And settled in his groin; so plunged it lay,
That scarce the king could tear his ax away.
The savage fell; when through the tiger-train
The driving Inca turns his force amain;
Where still compact they hem the murderous pyre,
And Rocha’s voice seems faltering to expire.
The frenzied father rages, thunders wild,
Hews armies down to save the sinking child;
The ranks fall staggering where he lifts his arm
Or roll before him like a billowy storm;
Behind his steps collecting warriors close;
Deep centred in a circling ridge of foes
He cleaves his wasting way; the prince unties,
And thus his voice: Dread sovereign of the skies.
Accept my living son, again bestow’d
To grace with rites the temple of his god.
Move, heroes, move; complete the work begun,
Crush the grim race, avenge your injured Sun.
The savage host, that view’d the daring deed
And saw their nations with their captain bleed,
Raised high the shriek of horror; all the plain
Is trod with flight and cover’d with the slain.
The bold Peruvians compass round the field,
Confine their flight and force the rest to yield;
When Capac raised his placid voice again:
Ye conquering troops, collect the vanquisht train;
The Sun commands to stay the rage of war,
He knows to conquer, but he loves to spare.
He ceased; and where the savage leader lay
Weltering in gore, directs his eager way,
Unwraps the tiger’s hide and strives in vain
To close the wound and mitigate the pain;
And while compassion for a foe distrest
Mixt with reproach, he thus the chief addrest:
Too long, proud prince, thy fearless heart withstood
Our sacred arms and braved the living god;
His sovereign will commands all feuds to cease,
His realm is concord and his pleasure peace;
This copious carnage, spreading far the plain,
Insults his bounties, but confirms his reign.
Enough; ’tis past; thy parting breath demands
The last sad office from my yielding hands.
To share thy pains and feel thy hopeless woe
Are rites ungrateful to a fallen foe;
Yet rest in peace; and know, a chief so brave,
When life departs, shall find an honor’d grave;
Myself in princely pomp thy tomb shall rear
And tribes unborn thy hapless fate declare.
Insult me not with tombs! the monster cried,
Let closing clods thy coward carcase hide;
But these brave bones unburied on the plain
Touch not with dust nor dare with rites profane;
Let no curst earth conceal this gory head,
Nor songs proclaim the dreadful Zamor dead.
Me, whom the hungry gods from plain to plain
Have follow’d, feasting on thy slaughter’d train,
Me wouldst thou cover? no! from yonder sky,
The wide-beak hawk, that now beholds me die,
Soon with his cowering train my flesh shall tear,
And wolves and tigers vindicate their share.
Receive, dread Powers (since I can slay no more),
My last glad victim, this devoved gore.
Thus pour’d the vengeful chief his fainting breath
And lost his utterance in the gasp of death.
The sad remaining tribes confess the power,
That sheds his bounties round Peruvia’s shore;
All bow obedient to the Incan throne,
And blest Oella hails her living son.
Book IV
Destruction of Peru foretold—Grief of Columbus—He is comforted by the promise of a vision of future ages—All Europe appears in vision—Effect of the discovery of America upon the affairs of Europe—Improvement in commerce; government—Revival of letters—Order of the Jesuits—Religious persecution—Inquisition—Rise and progress of more liberal principles—Character of Raleigh; who plans the settlement of North America—Formation of the coast by the gulf stream—Nature of the colonial establishments, the first great asylum and infant empire of liberty—Liberty the necessary foundation of morals—Delaware arrives with a reinforcement of new settlers, to consolidate the colony of Virginia—Night scene, as contemplated by these patriarchs, while they are sailing up the Chesapeake, and are saluted by the river gods—Prophetic speech of Potomac—Fleets of settlers from several parts of Europe steering for America.
In one dark age beneath a single hand,
Thus rose an empire in the savage land.
Its wealth and power with following years increase,
Its growing nations spread the walks of peace;
Religion here, that universal name,
Man’s proudest passion, most ungovern’d flame,
Erects her altars on the same bright base,
That dazzled erst, and still deludes the race;
Sun, moon, all powers that forceful strike his eyes,
Earth-shaking storms and constellated skies.
Yet all the pomp his labors here unfold,
The vales of verdure and the towers of gold,
Those infant arts and sovereign seats of state,
In short-lived glory hasten to their fate.
Thy followers, rushing like an angry flood,
Too soon shall drench them in the nation’s blood;
Nor thou, Las Casas,30 best of men, shalt stay
The ravening legions from their guardless prey.
O hapless prelate! hero, saint and sage!
Foredoom’d with crimes a fruitless war to wage,
To see at last, thy life of virtue run,
A realm unpeopled and a world undone!
While impious Valverde, mock of priesthood stands,
Guilt in his heart, the gospel in his hands,
Bids in one field their unarm’d thousands bleed,
Smiles o’er the scene and sanctifies the deed.
And thou, brave Gasca, with persuasive strain,
Shalt lift thy voice and urge thy power in vain;
Vain are thy hopes the sinking land to save
Or call her slaughter’d millions from the grave.
Here Hesper paused. Columbus with a sigh
Cast o’er the continent his moisten’d eye
And thus replied: Ah, hide me in the tomb;
Why should I live to see the impending doom?
If such foul deeds the scheme of heaven compose,
And virtue’s toils induce redoubled woes,
Unfold no more; but grant a kind release;
Give me, ’tis all I ask, to rest in peace.
And thou shalt rest in peace, the Saint rejoin’d,
Ere these conflicting shades involve mankind.
But broader views shall first thy mind engage,
Years far advanced beyond this darksome age
Shall feast thee here; the fruits of thy long care
A grateful world beneath thy ken shall share.
Europe’s contending kings shall soon behold
These fertile plains and hills of treasured gold;
And in the path of thy adventurous sail
Their countless navies float on every gale;
For wealth and commerce search the western shore
And load each ocean with the shining ore.
As up the orient heaven the dawning ray
Smiles o’er the hills and gives the promised day,
Drives fraud and rapine from their nightly spoil,
And social nature wakes to various toil;
So from the blazing mine the golden store
Mid rival states shall spread from shore to shore,
Unite their force, its opulence to share,
Extend the pomp
