The naked rocks are not unfruitful there,
But, at fome constant seasons ev'ry year,
Their barren tops with luscious food abound;
And with the eggs of various fowls are crown'd.
Tobacco is the worst of things, which they
TO ENGLISH landlords, as their tribute, pay.
Such is the mould, that the bleft tenant feeds
On precious fruits, and pays his rent in weeds.
With candy'd plantains, and the juicy pine,
On choiceft melons, and fweet grapes, they dine:
And with potatoes fat their wanton swine.
Nature these cates with fuch a lavish hand
Pours out among them, that our coarfer land
Taftes of that bounty; and does cloth return,
Which not for warmth, but ornament, is worn:
For the kind spring, which but falutes us here,
Inhabits there, and courts them all the year:
Ripe fruits, and bloffoms, on the fame trees live:
At once they promife, what at once they give.
So fweet the air, fo moderate the clime;
None fickly lives, or dies before his time.
Heav'n fure has kept this fpot of earth uncurft,
To fhew how all things were created first.
The tardy plants in our cold orchards plac'd
Referve their fruit for the next age's taste:
There, a small grain, in some few months, will be
A firm, a lofty, and a fpacious tree.

The Palma-Chrifti, and the fair Papà,
Now but a feed (preventing nature's law).
In half the circle of the hafty year
Project a fhade, and lovely fruits do wear.

}

And as their trees, in our dull region fet,
But faintly grow, and no perfection get;
So, in this northern tract, our hoarfer throats
Utter unripe, and ill-conftrained Notes:
While the fupporter of the Poets' ftyle,
PHOEBUS, on them eternally does fmile.
Oh! how I long my careless limbs to lay
Under the plantain's fhade; and all the day
With amorous airs my fancy entertain
Invoke the Mufes, and improve my vein !
No paffion there in my free breast should move,
None but the fweet, and beft of paffions, love.
There while I fing, if gentle Love be by,
That tunes my lute, and winds the strings fo high;
With the sweet found of SAC HARIS SA's name,
I'll make the lift'ning favages grow tame.
But while I do these pleafing dreams indite,
I am diverted from the promis'd fight.

Of their alarm, and how their foes

Difcover'd were, this CANTO shows.

HO' rocks fo high about this island rife,

TH

That well they may the num❜rous TURK despise;

Yet is no human fate exempt from fear;

Which shakes their hearts, while thro' the ifle they hear A lafting noise, as horrid and as loud

As thunder makes, before it breaks the cloud.

Three days they dread this murmur, e'er they know From what blind cause th' unwonted found may grow:

At

At length two monsters of unequal fize,

Hard by the shore, a fisher-man espies;

Two mighty whales! which fwelling seas had toft,
And left them pris'ners on the rocky coaft,

One, as a mountain vaft; and with her came
A cub, not much inferior to his dam.

Here in a pool among the rocks engag'd,

They roar'd, like lions caught in toils, and rag'd.
The man knew what they were, who heretofore
Had feen the like lie murther'd on the fhore:
By the wild fury of fome tempeft cast,

The fate of fhips, and fhipwreck'd men, to tafte.
As careless dames, whom wine and fleep betray
To frantic dreams, their infants overlay:
So, there fometimes the raging ocean fails,
And her own brood expofes; when the whales
Against sharp rocks, like reeling veffels, quafh'd,
Tho' huge as mountains, are in pieces dash'd:
Along the shore their dreadful limbs lie fcatter'd ;
Like hills with earthquakes fhaken, torn, and fhatter'd.
Hearts fure of brafs they had, who tempted first
Rude feas, that spare not what themselves have nurst.
The welcome news thro' all the nation spread,,
To fudden joy, and hope, converts their dread":
What lately was their public terror, they
Behold with glad eyes as a certain prey :
Dispose already of th' untaken spoil;
And, as the purchase of their future toil,
These share the bones, and they divide the oil.
So was the huntsman by the bear oppreft,

Whofe hide he fold, before he caught the beaft!

D 4

}

They

They man their boats, and all their young men arm With whatsoever may the monsters harm;

Pikes, halberts, fpits, and darts that wound so far;
The tools of peace, and inftruments of war.
Now was the time for vigorous lads to show
What love, or honor, could invite them to:
A goodly theatre! where rocks are round
With reverend age, and lovely laffes, crown'd.
Such was the lake which held this dreadful pair,
Within the bounds of noble WARWICK's fhare:
WARWICK's bold Earl! than which no title bears

A greater found among our BRITISH Peers.
And worthy he the memory to renew,

The fate, and honor, to that title due;

Whose brave adventures have transfer'd his name,
And thro' the new world spread his growing fame.
But how they fought, and what their valor gain'd,
Shall in another Canto be contain❜d.

T

CANTO III.

The bloody fight, fuccefslefs toil,
And how the fifbes fack'd the ifle.

HE boat, which on the first assault did go,

Strook with a harping-ir'n the younger foe:
Who, when he felt his fide fo rudely goar'd,
Loud, as the fea that nourish'd him, he roar'd.
As a broad bream to please some curious taste,
While yet alive, in boiling water caft;
Vex'd with unwonted heat, he flings about
The scorching brafs, and hurls the liquor out:

So,

So, with the barbed javelin stung, he raves;

And scourges with his tail the suff'ring waves.
Like SPENSER'S TALU S with his iron flail,
He threatens ruin with his pond'rous tail;
Diffolving at one ftroke the batter'd boat,
And down the men fall drenched in the moat:
With ev'ry fierce encounter they are forc'd
To quit their boats, and fare like men unhors'd.

The bigger whale like fome huge carrack lay,
Which wanteth fea-room with her foes to play:
Slowly fhe fwims; and when provok'd fhe wou'd
Advance her tail, her head falutes the mud:
The fhallow water doth her force infringe,
And renders vain her tail's impetuous fwinge:
The shining steel her tender fides receive,
And there, like bees, they all their weapons leave.
This fees the cub, and does himself oppose
Betwixt his cumber'd mother, and her foes:
With defp'rate courage he receives her wounds,
And men, and boats, his active tail confounds.
Their forces join'd the feas with billows fill,
And make a tempeft, tho' the winds be still.
Now would the men with half their hoped prey
Be well content; and wifh this cub away:
Their wish they have; he (to direct his dam
Unto the gap thro' which they thither came,)
Before her fwims, and quits the hostile lake;
A pris'ner there, but for his mother's fake.
She, by the rocks compell'd: to stay behind,
Is by the vaftnefs of her bulk confin'd.
They fhout for joy! and now on her alone:
Their fury falls, and all their darts are thrown.