The Columbiad: A Poem Part 9

Our wildmen too, the tribes of Paraguay, Receive their rites and bow beneath their sway.

The world of men thus moving in thy view Improve their state, more useful works pursue; Unwonted deeds in rival greatness s.h.i.+ne, Call'd into life, and first inspired by thine.

So while imperial Homer tunes the lyre, His living lays unnumber'd bards inspire; From age to age the kindling spirit flies, Sounds thro the earth and echoes to the skies.

Now roll the years, when Europe's ample s.p.a.ce By peace and culture rears a wiser race, Men bred to labor, school'd in freedom's lore, And formed to colonize our favorite sh.o.r.e.

To speed their course, the sons of bigot rage In persecution whelm the inquiring age; Myriads of martyr'd heroes mount the pyre, And blind devotion lights the sacred fire.

Led by the dark Dominicans of Spain, A newborn Fury walks the wide domain, Gaunt INQUISITION; mark her giant stride, Her blood-nursed vulture screaming at her side.

Her priestly train the tools of torment brings.

Racks, wheels and crosses, f.a.ggots, stakes and strings; Scaffolds and cages round her altar stand, And, tipt with sulphur, waves her flaming brand.

Her imps of inquest round the Fiend advance, Suspectors grave, and spies with eye askance, Pretended heretics who worm the soul, And sly confessors with their secret scroll, Accusers hired, for each conviction paid, Judges retain'd and witnesses by trade.

Dragged from a thousand jails her victim trains, Jews, Moors and Christians, clank alike their chains, Read their known sentence in her fiery eyes, And breathe to heaven their unavailing cries; Lash'd on the pile their writhing bodies turn, And, veil'd in doubling smoke, begin to burn.

Where the flames open, lo! their limbs in vain Reach out for help, distorted by the pain; Till folded in the fires they disappear, And not a sound invades the startled ear.

See Philip, throned in insolence and pride, Enjoy their wailings and their pangs deride; While o'er the same dread scenes, on Albion's isles, His well-taught spouse, the cruel Mary, smiles.

What clouds of smoke hang heavy round the sh.o.r.e!

What altars hecatomb'd with Christian gore!

Her sire's best friends, the wise, the brave, the good, Roll in the flames or fly the land of blood.

To Gallia's plains the maddening phrensy turns.

Religion raves and civil discord burns; Leaguers and Huguenots their vengeance pour, They swell Bartholemy's wide feast of gore, Alternate victors bid their gibbets rise, And the foul stench of victims chokes the skies.

Now cease the factions with the Valois line, And Bourbon's virtues every voice combine.

Quell'd by his fame, the furious sects accord, Europe respires beneath his guardian sword; Batavia's states to independence soar, And curb the cohorts of Iberian power.

From Albion's ports her infant navies heave, Stretch forth and thunder on the Flandrian wave; Her Howard there first foils the force of Spain, And there begins her mastery of the main.

The Seraph spoke; when full beneath their eye A new-form'd squadron rose along the sky.

High on the tallest deck majestic shone Sage Raleigh, pointing to the western sun; His eye, bent forward, ardent and sublime, Seem'd piercing nature and evolving time; Beside him stood a globe, whose figures traced A future empire in each present waste; All former works of men behind him shone Graved by his hand in ever-during stone; On his calm brow a various crown displays The hero's laurel and the scholar's bays; His graceful limbs in steely mail were drest, The bright star burning on his lofty breast; His sword, high waving, flash'd the solar ray.

Illumed the shrouds and rainbow'd far the spray; The smiling crew rose resolute and brave, And the glad sails hung bounding o'er the wave.

Storms of wild Hatteras, suspend your roar, Ye tumbling billows, cease to shake the sh.o.r.e; Look thro the doubling clouds, thou lamp of day, Teach the bold Argonauts their chartless way; Your viewless capes, broad Chesapeak, unfold, And show your promised Colchis fleeced with gold.

No plundering squadron your new Jason brings; No pirate demiG.o.ds nor hordes of kings From sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e a faithless miscreant steers, To steal a maid and leave a sire in tears.

But yon wise chief conducts with careful ken The queen of colonies, the best of men, To wake to fruitful life your slumbering soil, And rear an empire with the hand of toil.

Your fond Medea too, whose dauntless breast All danger braves to screen her hunted guest.

Shall quit her native tribe, but never share The crimes and sufferings of the Colchian fair.

Blest Pocahontas! fear no lurking guile; Thy hero's love shall well reward thy smile.

Ah sooth the wanderer in his desperate plight, Hide him by day and calm his cares by night; Tho savage nations with thy vengeful sire Pursue their victim with unceasing ire, And tho their threats thy startled ear a.s.sail, Let virtue's voice o'er filial fears prevail.

Fly with the faithful youth, his steps to guide, Pierce the known thicket, breast the fordless tide, Illude the scout, avoid the ambush'd line, And lead him safely to his friends and thine; For thine shall be his friends, his heart, his name; His camp shall shout, his nation boast thy fame.

But now the Bay unfolds a pa.s.sage wide, And leads the squadron up the freshening tide; Where Pohatan spreads deep her sylvan soil, And gra.s.sy lawns allure the steps of toil.

Here, lodged in peace, they tread the welcome land.

An instant harvest waves beneath their hand, Spontaneous fruits their easy cares beguile, And opening fields in living culture smile.

With joy Columbus view'd; when thus his voice: Ye grove-clad sh.o.r.es, ye generous hosts, rejoice!

Exchange your benefits, your gifts combine; What nature fas.h.i.+ons, let her sons refine.

Be thou, my Seer, the people's guardian friend, Protect their virtues and their lives defend; May wealth and wisdom with their arts unfold, Yet save, oh, save them from the thirst of gold!

Let the poor guardless natives never feel The flamen's fraud, the soldier's fateful steel; But learn the blessings that alone attend On civil rights where social virtues blend, In these brave leaders find a welcome guide, And rear their fanes and empires by their side.

Smile, great Hesperia, smile; the star of morn Illumes thy heavens and bids thy day be born; Thy opening forests show the work begun, Thy plains unshaded drink a purer sun; Yield now thy bounties, load the laboring main, Give birth to nations, and begin thy reign.

The Hero spoke; when thus the Saint rejoin'd, Approved his joy, and feasted still his mind: Well may thy voice, with patriarch pride elate, Burst forth triumphant at a scene so great; Here springs indeed the day, since time began, The brightest, broadest, happiest morn of man.

In these prime settlements thy raptures trace The germ, the genius of a sapient race, Predestined here to methodise and mould New codes of empire to reform the old.

A work so vast a second world required, By oceans bourn'd, from elder states retired; Where, uncontaminated, unconfined, Free contemplation might expand the mind, To form, fix, prove the well-adjusted plan, And base and build the commonwealth of man.

This arm, that leads the stellar host of even, That stretch'd o'er yon rude ridge the western heaven, That heal'd the wounded earth, when from her side The moon burst forth, and left the South Sea tide, That calm'd these elements, and taught them where To mould their ma.s.s and rib the crusted sphere, Line the closed continent with wrecks of life, And recommence their generating strife, That rear'd the mountain, spread the subject plain, Led the long stream and roll'd the billowy main, Stole from retiring tides the growing strand, Heaved the green banks, the shadowy inlets plann'd, Strow'd the wild fruitage, gave the beast his place, And form'd the region for thy filial race,-- This arm prepared their future seats of state, Design'd their limits and prescribed their date.

When first the staggering globe its breach repair'd, And this bold hemisphere its shoulders rear'd, Back to those heights, whose hovering vapor shrouds My rock-raised world in Alleganian clouds, The Atlantic waste its coral kingdom spread, And scaly nations here their gambols led; Till by degrees, thro following tracts of time, From laboring ocean rose the sedgy clime, As from unloaded waves the rising sand Swell'd into light and gently drew to land.

For, moved by trade winds o'er the flaming zone, The waves roll westward with the constant sun, Meet my firm isthmus, scoop that gulphy bed, Wheel to the north, and here their current spread.

Those ravaged banks, that move beneath their force, Borne on the tide and lost along their course, Create the sh.o.r.e, consolidate the soil.

And hither lead the enlighten'd steps of toil.

Think not the l.u.s.t of gold shall here annoy, Enslave the nation and its nerve destroy.

No useles mine these northern hills enclose, No ruby ripens and no diamond glows; But richer stores and rocks of useful mould Repay in wealth the penury of gold.

Freedom's unconquer'd race, with healthy toil, Shall lop the grove and warm the furrow'd soil, From iron ridges break the rugged ore, And plant with men the man-enn.o.bling sh.o.r.e; Sails, villas, towers and temples round them heave, s.h.i.+ne o'er the realms and light the distant wave.

Nor think the native tribes shall rue the day That leads our heroes o'er the watery way.

A cause like theirs no mean device can mar, Nor bigot rage nor sacerdotal war.

From eastern tyrants driven, resolved and brave, To build new states or seek a distant grave, Our sons shall try a new colonial plan, To tame the soil, but spare their kindred man.

Thro Europe's wilds when feudal nations spread.

The pride of conquest every legion led.

Each fur-clad chief, by servile crowds adored, O'er conquer'd realms a.s.sumed the name of lord, Built the proud castle, ranged the savage wood, Fired his grim host to frequent fields of blood, With new-made honors lured his subject bands, Price of their lives, and purchase of their lands; For names and t.i.tles bade the world resign Their faith, their freedom and their rights divine.

Contending baronies their terrors spread, And slavery follow'd where the standard led; Till, little tyrants by the great o'erthrown, The spoils of n.o.bles build the regal crown; Wealth, wisdom, virtue, every claim of man Unguarded fall to consummate the plan.

Ambitious cares, that nature never gave, Torment alike the monarch and the slave, Thro all degrees in gradual pomp ascend, Honor the name, but tyranny the end.

Far different honors here the heart shall claim, Sublimer objects, deeds of happier fame; A new creation waits the western sh.o.r.e, And moral triumphs o'er monarchic power.

Thy freeborn sons, with genius unconfined, Nor sloth can slacken nor a tyrant bind; With self-wrought fame and worth internal blest, No venal star shall brighten on their breast, Nor king-created name nor courtly art Damp the bold thought or desiccate the heart.

Above all fraud, beyond all t.i.tles great, Truth in their voice and sceptres at their feet, Like sires of unborn states they move sublime, Look empires thro and span the breadth of time, Hold o'er the world, that men may choose from far, The palm of peace, or scourge of barbarous war; Till their example every nation charms, Commands its friends.h.i.+p and its rage disarms.

Here social man a second birth shall find, And a new range of reason lift his mind, Feed his strong intellect with purer light, A n.o.bler sense of duty and of right, The sense of liberty; whose holy fire His life shall temper and his laws inspire, Purge from all shades the world-embracing scope That prompts his genius and expands his hope.

When first his form arose erect on earth, Parturient nature hail'd the wondrous birth, With fairest limbs and finest fibres wrought, And framed for vast and various toils of thought.

To aid his promised powers with loftier flight, And stretch his views beyond corporeal sight, Prometheus came, and from the floods of day Sunn'd his clear soul with heaven's internal ray, The expanding spark divine; that round him springs, And leads and lights him thro the immense of things, Probes the dense earth, explores the soundless main, Remoulds their ma.s.s thro all its threefold reign, O'er great, o'er small extends his physic laws, Empalms the empyrean or dissects a gaz, Weighs the vast orbs of heaven, bestrides the sky, Walks on the windows of an insect's eye; Turns then to self, more curious still to trace The whirls of pa.s.sion that involve the race, That cloud with mist the visual lamp of G.o.d, And plunge the poniard in fraternal blood.

Here fails his light. The proud t.i.tanian ray O'er physic nature sheds indeed its day; Yet leaves the moral in chaotic jars, The spoil of violence, the sport of wars, Presents contrasted parts of one great plan, Earth, heaven subdued, but man at swords with man; His wars, his errors into science grown, And the great cause of all his ills unknown.

But when he steps on these regenerate sh.o.r.es, His mind unfolding for superior powers, FREEDOM, his new Prometheus, here shall rise, Light her new torch in my refulgent skies, Touch with a stronger life his opening soul, Of moral systems fix the central goal, Her own resplendent essence. Thence expand The rays of reason that illume the land; Thence equal rights proceed, and equal laws, Thence holy Justice all her reverence draws; Truth with untarnish'd beam descending thence, Strikes every eye, and quickens every sense, Bids bright Instruction spread her ample page, To drive dark dogmas from the inquiring age, Ope the true treasures of the earth and skies, And teach the student where his object lies.

Sun of the moral world! effulgent source Of man's best wisdom and his steadiest force, Soul-searching Freedom! here a.s.sume thy stand, And radiate hence to every distant land; Point out and prove how all the scenes of strife, The shock of states, the impa.s.sion'd broils of life, Spring from unequal sway; and how they fly Before the splendor of thy peaceful eye; Unfold at last the genuine social plan, The mind's full scope, the dignity of man, Bold nature bursting thro her long disguise, And nations daring to be just and wise.

Yes! righteous Freedom, heaven and earth and sea Yield or withold their various gifts for thee; Protected Industry beneath thy reign Leads all the virtues in her filial train; Courageous Probity with brow serene, And Temperance calm presents her placid mien Contentment, Moderation, Labor, Art, Mould the new man and humanize his heart; To public plenty private ease dilates, Domestic peace to harmony of states.

Protected Industry, careering far, Detects the cause and cures the rage of war, And sweeps, with forceful arm, to their last graves, Kings from the earth and pirates from the waves.

But slow proceeds the work. Long toils, my son, Must base the fabric of so vast a throne; Where Freedom founds her everlasting reign, And earth's whole empires form the fair domain.

That great coloniarch, whose exalted soul Pervades all scenes that future years unrol, Must yield the palm, and at a courtier's shrine His plans relinquish and his life resign; His life that brightens, as his death shall stain, The fair, foul annals of his master's reign.

That feeble band, the lonely wilds who tread, Their sire, their genius in their Raleigh dead, Shall pine and perish in the savage gloom, Or mount the wave and seek their ancient home.

Others in vain the generous task pursue, The dangers tempt and all the strife renew; While kings and ministers obstruct the plan, Unfaithful guardians of the weal of man.