which curvèd Gámbia’s wealth of waters drinketh
ere in Atlantis’ breadth his current sinketh:
11
“We past the Dorcades,112 those isles assign’d
of the Weird Sisters erst the home to be,
who born of several vision reft and blind,
made single eye-ball serve for all the three:
Thou, only thou, whose crispy locks entwin’d
frore Neptune fired’st in his realm, the sea,
than ev’ery foulest monster fouler still
the burning sand with viper-brood didst fill.
12
“In fine with pointed Prow t’oward Austral shore113
across the vastest Guinea Gulf we stray’d,
leaving the rugged Range where Lyons roar
and Cape of Palmas called from palmy shade:
The Rio Grande,114 where the thund’erous Bore
roars on our noted coasts, we left and made
that goodly Island named from him who tried
to thrust his finger in the God-man’s side.115
13
“There the broad shores of Congo kingdom show,
whilom by us convert to faith of Christ,
where long Zaïré’s deep clear waters flow,
River by men of old unseen, unwist:
And now in fine the wide-spread seas I plow,
far from Callisto’s well-known Pole, and list
to pass the torrid heats beneath the Line,
which doth the centre of our Sphere define.
14
“And now our vision had afront descried,
there in the new half-heav’en a meteor new,
unseen by other men, who or denied,
or held it doubtful, an ’twere false or true:
We saw the Firm’ament’s darker, duller side,
aye scant of stellar light where stars be few,
and the fixt Pole where man may not agree
if other land begin, or end the sea.
15
“Thus passing forward we the regions gain,
where twice Apollo’s yearly passage lies,
twin winters making, and of summers twain,
while he from Pole to Pole alternate flies:
Through calms and storms, caprices of the Main,
of angry Aeolus sea-sent tyrannies,
we saw the Bears, despite of Juno, lave
their tardy bodies in the boreal wave.
16
“To tell the many dangers of the deep,
sea-changes landsman never apprehendeth,
sudden Tornados, storms the seas that sweep,
Levens, whose fire the depths of air accendeth;
black nights when Heav’en in rain-flood seems to weep,
and Thunders bellowing till the welkin rendeth,
were but lost labour, and would do me wrong,
e’en were I dower’d with an iron tongue.
17
“Portents I witness’d, which rude mariners
by long experience wont their lore to try,
vouch for veracious, while each one avers
things must be truthful when they meet his eye:
These the sound judgment of the Sage prefers;—
or taught by Science or pure Wits to ’spy
the hidden secrets which in Nature brood—
to judge misfacts, or facts misunderstood.
18
“I saw, and clearly saw, the living Light,116
which sailor-people hold their Patron-saint,
in times of trouble and the winds’ rude fight,
and sable orcan when man’s heart is faint.
Nor less to one and all ’twas exquisite
marvel, surpassing power of wonderment,
to see the sea-based clouds, with bulky shaft,
upheaving Ocean’s depth with sucking draught.
19
“Certès I saw it (nor can I presume
my sight deceivèd me) as high it grew,
an airy vapourlet, a subtle fume
which, caught by windy currents, whirling flew:
Thence tow’ering tall to circumpolar gloom
a Tube appeared so thin, so faint of hue,
that man’s unaidèd sight could hardly see it:
Yet of some cloudy substance seemed to be it.
20
“Little by little growing high in air,
with bigger girth than biggest mast it loomèd;
here slim its middle, broad its bosom, where
great gulps of water were in floods enwombèd:
The wave of ev’ery Wave it seemed to share;
while gathered vapours o’er its summit gloomèd;
increasing ever more, and overchargèd
as the huge water-load its bulk enlargèd.
21
“E’en as a ruddy Leech sometimes is seen
fixt on the lips of beeve (that careless stood
to drink on frigid fountain’s hem of green),
slaking her fire of thirst with alien blood:
Sucking, she rounds her form with hunger lean;
and swills and swells till full of gory food:
Thus the grand column greater volume gaineth
itself, and heavier weight of cloud sustaineth.
22
“But, when ’twas wholly filled, and fully fed,
withdrawn the footing planted on the Main,
athwart the welkin pouring floods it fled,
with water bathing ’jacent watery plain;
and all the waves it suckt in waves it shed;
wherein no salty savour mote remain.
Now let our Sages deft in Script expose
what mighty secrets these which Nature shows.
23
“Had the Philosophers, who fared of eld
so far the Wonders of the World to find,
the Miracles which I beheld, beheld;
the canvas spreading to such divers wind;
what many weighty volumes had they fill’d!
what pow’er to Stars and Signs had they assign’d!
what growth to knowledge! what rare qualities!
and all the purest Truth that scorneth lies.
24
“Five times the Planet, which maintains her place
in the first sky, her swifter course had made,117
now showing half and then her full of face,
while over Ocean our Armada sped:
When poised on topmost yard, in giddy space,
‘Land!’ shouts a lynx-eyed sailor, ‘land ahead!’
Hurry the crews on deck in huge delight
and over Orient sky-rim strain their sight.
25
“In misty manner ’gan their shapes to show
the highland-range attracting all our eyes;
the pond’erous anchors stood we prompt to throw,
and furl the canvas which now useless lies:
And that with surer knowledge mote we know
the parts so distant which before us rise,
with Astrolábos, novel instrument,
which safe and subtle judgment did invent:
26
“We landed, lost no time, on long and wide
Bight,118 and the seamen scattered ’bout the shore,
to see what curious things be there descried,
where none descried or ever trod before:
But with my Pilots I retired aside
on farther sands, our landfall to explore;
and lief the solar altitude would span,
and map the painted world in chart and plan.
27
“Here had our wand’ering course outrun, we found,
of Semi-capran Fish the final goal,119
standing atween him and the gelid round,
Earth’s austral portion,
