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Broad o'er my head the verdant cedar wave,
And high palmetos lift their graceful shade.
Oftretch'd amid these orchards of the fun,
Give me to drain the cocoa's milky bowl,
And from the palm to draw its freshing wine! 665
More bounteous far than all the frantic juice
Which Bacchus pours. Nor, on its flender twigs
Low-bending, be the full pomegranate fcorn'd;
Nor, creeping thro' the woods, the gelid race
Of berries. Oft in humble station dwells
Unboastful worth, above faftidious pomp.
Witness, thou best Anâna, thou the pride,
Of vegetable life, beyond whate'er
The poets imag'd in the golden age:

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Quick, let me ftrip thee of thy tufty coat,

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Spread thy ambrofial stores, and feast with Jove!

From thefe the profpect varies. Plains immenfe

Lie ftretched below, interminable meads,

And vaft favannahs, where the wandering eye,
Unfix'd, is in a verdant ocean lott.
Another Flora there, of bolder hues,

And richer fweets, beyond our garden's pride,

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Plays o'er the fields, and showers with fudden hand
Exuberant fpring: for oft thefe vallies shift
Their green-embroider'd robe to fiery brown,
And swift to green again, as scorching funs,
Or ftreaming dews and torrent rains, prevail.
Along thefe lonely regions, where retir'd,
From little fcenes of art, great Nature dwells
In awful folitude, and nought is seen
But the wild herds that own no master's stall,
Prodigious rivers roll their fatning feas:
On whose luxuriant herbage, half conceal'd,
Like a fallen cedar, far diffus'd his train,
Cas'd in green fcales, the crocodile extends.
The flood difparts: behold! in plaited mail,
Behemoth rears his head. Glanc'd from his fide,
The darted steel in idle shivers flies:

He fearless walks the plain, or feeks the hills;
Where, as he crops his vary'd fare, the herds,

* The Hippopotamus, or river-horse,

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In widening circle round, forget their food,
And at the harmless firanger wondering gaze.

Feaceful, beneath primeval trees, that caft
Their ample fhade o'er Niger's yellow stream,
And where the Ganges rolls his facred wave;
Or m d the central depth of blackning woods,
High-rais'd in folemn theatre around,
Leans the huge elephant; wifeft of brutes!
O truly wife! with gentle might endow'd,
Tho' powerful, not deftructive! Here he fees
Revolving ages fweep the changeful earth,
And empires rife and fall; regardless he
Of what the never-refting race of men

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Project: thrice happy could he 'scape their guile,

6 Who mine, from cruel avarice, his fteps;
Or with his towery grandeur fwell their state,
The pride of kings! or elfe his ftrength pervert,
And bid him rage amid the mortal fray,
Aftonish'd at the madness of mankind.

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Wide o'er the winding umbrage of the floods,
Like vivid bloffoms glowing from afar,

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Thick-fwarm the brighter birds. For Nature's hand,
That with a fportive vanity has deck'd
The plumy nations, there her gayeft hues
Profufely pours. But, if the bids them fhine,
Array'd in all the beauteous beams of day,
Yet frugal ft.ll, the humbles them in fong.
Nor envy we the gaudy robes they lent
Proud Montezuma's realm, whofe legions caft
A boundless radiance waving on the fun,
While Philomel is ours; while in our thades,
Thro' the foft filence of the liftening night,
The fober-fuited fongstress trills her day.

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But come, my Mufe, the defart barrier burft,

A wild expanfe of lifeless fand and sky:

And, fwifter than the toiling caravan,
Shoot o'er the vale of Sennar; ardent climb

The Nubian mountains, and the fecret bounds 740

In all the regions of the torrid zone, the birds, tho 1 more beautiful in their plumage, are obferved to be lefs melodious than ours.

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Qf jealous Abyffinia boldly pierce.

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Thou art no ruffian, who beneath the mask
Of focial commerce com'ft to rob their wealth;
No boly Fury thou, blafpheming Heaven,
With confecrated steel to ftab their peace,
And thro' the land, yet red from civil wounds,
To fpread the purple tyranny of Rome.
Thou, like the harmless bee, may't freely range,
From mead to mead bright with exalted flowers,
From jasmine grove to grove, may'st wander gay,
Thro' palmy fhades and aromatic woods,
That grace the plains, inveft the peopled hills,
And up the more than Alpine mountains wave.
There on the breezy fummit, fpreading fair,
For many a league; or on ftupendous rocks,
That from the fun-redoubling valley lift,
Cool to the middle air, their lawny tops;
Where palaces, and fanes, and villas rife ;
And gardens fmile around, and cultur'd fields;
And fountains gufh; and carelefs herds and flocks
Securely ftray; a world within itfelf,

Difdaining all affault: there let me draw
Ethereal foul, there drink reviving gales,
Profufely breathing from the fpicy groves,

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And vales of fragrance; there at distance hear 765
The roaring floods, and cataracts, that sweep
From difembowel'd earth the virgin gold;
And o'er the varied landfkip, reftless, rove,
Fervent with life of every fairer kind:

A land of wonders! which the fun still eyes

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With ray direct, as of the lovely realm
Inamourid, and delighting there to dwell.

How chang'd the scene! In blazing height of noon,

The fun, opprefs'd, is plung'd in thickest gloom.

Still horror reigns, a dreary twilight round,

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Of ftruggling night and day malignant mix'd.
For to the hot equator croud ng falt,
Where, highly rarify'd, the yielding air
Admits their ftream. inceffant vapours roll,
Amazing clouds on clouds continual heap'd;"
Or whirl'a tempeЯnous by the guffy wind,
Or filent borne along, heavy, and flow,

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With the big fores of steaming oceans charg'd,
Meantime, amid thefe upper feas, condens'd
Around the cold aerial mountain's brow,
And by conflicting winds together dath'd,

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The Thunder holds his black tremendous throne:
From cloud to cloud the rending Lightnings rage;
Till, in the furious elemental war

Diffolv'd, the whole precipitated mass
Unbroken floods and folid torrents pours.

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The treasures thefe, hid from the bounded fearch
Of ancient knowledge; whence, with annual pomp,
Rich king of floods! o'erflows the fwelling Nile.
From his two fprings, in Gojam's funny realm, 795
Pure-welling out, he thro' the lucid lake
Of fair Dambea rolls his infant ftream.
There, by the Naiads nurs'd, he sports away
His playful youth, amid the fragrant ifles,
That with unfading verdure fiile around.
Ambitious, thence the manly river breaks;
And gathering many a flood, and copious fed
With all the mellowed treafures of the sky,.
Winds in progreffive majesty along:

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Thro' fplendid kingdoms now devolves his maze,
Now wanders wild o er folitary tracts
Of life-deferted fand; till glad to quit
The joyless defart, down the Nubian rocks
From thundering teep to fteep, he pours his urn,
And Egypt joys beneath the spreading wave... 810
His brother Niger too, and all the floods
In which the full-formed maids of Afric lave
Their jetty limbs; and all that from the tract
Of woody mountains ftretch'd through gorgeous Ind
Fall on Cormandel's coaft, or Malabar;
From Menam's orient ftream, that nightly fhines
With infect-lamps, to where Aurora theds
On Indus fmiling banks the rofy shower:
All, at this bounteous feafon, ope their urns,
And pour untoiling harvest o'er the land.

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*The river that runs thro' Siam; on whofe banks a vaft multitude of thofe infects called Fire-flies make a beautiful appearance in the night.

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Nor lefs thy world, Columbus, drinks, refresh'd, The lavish moisture of the melting year. Wide o'er his ifles, the branching Oronoque Rolls a brown deluge; and the native drives To dwell aloft on life-fufficing trees,

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At once his dome, his robe, his food, and arms.
Swell'd by a thoufand ftreams, impetuous hurl'd
From all the roaring Andes, huge defcends
The mighty *Orellana. Scarce the Mufe
Dares ftretch her wing o'er this enormous mafs 830
Of rushing water; fcarce the dares attempt
The fea-like Plata; to whose dread expanfe,
Continuous depth, and wondrous length of courfe,
Our floods are rills. With unabated force,
In filent dignity they fweep along,

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And traverse realms unknown, and blooming wilds,

And fruitful defarts, worlds of folitude,

Where the fun fmiles and feafons teem in vain,
Unfeen, and unenjoyed. Forfaking these,
O'er peopled plains they fair diffufive flow,
And many a nation feed, and circle fafe,
In their foft bofom, many a happy ifle;
The feat of blamelefs Pan, yet undisturb'd
By chriftian crimes and Europe's cruel fons.
Thus pouring on they proudly feek the deep,"
Whofe vanquish'd tide, recoiling from the fhock,
Yields to this liquid weight of half the globe;
And ocean trembles for his green domain.

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But what avails this wondrous waste of wealth? This gay profufion of luxurious blifs?

850 This pomp of Nature? what their balmy meads, Their powerful herbs, and Ceres void of pain? By vagrant birds difpers'd, and wafting winds, What their unplanted fruits ?What the cool draughts, Th' ambrofial food, rich gums, and spicy health, 855 Their forefts yield? Their toiling infects what, Their filky pride, and vegetable robes ? Ah! what avail their fatal treasures, hid Deep in the bowels of the pitying earth, Golconda's gems, and fad Potofi's mines;

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The river of the Amazons.

Where

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