And hifs continual thro' the tedious night.---.
Yet here, even here, into thefe black abodes
Of monfters, unappall'd, from stooping Rome,
And guilty Cæfar, LIBERTY retir'd,
Her CATO following thro' Numidian wilds:
Disdainful of Campania's gentle plains,
And all the green delights Aufonia pours;
When for them fhe must bend the fervile knee,
And fawning take the splendid robber's boon..
NOR ftop the terrors of those regions here.
Commiffion'd demons oft, angels of wrath,
Let loose the raging elements. Breath'd hot,
From all the boundless furnace of the sky,
And the wide glittering waste of burning fand,
A fuffocating wind the pilgrim, fmites
With inftant death. Patient of thirst and toil,
Son of the defart! even the camel feels,
Shot thro' his wither'd heart, the fiery blast.
Or from the black-red ether, bursting broad,
Sallies the fudden whirlwind. Strait the fands,
Commov'd around, in gathering eddies play:
Nearer and nearer ftill they darkening come;
Till with the general all-involving form
Swept up, the whole continuous wilds arife;
And by their noon-day fount dejected thrown,
Or funk at night in sad disastrous fleep,
Beneath defcending hills, the caravan
Is buried deep. In Cairo's crouded streets,
Th' impatient merchant, wondering, waits in vain,
And Mecca faddens at the long delay.
BUT chief at fea, whofe every flexile wave
Obeys the blaft, th' aërial tumult fwells.
In the dread ocean, undulating wide,
Beneath the radiant line that girts the globe,
The circling *Typhon, whirl'd from point to point,
Exhaufting all the rage of all the fky,
And dire* Ecnephia reign. Amid the heavens, 975
Falfely ferene, deep in a cloudy +fpeck
Comprefs'd, the mighty tempeft brooding dwells:
Of no regard, fave to the skilful eye,
Fiery and foul, the fmall prognostic hangs
Aloft, or on the promontory's brow
Mufters its force. A faint deceitful calm,
A fluttering gale, the demon fends before,
To tempt the spreading fail. Then down at once,
Precipitant, defcends a mingled mafs
Of roaring winds, and flame, and rushing floods. 985
In wild amazement fix'd the failor ftands.
Art is too flow: By rapid fate opprefs'd,
His broad-wing'd veffel drinks the whelming tide,
*Typhon and Ecnephia, names of particular forms or hurricanes known only between the tropics.
+Called by failors the Ox-eye, being in appearance at first no bigger.
Hid in the bofom of the black abyss.
With fuch mad feas the daring * GAMA fought, 990
For many a day, and many a dreadful night,
Inceffant, lab'ring round the formy Cape;
By bold ambition led, and bolder thirst
Of gold For then from ancient gloom emerg'd
The rifing world of trade: the Genius, then,
Of navigation, that, in hopeless sloth,
Had flumber'd on the vaft Atlantic deep,
For idle ages, ftarting, heard at laft
The LUSITANIAN PRINCE; who, HEAV'N-infpir'd, To love of ufeful glory rous'd mankind,
And in unbounded commerce mix'd the world.
INCREASING ftill the terrors of these ftorms,
His jaws horrific arm'd with threefold fate,
Here dwells the direful fhark. Lur'd by the fcent
Of steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death, 1005
Behold! he rushing cuts the briny flood,
Swift as the gale can bear the ship along;
And, from the partners of that cruel trade,
Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her fons,
Demands his share of prey; demands themselves. 1010
*VASCO DE GAMA, the first who failed round Africa, by the Cape of Good-Hope, to the East-Indies.
+DON HENRY, third fon to John the firft, king of Portugal. His frong genius to the difcovery of new countries was the chief fource of all the modern improvements in navigation.
The ftormy fates defcend: one death involves
Tyrants and flaves; when ftrait, their mangled limbs
Crashing at once, he dyes the purple feas
With gore, and riots in the vengeful meal.
WHEN O'er this world, by equinoctial rains 1015
Flooded immenfe, looks out the joyless fun,
And draws the copious fteam: from fwampy fens,
Where putrefaction into life ferments,
And breathes deftructive myriads; or from woods,
Impenetrable fhades, receffes foul,
In vapours rank and blue corruption wrapt,
Whofe gloomy horrors yet no defperate foot
Has ever dar'd to pierce; then, wasteful, forth
Walks the dire Power of peftilent disease.
A thousand hideous fiends her course attend,
Sick Nature blafting, and to heartless woe,
And feeble defolation, cafting down
The towering hopes and all the pride of Man.
Such as, of late, at Carthagena quench'd
The BRITISH fire. You, gallant VERNON, faw 1030
The miferable fcene; you, pitying, faw,
To infant-weakness funk the warrior's arm;
Saw the deep-racking pang, the ghaftly form,
The lip pale-quivering, and the bean:lefs eye
No more with ardour bright: you heard the groans
Of agonizing ships, from fhore to fhore;
Heard, nightly plung'd amid the fullen waves,
The frequent corfe; while on each other fix'd,
In fad prefage, the blank affistants feem'd,
Silent, to ask, whom Fate would next demand. 1040
WHAT need I mention thofe inclement fkies, Where, frequent o'er the fickening city, Plague, The fierceft child of NEMESIS divine,
Defcends? From Ethiopia's poifoned woods,
From ftifled Cairo's filth, and fetid fields
With locuft-armies putrefying heap'd,
This great deftroyer fprung. Her awful rage
The brutes efcape: Man is her destin'd prey,
Intemperate Man! and, o'er his guilty domes,
She draws a clofe incumbent cloud of death; 1050.
Uninterrupted by the living winds,
Forbid to blow a wholefome breeze; and ftain'd
With many a mixture by the fun, fuffus'd,
Of angry aspect. Princely wifdom, then,
Dejects his watchful eye; and from the hand 1055
Of feeble juftice, ineffectual, drop
The fword and balance: mute the voice of joy,
And hufh'd the clamour of the bufy world.
Empty the ftreets, with uncouth verdure clad;
Into the worst of defarts fudden turn'd
The chearful haunt of Men: unless efcap'd
*Thefe are the causes supposed to be the first origin of the Plague, in DoCTOR MEAD's elegant book on that Subject
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