devours, and now he is devour'd:
All on unruly Appetite doth wait.
So cursed is an Anarchy
So insupportable Democrasie.
Insatiate Element! how well with Thee
Do thy Inhabitants agree!
Pitty from both of you is banished,
Justice from both of you is fled:
And when you do devour,
You both are hungry still and gape for more.

XI.

There was a Rock that overlook'd the flood,
That the Seas Terminating Pillar stood;

By battering Waves in numerous Ages rent,
Or Earthquake's fury, from the Continent:
Whose Craggy Cliffs no other Race did bear,
But Birds, the wild Inhabitants o'th' Air,
That to the subject Sea for food repair:
Under whose side—whether by Nature's skill
By giddy Chance, or some Diviner will,
Or teeth of Time, or restless Waves, that tear
The hardest Rocks, and steeliest Mountains wear;
And (did not heavenly Powers their fury stay)
Even Nature's fixed Barrs would eat away,
A Cave was form'd—a Refuge for th' oppress'd,
Where injur'd Innocence secure might rest.
'Tis said, when Giants with the Gods did fight,
This shelter'd frighted Neptune in his flight:
Since which no armed Force may it invade,
But 'tis for Wretches an Asylum made.

XII.

Hither I fled, affrighted at the Sight
Of bleeding Justice and of injur'd Right,
Oppress'd by all-commanding unrelenting Might.
Hither the Love-sick Tritons oft did come
And to the Pittiless Rocks lament their doom:
With Mournfull strains their Sea-Nymphs pride rehearse
To the regardless Rocks in polish'd verse;
Whose tunefull Accents the rude Waves disperse.
Here wanton Meremaids often would resort,
And spend the Halcyon days in various sport:
Invent new Arts to make them look more Fair,
Comb and adorn their Green dis-shevell'd Hair.
And here be-nighted Neptune sometimes keeps his Court.

XIII.

Hence from my Safe Retreat,
With Eyes, that trembled yet for Dread,
I saw the Pearls ly in their Mother-Bed;
From Heavenly Dew and Drops of Night,
And from transparent Moisture bred:
Enlivened by Sol's Genial Heat:
How Drop by Drop the Films are made,
Th' Attracted Moisture o'r them spread,
Till they by New Accessions grown,
Adorn'd with Dazling Sparkling Light,
Are fit to' Inrich an Haughty Monarch's Crown.
The useless, undisturbed Store,
No Savage Hand had tore:
No daring Negro from the Bottom bore.
But th' o'rstock'd Soil, press'd with the too Rich Load,
Might send new Colonies abroad,
And Furnish all the Neighbouring Sea.
What boundless Riches in small space do ly;
When each one might a Province buy,
And Lavish Cleopatra feast and Anthony?

XIV.

Here Marchasites and unripe Mettals ly,
From the next Promontory rent,
By th' never sparing Sea:
Useless as yet,
The Precious Compounds want
The Sun's engendring Heat;
Which by kind Nature's Aid,
And Hatching Time, will once Mature be made,
And ly for Future Days a Bless'd Discovery.
The Artfull Salts, the Chymists use,
That Wonders can produce:

The Minerals, that have the Art
New Shapes to Mettals to impart,
And Monstrous Changes cause
In spight of Nature's fixed Laws:
Th' Ingredients, that Compose
(If such are unto Nature known)
The Philosophick Stone,
Which Thirsty Chymists (that so Dote on gain,
They Broyl in the Devouring Fire in vain;
While all their Hopes in Empty Smoke do fly)
At any Value would obtain,
Would at an Eastern Kingdom's Purchase buy.—

XV.

There lies a Broken Anker, on whose Trust
The Lives of all the Nautick Crew were Weigh'd;
That scarcely bore the first impetuous Gust,
But Them to Rocks and Gaping Sands betray'd,
Or to the dreaded Strand:
There Heaps of Bodies under Hills of Sand,
(The Mummies of the Sea)
That at the Resurrection-Day
Need take no Pains to make their Members hit,
Their Scatter'd Parts again to Knit;
But once inform'd with Heat and Active Fire,
Their Bodies will be found Entire,
And in one Moment be for Rising fit.
Here Guns and Swords and Instruments of War,
That Death do give near-hand, or from afar,
With those, they slew, One Fortune ran:
Peaceably now they ly and would do so,
They of themselves no Mischief do,
Nor would, without the Cruel Hand of Man.

XVI.

There Two, that strugling Sank into the Deep,
With Deadly Hate grasping Each Other fast,

Ev'en Dead their Hostile Postures keep;
The Enmity yet seems to last:
The senseless Bones Each Other hold,
Not Death th' unkind Embraces could unfold:
But when the Raging Tempests blow,
And Tydes move all the Deep below;
The Clashing Bones yet seem to Jar,
And keep up a Perpetual War.—
Another lies hard by,
That o'rboard fell with a far-stretch'd-out Blow,
Aim'd at his Eager Foe,
And i'th' same Posture fell, i'th' same doth ly.
His Threatning Arm his Deadly Sword doth wield,
Menacing Death i'th' watry Field;
And to Express His Ranker'd Hate within,
Dead He retains a Ghastly Grin.

XVII.

There Two in soft Embraces sleep;
Death can't unclasp their folded Arms:
Love is a God above His reach,
Above His Injuries and Harms,
And even can Destiny Obedience teach:
They yet Love's Pleasures seem to reap,
Spight of Death's Adamantine Chain:
In spight of the great Change of Fate,
And all the Movings o'th' the unsetled Main.
A surly Billow bore Her into th' Sea,—
Th' inflamed Lover could not stay behind,
But bid Defiance to the Wind,
And to th' Insulting Ocean's sway:
He leap'd into the Floud and caught
The Fatal Treasure in His Arms;
Sunk with the Precious Weight,
Nor could refuse to die with that Dear Load of Charms.

'Twas not a Death but Extasie!—
A tender Passion made Him grasp Her fast,
And He in Hopes of Safety was by Her embrac't.
Venus Her Self did the kind Lovers see,
(Venus her self sprang from the Sea;)
And by Consent of all the Powers above,
Fix't it down a firm Decree;
That from all Change and Injury free,
They should remain the Monuments of Love.
Their Bodies here below do Join,
Their Circling Limbs in Love-knots twine:
And i'th' Elyzian Shades (if we
May credit what's in other Regions done)
Their once-two Souls are now but One.—

XVIII.

There an Indulgent Mother lies,
Embracing yet Her tender Child:
With anxious thoughts She her fair Bosom fill'd,
For Her dear Infants Safety not Her own.
Minding more its Piercing Crys,
That did to Her the Storms and Tempests drown;
Than the Ship's confused Noise.
When Prudence bad Her Safety seek,
And every Soul did at the Danger schreek;
She was singing Lullabies.
Her Head seems to'ward Her Child inclin'd,
Her Arms in tender Wreaths about it twin'd:
Upon its Cheeks Her Lips do rest,
And th' Infant yet doth seem to suck Her breast.

XIX.

To Friendship's Laws a Sacrifice,
In State a Gallant Hero lies,
And in His Death Himself doth seem to Pride.
When His Friend's Lift-up Hands did help implore,

When Gods were deaf unto a Wretches Prayer,
And Tempests roar'd so loud, they could not hear:
The side, which Heaven forsook,
With Generous Pride He took:
He Jump'd into the Foaming Tide,
And Him even from the Jaws of Ruine tore.
But Fate, that envy'd Him his Praise,
Put a Period to His Days;
Lest He should stop the Destiny's power.
Tyr'd with the saving of His Friend;
(So hard 'tis Strugling with our Fate)
The angry Sea th' Occasion caught;
Commanded Tempests to attend,
And got a Worthless Victory
O'r One, that was half-dead before,
And yet o'r One, that cannot dy,
But in the Bosom of his Friend Survives;
And in the Book of Fame for ever Lives;
One step alone on this side Immortality.

XX.

Here a Ship's Hulk, that many Storms had bore,
Visited many a Distant Shore,
Enrich'd with Eastern and with Western Store
Now sunk grows Richer, than it was before.
Oysters, that Pearls breed in their Fruitfull Womb,
Do in her empty Cabbins ly:
Mountains of Golden Sand do for Her Ballast come,
And Amber-grease doth all the Hold employ.
Nothing to' enrich a Kingdom doth remain,
But once to make Her Tight and Fit to Sail again

XXI.

There One, just sinking in a Storm, yet staid
To take with Him his God,
O'rwhelmed with the Precious Load,

A Quick-untimely Passage to the Bottom made.
In's Arms the Fatal Chest He yet doth hold,
Embraces, what his Ruine was, his Gold.
And what far more than Life was priz'd above,
Retains below unalterable Love.
Here Shatter'd Limbs and Scatter'd Treasures ly,
And never nearer come:
The Greedy Hand, that all did clasp,
Insatiably for more did roam,
Now senseless don't at Gold and Jewels grasp,
Which in his reach do lie,
Death nums the Covetous Hand and blinds the Greedy Eye.

XXII.

See there an once-Insatiate Head,
Ambitious, Covetous and Vain,
Whom never Bounds or Limits could contain!
Pearls stick his hollow Eye-holes full,
And Gold crams up his empty Skull.
And what alive He ne'r could gain
By Fraud, by Prayers, or by Command,
He Purchases when Dead:
Even Rings (by th' working of the Sea)
Which the last Wrack became the Ocean's Prey,
Are Shuffled Artfully upon his hands:
That if his Covetous Soul could see
The State, in which He Dead doth ly,
She'd choose 't before a Life of Immortality.

XXIII.

There One, new-dead, becomes the Fishes prey,
And justling Crowds his Members gnaw;
His mangled Limbs around do draw.
Haddocks and Codds make Him their meat;
Lobsters and Crabs his Entrails eat,
And in his hollow Trunk their Eggs do lay.

And these by the next Fisher took,
By pleasing Bait and deadly Hook,
Become to Men luxurious food.
Men do Mankind in Fishes eat, and they
On Men revenge their near Relations blood.
A Mixture in our Nature is,
And the next step's a Metempsychosis.

XXIV.

There One, by Chance, or by kind Fate,
Entombed lay in so much state,
As might the Envy of the World create.
He was stretch'd out upon a Pearly Bed,
On sparkling Heaps of Gold his Head,
Branches of Corall round his Temples twind,
And like an artfull Shrowd his Limbs enshrind:
The Fyllegrin Case show'd all within,
And Studs of Pearls did at due distance shine.
No Mortal sure was ever laid
In so Magnificent, so rich a Room:
'Twas worth the Dying to have such a Tomb.—
A thousand Wonders more I did survey;
Round unregarded Heaps of Treasure lay
To every bold Adventurer a Prey;
But Fear still kept me in.—
From far the precious Mountains shine,
And every daring Soul invite:
And oh! thought I, might I be Guide
To English Ships, that there might freight,
I could do more than PHIPPS and all his Divers did.

XXV.

By chance it was a solemn Day
Neptune made a Processive Round;
Rode in's Triumphal Chariot o'r the Sea
With Pride of all the Ocean's Beauties crownd.

'Twas in remembrance of the Time;
When he o'reburthen'd with the weight,
The Cares and Stings of his Imperial State,
When Hostile Robbers did his Realm infest,
Ravaged all the Watry Clime,
Broke up his Treasures in the West;
The richest Part of his Dominion,
That had to former Ages lain unknown;
When he in his own Court a Prisoner kept,
Durst not stir out for fear of Hostile Force:
But underneath th' Atlantick Island crept,
And in the hollow Ruines of her ancient Castles slept.

XXVI.

In such Distress the watry God
Privately left his dark Aboad;
And under favour of the Night,
To Great ELIZA's Court did take his flight.
ELIZA, Brittain's thrice-Renowned Queen;
ELIZA, the Illustrious Heroine;
That Martial Spirit Patroniz'd his Cause,
And did assert his Injur'd Right.
Her tall Victorious Ships the Seas did scour,
Restor'd them to their Ancient Laws,
And Him unto his Native Power.
Great Soul! it was thy lucky Fate
The Sea and Land to vindicate:
Men to their Freedom to restore,
And Deities unto their Violated Power.
“To oblige Kings and Realms is Great,
“What then to put a God into thy Debt?

XXVII.

The Gratefull God the Favour own'd,
And that the Gift he might repay,
I'th' Sovereignty o'th' Sea
Her and Her Successors enthron'd:

And Yearly kept a Feast upon the happy Day.
The Noble Train near my Asylum drew:
Neptune th' Auspicious Place would see,
That once from dreaded Danger set him free.
My Transformation and my Fear he knew.
And, lifting up his awfull Trident High,
He smote the Face o'th' liquid Deep;
And charged all the watry Fry;
That they should safely me from force and Rapine keep.

XXVIII.

Neptune sate in his Chariot High
Drawn by Six Hippopotami;
Streamers of English Arms i'th' wanton Air did fly.
A Seagreen Robe was o'r his Shoulders spread,
Enrich'd with all th' unvaluable Store,
That Seas do breed or Storms devour:
And on his Head
A Crown of Rays from Phœbus sent
Or as Acknowledgment, or Rent;
For Revelling each Night i'th' Deep,
For's hours of Pastime or of Sleep.
On tunefull Shells the Tritons playd,
The Winds and Storms to sleep were laid,
And a profound Peace o'r the Deep was spread.
Mermaids in melting streins their Voices try'd,
And Sea-Nymphs in soft Airs reply'd;
That even rude Rocks & surly Seas took in the Musick pride.

XXIX.

Mountainous Whales before the Court were sent,
That mov'd all Lets out of the way;
And, where the Road thrô Creeks or Inlets lay,
Shuffled up Isles into a Continent.
The Monstrous Norway-Whale was one
That cover'd many Acres of the Sea;

That oft had for an Island gone,
Oft did the credulous Mariners betray,
Who moar'd their Ankers on his side,
And did beneath his Shelter ride.
Seas they drink down, and vomit up again;
And when they please do make an Ebb or Tyde;
Now 'tis Dry Land and now the Main.
Th' Aërial Beings (in a Fright)
That never since the Inundation
Such Cataracts of Seas had known,
Father retir'd toward the Orbs of Light;
And fear'd the Loss of their Dominion.
The troubled Sea around them boyls,
The Continent startles, and the Isles
For Fear shrink in their trembling Head;
And Earthquakes, as they turn their Course, are made.

XXX.

Near these their Place did take
Sea-Elephants that on the Rocks do sleep,
That overlook the Deep;
Hang by the Teeth secure, nor wake,
Till treacherous Nets are set around,
Till they'r with Cords and Fetters bound,
Nor can one Struggle for their Freedom make.
The Sea-Mors, that's kill'd for his sovereign Horn,
And thought by some the onely Unicorn.
The Swordfish and the Thrasher, that engage
The Monster of the Sea;
And bloody Battels with the Whale do wage.
The Tortoyses, that Barren Islands court,
From far to Fruitless Sands resort,
And under them their Eggs do lay:
The Dolphin, that in Musick doth delight,
And all surpasses in a speedy Flight:

Porpoises, that make Storms their sport,
And only before Dangerous Tempests play:
The Crocodile, for Power and Cunning fam'd,
Nor for his Cruelty less Nam'd:
That Eats, and Weeps; that He may Eat again.
The Shark, an Enemy to Man,
That craftily about the Ships doth stay,
And never Spares his Prey:
Seales, that in hollow Caves delight,
And shun Man's Dangerous Sight,
On Barren Rocks and Isles are bred,
Where foot of Man did never tread.
The Remora, the Wonder of the Sea,
That Ships even under sail can stay:
Small in his Bulk, but hoisting round their Keels,
No Waves or Tydes the Captive force away:
Whom Neptune did forbid to touch his Chariot-wheels.

XXXI.

Nor less those Swimmers added to the State,
That Earthly Creatures personate:
The Lion, Bear, and Bull o'th' Sea;
The Horse and Hog, that do i'th' Ocean play:
The long-bill'd Fish, to Birds of kin,
And that, which flyes with Moistned Fin.
The Meremaid, that doth Virgin Looks acquire,
The Vayled Nunn and Cowled Fryer;
Besides a Thousand Kinds, that have no Name,
That never to our Sight, or Knowledge came:
All, that their Castles on their Backs do bear,
All, that Offensive Weapons wear;
And all the Innocent Fry, that still to Death are near:
All, that Luxurious Palates please,
The Lustfull Dainties of the Seas;
All, that Apicius Table fit,
Or Heliogabalus with Joy would meet;

In Decent Order and with Comely State
Did on the Ceremony wait,
Nor did the Usefull Herring fail,
Whose Numerous Shoals ('tis said) can choke the Whale.

XXXII.

Thrice Neptune and his Court
With Mystick Rites and Songs of Joy
(While Milk-white Omens all around did fly)
Encompassed the British Isle,
And every River bless'd and every Port:
The British Isle! the best Beloved Seat
Of all the Off-spring of the Seas;
Whom He with Circling Arms doth ever greet.
And bad bless'd Plenty, Victory, and Ease
Upon her Charming Bosom smile:
Bad every Stream and every Rill
Plenty and Fruitfulness instill;
From Thames, that washes Stately Palaces,
Medway that Proud Victorious Navies sees,
To those that visit Humble Cottages.
Till all the whole Worlds Scatter'd good,
All, that's Esteem'd by th' Generous and Great,
Do in Her Lovely Bosom make aboad,
And there fix down their Glorious Shining Seat.
Till England be the Worlds Epitome:
And envy'd Britannie
The Lesser World, but yet the Happier, be.

II. PART. II.

STANZA I.

There was an Isle, Fame sings,
To' Antiquity well known,
Whose Powerfull Kings
O'r Africk did extend their wide Dominion:
Th' Atlantick Island nam'd.—
West o'th' Herculean Straits the Happy Soil was spread,
With Arts and Arms Embellished,
With Peace and Justice Crown'd:
Till (many Ages long-since past)
Either that undermining Waves had tore
The unsecure Foundation;
Or Strugling Nature with the Burthen groan'd,
And Sunk beneath the Weight She bore;
Or Nature's God, for Crimes to Us unknown,
A Dreadfull Vengeance took,
And by an Earthquake's Power,
I'th' starting and affrighted Sea did sink Her down;
Earthquakes, that have the World's Foundation shook:
Have lowly Valleys into Mountains rais'd;
The Proudest Citties have debas'd,
And Towring Hills to Vales depress'd;
Old Isles overwhelm'd, and in their stead,
Made new Ones show their unknown head:

Heaven's unrelenting, all-devouring, Rod
The Dreadfull Messenger of Angry God.

II.

The Earth's Third Part sunk in one Moment down.—
The Guardian Angels were with Wonder strook;
Th' Infernal Shades th' Alarum took;
And th' other Parts o'th' World without an Earthquake shook.
Even Jove and Pluto, Jealous grown,
Envied their Brother's late enlarg'd Dominion.
And all that Western Spacious Coast,
Which We America do stile,
Which was for many Ages lost
In dark Oblivion,
Beyond that Dangerous Ocean spread,
E'r Great Columbus his Discovery made;
Prov'd but some small remains of that most Potent Isle.

III.

Hither Great Neptune's Course did lead
To th' Palace o'th' Atlantian Kings:
Which doth the wildest thoughts exceed,
Castalian Fury e'r did breed,
Which Bacchanals or Dithyrambiques sings:
Outdoes those Notions, fill the Poet's head,
When Pegasus expands his Wings:
More Rich, more Stately, and more Bright,
Than all, that heated Rage can write;
All, that Flattery can indite:
All, that Inventive Greece did once bestow,
On Gods above, or on their Kings below:
The Fabrick did more Excellencies shew,
Than e'r from Poet's Fancy were instill'd;
“Thô they can Richest, Quickest, and the Cheapest build.

IV.

Here in a Spacious Hall,
A Faithfull Register was kept of all

The memorable Conquests of the Sea:
E'r since the Universal Floud, when She
Her Empire over all had hurl'd,
And Neptune rul'd the World.
What her old Limits were before;
Where She unchang'd doth keep
The Bounds of Lands and of the Deep.
Where th' Ocean doth usurp upon the shore;
And where the Land possesses, what She had.
Where Hills were by the Deluge made,
Where Continents broke, and Isles were spread
And where, what once was Sea, now Land appears:
Charts of the Land and Sea, as once it stood,
Before the Changes of the Sweeping Floud;
And as it now is Seen to later Years.

V.

The Voyage of the Heaven-contrived Ark,
Which Providence did safely Steer;
While She, th' whole Species did of Mankind bear:
The first frail Bark,
In which Men durst attempt to trust the Sea!
The Minutes kept, how every Day
Her Sacred Course thrô th' Ocean lay:
When She to East or West did Steer,
When She to North or South did bear:
When She o'r Europe sail'd, or Asia;
And how Mount Ararat at last Her Course did stay.

VI.

The certain time, when by Impetuous Rage,
The Great Atlantian State sank down;
And did the Sea-Gods Temples Crown;
Six Centuries before great Plato's Age:

When Sicily from Calabria was rent,
And when beloved Brittain from the Continent.
When Goodwin Sands
Was once a Powerfull Prince's Lands.
When Ægypt's Fruitfull Soil
Was ravish'd from the Sea by Mud and Filth of Nile.
When th' Ocean shall new Conquests make,
When, what did once belong to Her, retake.
When Holland must Her Debts repay,
And count for all Her Provinces stole from the Sea.
He that would Curious be,
And know of future Times the Destiny,
He need but Visit that Great Court and see.

VII.

There in another Column stood,
The Great Commanders of the Floud:
Those that have uncontrouled swept the Seas,
And Triumph'd o'r the Watry Provinces.
When the Sea Infant-Burthens bore,
And Men sail'd Safe in sight of shore,
Nor trusted to the Wind but to the Oar.
When Daring Men by Custom Bolder made,
But by Experience more,
With heavy Fleets the Ocean did invade.
When bold Phœnicia could not stay at home,
But did for Gain to distant Regions roam:
Did Rich Atlantis rape,
Nor could our CASSITERIDES Escape.
When Purple Tyre sate Mistress of the Sea:
When Carthage rais'd her Emulous Head,
And o'r Imperial Rome prevail'd;
When her Bold Fleets the Ocean's Bosom spread,
And Hanno first of all round Africk sail'd:

When Greece from them the Secret got,
And Alexander, that both Empires sought,
Sail'd by Nearchus unto India.
When Rome to her own Coast confin'd
Dar'd not to trust the faithless Wind:
Till from some Ships wreck'd on the Shore
She learnt the Dangerous trade;
And grew so' expert her Neighbours to invade:
And made th' unquiet World the fatal Skill deplore.

VIII.

When with the Roman Empire Arts too dy'd;
And Barbarous Rage took in the Downfall pride.
When Fear and dire Necessity
Compell'd the frighted Troops, that fled,
Inhospitable Cliffs to choose,
Secure from Reach of Barbarous Foes:
Whence Venice rais'd her glorious Head;
Venice, the Jewel of the Sea;
With silver Feet that on the Waves doth tread,
But her high Temples among Stars doth lay.
When the great Secret of the Loadstone found
For bold Discoveries gave a ground:
That doth thrô pitchy Night and Darkness guide,
Miraculously finds the unseen Way,
When there's no Marks nor Tracts left in the liquid Sea,
Even when the Polestar's hid.

IX.

When English Ships with gallant Pride
Did o'r the subject Sea in Triumph ride.
And all the Men; that Former times did grace,
The Heroes of Immortal Race,
All, whose brave Souls with Valour were inflam'd,
All, that for Arts or Arms were nam'd,
For Victories on Land or Sea were fam'd;

Seem'd by a Metempsychosis
In Englishmen again to rise.
When all, that Ancient Greece dar'd doe,
Or Tyre or Carthage skill could know,
Or Rome's exalted Minds could show;
Or later Venice, that Espous'd the Sea,
Are all compriz'd in Our one Brittany.

X.

Around hung the surprizing Sights
Of all the Memorable Fights,
That ever dy'd with Gore the frighted Main:
Where Art with Nature for the Empire strove;
The Ships yet seem'd to move,
The Men to live,
Their Former Rage and Vigor to retain:
Their swollen Limbs did bold Defiance breathe
And gave a Life to Death:
Their blood shot Eyes yet darted Fire,
And their stretch'd Veins did show their inward Ire.
The Draughts of Wars in Ages long-since gone
Lapp'd up in dark Oblivion;
To which no tracts nor Footsteps lead
But even the very Fame is dead:
In lively Portraytures are shown,
In Postures and in Garbs are drawn,
To Us and all the World unknown.
There Maps of Realms whereof we ne'er did hear,
That lie Rewards for future Industry;
Whose very Names yet never reach'd our Ear,
But to succeeding Times shall be familiar.
That might we thence Great Neptune's Records bear,
And all the Secrets of his Court declare,
How welcome to the Inquisitive World would such an History be!

XI.

The Memorable Time was set
When Xerxes did the Ocean beat,
And fetter'd up the Hellespont:
Which unrevenged long bore not th' Affront.
When He, his Numerous Army by an Handfull torn,
His Bridge of Boats by Tempests overborn,
In a poor Schiff was forc'd to pass that Sea,
Which he once bragg'd, He'd taught to' obey
The former Feats of ancient Greece,
Ever since Jason won the Golden Fleece.
What they have told in Vanity and Pride,
What they've forgot and what they've magnify'd;
Where they've told Truth, and where they've ly'd.

XII.

The Struggle, Carthage made, to try,
When just expiring, for her Liberty:
When yielding to inevitable Fate
She sunk unwillingly beneath the weight:
When all her Beauteous Ladies deign'd to spare,
To make new Cordage for her Ships, their Hair.
Nor was forgot
The bloody Battle, that was fought,
When Carthage lofty Head was low,
With Hannibal Rome's Mortal Foe,
That Barrel'd Vipers into Roman Ships did throw.

XIII.

There was describ'd at large
The great Deciding Fight,
That to the Empire of the World did give the Victor Right.
There Cleopatra's Gilded Barge
With curious Workmanship did shine,
And promis'd something Great within.

With base ignoble Fear she fled;
The gallant Warriour turn'd his Head,
His Head and Heart with Her was led.
With her loose Charms betray'd
He could not stay behind,
Weak and Effeminate as Woman-kind;
He could not want her Look,
His mighty Heart in pieces broke:
Honour and Fame forgot,
The Empire of the World esteem'd at nought,
He turn'd his Sails and said;
“In Empire I have had my share,
“Gallant my Acts have been in War,
“And I in Love as nobly dare.
“I can't thy Presence, Cleopatra, lose,
“The World for Thee I'l give:
“And rather now to be thy Captive choose
“Than the World's Emperour live.
So He with Love, not Fear o'recome,
“Follow'd his Heart and left to Cæsar Rome.

XIV.

There Pompey's Gallant Sons were shown
Crowned with Honour and Renown.
The Noblest Spirits, Rome e'r bore,
Who influenc'd with Generous Rage
Both for a violated Country's Good,
And for a Murder'd Father's Blood,
Did against Cæsar and the World engage;
And first did learn the Ocean to command the Shore.
Nor was thrô all the Ages down
A memorable Action pass'd,
When Rome retain'd her old Renown,
Or when with Barbarous Rage her Glory was defac'd;
Till Fam'd Lepanto's happy Fight,
That did the Sea of Turkish Force acquit.

XV.

There was the

Battle of Scluce near Flanders. A. D. 1340.

Famous Sea-Fight shown,
Which unto Scluce did give so vast Renown,
Scluce, in the Books of Fame well-known!
Nor Greece from Salamis did bear
A Richer Prize, than Albion purchas'd there:
When our Third EDWARD and his Godlike Son,
The Admir'd BLACK-PRINCE, did raise the English Name,
And proud Valois his Mighty Fleet o'recame,
Asserting o're the Seas their high Dominion.
The Feathered Messengers of Fate
Flew thick, as storms of Hail, from English Bows:
Nor could the French endure their stinging Weight,
But rather desparately Chose
Their gaping Wounds in the salt Floods to close.
Then thrice-ten thousand French their Lives resign'd,
Staining the Brittish Seas with hostile Gore;
Their fainting Lillies now grew sick and pin'd;
While Neptune trembled at our Angry Lyon's Roar.

XVI.

But above all with greatest Care,
(For lesser Fights are lost,
As smaller Sounds are by the Great ingrost)
The Wonder and the Scorn o'th' Sea,
That even frighted the submissive Eye,
The Great Armada, swell'd with Spanish Pride,
That came to take Possession, not to War,
Was in most costly Colours drawn,
Did in Triumphant Manner ride,
Already sure of Victory;
Had England in vain Hopes already swallow'd down.
Till English Valour thrô the empty shadows broke
The Pompous Fleet in pieces shook;
Th' unweildy Carracks got new wings to fly.

The Burthens of the Sea
Did Burthens now unto themselves become;
And wish'd, they could shrink into lesser Room.
Their Fetters and their Chains were took,
And even their Instruments of Cruelty
Did to their Owners dreadfull look;
And told what was their Doom:
Thrô all the Northern World they fled;
Each Promontory did their Treasure share;
Each barren Soil enriched by the War:
Beyond the Farthest Thule trembling and agast,
They by their Valiant Foes were chac't:
And Famine, Cold and Ignominy past,
The poor Remains reel'd shatter'd and despised Home at last.

XVII.

Nor did the skilfull Art omit
The Acts in various Ages done,
That eve'n did Fame affright;
Which no bold Language could recite,
Nor could by Pencil's skill be drawn.
All Species of Ships were there,
Those, that first cut the Waves with Fear;
And near the Shore did creep:
Those, that with Oars did lash the Deep;
Those, whose wide Sails the Waves did sweep:
From the tall Flagg-ship, Pride of all the Main,
To the Canoo o'th' Sun-burnt Indian.

XVIII.

And, as a sign of Confidence, was show'd
The Secret Book,
In which no one but Favourites may look,
Nor even are those allow'd;
Till Sanctions bid them Secrets keep
Nor e'r reveal the Mysteries o'th' Deep.

There were large Charts o'th' Southern unknown Land,
How the Coast trends to East and West.
In what Degrees of Longitude 'tis laid,
How far to th' Southern Pole 'tis spread.
The Capes and Promontories were express'd,
Where a Safe Port, and where a Dangerous Strand;
Where Ships secure may ride, and where lies hid a Sand.
The Depth of Rivers and of Shores were took,
Not even a Creek, but was mark'd down:
The Traffick, Strength, and Riches of each Town.
That on the Neighbouring Sea doth look.
Their Customs both in Peace and War,
What Merchandize the Land doth bear:
What they do want, and what they spare.
The Trade-winds, that do thither blow,
The Roads, that thither lead.
And Isles, that are i'th' Passage spread:
That He, who the least Skill doth know,
May thither without help o'th' Compass go.

XIX.

There, what hath puzled Curious Brains,
But ne'r Rewarded for the Cost or Pains,
Are Maps, that do display
The Northern Passage to Cathay.
Where the Strait opens, and where ly
The Sea-marks for Discovery;
How to 'scape broaken Lands, that there arise,
And how to' avoid the Shoales of Ice:
VVhere the Coast Southward bends,
And where the Scythic Promontory ends.
Th' extent of BACON'S Polar Land,
Charts of the Dolefull Strand;
The Icy Mountains, that affright:
How the Inhabitants the rigid cold do bear,

And misty Damps of the condensed Air,
How they endure an half-year Night.
Besides the Virgin Soils, that never yet
Did Conquest or Discovery admit;
That in his secret Catalogue are writ.

XX.

Nor were the Secrets of his Empire hid,
Where the fam'd Rivers (Paradice's Pride)
Whose Names and Scituation
With endless Contests have Mens Brains employ'd,
Yet in their wanted Channels run;
And like Seth's Pillars have surviv'd the Flood.
Where Isles, that have from the Creation stood,
By restless Waves are undermin'd,
And with next Earthquake will a Ruine find.
Where Infant growing Isles do swell,
And will in future Times their Heads reveal.
Where old Phœnician Wracks have slept,
Treasures from former Ages kept:
Stores, that would be
Priz'd for their Worth and more for their Antiquity
Who shall in future Ages rule the Sea,
And Acts of Ancient Times outdoe.
The Fortune and the Fate of Brittanie,
When the Espoused Sea shall Venice leave,
And Her of all Her pristin Fame bereave;
A certain Symptom of approaching Woe.
And what hath unto Ages lain unknown,
There is an Art the Longitude to find:
And, what don't less Distract the Curious Mind,
The Reason of the Needle's Variation.

XXI.

There one might know
The Fate of every One, that unto Sea doth go:

What Prosperous Winds shall Him attend,
What Lucky Adventures Him befriend,
Or if unruly Storms his Shatter'd Bark shall rend.
Where controverted Ophir lyes,
Whence Solomon had his Rich Supplies.
Where th' floating Isle, the Proteus of the Sea,
Obeys Great Neptune's Law,
And doth a fixed Mansion get.
Where Polar Loadstone Isles are set,
(If any such there be)
That the touch'd Needle draw.
Where working Seas shall Harbors fill,
And Towns of Trade
Shall shrink to Villages from their Exalted State;
And in their stead
Some Despicable Place grow Great.

XXII.

This Palace once th' Atlantian Kings did own,
In its own Structure Beauteous 'twas and Great:
But all its former Glories are outdone,
By Juices which do ly to us unknown,
Such as do Gems and Precious Stones beget:
And by the Plastick Power which Nature secret keeps,
But in dark Mines reveals, and i'th' unfathom'd Deeps;
By these her Structures all are turn'd to Adamant,
And neither Darling Beauty nor unyielding Hardness want.
Unviolated Temples stand,
That don't beneath Time's burthen groan:
Neither by Tydes nor Storms bore down,
Nor Injured by rowling Sand.
Branches of winding Corall crawl
Upon the Sacred Wall,
Like clasping Ivy round embrac't:
Which never Sacrilegious Hand
Or Savage Force defac'd.

Th' Altars within their Privileges retain,
Do Sanctuaries yet remain:
Thither the helpless Fry
Pursu'd by Violence do fly,
And from th' Asylum all their Foes defy.
They to the Helpless yet do lend their Aid,
Nor may Arm'd Force the Sacred Seats invade.

XXIII.

Within and round are shown
The Tombs of the Atlantian Kings;
Which of themselves are Stately things,
But by accession of Sea-Treasure Nobler grown.
Each common Stone
A Jaspis or an Hyacinth doth grow:
Mother of Pearl the common roads doth strow,
And ev'n Plebean Tombs do Sapphires show.
And He, who last did in Atlantis Reign,
That to futurity he might remain,
Beyond the common doom,
Which swallows up the Worthless Crowd,
Neptune on Him his Greatest Gem bestow'd,
A Gem so Great, it serv'd Him for a Tomb.
There Queens in Chrystall Monuments were set,
That show'd the Beauty lay within:
Who from themselves much Fame did get;
But from what th' Ocean lent did seem Divine.
Some did in Tombs of Amber live,
And nothing to a Life did want, but Breath:
A Grave more Precious and more Fair,
Than all Arabia's Gums could give:
Than Ægypt for Her Monarchs did prepare,
Or Artemisia did to Her Dear Lord bequeath.

XXIV.

The Princely Gardens kept their Beauteous Store;
With Powdred Pearls the Walks were spread,
Nor is upon Earth's Bosom bred
A Beauteous Flower,
But by kind Nature's Artfull power
The same of Precious Jewels there was made,
Which no Time ever can devour.
Close Arbors and aspiring Groves,
That were intrusted oft with secret Loves,
By Petrifying Juice are turn'd to Stone:
And the same Order and Proportion
They yet unchanged own.
Designed Wracks the Treasuries do store
With rarities of every distant shore:
The Noted Ports yet Ships do show,
Whom Tempests overbore;
And order'd so
That they into the very Harbors fell:
And Bloody Sea-fights do the useless Armories swell.

XXV.

A Band of Triton's upon Neptune wait,
And Guard his Palace Gate,
And yet keep up the old Atlantian State.
The Castles and the Towns remain,
The Citties yet their Privileges retain:
Tritons do in the Nobles Houses stay,
And Sea-Nymphs in the Groves and Meadows play.
On Earth Vicissitude of Things
Rules o'r the Peasants Spade and Crowns of Kings.
Citties are not exempt from Fate,
But, as they had their Birth, shall have their Date.
Their Names and Scituation soon are lost;

And She, whose lofty Head stood high,
In the next Age in lowly Dust shall lie,
And even her very Ruines be forgot.
But here Atlantis doth a Conquest boast,
Which i'th' uncertain Sea
Hath from all Change Exemption got,
And's plac'd beyond the Reach of Destiny.

III. PART III.

STANZA I.

Hence Curiosity me led
To view the Neighbouring Sea:
Where 'tis with Green Sargossa spread,
And imitates a Flowry Mead;
Doth the unwearied Eye to rove invite,
And every where gives Prospects of Delight:
Under whose Shade the harmless Fry,
No Fear nor Danger nigh,
Their Innocent Revels keep,
And deck with sparkling Pearly scales the Deep.
Where Tortoyses from far resort,
Journy again unto their well-known Port;
Do with unwearied Feet repair
Unto the Place, where they were bred,
Or where before their Eggs they laid;
And without Guide, but Nature being their Friend,
Thrô devious ways are without Pole-star led:
And upon barren Desolate Isles,
They stupidly unto the Care
Of Hatching Sands their shelly Brood commend,
Or to the Sun's auspicious Smiles.

II.

Where Artfull Crabs, by Nature taught,
Their Food of Oysters and of Muscles make:

Whose Armory of Shells so well is wrought,
Their furious Gripes can't the Contexture break.
But when to take in pearly Dew they o'pe,
The watchfull Crabb doth the Occasion steal,
With little Stones the gaping Shells doth fill;
That those on whom rude Force could nought avail,
By Policy are caught.
Where the poor Fish, to all a Prey,
On whom kind Nature hath bestow'd
An Art to raise himself above the Flood,
Doth his useless Skill essay.
By Albicores and Dolphins he pursued
With moistned Fin knows how to fly,
But can't avoid his steady Destiny.
Sea-Fowl his Course prevent,
Seize on the helpless Prey:
And he, that durst not trust the Sea,
Dies in a Foreign Element.
A sad Dilemma, when to stay or fly,
Death equally is nigh:
Death that doth to all Seats repair,
That neither Land nor Sea doth spare,
Nor the swift Flights of those, that cut the Air.

III.

Nor did I miss the Plain,
Where the Seas Terrour, the Leviathan,
In his extended Pride doth reign.
Whose Subjects do at awfull Distance wait,
And dread him as their Fate.
But not his Monstrous Bulk and Mighty State,
Not his devouring Jaws
Can stop his Destiny;
Such often is the Doom of High and Great,
Such are Fate's rigid Laws,

By despicable Foes to die.
So scorned Vapours oft the Earth have shook:
So Worms destroy the aged Oak,
Neither by Tempest nor by Thunder strook:
So Elephants despised Mice do kill,
So the Ægyptian Rat the sleeping Crocodile.

IV.

Two Fish, but small in Bulk, yet great in Mind,
When none the mighty Monster dare assail,
With Skill and Force combin'd
Revenge their murder'd Kind;
One arm'd with Sword, the other with a Flail.
This from below th' unweildy Monster gores,
Nor can he to his Deeps descend:
The other furious Blows upon him showers,
From which no Armour can defend.
Which way soe'r he moves he finds his Doom;
The goring Sword, if he descends, he meets,
And furious Batteries; if he up doth come:
Death on each Weapon waits;
No way is left to fly,
But, while his trembling Subjects wait th' Event,
He meets his uncontrouled Destiny.
And what doth aggravate his Fall, he dies
Not by an Equal Combatant,
But those he did despise!

V.

Nor did I miss to' enquire
What symptoms in the Sea were seen,
Before a Storm doth rise,
While all is yet serene;
What Ebullitions are i'th' Ocean made,
While nothing doth our Eyes or Ears surprize.
What secret skill by Nature is convey'd

To Sea-fowls, that to Isles retire;
And Porpoyses, that they
Only before the Tempests play:
How they those Secrets know,
Which strange to Men do show.
When Storms the troubled Waters shall molest,
When Calms shall Lap the Sea in rest;
And how the Halcyon knows when to prepare her Nest.

VI.

Where in dark Caves
That do no Rays admit,
Beneath the Force of foaming Waves,
And Influence of Cheerfull Light,
The ragged Sea-Calves make a Safe Retreat.
Where they in solitary Holds do breed,
And gloomy Seats and Safety do prefer,
To all the Pompous Shows that Danger bear:
And where with Milky Breasts the Seales their Young Ones feed.

VII.

How rising Spouts, the Wonders of the Sea,
Or drawn by th' Sun's attractive heat,
Or rarified by Subterranean fire,
Do in Ætherial Regions play;
And mix with Seas above the Firmament.
How they new Qualities do get,
And against Nature's Laws aspire:
And from their Kindred Waters rent
Do revel in the Air;
That's now become a Watry Plain.
How the Vast Pillar doth the Burthen bear,
And gives new Nourishment for Clouds and Rain.
How frighted Mariners, when nigh,
VVith spread-out Sails the Danger shun;

The Dreadfull Neighbourhood do fly,
Which on what e'r it falls doth drown.

VIII.

Nor did the Dreadfull Gulph my Voyage stay,
That ope's a Passage to th' Pacifick Sea:
Whether by the Great Workman's hand 'twas made
For Commerce and Enriching Trade:
Or whether restless Waves the way had tore
On the Vast Chasm, was rent with Earthquake's power:
It lyes th' amazing way into another World.
Th' unfathomable Depths appall:
The Waves in Dreadfull Storms are ever curl'd,
In Hurricanes and Whirlwinds furl'd.
The unrelenting Cliffs do never save,
And the Vast Chasm doth represent a Grave.
The hanging Rocks, that threat a fall,
The foaming Waves, that rage below,
And Hills above all cloath'd with Snow,
That rob the Gulph of half the Day,
And hide the Sun's Auspicious Ray;
The furious Winds that from the Mountains break,
And headlong Gusts, that Ships in pieces shake;
Th' Abyss, that doth no Light admit,
But seems for Fiends a dark Retreat;
The Rocks, on which no Peace doth sit;
The Shores, that do no food or shelter show,
And Savages, that do no Pitty know:
Fiercer than Rocks, and Ruder than the Wind,
A Dreadfull Scene present unto the Trembling Mind.

IX.

Nor less the Northern Seas my Course invite,
Doubly fenc'd by Ice and Night.
Where Nature's fixed Bars are laid,
The Fetters nothing can invade,

But Heavenly heat from the Sun's presence shed,
Where the unfathomable Depths are spread:
Where Ghastly Horrour and Confusion dwell,
Gloomy, Dark, and Deep, as Hell:
Whose Stranger Waves ne'r bore the Plowing Keel,
Nor e'r the Lashes of the Oar did Feel;
Nor were Discover'd, but by Thee,
Generous and much-Lamented Willoughby!

X.

Where Barren Isles exalt their Head,
Uncomfortable, as the Seas; in which they'r spread:
Whose Hoary Heads, cloath'd with Eternal Snow,
No Friendship with the Sun do know;
But all in Icy Fetters bound remain:
Congeal'd in Numerous Centuries slid by,
The Streams a Chrystal hardness gain,
So Hard, they never will relent:
But when the World a Sacrifice shall dy,
And in her Funeral Flames expire,
They shall outbrave the Raving Element;
Nor yield to that, which Conquers all things, Fire.

XI.

Where the Bold Savage doth ill Fate defie;
The force of Storms and Mounting Seas outbraves,
And safely Dances on the Threatning Waves,
And truly may be said to rule the Sea.
Clos'd in his Boat secure He rows,
Made of the Skins of Fish, He took his Prey;
Which, by a secret Sympathy,
Do with the well-acquainted Waves agree,
And in a lasting Friendship close.
Lock'd in his Schiff they can't a Passage find,
Nor one Inquisitive Drop can search a way:
Thô Water doth thrô Rocks and Mountains wind,

And in each Particle of Matter ly.
Antiquity of Centaurs told,
That did half-Men, half-Horses grow;
The Fumes of wild Poetick Heads of Old.
A stranger Wonder He doth show
A Man (if yet a Man) above, a Monster all below.
In Seales-skins cloath'd He doth the Fish deceive,
Who Him one of their Shoal believe,
Untill his Fatal Dart
Credulity's Reward to them doth give:
He Personates a Fish with so much Art,
That not their piercing Eye,
Thô sight in them in its Perfection be,
And doth, what they in other Sences want, supply,
Can any difference spy.
He lives, He eats, He sleeps i'th' Sea,
Which seems to be his Element,
And gives that Food, the Barren Shores deny;
And doth his Bed, his Drink, his Sport present:
And it a Question yet remains,
What Classis of the Creatures He is in,
Whether He is to Men or Fish of Kin:
Whether He more to Earth or Sea doth owe,
To th' Solid or the Liquid Plaines,
And if what doth his Food bestow,
May not be thought his Mother too:
If that, which doth his Wants relieve,
Mayn't be suppos'd his Being first to give.

XII.

Necessity doth teach Him Art;
And thô the Soil's to Him unkind,
And doth all Needfull Instruments deny,
His Sport, what e'r He needeth, doth impart:
For by kind Nature's Aid He all in's Prey doth find.

Of Fishes Fins his Boat is made,
And with their Skins 'tis overspread,
Their Bones the room of Hooks supply,
And from their Teeth He forms his deadly Dart.
A Circling Pleasure that hath never End,
Doth on his Quiet Life attend.
Full Shoals of Fish to Him resort,
Who by their Death to others Death bequeath,
They with them bring the Instruments of Death,
And by their Own do Ruine unto Others give;
And He can ne'r want Tackle, if He hath but Sport.
Alive Great Fish do on the Lesser feed,
Do Ravin even on those they breed:
Here, when they'r dead, the Enmity doth live;
They senseless do become their Enemies Bane,
And after Death a Conquest over others gain.

XIII.

Nor did I miss, by Inclination led,
(For 'tis an Art my Soul doth please)
To visit all the Spacious Fruitfull Seas,
That are with Numerous Shoals of Fishes spread.
Where they upon the Artist wait,
With Greedy Hast swallow the Deadly Bait,
And Quarrel, who the first shall meet their Fate.
By Ill Example led they still rush on,
Regardless of their Friend's Destruction:
Whose Mangled Parts their Hungry Jaws do eat,
That now are dress'd up for their meat,
And made the Engines of Deceit.
Unhappy Case! where Fellows Traytors are,
And where Society becomes a Snare!
Where Death to th' Living no Advice doth give,
And where Dead Friends the Living do decieve!

From hence with winged speed I fled,
Did all around as Enemies dread:
And where no warning was from Ruine took,
Did on my self as on a Traytor look.

XIV.

I saw, where floating Woods of Timber, rent
From th' undermined Continent,
By Northern Tempests furious blow;
Or else o'recharg'd by weight of Ice and Snow,
As hanging on the Cliffs they grow,
They break, and into th' subject Sea do glide:
How they in unknown Paths their Journeys steer,
Till wakefull Providence's Care,
That Necessaries doth for all provide,
Their Course to barren Isles doth guide,
Which, by th' Inclemency of their raw Air,
Never a Tree or Shrub did bear,
But the Inhabitants in want do to the Sea repair.
Their Darts and Bows to Waves they owe,
Their Houses do from Tempests grow:
Their Food they draw from Tydes;
And their cold frozen Sea their usefull Fire provides.

XV.

I saw the Sea-Mors chac'd, whose prized Horn
That doth his fatal Head adorn
His Destiny doth bequeath,
And what's design'd his Safety, proves his Death:
Where Isles of Ice, remote from any Shore,
Themselves at eighty Fathom moar:
Look like a Continent,
And Capes and Cliffs, and Promontories represent.
Upon whose Tops wild Beasts do fight,
And Sea-fowls make the Cliffs look doubly white.

XVI.

Nor here my Curiosity was staid,
But with bold Course my daring Eyes survey'd
Where secret Passages o'th' Deep were laid.
Where by the working of the Sea,
Or by some secret Cause to us unknown;
The winding waters find their hidden way:
And straining thrô the Earth do leave behind
The Saltness, they did from their Mother own,
Till fit for Use, Delight, and Nourishment, they'r grown.
And on some Mountain's side
They do a Passage find:
Thrô flowry Meadows wind,
Thrô fruitfull Valleys glide
Till they i'th' Sea again do their Ennobled Waters hide.

XVII.

Nor did I fear
Beneath stupendious Rocks my Course to steer;
The hidden Tracts and lonely Vaults to' explore,
That under Mighty Realms do sink,
Thrô which the thirsty Caspian,
The CASPIAN, that doth numerous Rivers drink,
Yet still unsatisfi'd doth gape for more,
Nor ever swells with all the Store,
Empties it self into th' Mediterranean.
I did not fear the headlong Gulf, which all
The Mariners its Navel call:
The Vortex, which the Sea drinks down,
And all, that comes within its Verge, doth drown.

XVIII.

Nor to my Curious Search did secret lie
The devious Ways in Regions deep below,
That do 'twixt distant Lakes and Oceans go.

How the Friendly Waters meet,
How the Shoals of Fishes greet
In Realms yet undiscover'd to the Eye.
How Meers, whose Heads and Springs we cannot see,
Nor what their Sourse doth breed,
An Entercourse do keep
With Caverns under Mountains laid,
Or with the Treasures of the Deep:
How what the Sea doth from the Land receive,
When swelling Rivers to her Bosom come,
She back again in Springs and Showers doth give,
And keeps an Æquilibrium.

XIX.

There lies a Deep, if we may Truth receive
From those, that on the Seas do live,
Not far from th' CAPE, that hath a Name from Hope,
Where no Art can a Bottom gain;
Thô they a thousand Fathom sound with Rope,
But all their Labour and their Charge is vain.
Here I sunk down into the deep Abyss,
Where no created Being e're before
The Secrets went to' explore,
Or Nature's Work, that near the Center lies.
Below vast Rocks and massy Mounts I past,
Such as the Upper World don't know;
The Strength and Fortresses below,
On which the World is plac'd:
Till thrô dark Paths and uncut Ways,
Being arriv'd at th' utmost Place,
Where ev'en sharp Thoughts could not a farther passage trace;
I my wearied Journey staid
At Natures Bars, by the Almighty made.

XX.

The Bars, that fence the Windows of the Deep,
The raging Waves secure;
Lest they again the Earth should sweep,
And all Mankind devour.
But who the wondrous Locks can tell
VVho can the Adamantine Gates reveal?
That fortifie the firm Decree,
Which hath forbid the Ocean to rebell,
Set Limits to the Imperious Sea,
And made her in her Confines dwell.
Here I in vain for Dæmogorgon sought,
The Monster, ancient Ages thought,
Did at the Center lie;
The VVorld did actuate;
Whose Breath did make the Seas with Tydes to swell,
And whose unruly Motion Earthquakes did create.

XXI.

Now thrô dark subterranean Caverns led
And solitary Roads below;
Upon whose Brow sits dismal Night,
VVhere massy Rocks exclude the Light;
VVhere ghastly Horrour and Distraction's laid.
Led by Instinct, not by Sight,
VVhere Zembre's Lake doth fruitfull Waters show,
The wish'd-for Light I do regain,
And what Antiquity did never know
Find Nile's Illustrious Head.
Down all his glorious Course I cut my Way,
Thrô all the Realms that do his Waves adore;
The thirsty Nations that his Help implore:
Not the steep Cataracts could force my stay,
VVhose dreadfull Downfall doth the Sight surprize,
And dulls the Eye, as th' Ear is deafned with the Noise:

My daring Course with them I downward led,
Nor fear'd the Treacherous Crocodile,
Nor Hippopotamus of Nile:
View'd the remains of Dark Antiquity,
Wept o'r its Pristin Glory fled,
And griev'd to see the Marks of present Slavery.

XXII.

Nor did the Jewish Sea,
Fill'd with Bitumen 'scape Discoverie:
Trembling I at its Borders stood,
But durst not trust the Poys'nous Flood.
No Creature can the Noxious Waves abide,
Nothing can thrô the Waters safely glide,
Not Birds unhurt are to fly o'r't allow'd.
The Towns beneath do yet their Beauty bear,
For they alas not Guilty were,
The Men did all the Sin and all the Judgment share.
Around th' Infectious Shore
Fair-Trees deceitfull Apples bore,
To th' Eye they did with ravishing Beauty shine;
(Such are the looks of Sin)
But Loathsom Dust and Ashes held within.

XXIII.

Sometimes in distant Realms I rove,
For Curiosity is unconfin'd;
Where Springs their Vigorous Source send out above,
Or where vast Rocks below their Streams do bind.
Where they, unseen by Mortal Eye,
The Subterranean Progeny do feed;
Or Dæmons of the Mines (if any such there be)
Or beneath Rocks Metallick Compounds breed.
Below the Alps now my Dark Course is led,
Where PELION upon OSSA'S thrown,

Where Hills on Hills, Mountains on Mountains stand,
Till they to Heaven lift their Aspiring Head;
And do not seem the Work of Nature's hand,
But broken Ruines of the former World.—
The Monstrous Caverns, that Vast Depths do hold,
In their wide Arms do Seas enfold.
Who can their secret Sources show?
Whether they swell from melted Snow,
Which ever Crowns their Hoary Head:
Or whether from condensed Air they'r bred,
In Great Vacuities below:
Or whether from the Sea their secret Course doth flow:
The boundless Treasure's in their Bowels laid,
The Minerals, that there abound,
And Richly pay for all the Barren Ground.

XXIV.

To all the Lakes from these Abysses bred,
By hidden winding ways I pass'd:
Now I in Switzerland lift up my Head,
And trembling and agast
The barren Rocks and threatning Mountains dread:
Where Nature shows but a Step-Mother's Love;
Where the harsh Soil unkind doth prove;
Yet all is sweetned by Bless'd Liberty.
Their rugged Rocks, that scarce their Toil repay,
Their Vales with headlong Torrents wash't away,
They more do Prize than Dangerous State.
Than Smiling Treacherous Pageantry,
VVhile Peace and Safety do upon them wait.

XXV.

Now I i'th Garden of the VVorld do rise,
The Queen of Nations ITALY,
And from a Lake behold the Country round,
Which doth with Nature's Gifts abound,

And only Freedom wants to mak't a Paradise.
But see the Dreadfull Curse of Tyranny!
The untill'd Soil doth Mourn its State,
Th' unpeopled Land a VVilderness doth ly,
The wearied Peasant doth lament his Fate,
VVorks for what He ne'r enjoys;
But Groans, Sinks, and Expires beneath his Miseries.
Rapine and dire Oppression all doth seize,
And Curses, what God Bless'd before.
In vain God Plenty sends, and Store,
If dire Exactions keeps the Subjects poor.
Adam from Paradise was driven;—
And here Men fly the next Bless'd Place to Heaven.

IV. PART IV.

STANZA I.

No Corner of the World my Course did miss:
Not the unconstant stormy Irish Seas,
Which even the Adrian Friths surpass:
Not Naked savage Orcades,
Nor Thule, which from Rome the Farthest lay
Of all the Islands, She found out i'th' Sea.
Not Norway Deeps, where the Prophetick Whale doth lie;
Till the approaching Destiny
Of Him, whom all the Nation doth obey,
Doth call him up from's solitary Room,
In Regions deep below, to tell the World the Doom.
Not the tempestuous Seas, where Dæmons dwell,
Where Spirits rule the Winds, and move the Sea
The Air and Ocean sway,
And Lapland Witches Winds do sell.

II.

Not Seas and Lands by Icy Mountains barr'd,
The Curse of Nature made in spight,
Where fearless Bears the Shoars do guard,
And like their Land are cloath'd in white.
Yet (so each One is to his Native Country kind)
Spight of th' Inclemencies of Soil and Wind,

The Region doth within possess
(Whom their own Land the best doth please)
An Olive-colour'd Race of Savages.
Nor could I without Pitty see
The poor Remains of Thee, Great Willoughby!
Whose Breast retain'd a Generous Fire,
Enough to' have thaw'd the Polar Ice:
But doom'd by the more rigid Destinies,
Disdaining thou by Night and Frost wer't forced to expire.
Thy shatter'd Hulk a Seamark lies,
And doth forbid farther Discoveries:
Nor th' unrelenting Element to dare,
That would not so much Vertue spare.

III.

Nor did I lose
The moving Sight of those,
That while they sought the happy Coast,
Where the Seas Bosom opens to Cathay;
I'th' unknown untrac'd way,
In spight o'th' Zenith Cynosure were lost.
Where broken Isles is all the Land,
Rough Icy Mountains all the Strand;
That scarce a Living Creature doth contain,
And (if ought be) doth seem by Nature made in vain.
Whose Seas do with the Land Resemblance hold,
Now an unfathomable Deep
And now a Shoaly Sea:
Now Rocks, that do forbid a VVay,
Now an Abyss Precipitous and steep:
Besides the lasting Curse of Night and Cold.
Nor, Daring Gilbert, was thy Tract yet lost;
When thou at Newfound-land took'st Seisure of the Coast.
Great the Designs, which did out-brave thy Fate,
Thou liv'st in Fame, and art than Destiny more Great.

IV.

By all the Coasts, that English Ships do plow,
VVhen they to fruitfull Colonies do go:
VVhere they the Skins of Beasts and Birds do wear,
VVhere they adorn'd with Feathers do appear,
And where in Cloaths of downy Moss they pride.
From hence my speedy Course did glide
To Florida, that ope's her beauteous Bosom wide.
Florida, the Scene of Blood,
That hath unconquer'd stood
By Spanish Rage, or English Courtesie.
By all the Coasts, that Gold so oft devours,
The gilded Spanish Shoars:
All the Rich Wrecks, that overspread the Sea,
All those in the Campeche Bay,
So oft inur'd to Pyracy;
VVhen Boucaniers their Pranks do play:
And what all Ills hath suffer'd, PANAMA;
The Glorious Island, once the Ocean's Pride,
That now a Wilderness doth lie:
Hispaniola, that did Empress tide;
The fatal Inlet into Slavery.
That first by ventrous Mariner was spy'd;
VVhen the despairing Fleet had else return'd,
VVhose Height so oft enslaved India mourn'd.

V.

By all the scatter'd Isles, that guard the Western Shoar;
VVhere barbarous Cannibals do on their Neighbours prey:
Who Neptune's bosom in their Canoos scour,
And bloody Teeth do on Men's Entrails lay;
Carouse in Enemies Blood,
And the yet-quaking Members make their Food
All, where the Amazonian River flows,
That from a thousand Streams renowned grows.

All, that the fair Guiana shows,
Immortaliz'd by Raleigh's Pen.
Or that, which hath its Name from Plate,
And groans so oft beneath the Precious weight:
All the Inhospitable Shores for Men,
Down to the dismall Straits of Megallan.

VI.

I found out all the Solitary Isles,
VVhere Uncorrupted Nature smiles,
Spread out in spacious Deeps alone:
That ne're to Knowledge were betray'd,
And happy, it they never be;
So blessed 'tis to be Unknown,
And ly from Danger, as Discovery, free!
Riches, when known, expose to Prey,
And Happiness, when envy'd, doth betray,
And to Invasion ope's a way.
Cut from the VVorld these nothing Dread,
But, thankfull, on what Nature gives, do feed.
Know but their own, and have no wild Desires,
Nor nourish in their Breast Tyrannick Fires.
Think, there's no VVorld but what they do enjoy,
Nor yet beyond their Coast their VVishes fly.
Blessed in Peace, and in unsullied Joy,
Bless'd in, the Crown of Blessings, Liberty:
Bless'd, that ne're long for Foreign Stores,
Nor foreign Vices nourish on their Shores!
Here fixt Content doth place her Seat,
Beyond ev'n Philosophick Notions Great.
Happy in Ignorance, they know no more,
Than Nature's humble Store;
Pleas'd with their state, they Strangers are to Care,
They nothing hope for, and they nothing fear.

VII.

All those, that far from Entercourse are laid,
And do just Admiration gain,
(Since they know none, and are to all unknown)
How Men and Beasts were into them convey'd.
Except they did remain,
When swallow'd Continents sunk down:
Or by Angelick Ministry the work was done.
Those, whom kind Nature doth bestow
To be the Seaman's Guide;
And kind Refreshment to provide:
Where Tortoyses sweet Food to them allow,
Whom the salt Waves and salter Food had dri'ed:
Where the salubrious Air
And limpid Water doth their broken Spirits cheer.

VIII.

Nor did I miss the Southern unknown Coast,
That doth of boundless Riches boast;
And dares the bold Discoverer:
Whose Virgin Soil ne're yet did Stranger bear,
Nor European Keel her Seas did ever tear.
Vast spacious Tracts that Coast shall once unfold,
Even to the Southern frozen Zone:
Which vainly now are judged Sea;
(And so was once America)
As great, as are the Worlds already known;
That yet in Darkness and Obscurity lie down.
That do invaluable Treasures hold
Of what, all Men adore, Eye-dazling Gold.

IX.

The quiet Waves of the Pacifick Sea,
Where seldom Tempests rage,
Or Storms with shatter'd Ships engage;
But Nature there in her Repose doth lie.

Where the Inhabitants of America,
That the South Sea enjoy:
Free from fear and from annoy,
Sleep on the Shore in soft security
With Bars of massy Silver by.
They leave their Ships at Ancker on the Shore,
Thô fraighted with inestimable Store,
And far within the Land themselves employ:
And neither Tempests fear nor Pyracy.
By all the Happy Coast I pass'd,
Happy in every thing, but Liberty:
Where yet the Marks of DRAKE and CANDISH last,
The scourges of the Spanish Pride.
I saw where the Vast Carrack once did ride,
Enrich'd with all the Indian Store,
Which Noble CANDISH by his Valour bore;
And round the World in Triumph drew:
While trembling Spain lay gasping at the View.

X.

Hence thrô the Spacious Main,
The way, that our Great Hero went,
Along his shining Tract I ran
To every Indian Isle and Continent.
The Seas, that do embrace the PHILIPPINES,
Which Nature scattering o'r the Ocean throws:
That, which around MALDIVA shines,
Where the Sea-Coco under water grows,
And a Medicinal Juice for Poyson shows.
The Sea, that the MOLUCCO Isles confines,
Whose Fragrant Cloves the World do Store,
And th' Ocean do perfume, when out of sight of Shore.
Those, who their Parents, when they'r old, do eat,
Those, who the Fig-tree make their Meat,
Those, who from Coco-leaves their cloaths do get.

Lands, that such Monstrous Crabs do breed,
That Men their Dangerous Neighbourhood do dread;
For what they grasp, they kill.
Those, who such Giant Tortoyses do find,
Ten Men their hollow Cavity can't fill,
But have at once within them din'd.
Thrô all that Sea, that's thick with Islands sown,
And's Nature's Harvest when well grown,
My Vigorous Course did go—
From the Contemned Islands of the Main,
Which no distinctive Names do know,
To

So Mercator &c. But others make Zedan as Barrius and Varnerius.

Sumatra, the ancient Taprobane.

XI.

Nor did that Coast escape my View,
Whose Riches and unbounded Stores
From forreign Climes and distant Shores
So many Lovers drew:
The Indian Sea, where all the World doth greet,
The Center where from every part they meet:
The Sea, that ne'r doth rest,
Whom Tydes and Tempests break, but most the plowing Keels molest:
The Shores, where Wives with their Dead Husbands burn,
And mix their Loving Ashes in one Urn.
Where Servants with their Masters die,
That in the other world they may not unattended be.
Where Pythagoreans do all Flesh forbear,
And whatsoe'r hath Life do spare:
That Lawn before their Faces wear,
Lest their unwary breath,
Should give a Fly or Insect Death.

XII.

Where Brachman's with a Stoical Pride
Do the extremity of Heat and Cold abide.

The Shore, where Ganges is ador'd,
And is with Pilgrims from all Quarters stor'd,
Who in his Waves do hope to wash their Sins away:
Where they to Monstrous Pagods pray,
Whose Dreadfull Looks do the Adorers scare,
And only can be worshipped for fear.
Where Hospitals for Birds and Beasts they build,
And buy their Lives off, when they'r to be kill'd.
The Barbarous Shore,
Where what they first at Morning meet, they all the Day adore.
Or what the rest in Folly doth excell,
Where they the APES Tooth worship, PERIMAL
The Sea of Bengala inslav'd to Lust:
Or th' black-Mouth'd beardless PEGUAN:
Or where the KING can't his own Issue trust,
But's Sisters Son doth after Reign.

XIII.

Nor could I miss Cape Comori,
Where Mounts of Fruitfull Shell-fish ly,
That Orient Pearls do in their womb contain.
Where the bold Indian Jumps into the Main,
Doth down unto the Shining Bottom Dive,
That needs no Light, but what the Pearls do give.
That up a precious Load doth bear;
Unto the Sun and Air
The rugged Oysters doth expose,
Whose Heat the Treasures do disclose.
While SHARKS and HAVENS wait
To bring the Wretch his Fate;
And with a Dire Revenge, repay
Th' Invasion of their Element, the Sea.
Pearls the too Costly Price of Blood!
That neither Clothing can bestow nor Food;

That one single Life can't buy,
Made not for Nature's wants, but Luxury.

XIV.

Nor did I the Arabian Gulph omit,
Where the Impostor doth in Triumph sit.
Nor yet that Sea, whose red Discolour'd Stream
To endless Disputation gives a Theam:
Which the Jews wondrous Passage tells,
And yet retains the Marks of Pharaoh's Chariot-wheels.
But in the Tract, that Solomon's Ships did pass
My Course to Sophola did hold,
By Wise-Men thought th' OPHIR of old,
And yet Renown'd for Gold.
Whose Mines even Admiration do surpass:
Whose Buildings yet do Ancient Greatness bear,
Engrav'd with many an Antique Character.

XV.

Nor did I fear the Dreadfull CAPE to pass,
Of the known World the Farthest Part:
Where Storms and Thunder do make Nature start.
Where th' Elements do know no Peace,
Where Feuds and Quarrels never cease;
Whose Threatning Mountains have defy'd the Main,
That hath for many Ages beat in Vain
Those Adamantine Rocks, that yet its fury do restrain.
Twice I cut the Burning Line,
Where Perpendicular Rays do from the Zenith shine.
I swiftly pass'd th' Unnatural Shore;
Where Parents do their Children sell,
And Children cruelly do with their Parents deal.
Where Niger's Streams the Parched Fields restore,
And spight of the Sun's dazling Light
On every Face writes Night.

Nor did my Course the Wondrous Isles forgo,
Where Weeping Trees bedew the Thirsty Plain,
And with their Fruitfull Drops supply the Place of Rain,
And Phaethon's Sisters in their Tears outdo.
And what no less a Wonder may appear,
Where Trees do Clustring Heaps of Oysters bear.
To all the Scatter'd Isles my Course I Steer,
Where groaning Atlas sinks beneath his Weight;
All the Rude Coasts to the Herculean straight.

XVI.

Enterd; The Barbarous Africk Shore I spy'd,
Where once Rome's Emulous Foe with Haughty Pride
Lifted her Crest on high:
Her very Ruines ruined
I could not without Indignation see,
That once stood Candidate the Universe to Guide.
Nor could I unsaluted MALTA pass,
Where Valour doth Triumphant sit,
And Rears on High the Christian Name:
Once a Contemned Despicable Place,
Whose Barren Rocks, but for Sea-Monsters fit,
With Man could scarcely Friendship claim.
So Time and Change is over all things spread;
And that, which once liv'd High in Fame, lies Dead,
And what lay low in Dust, exalts a Glorious Head.

XVII.

Malta, thou now art Darling Child of Fame;
Yet this unto thy Worth thou dost not owe;
From thy Brave Valiant Sons thy Fame doth grow.
Regions and Citties are but Senseless things,
Nor of themselves Renown acquire;
The dull Gross Matter wants an Actuating Fire;
And when they do to Noble Acts aspire,

They owe the Motion to Great Captains, and to Valiant Kings.
'Twas not the Buildings made Rome Great,
Nor was't the Capitol the World obey'd:
Scipio and Cæsar did Her Fame create,
And Her Commanders Her to Grandeur led;
Their Conduct and the Souldiers Valour did erect Her State.

XVIII.

Greece yet remains; the Soil's the same,
In every Thing but Men and Fame;
The Ground, whereon She did her Citties raise,
With weeping Eyes yet Travellers do trace;
But oh! A Fatal Change from what it was.
Fruitfulness yet upon Her Bosom's spread,
And Plenty on Her Face doth smile:
But yet the Quintessence is fled;
The Change is in the Men and not the Soil.
The Men Greece Learned made,
They Her Repute for Valour rais'd:
They were the Souls, and when they fled,
The Carcasses Deformed lay and Dead:
Now Cowardise and Ignorance the Region hath debas'd.

XIX.

Nor know we Blessed Isle, but Thou
And Venice, which from small beginnings sprung,
As former Times did not your Glory know,
Which now's in Acts of Valiant Heroes sung.
When your Great Souls (as they) must oncely Dead
(The General Lot that haps to all;
If others rise not in their stead;)
In Fame, which is not to your Seats confin'd,
But's the Reflection of a Gallant Mind;
You may from your Exalted Stations fall:
And other Seats, that yet no Worth do show,

By Fate's unseen Decree
May lift their low and obscure Heads on high;
And from one HERO may Immortal grow:
As to Epaminondas Thebes her Name did ow.

XX.

I saw Nile's troubled Stream,
For Learned Pens a lasting Theme,
That doth bless'd Fruitfulness bestow.
And the once Famous Road,
Where Cæsar's Navy stood;
When Ægypt did beneath his Scepter bow:
Where Tyre once did with Pride and Riches swell;
Now desolate and Forlorn:
The Fam'd SIGÆUM Promontory, where
Homer's Immortal Heroes buried were.
Nor did I miss the Bay,
Where once the Græcian Navy lay,
Whom HECTOR's Flames did burn.
With mixed Scorn and Anger I beheld
SCAMANDER's celebrated Stream,
So oft with Greek and Trojan Bodies fill'd;
Whose rapid Floods whole Armies bore away
Into the Neighbouring Sea:
(If We, what ancient Bards relate, esteem)
Now a contemned despicable Rill,
Whom Winter's Rains do fill;
But Summer Heats doth of its Force bereave:
And thence doth Ground for our Suspition give,
That all the Celebrated Tale was but a Poet's Dream.

XXI.

I view'd the Ports in History Renown'd;
The States by lavish Poets crown'd,
That did in Arts or Arms abound:

Once the World's Pride and now its Shame,
Which are in their dark Ruines sought in vain,
That even their very Shadows don't remain,
Mortal in (what they priz'd) ev'n their Immortal Name.
Greece, that none Learn'd or Civil would allow,
To all the World is a Barbarian now.
The Seas, which once her numerous Ships did plow,
The Sporades i'th' the Ocean laid,
The Isles, that did to highest Splendour grow,
Now either Uninhabited,
Or else with Barbarism do lie o'respread:
That even Geographers can scarce make good,
Where Learned Athens, or Voluptuous Corinth stood.

XXII.

From these sad Objects I was call'd away
By a Vulcano, that arose
In an unfathomable Sea:
Or that the dreadfull Place of Punishment
Had there a Vent,
And did its furious Flames disclose:
Or that the Subterranean Heat
Had worn the Bounds so thin,
Had with such Force against the Barriers beat;
They could not keep their eating Prisoners in:
Or that a sulphurous Mine took fire
And up unto the Stars the Seas did blow:
Or that some daring Engineer below
With his bold Art did up to Heaven aspire.

XXIII.

A sudden Fire from the Sea's Bottom broak:
The wrestling Elements the whole World shook.
Phœbus and Neptune ne're before
Did Martial up in Troops their Emulous Power:

But in his Orb with Quiet blest
Each of his Realms the Rule possest.
The Government o'th' Sea the Moon
By ancient Right did own;
But, Lofty Phœbus, ne're before
Was Tethys thus subjected to thy Power;
Nor, except under thine Ambitious Son,
Suffer'd till now a Conflagration.
Water once rul'd the World: and once in Fire
Her old decaying Fabrick must expire.
When two such Potent Foes do disagree
How Dreadfull and Amazing must the Battel be?

XXIV.

A wide-stretch'd Mouth did vomit Thunder out,
Mountainous Stones from thence did fly,
As thô intended to Bombard the Sky.
In vain the Sea to quench the Furnace try'd,
Her Realm of Waves to get the Victory brought:
The Oiley Streams new Pabulum supply'd,
And sulphurous Mines within did warlike Store provide.
Untill at last, when nought could part the Foes,
But Heaven and Earth seem'd at a loss;
They of Themselves, weary of ill-spent Store,
Did let the undecided Battle fall:
Resign'd again the Claim to' each other's Power,
And Peace in Triumph did o're Earth and Sea install.

XXV.

Thrô all the TYRRHEN and the ADRIAN Sea
I cut my untrackt Way:
And saw the Wrecks in their unrifled Bed,
By Carthaginian Ships or Roman made:
And could th' Antiquities, that there are laid,
By Art be thence convey'd,
How would they please the Curious Eye?
The Rarities what Sums could buy?

XXVI.

Not Hercules Pillars could my Course confine,
I thrô the boundless Ocean steer'd,
And neither Storms nor Tempests fear'd:
The Marks of Roman Greatness view'd,
That all the Northern Continent subdu'd,
That did eternal Honour win:
Saw, where Great Cæsar first did trust the Sea,
When he design'd on Brittany;
And where his threatning Ships did stay.
The Noted DOWNES, the Seat of War,
That doth so oft engaging Navies bear:
Whose Bottom is an Armory,
That might an Iron Age supply;
Where Valiant TRUMP and OPDAM lie,
Whose gallant Acts a just Repute did gain:
In this ally'd to Immortality,
They were by Valiant English Heroes slain.
Happy; if other Foes they'd met i'th' watry Field!
Their Genii onely could to Nobler Brittains yield.

XXVII.

Nor could I, Noble SANDWICH, pass thy Fall,
For Evil Times too Brave a General!
Rumour (and who's from Malice free)
With pois'nous Lies had blasted Thee.
'Tis true thy Honour was above their Hate,
But Fame, that's priz'd by th' Generous and Great,
Unjustly Tax'd, fill'd thy Great Soul with Grief:
Nor could thy Prince's Kindness bring Relief.
No more, Proud Dutch, in your fam'd Victory pride;
He to his Countrymen his Ruine owes:
Who not by Valour, but by Treachery dy'd,
And not by Dutch, but by his English, Foes.

XXVIII.

So, my Wide Wishes satisfi'd,
Nothing unto my Daring Soul deny'd
Of all in which the Sea doth pride,
Neptune his Order did revoke,
The Charms, which made the Transformation, broke;
And Me my Fishy Shape forsook.
Bigg with desired Knowledge I regain,
The Nobler Form of Man:
And by the Sea-Gods Care,
From the dark Bottom, whence but Few return,
On TRITONS Backs I'm kindly born,
And with a Vigorous Warmth desire the upper Realms of Air.