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ADVERTISEMENT.

THE two volumes of this collection, which consist of Ballads and Metrical Tales, contain the Author's earliest and latest productions of that kind; those which were written with most facility and most glee, and those upon which most time and pains were bestowed, according to the subject and the mode of treating it.

The Tale of Paraguay was published separately in 1825, having been so long in hand that the Dedication was written many years before the Poem was completed.

All for Love, and The Legend of a Cock and a Hen, were published together in a little volume in 1829.

A TALE OF PARAGUAY.

PREFACE.

ONE of my friends observed to me, in a letter, that many stories which are said to be founded on fact, have in reality been foundered on it. This is the case, if there be any gross violation committed, or ignorance betrayed, of historical manners in the prominent parts of a narrative wherein the writer affects to observe them; or when the ground-work is taken from some part of history so popular and well known that any mixture of fiction disturbs the sense of truth. Still more so, if the subject be in itself so momentous that any alloy of invention must of necessity debase it; but most of all in themes drawn from Scripture, whether from the more familiar or the more awful portions; for when what is true is

sacred, whatever may be added to it is so surely felt to be false, that it appears profane.

Founded on fact the Poem is, which is here committed to

the world; but, whatever may be its defects, it is liable to none of these objections. The story is so singular, so simple, and, withal, so complete, that it must have been injured by any alteration. How faithfully it has been followed, the reader may perceive, if he chooses to consult the abridged translation of Dobrizhoffer's History of the Abipones; and for those who may be gratified with what Pinkerton has well called the lively singularity of the old man's Latin, the passage from the original is here subjoined.

"Ad Australes fluvii Empalado ripas Hispanorum turma Herba Paraquaricæ conficiendæ operam dabat. Deficientibus jam arboribus, è quibus illa folia rescinduntur, exploratores

tres emiserant, qui trans illud flumen arbores desideratas investigarent. Forte in tugurium, agrumque frumento Turcico consitum incidere, ex quo hanc sylvam barbarorum contuberniis scatere perperam arguebant. Hæc notitia tanto omnes perculit metu, ut suspenso, ad quem conducti fuerant, labore suis aliquamdiu in tuguriis laterent, ut limax intra concham. Diu noctuque hostilis aggressio formidabatur. Ad liberandos se hoc terrore cursor ad S. Joachimi oppidum missus, qui, ut barbaros istic habitantes perquiramus, inventosque ad nostram transferamus coloniam flagitavit. Sine tergiversatione operam addixi meam. Licet trium hebdomadum itinere defunctus Nato servatori sacra die ex Mbaebera domum redierim, S. Joannis apostoli festo iter mox aggressus sum cum quadraginta Indorum meorum comitatu. Fluviis ob continuatum dies complures imbrem turgentibus profectio perardua nobis exstitit. Accepto ex Hispanorum tugurio viarum duce, trajectoque flumine Empalado sylvas omnes ad fluvii Mondag miri ripas usque attentis oculis pervagati, tertio demum die, humano, quod deteximus, vestigio nos ducente ædiculam attigimus, ubi mater vetula, cum filio vicesimum, filiaque quintum decimum annum agente annis abhinc multis degebat. Quibus in latebris. Indi alii versarentur, à me rogata mater, neminem mortalium præter se, binasque proles, his in sylvis superesse, omnes, qui per hanc viciniam habitaverant, variclarum dira

meum, invito obtrusi. Prius celsissimas arbores simii velocitate scandebat, ut fructus ab apris tribus devorandos, inde decerperet. Caligis, veluti compedibus impeditus vix gressum figere potuit. Tanta rerum penuria, frugalitate tanta cum in solitudine victitarent semper, ac anachoretarum veterum rigores, asperitatesque experirentur, sorte sua contentissimos, tranquillo animo, corporeque morborum nescios illos suspexi. Ex quo palam fit, naturam paucis contentam esse; erubescant illi, quibus saturandis, ornandisque totus orbis vix sufficit. Ex ultimis terræ finibus, ex oceani, sylvarum, camporum, montium, tellurisque gremio, ex elementis omnibus, et unde non? avide petuntur subsidia, quæ ad comendum corpus, ad oblectandum palatum faciunt. Verum dum oblectare se, ornareque putant, se onerant, opprimuntque. Dum delicias multiplicant suas, opes, viresque imminuunt quotidie, forma venustatem labefactant, morbos adsciscunt sibi, mortemque accelerant eo infeliciores, quo fuerint delicatiores.

"Tres mei sylvicolæ, de quibus sern.o, rituum Quaraniis barbaris propriorum vel immemores, vel contemptores fuerunt. Crinibus passis sine ulla incisione, vel ligamine incedebant. Juveni nec labium pertusum, nec vertex psittacorum plumis coronatus. Matii, filiæque inaures nulla, quamvis illa collo circumdederit monilis loco funiculum, è quo frustilla ligni pyramidati, sat multi ponderis pendebant; è mutuo illorum collísu ad quemvis grossum strepitus edebatur. Primo conspectu interrogavi vetulam; num ad terrendos culices strepitans hoc monile è collo suspenderit? moxque globulorum vitreorum exquisiti coloris fascem ligneis his ponderibus substitui. Mater, filiusque corpore erant procero, forma honesta; filia vultu tam candido, tamque eleganti, ut à Poetis Driadas inter Nymphas, Hamadriadasque numerari, ab Europæo quovis pulchra dici tutò posset. Hilaritatem decoram affabilitati conjunctam præ se ferebat. Nostro adventu repentino minime terreri, recreari potius videbatur. Quaranica lingua loquentes nos liberals inter c. chinnos risit, nos illam eâdem respon. dentem. Cum enim extra aliorum Indorum societatem fratri, matrique duntaxat colloqueretur, verbis Quaranicis retentis quidem, ridicula quædam di lectus irrepsit. Sic quaraçi sol:

peste dudum extinctos fuisse, respondit. De dicti veritate | quibus in itineribus contra culicum morsus caput obvolveram ancipitem me dum observaret filius: tutò, ait, fidem adhibueris matri meæ ista affirmanti : namque ipsus ego uxorem mihi quæsiturus remotissimas etiam sylvas identidem percursavi, quin tamen vel hominis umbram reperirem uspiam. En! naturæ instinctu adolescens barbarus, conjugium cum sorore sibi neutiquam licere, intellexit. Is multis post mensibus meo in oppido, nullos præter se homines illis in sylvis degere, iterum, iterumque ingenue mihi asseveravit. Idem confirmarunt Hispani, à quibus evocatus sum, ultra biennium in conquirenda herba dein per illas sylvas occupati, non mediocri cum quæstu. "Vetulam matrem congruis argumentis hortatus sum ad meum ut oppidum, siquidem luberet, commigaret ocyus, se, suosque meliori fortuna illic usuros, policitus. Lubenter invitationi meæ obtemperatam se, respondit; rem unicam migrationi suæ obstare. Sunt mihi, ait, tres, quos coram vides, apri à prima ætate mansuefacti; nos quoquo euntes caniculi more sequuntur. Hi, si campum aridum videant, vel extra sylvarum umbram à sole ardenti videantur, peribunt confestim, timeo. Hanc solicitudinem, quæso, animo ejicias tuo, reposui; cordi mihi fore chara animalcula, nil dubites. Sole æstuante umbram, ubi ubi demum, captabimus. Neque lacunæ, amnes, paludes, ubi refrigerentur tua hæc corcula, usquam deerunt. Talibus delinita promissis se nobiscum ituram, spopondit. Et vero postridie iter ingressi, calendis Januarii incolumes oppidum attigimus, licet per viam binæ fulminibus, imbribusque horrendis fœtæ tempestates nobis incubuerint, ac tigris rugitu assiduo totam per noctem minitans nobis iterum, iterumque propinquarit. Hispanos, queis matrem duabus cum prolibus per transennam exhibui, nihilque omnino Indorum sylvestrium in tota late vicinia superesse, significavi, timoris sui et puduit, et pænituit. Autumaverant equidem sylvas Empalado, et Mondag fluminibus interjectas barbarorum habitationibus, perinde ut formicis, undique scatere. Jam de forma, habitudine, vivendi ratione, quam in matre, ejusque prolibus observaveram, dicendum obiter aliquid. Ab ineunte ætate in Mondag litoribus, culicum, serpentum, aliorumque animalculorum noxiorum frequentia oppido infectis consedere. Palmarum ramis tugujolum definiebatur. Aqua semper lutulenta potum; arborum fructus, alces, damule, cuniculi, aves variæ, frumentum tur-yaçi luna: ch ragi ægroto dicimus reliqui, et illud c cum cicum, radices arboris mandio dapem ; tela ex foliis caraquatà subjecta notula veluti s pronunciamus, quarassi, yassi, checontexta vestitum, lectumque præbuere. Mel, quod exesis rassi; illi quaratschi, yatschi, cheratschi dicebant. Juvenis in arboribus passim prostat, inter cupedias numerabatur. Ta- præter matrem, sororemque nullam unquam vidit fœminam; breæ, quam peti vocant Quaranii, fumum ex arundine, cui neque præter patrem suum virum aliquem. Puella matrem ligneum vasculum cacabi instar præfixum, diu noctuque hau- duntaxat novit, nullim præterea fæminam. Virum præter serat vetul; filius tabacæ folia in pulverem redacta ore man- fratrem suum ne eminus quidem conspexit, dum enim utero à dere nunquam desiit. Concha ad lapidem exacuta pro cultro matre gestabatur, pater ejus à tigride fuerat discerptus. Ad utebantur, interdum arundine fissa. Adolescens matris, soro- fructus seu humi, seu in arboribus natos conquirendos, ad risque nutricius bina ferri frustilla, cultri olim confracti reli- ligna, foco necessaria, colligenda sylvam dumetis, arundinibus, quias, pollicem lata, et pollice nil longiora, ligno, ceu manu- spinisque horrentem sclers puella peragravit quotidie, quibus brio inserta, cera, filoque circumligata cingulo gestabat suo. pedes misere pertusos habebat. Ne incomitata esset, psittaHoc instrumento sagittas scitissime elaborare, decipulas è cum exilem humero, simiolum brachio insidentem circumtulit ligno ad capiendas alces facere, arbores, ubi mellis indicium plerumque, nullo tigridum metu, queis omnis illa vicinia abunviderat, perfodere, aliaque id genus præstare solebat. Cum dat, vel me ipso teste oculato. Pridie ejus diei, quo in istoargilla, è qua ollæ conficiuntur, nusquam esset, carnibus assis, rum contubernium incurrimus, parum abfuit, quin dormiens à non coctis vescebantur per omnem vitam. Herba Paraquari- propinqua jam tigride devorarer. Indi mei ejus rugitu expercæ folia non nisi frigida perfudere, cum vas, quo aquam re-gefacti et hastis et admotis celeriter ignibus vitam servarunt cepto more calefacerent, non haberent. Ignem per affrictum meam. His in nemoribus, cum minor sit ferarum copia, tigricelerem duorum lignellorum nôrunt promptissime elicere, omnium Americanorum more, quod alio loco exponam uberius. Ad restinguendam sitim aqua palustri, semperque, ni ab Austro frigido refrigeretur tantisper, tepida utebantur, cui adferendæ, asservandæque ingentes cucurbitæ pro cantharis serviunt. Ut, quam curta illis domi fuerit suppellex, porro videas, de eorum vestitu facienda est mentio.

"Juveni lacerna è caraquità filis concinnata è scapulis ad genua utrinque defluebat; ventre funiculis præcincto, è quibus cucurbitam tabacæ pulveribus, quos mandit, plenam suspendit. Rete crassioribus è filis matri lectus noctu, interdiu vestis fuit unica.

"Puellæ pariter breve reticulum, in quo noctibus cubabat, per diem vestitus instar fuerat. Cum nimis diaphana mihi videretur, ut verecundiæ consultum irem in Indorum, Hispanorumque præsentia, linteum gossipinum, quo lotas manus tergimus, illius nuditati tegendæ destinavi. Puella linteum, quod illi Indi mei porrexerant, iterum, iterumque complicatum papyri instar, capiti imposuit suo, ceu clypeum contra solis æstus; verum admonita ab Indis illo se involvit. Juveni quoque, ne verecundos offenderet oculos, perizomata linea,

des fame stimulante ferociunt atrocius, avidiusque in obvios assiliunt homines, quam in campis, ubi, cum infinita vis pecorum omnis generis oberret, præda, famisque remedium, quoties lubet, illis in promptu est. Novi proselyti in oppido mox vestiti reliquorum more, et præ reliquis quotidiano cibo liberaliter refecti sunt. Curatum quoque à me diligenter, ad sylvas vicinas cum aliis ut excurrant frequentius, umbra, amœnaque arborum, queis assueverant, viriditate fruituri. Experientia equidem novimus, ut pisces extra aquam cito intereunt, sic barbaros è sylvis ad oppida translatos sæpe contabescere, victus, aerisque mutatione, ac solis potissimum æstu corporum habitudinem perturbante, quippe quæ à pueritia humidis, frigidiusculis, opacisque nemoribus assueverunt. Idem fuit matris, filii, filiæque nostro in oppido fatum, Paucis ab adventu sno hebdomadibus gravedine, rheumateque totum corpus pervadente tentabantur omnes. His oculorum, auri. umque dolor, ac haud multo post surditas successit. Marore animi, cibique omnis fastidium vires absumpsit adeo, ut extrema demum macies, tabesque nullis remediis proficientibus consequeretur. Aliquot mensibus languescens mater senicula, Christianæ disciplinæ rudimentis rite imbuta, sacroque

:

DEDICATION.

TO EDITH MAY SOUTHEY.

1.

EDITH! ten years are number'd, since the day,
Which ushers in the cheerful month of May,
To us by thy dear birth, my daughter dear,
Was blest. Thou therefore didst the name

partake

Of that sweet month, the sweetest of the year;
But fitlier was it given thee for the sake
Of a good man, thy father's friend sincere,
Who at the font made answer in thy name.
Thy love and reverence rightly may he claim,
For closely hath he been with me allied
In friendship's holy bonds, from that first hour
When in our youth we met on Tejo's side;
Bonds which, defying now all Fortune's power,
Time hath not loosen'd, nor will Death divide.

tincta latice prima occubuit, animo tam sereno, Divinisque sime inopum curæ relinquuntur."- Dobrizhoffer de Abiponivoluntatibus acquiescente, ut illam ad superos transisse nil bus, Lib. Prodromus, pp. 97–106. dubitaverim. Puella, quæ plena vigoris, venustatisque oppidum ingrediebatur, viribus exhausta, sui omnino jam dissimilis, floris instar paulatim marcescens vix ossibus hæsit, ac denique matrem ad tumulum secuta est, et nisi vehementissime fallor, ad Cælum. Quid si cum regum sapientissimo dicamus illam post sacrum, quo expiata est, baptisma consummatum in brevi explevisse tempora multa: placitam Deo fuisse animam illius: raptam esse, ne malitia mutaret intellectum ejus. Illud certissimum: qui innocentissimæ puellæ integritatem laudibus, funus præproperum lacrymis non prosequeretur, neminem in oppido fuisse. Frater illius tum superstes eandem, quâ mater, sororque extinctæ sunt, invaletudinem sensit, sed, quia robustior, superavit. Quin et ex morbillis, qui muitas in oppido edebant strages, subinde convaluit adeo, ut confirmata penitus valetudine nihil illi porro metuendum esse videretur. Hilari erat animo, statis horis sacram adivit adem, Christiana dogmata condidicit perdiligenter, morigerum, placidumque se præbuit onuibus, ac frugis optima indicia passim dedit. Ad periclitandam tamen illius in oppido perseverantiam tantisper differendum ejus baptismum existimavi. Hæc inter adest forte Indus Christianus, qui hunc catechumenum me jubente suis dudum habebat in ædibus, vir probus, et agri dives. Hic: mi Pater, ajebat, sylvicola noster equidem optime valet, verum mihi videtur ad delirandum propendere. Nil sibi jam dolere, sed noctes sibi insomnes abire, inquit, spectabilem sibi matrem cum sorore adesse quot noctibus, et amica voce sibi dicere: Ndecaray, ndecaray ânga, nderemimo a cğrupi orð yu yebindererahabone. Sine te, quæso, baptizari. Præter tuam expectationem veniemus iterum te abducturæ. Hoc alloquio, hoc aspectu sibi somnum impediri, ait. Jubeas illum meo nomine, respondi, bono esse animo. Tristem matris, sororisque, quibuscum, per omnem ætatem versatus est, recordationem somniorum ejusmodi causam esse. Illas cœlo, ut quidem mihi verisimile, receptas nihil jam negotii his in terria habere. Hæc ego. Verum paucos post dies idem redit Indus, eadem, quæ nuper, refert, suamque de timenda catechumeni deliratione suspicionem confirmat. Aliquid rei subesse, suspicatus actutum ejus in domum propero, sedentem deprehendo. Rogatus à me: qui se habeat? incolumem, doloris omnis expertem se esse ridens reponit, addit tamen: vigilando semper se noctem agere, quod mater, sororque identidem præsentes sibi offerantur, de baptismo accelerando moneant, et inopinate so abducendum, minentur; id. circo nullam se quietis partem capere posse, iterum, iterumque mibi affirmat candore, ut semper alias, summo. Somniari ab illo talia, atque adeo contemni posse, autumaveram; memor tamen, somnia monitiones cœlestes, Dei oracula non raro exstitisse, uti divinis cx literis patet, in negotio tanti momenti visum mihi est catechumeni et securitati et tranquillitati consulere. De illius perseverantia, de religionis capitum scientia sat certus præmissis interrogationibusque necessariis cum sacris undis mox ablui, Ludovici nomine insignivi. Hoc a me præstitum 23 Junii, S. Joannis Baptistæ vigilia circa horam decimam antemeridianam. Eodem die circa vesperum nullo morbo, aut apoplexiæ indicio accedente placidissime expiravit.

"Ilic eventus, universo oppido compertus, quemque juratus testari possum, in admirationem rapuit omnes. Lectoris arbitrio, quid de hoc sentiendum sit, relinquo. Nunquam tamen in animum inducere meum, potui, ut factum hoc fortuitum putarem. Eximia Dei clementiæ tribuo, quod hi tres sylvicolæ à me sint reperti in ignotis sylvarum latebris, quod mihi ad oppidum meum, ad amplectendam religionem se hortanti morem promptissime gesserint, quod sacro latice expiati vitam clauserint. Optimum Numen in Cœlo consociatos voluit, qui tot annos in sylva contubernales fuere incredibili morum integritate. Fateor, dulcissimam mihi etiamnum accidere expeditionis ad flumen Empalado memoriam, quæ licet multis molestiis, periculisque mihi constiterit, ternis illis sylvicolis felicissima fuit; Hispanis utilissima: hi equidem à me facti certiores, quod per immensos illos nemorum tractus nulla porro Earbarorum vestigia extent, istic per triennium quæstu maximo multa centenariorum millia herbæ Paraquaricæ collegerunt. Neque id rarum, missionariorum, qui sylvas herba feraces barbaris liberant, sudore, ac periculo Hispanos dite cere mercatores. His tamen nunquam in mentem venit ad alendos, vestiendosque catechumenos vel micam, filumve contribuere. Illorum corpora, ut animi missionariorum sapis

2.

A child more welcome, by indulgent Heaven
Never to parents' tears and prayers was given:
For scarcely eight months at thy happy birth
Had pass'd, since of thy sister we were left, -
Our first-born and our only babe, bereft.
Too fair a flower was she for this rude earth!
The features of her beauteous infancy
Have faded from me, like a passing cloud,
Or like the glories of an evening sky:
And seldom hath my tongue pronounced her

name

Since she was summon'd to a happier sphere.
But that dear love, so deeply wounded then,
I in my soul with silent faith sincere
Devoutly cherish till we meet again.

3.

I saw thee first with trembling thankfulness,
O daughter of my hopes and of my fears!
Press'd on thy senseless cheek a troubled kiss,
And breathed my blessing over thee with tears.
But memory did not long our bliss alloy;
For gentle nature, who had given relief,
Wean'd with new love the chasten'd heart from

grief;

And the sweet season minister'd to joy.

4.

It was a season when their leaves and flowers
The trees as to an Arctic summer spread;
When chilling wintry winds and snowy showers,
Which had too long usurp'd the vernal hours,
Like spectres from the sight of morning, fled
Before the presence of that joyous May;
And groves and gardens all the live-long day
Rung with the birds' loud love-songs. Over all,
One thrush was heard from morn till even-fall;

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Thy happy nature from the painful thought With instinct turns, and scarcely canst thou bear To hear me name the Grave. Thou knowest not How large a portion of my heart is there! The faces which I loved in infancy Are gone; and bosom-friends of riper age, With whom I fondly talk'd of years to come, Summon'd before me to their heritage Are in the better world, beyond the tomb. And I have brethren there, and sisters dear, And dearer babes. I therefore needs must dwell Often in thought with those whom still I love so well.

8.

Thus wilt thou feel in thy maturer mind; When grief shall be thy portion, thou wilt find Safe consolation in such thoughts as these,

A present refuge in affliction's hour.
And if indulgent Heaven thy lot should bless
With all imaginable happiness,

Here shalt thou have, my child, beyond all power
Of chance, thy holiest, surest, best delight.
Take therefore now thy Father's latest lay,-
Perhaps his last; - and treasure in thine heart
The feelings that its musing strains convey.
A song it is of life's declining day,
Yet meet for youth. Vain passions to excite,
No strains of morbid sentiment I sing,
Nor tell of idle loves with ill-spent breath;
A reverent offering to the Grave I bring,
And twine a garland for the brow of Death.
Keswick, 1814.

PROEM.

THAT was a memorable day for Spain,
When on Pamplona's towers, so basely won,
The Frenchmen stood, and saw upon the plain
Their long-expected succors hastening on:
Exultingly they mark'd the brave array,
And deem'd their leader should his purpose gain,
Though Wellington and England barr'd the way.
Anon the bayonets glitter'd in the sun,

And frequent cannon flash'd, whose lurid light Redden'd through sulphurous smoke; fast volleying round

Roll'd the war-thunders, and with long rebound Backward from many a rock and cloud-capt

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That was a day, whose influence far and wide The struggling nations felt; it was a joy Wherewith all Europe rung from side to side. Yet hath Pamplona seen, in former time, A moment big with mightier consequence, Affecting many an age and distant clime. That day it was which saw in her defence, Contending with the French before her wall, A noble soldier of Guipuzcoa fall, Sore hurt, but not to death. For when long care Restored his shatter'd leg, and set him free, He would not brook a slight deformity, As one who, being gay and debonnair, In courts conspicuous as in camps must be : So he, forsooth, a shapely boot must wear; And the vain man, with peril of his life, Laid the recover'd limb again beneath the knife.

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