Where, as he crops his varied fare, the herds,
In widening circle round, forget their food,
And at the harmless stranger wondering gaze.
Peaceful, beneath primæval trees, that cast
Their ample shade o'er Niger's yellow stream,
And where the Ganges rolls his facred wave;
Or mid the central depth of blackening woods,
High-rais'd in folemn theatre around,
Leans the huge elephant: wifeft of brutes!
O truly wife with gentle might endow'd,
Though 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
Project: thrice happy! could he 'scape their guile,
Who mine, from cruel avarice, his steps;
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.
Wide o'er the winding umbrage of the floods,
Like vivid bloffoms glowing from afar,
Thick-fwarm the brighter birds. For Nature's hand, That with a sportive vanity has deck'd
The plumy nations, there her gayeft hues
But, if the bids them fhine,
Array'd in all the beauteous beams of day,
In all the regions of the torrid zone, the birds, though more beautiful in their plumage, are obferved to be lefs melodious than ours.
Yet, frugal ftill, fhe 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 shades,
Through the foft filence of the listening night,
The fober-fuited songstress trills her lay.
But come, my Muse, the defart-barrier burst,
A wild expanfe of lifeless sand and sky:
And, fwifter than the toiling caravan,
No toly Fury thou, blafpheming Heaven,
With confecrated steel to ftab their peace,
And through the land, yet red from civil wounds,
To spread the purple tyranny of Rome.
Thou, like the harmless bee, may'st freely range,
From mead to mead bright with exalted flowers,
From jafmine grove to grove, may'st wander gay,
Through palmy shades and aromatic woods,
That grace the plains, invest 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 gush; and careless herds and flocks
Securely ftray; a world within itself,
Difdaining all affault: there let me draw
Ethereal foul, there drink reviving gales,
Profufely breathing from the spicy groves,
And vales of fragrance; there at distance hear
The roaring floods, and cataracts, that sweep
From difembowel'd earth the virgin gold;
And o'er the varied landskip, restless, rove,
Fervent with life of every fairer kind:
A land of wonders! which the fun still eyes
With ray direct, as of the lovely realm
Enamour'd, and delighting there to dwell.
How chang'd the fcene! In blazing height of noon, The fun, opprefs'd, is plung'd in thickest gloom. 785 Still Horror reigns, a dreary twilight round,
Of ftruggling night and day malignant mix'd.
For to the hot equator crowding fast,
Where, highly rarefy'd, the yielding air.
Admits their ftream, inceffant vapours roll,
Amazing clouds on clouds continual heap'd!
Or whirl❜d tempeftuous by the gufty wind,
Or filent borne along, heavy, and flow,
With the big stores of steaming oceans charg'd.
Meantime, amid these upper feas, condens'd
Around the cold aërial mountain's brow,
And by conflicting winds together dash'd,
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 mafs
Unbroken floods and folid torrents pours.
The treasures these, hid from the bounded fearch Of ancient knowledge; whence, with annual pomp, Rich king of floods! o'erflows the fwelling Nile. 805 From his two fprings, in Gojam's funny realm, Pure-welling out, he through 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 smile around. Ambitious, thence the manly river breaks; And, gathering many a flood, and copious fed With all the mellow'd treasures of the sky, Winds in progreffive majesty along :
Through 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 steep to fteep, he pours
And Egypt joys beneath the spreading wave.
His brother Niger too, and all the floods
In which the full-form'd maids of Afric lave
Their jetty limbs; and all that from the tract
Of woody mountains stretch'd through gorgeous Ind
Fall on Cormandel's coaft, or Malabar ;
From * Menam's orient stream, that nightly shines
* The river that runs through Siam; on whose banks a vaft multitude of thofe infects called fire-flies make a beautiful appearance in the night.
With infect-lamps, to where Aurora sheds
On Indus' fmiling banks the rofy shower:
All, at this bounteous season, ope their urns,
And pour untoiling harvest o'er the land.
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,
At once his dome, his robe, his food, and arms.
Swell'd by a thousand ftreams, impetuous hurl'd
From all the roaring Andes, huge descends
The mighty Orellana. Scarce the Muse
Dares ftretch her wing o'er this enormous mafs
Of rufhing water; fcarce fhe dares attempt
The fealike Plata; to whofe dread expanfe,
Continuous depth, and wondrous length of course,
Our floods are rills. With unabated force,
In filent dignity they fweep along,
And traverfe realms unknown, and blooming wilds,
And fruitful defarts, worlds of folitude,
Where the fun fmiles and feafons teem in vain,
Unfeen, and unenjoy'd. Forfaking these,
O'er peopled plains they fair-diffufive flow,
And many a nation feed, and circle safe,
In their foft bofom, many a happy isle;
The feat of blameless Pan, yet undisturb'd
By chriftian crimes and Europe's cruel fons.
The river of the Amazons.
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