The lofty cedar, which to heaven aspires,

The Prince of trees! is fuel for their fires :
The smoke, by which their loaded fpits do turn,
For incenfe might on sacred altars burn :
Their private roofs on odorous timber borne,
Such as might palaces for Kings adorn.
The sweet palmitoes a new Bacchus yield,
With leaves as ample as the broadest shield :
Under the fhadow of whofe friendly boughs
They fit, carousing where their liquor grows.
Figs there unplanted through the fields do grow,
Such as fierce Cato did the Romans show;
With the rare fruit inviting them to spoil
Carthage, the mistress of so rich a foil.

The naked rocks are not unfruitful there,
But, at fome conftant feafons every year,

Their barren tops with luscious food abound;
And with the eggs of various fowls are crown'd.
Tobacco is the worft 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 choicest melons, and sweet grapes, they dine:
And with potatoes fat their wanton fwine.
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:

F. 3

}

For

For the kind fpring, 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.
Heaven fure has kept this spot of earth uncurst,
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 fome few months, will be
A firm, a lofty, and a spacious 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-constrained notes:
While the fupporter of the Poet's style,
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 sweet, and best of paffions, love.
There will I fing, if gentle Love be by,

That tunes my lute, and winds the string so high;

With the fweet found of Sachariffa's name,
I'll make the liftening favages grow tame.-
But while I do these pleafing dreams indite,
I am diverted from the promis'd fight.

T

CANT O II.

Of their alarm, and how their foes
Discover'd were, this Canto fhows.

HOUGH rocks fo high about this island rife,

That well they may the numerous Turk despise;

Yet is no human fate exempt from fear;

Which shakes their hearts, while through the ifle they hear A lafting noife, as horrid and as loud

As thunder makes, before it breaks the cloud.

Three days they dread this murmur, ere they know From what blind caufe th' unwonted found may grow; At length two monsters of unequal fize,

Hard by the fhore, a fisherman efpies ;

Two mighty whales! which fwelling feas had toft,
And left them prisoners on the rocky coast.

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 some tempest cast,

The fate of fhips, and fhip-wreck'd men, to tafte.

As carelefs 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 vessels, quash'd,
Though huge as mountains, are in pieces dash'd :
Along the fhore their dreadful limbs lie fcatter'd ;
Like hills with earthquakes, fhaken, torn, and shatter'd.
Hearts fure of brass they had, who tempted first
Rude feas, that spare not what themselves have nurst.
The welcome news, through 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:
Difpofe 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 beast!

}

They man their boats, and all the young men arm With whatsoever may the monfters harm; Pikes, halberts, fpits, and darts that wound fo far The tools of peace, and inftruments of war. Now was the time for vigorous lads to show What love, or honour, 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

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 honour, to that title due;

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

THE

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 cast,
Vex'd with unwónted heat, he flings about
The scorching brass, and hurls the liquor out:
So, with the barbed javelin ftung, he raves;
And scourges with his tail the suffering waves.
Like Spenfer's Talus with his iron flail,
He threatens ruin with his ponderous tail;
Diffolving at one stroke the batter'd boat,
And down the men fall drenched in the moat:
With every fierce encounter they are forc'd
To quit their boats, and fare like men unhors'd.

The