And fafe return'd him through the perilous way,

We rear a column on the friendly bay.

Our keels, that now had fteer'd through many a clime, By shell-fish roughen'd, and incased with slime, Joyful we clean, while bleating from the field The fleecy dams the fmiling natives yield: But while each face an honeft welcome fhews, And big with sprightly hope each bofom glows, (Alas! how vain the bloom of human joy! How foon the blasts of woe that bloom destroy !) A dread difeafe its rankling horrors shed, And death's dire ravage through mine army spread. Never mine eyes fuch dreary fight beheld, Ghaftly the mouth and gums enormous * fwell'd; And inftant, putrid like a dead man's wound, Poifoned with foetid fteams the air around, No fage phyfician's ever-watchful zeal,

No skilful furgeon's gentle hand to heal,

k

Were found each dreary mournful hour we gave

Some brave companion to a foreign grave :

A grave,

i We rear a column.-It was the custom of the Portuguese navigators to erect croffes on the fhores of the new-difcovered countries. Gama carried materials for pillars of stone along with him, and erected fix of these croffes during his expedition. They bore the name and arms of the king of Portugal, and were intended as proofs of the title which accrues from the first discovery.

Ghaftly the mouth and gums enormous fwell'd.-This poetical description of the fcurvy is by no means exaggerated above what fometimes really happens in the course of a long voyage, and in an unhealthful climate, to which the conftitution is unhabituated.

A grave, the awful gift of every fhore !
Alas! what weary toils with us they bore!
Long, long endear'd by fellowship in woe,
O'er their cold duft we give the tears to flow
And in their hapless lot forbode our own,
A foreign burial, and a grave unknown!

3

Now deeply yearning o'er our deathful fate,
With joyful hope of India's fhore elate,
We loose the hausers and the fail expand,
And upward coaft the Ethiopian strand.
What danger threaten'd at Quiloa's isle,
Mozambic's treason, and Mombaffa's guile;
What miracles kind heaven, our guardian, wrought,
Loud fame already to thine ear has brought:
Kind heaven again that guardian care display'd,
And to thy port our weary fleet convey'd,

Where thou, O king, heaven's regent power below,
Bidst thy full bounty and thy truth to flow:
Health to the fick, and to the weary rest,

And sprightly hope revived in every breast,
Proclaim thy gifts, with grateful joy repaid,
The brave man's tribute for the brave man's aid.
And now in honour of thy fond command,
The glorious annals of my native land;
And what the perils of a rout fo bold,

So dread as ours, my faithful lips have told.
Then judge, great monarch, if the world before
Ere faw the prow fuch length of feas explore!

Nor fage Ulyffes, nor the Trojan pride,

Such raging gulphs, fuch whirling storms defy'd;
Nor one poor tenth of my dread course explored,
Though by the mufe as demigods adored.

O thou whose breaft all Helicon inflamed,
Whose birth seven vaunting cities proudly claim'd;
And thou whofe mellow lute and rural fong,
In fofteft flow, led Mincio's waves along;
Whose warlike numbers as a storm impell❜d,
And Tyber's furges o'er his borders fwell'd;
Let all Parnaffus lend creative fire,
And all the Nine with all their warmth inspire;
Your demigods conduct through every scene
Cold fear can paint, or wildeft fancy feign;
The Syren's guileful lay, dire Circe's fpell,

And all the horrors of the Cyclop's cell;
Bid Scylla's barking waves their mates o'erwhelm,
And hurl the guardian pilot from the 1 helm ;
Give fails and oars to fly the purple shore,

Where love of abfent friend awakes no

m more;

In

1 And burl the guardian pilot from the helm-See Æn. v. 833.

m The purple fore.-The Lotophagi, fo named from the plant Lotus, are thus defcribed by Homer:

Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest,
They eat, they drink, and Nature gives the feast;
The trees around them all their fruit produce;
Lotos the name; divine, nectareous juice ;

(Thence

n

In all their charms display Calypfo's fmiles,
Her flowery arbours and her amorous wiles;
In skins confined the bluftering winds " controul,
Or o'er the feast bid loathsome harpies • prowl;
And lead your heroes through the dread abodes
Of tortured spectres and infernal P gods;

(Thence called Lotophagi) which whoso tastes,
Infatiate riots in the sweet repafts,

Nor other home nor other care intends,

Give

POPE, Odyf. ix.

But quits his house, his country, and his friends: The three we fent, from off th' inchanting ground We dragg'd reluctant, and by force we bound: The reft in hafte forfook the pleasing shore, Or, the charm tafted, had return'd no more. The natural history of the lotos, however, is very different. There are various kinds of it. The Lybian lotos is a shrub like a bramble, the berries like the myrtle, but purple when ripe, and about the bignefs of an olive. Mixed with bread-corn it was used as food for flaves. They alfo made an agreeable wine of it, but which would not keep above ten days. See Pope's note in loco.

i

n In skins confin'd the bluftering winds controul.-The gift of Eolus to Ulyffes.

The adverfe winds in leathern bags he brac'd,"

Comprefs'd their force, and lock'd each struggling blast:

For him the mighty fire of gods affign'd,

The tempeft's lord, the tyrant of the wind;
His word alone the lift'ning ftorms obey,
To smooth the deep, or fwell the foamy fea.
These in my hollow fhip the monarch hung,
Securely fetter'd by a filver thong;

But Zephyrus exempt, with friendly gales

He charg'd to fill, and guide the swelling fails:

Rare gift! but oh, what gift to fools avails. POPE, Odyf. x.

The companions of Ulyffes imagined that thefe bags contained fome valuable treasure, and opened them while their leader flept. The tempefts bursting out drove the fleet from Ithaca, which was then in fight, and was the cause of a new train of miferies.

Give every flower that decks Aonia's hill

To grace your fables with divineft skill;
Beneath the wonders of my tale they fall,

Where truth all unadorn'd and pure exceeds them all,

While thus illuftrious GAMA charm'd their ears,
The look of wonder each Melindian wears,
And pleased attention witnefs'd the command
Of every movement of his lips or hand.
The king enraptured own'd the glorious fame
Of Lifboa's monarchs, and the Lufian name;
What warlike rage the victor-kings infpired,
Nor less their warriors loyal faith admired.
Nor less his menial train, in wonder lost,
Repeat the gallant deeds that please them most,
Each to his mate; while fixed in fond amaze
The Lufian features every eye furveys;

While present to the view, by fancy brought,
Arife the wonders by the Lufians wrought;
And each bold feature to their wondering fight
Displays the raptured ardour of the fight.

Apollo now withdrew the cheerful day, And left the western sky to twilight grey; Beneath the wave he fought fair Thetis' bed, And to the fhore Melinda's fovereign sped.

What