The pride of kings! or else his strength pervert, 730 And bid him rage amid the mortal fray,

Astonish'd at the madness of mankind.

Wide o'er the winding umbrage of the foods,

Like vivid blossoms glowing from afar,

Thick swarm the brighter birds. For Nature's hand, That with a sportive vanity has deck'd

The plumy nations, there her gayest hues

Profusely pours.

But if she bids them shine

736

Array'd in all the beauteous beams of day,
Yet frugal still, she humbles them in song.
Nor envy we the gaudy robes they lent
Proud Montezuma's realm, whose legions cast
A boundless radiance waving on the sun,
While Philomel is ours; while in our shades,
Through the soft silence of the listening night,
The sober-suited songstress trills her lay.

746

745

But come, my Muse, the desert-barrier burst,
A wild expanse of lifeless sand and sky:
And, swifter than the toiling caravan,

Shoot o'er the vale of Sennar; ardent climb

750

The Nubian mountains, and the secret bounds

Of jealous Abyssinia boldly pierce.

Thou art no ruffian, who beneath the mask

Of social commerce comest to rob their wealth;

No holy fury thou blaspheming Heaven,
With consecrated steel to stab their peace,

755

And through the land, yet red from civil wounds,
To spread the purple tyranny of Rome.

Thou, like the harmless bee, mayst freely rango
From mead to mead bright with exalted flowers, 700
From jasmine grove to grove mayst wander gay
Through palmy shades and aromatic woods,
That grace the plains, invest the peopled hills,
And

up the more than Alpine mountains wave

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

There on the breezy summit, spreading fair,
For many a league; or on stupendous rocks,
That from the sun-redoubling yalley lift,
Cool to the middle air, their lawny tops;

765

Where palaces and fanes and villas rise;

And gardens smile around, and cultured fields;

77)

And fountains gush; and careless herds and flocks
Securely stray; a world within itself,

Disdaining all assault: there let me draw
Ethereal soul, there drink reviving gales,
Profusely breathing from the spicy groves
And vales of fragrance; there at distance hear
The roaring floods, and cataracts, that sweep
From disembowel'd earth the virgin gold;
And o'er the varied landscape, restless, rove,
Fervent with life of every fairer kind:
A land of wonders! which the sun still eyes

With ray direct, as of the lovely realm
Enamour'd, and delighting there to dwell.

775

780

How changed the scene! in blazing height of noon, The sun, oppress'd, is plunged in thickest gloom. 785 Still horror reigns, a dreary twilight round,

Of struggling night and day malignant mix'd.
For to the hot equator crowding fast,
Where, highly rarefied, the yielding air
Admits their stream, incessant vapours roll,
Amazing clouds on clouds continual heap'd;
Or whirl'd tempestuous by the gusty wind,
Or silent borne along, heavy, and slow,
With the big stores of steaming cceans charged
Meantime, amid these upper scas, condensed
Around the cold aerial mountain's brow,

790

795

And by conflicting winds together dash'd,

The Thunder holds his black tremendous throne;

From cloud to cloud the rending lightnings rage;
Till, in the furious elemental war

800

Dissolved, the whole precipitated mass
Unbroken floods and solid torrents pours.

The treasures these, hid from the bounded search Of ancient knowledge; whence, with annual pomp, Rich king of floods o'erflows the swelling Nile. 805 From his two springs, in Gojam s sunny realm, Pure-welling out, he through the lucid lake Of fair Dambea rolls his infant stream. There, by the naiads nursed, he sports away His playful youth amid the fragrant isles, That with unfading verdure smile around. Ambitious thence the manly river breaks; And, gathering many a flood, and copious fed With all the mellow'd treasures of the sky, Winds in progressive majesty along :

810

815

his urn, 620

Through splendid kingdoms now devolves his maze,
Now wanders wild o'er solitary tracts
Of life-deserted sand; till, glad to quit
The joyless desert, down the Nubian rocks,
From thundering steep to steep, he pours
And Egypt joys beneath the spreading wave.
His brother Niger too, and all the floods
In which the full form'd maids of Afric lave
Their jetty limbs; and all that from the tract
Of woody mountains stretch'd through gorgeous Ind
Fall on Cormandel's coast, or Malabar;

826

From Menam's* orient stream, that nightly shines

With insect lamps, to where Aurora sheds

On Indus' smiling banks the rosy shower:

All, at this bounteous season, ope their urns,

830

And pour untoiling harvest o'er the land.

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

The lavish moisture of the melting year.

Wide o'er his isles the branching Oronoque

Rolls a brown deluge; and the native drives
To dwell aloft on life sufficing trees,

835

At once his dome, his robe, his food, and arms

The river that runs through Siam; on whose banks a vast multitude of those insects cailed Fire Flies make a beautiful appearance in the night.

Swell'd by a thousand streams, impetuous hurl'd
From all the roaring Andes, huge descends
The mighty Orellana." Scarce the muse
Dares stretch her wing o'er this enormous mass
Of rushing water; scarce she dares attempt
The sealike Plata; to whose dread expanse,
Continuous depth, and wondrous length of course
Our floods are rills. With unabated force,
In silent dignity they sweep along,

840

8-15

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

Where the sun smiles and seasons teem in vain,

Unseen and unenjoy'd. Forsaking these,

850

O'er peopled plains they fair diffusive flow,

And many a nation feed, and circle safe,
In their soft bosom, many a happy isle;
The seat of blameless Pan, yet undisturb'd
By Christian crimes and Europe's cruel sons.
Thus pouring on they proudly seek the deep,
Whose vanquish'd tide, recoiling from the shock,
Yields to the liquid weight of half the globe;
And Ocean trembles for his green domain.

855

861

But what avails this wondrous waste of wealth?
This gay profusion of luxurious bliss?
This pomp of Nature? what their balmy meads,
Their powerful herbs, and Ceres void of pain?
By vagrant birds dispersed, and wafting winds,
What their unplanted fruits? what the cool draughts,
The' ambrosial food, rich gums, and spicy health 866
Their forests yield? their toiling insects what,

Their silky pride, and vegetable robes?
Ah! what avail their fatal treasures hid

Deep in the bowels of the pitying earth,
Golconda's gems, and sad Potosi's mines;
Where dwelt the gentlest children of the sun!
What all that Afric's golden rivers roll,
Her odorous woods, and shining ivory stores?
The river of the Amazons.

870

Ill fated race! the softening arts of Peace,
Whate'er the humanizing Muses teach;

The godlike wisdom of the temper'd breast;

Progressive truth, the patient force of thought;
Investigation calm, whose silent powers

875

Command the world; the light that leads to heaven;

Kind equal rule, the government of laws,

881

And all-protecting Freedom, which alone
Sustains the name and dignity of man:

These are not theirs. The parent sun himself
Seems o'er this world of slaves to tyrannise;

885

And, with oppressive ray, the roseate bloom

Of beauty blasting, gives the gloomy hue,

And feature gross or worse, to ruthless deeds,
Mad jealousy, blind rage, and fell revenge,

Their fervid spirit fires. Love dwells not there, 890
The soft regards, the tenderness of life,
The heart-shed tear, the' ineffable delight
Of sweet humanity: these court the beam
Of milder climes; in selfish fierce desire,
And the wild fury of voluptuous sense,
There lost. The very brute creation there
This rage partakes, and burns with horrid fire.
Lo! the green serpent, from his dark abode,

895

Which even Imagination fears to tread,
At noon forth issuing, gathers up his train

900

In orbs immense, then, darting out anew,

Seeks the refreshing fount; by which diffused,

He throws his folds: and while, with threatening tongue, And deathful jaws erect, the monster curls

His flaming crest, all other thirst appall'd,

905

Or shivering flies, or check'd at distance stands,
Nor dares approach. But still more direful he,
The small close-lurking minister of fate,
Whose high-concocted venom through the veins
A rapid lightning darts, arresting swift.
The vital current. Form'd to humble man,
This child of vengeful nature! there, sublimed

910