Miscellany Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

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.