Barb'd with the fleeted fnow, the driving hail,
Rush the fierce arrows of the polar gale;

And thro' the dim, unvaried, ling'ring hours,
Wide o'er the waves incumbent horror low'rs.

From the rude fummit of yon

frozen steep, Contrafting Glory gilds the dreary deep!

Lo!-deck'd with vermeil youth and beamy grace,
Hope in her ftep, and gladness in her face,
Light on the icy rock, with outstretch'd hands,
The Goddefs of the new Columbus ftands.
Round her bright head the plumy * Peterels foar,
Blue as her robe, that fweeps the frozen fhore;
Glows her foft cheek, as vernal mornings fair,
And warm as fummer-funs her golden hair;
O'er the hoar wafte her radiant glances ftream,
And courage kindles in the magic beam.
She points the fhip its mazy path, to thread
The floating fragments of the frozen bed.

While o'er the deep in many a dreadful form, The giant Danger howls along the ftorm, Furling the iron fails with numbed hands, Firm on the deck the great Adventurer stands;

* Peterels foar. The peterel is a bird found in the frozen feas; its neck and tail are white, and its wings of a bright blue.

The floating fragments." In the courfe of the laft twenty-four hours, we paffed through several fields of broken ice; they were in general narrow, but of confiderable extent. In one part the pieces of ice were fo clofe, that the ship had much difficulty to thread them."

Furling the iron fails. Our fails and rigging were fo frozen, that they, feemed plates of iron."

Round glitt'ring mountains hears the billows rave,
And the vast ruin thunder on the wave.-

Appall'd he hears !-but checks the rifing figh,
And turns on his firm band a glift'ning eye.-
Not for himself the fighs unbidden break,
Amid the terrors of the icy wreck ;
Not for himself ftarts the impaffion'd tear,
Congealing as it falls;-nor pain, nor fear,
Nor Death's dread darts, impede the great defign,
Till Nature draws the circumfcribing line.
Huge rocks of ice th' arrested ship embay,
And bar the gallant Wanderer's dangerous way.-
His eye regretful marks the Goddess turn
Th' affiduous prow from its relentless bourn.

And now antarctic Zealand's drear domain
Frowns, and o'erhangs th' inhofpitable main.
On it's chill beach this dove of human-kind
For his long-wandering foot fhort reft fhall find,
Bear to the coaft the olive-branch in vain,
And quit on wearied wing the holtile plain.-

* And the vast ruin-The breaking of one of thefe immenfe mountains of ice, and the prodigious noife it made, is particularly defcribed in Cook's fecond voy age to the fouth Pole.

Till Nature, &c." After running four leagues this course, with the ice on our flarboard fide, we found ourfelves quite embay'd, the ice extending from northnorth-east, round by the weft and fouth, to eat, in one compact body; the weather was tolerably clear, yet we could fee no end to it."

The olive-branch. To carry a green branch in the hand on landing, is a pacific fignal, univerfally understood by all the islanders in the South Seas."

With jealous low'r the frowning natives view
The ftately veffel, and th' advent'rous crew;
Nor fear the brave, nor emulate the good,
But fcowl with favage thirst of human blood!

And yet there were, who in this iron clime Soar'd o'er the herd on Virtue's wing fublime; Rever'd the franger-gueft, and fmiling ftrove To foothe his ftay with hofpitable love! Fann'd in full confidence the tender flame, Join'd plighted hands, and name exchang'd for name. To thefe the Hero leads + his living flore, And pours new wonders on th' uncultur'd fhore; The filky fleece, fair fruit, and golden grain; And future herds and harvests bless the plain. O'er the green foil his Kids exulting play, And founds his clarion loud the Bird of day; The downy Goofe her ruffled bofom laves, Trims her white wing, and wantons in the waves; Stern moves the Bull along th' affrighted fhores, And countlefs nations tremble as he roars.

So when the Daughter of eternal Jove,
And Ocean's God, to blefs their Athens ftrove,

* And name exchang'd.-The exchange of names is a pledge of amity among these iflanders, and was frequently propofed by them to Captain Cook and his people; fo alfo is the joining nofes.

&c.

His living ftore.-Captain Cook left various kinds of animals upon this coaft, together with garden-feeds, The Zealanders had hitherto fubfifted upon fish, and fuch coarfe vegetables as their climate produced; and this want of better provifion, it is fuppofed, induced them to the horrid practice of eating human flesh.

The maffy trident with gigantic force

Cleaves the firm earth-and gives the stately Horfe;
He paws the ground impatient of the rein,

Shakes his high front and thunders o'er the plain.
Then Wifdom's Goddefs plants the embryon feed,
And bids new foliage hade the fultry mead;
'Mid the pale green the tawny olives fhine,
And famish'd thoufands blefs the hand divine.

Now the warm folftice o'er the fhining bay, Darts from the north its mild meridian ray; Again the Chief invokes the rifing gale, And spreads again in defart feas the fail; O'er dangerous fhoals his fteady steerage keeps, O'er walls of coral ambush'd in the deeps; Strong Labour's hands the crackling cordage twine, And fleepless Patience heaves the founding-line,

On a lone beach a ‡ rock-built temple ftands,
Stupendous pile! unwrought by mortal hands;
Sublime the ponderous turrets rife in air,
And the wide roof basaltic columns bear;

*Walls of coral. The coral rocks are described as rifing perpendicularly from the greatest depths of the ocean, infomuch that the founding-line could not reach their bottom; and yet they were but just covered with water.-Thefe rocks are now found to be fabricated by fea-infects.

+ And feepless Patience." We had now paffed feveral months with a man conftantly in the chains heaving the lead."

A rock-built temple." On one part of this isle there was a folitary rock, rifing on the coaft with arched cavities, like a majeftic temple."

Thro' the long aifles the murm'ring tempests blow,
And Ocean chides his dafhing waves below,
From this fair fane, along the filver fands,
Two fifter-virgins wave their fnowy hands;
First gentle Flora round her fmiling brow
Leaves of new forms, and flow'rs uncultur'd glow;
Thin folds of † vegetable filk, behind,

Shade her white neck, and wanton in the wind;
Strange fweets where'er the turns, perfume the glades,
And fruits unnam'd adorn the bending fhades.
-Next Fauna treads, in youthful beauty's pride,
A playful Kangroo bounding by her fide;
Around the Nymph her beauteous Pois difplay
Their varied plumes, and trill the dulcet lay;

*First gentle Flora.-Flora is the Goddess of modern Botany, and Fauna of modern Zoology: hence the pupils of Linnæus call their books Flora Anglica Fauna Danica, &c." The Flora of one of these islands contain❜d thirty new plants."

† Vegetable filk.-In New-Zealand is a flag of which the natives make their nets and cordage. The fibres of this vegetable are longer and ftronger than our hemp and flax; and fome manufactured in London, is as white and gloffy as fine filk. This valuable vegetable will probably grow in our climate.

A playful Kangroo. The kangroo is an animal peculiar to thofe climates. It is perpetually jumping along on its hind legs, its fore legs being too fhort to be used in the manner of other quadrupeds.

Beauteous Pois." The poi-bird, common in thofe countries, has feathers of a fine mazarine blue, except thofe of the neck, which are of a beautiful filver grey; and two or three fhort white ones, which are in the pinion-joint of the wing. Under its throat hang