Sudden I see my crew a man surround,
complexion’d sooty as the charrèd coal,
tane as he hied him far from home to take
combs of rich honey from the hilly brake.
28
“He comes with troubled gest and gait, as though
he ne’er had found him in such fell extreme;
nor he our speech, nor we his jargon know,
a salvage worse than brutal Polypheme:
Of the fine fleecy store to him I show
the Colchos-treasure, gentle ore supreme,
the virgin silver, spices rich and rare,
yet seemed the Sylvan nought for these to care.
29
“Then bade I baser things be brought to his view,
bunches of glassy beads transparent bright,
of little tinkling falcon-bells a few,
a cap of cramoisie that glads the sight.
By signs and signals then I saw and knew,
in such cheap trash he takes a child’s delight:
I bid them loose him with his treasures all,
when off he hurries for the nearest kraal.
30
“His friends and neighbours on the following day,
all mother-nude, with night-entinctur’d skin,
adown their asp’erous hillocks fand their way,
làrgesse and gifts their mate had won, to win:
In crowds they gather’d and so tame were they,
the show of softness bred much daring in
Fernam Velloso’s brain to see the land,
and thread the bushes with the barbarous band.
31
“Now doth Velloso on his arm rely
and, being arr’ogant, weens to wend secure;
but when already overtime goes by
wherein no sign of good I can procure;
standing with face upturned in hope to ’spy
the bold Adv’enturer, lo! adown the dure
hillocks appears he, making for the shore,
with more of hurry than he showed before.
32
“Coelho’s galley lightly rowed for land
to take him off, but ere the shore she made
a burly Blackmoor cast a bully hand
on him, for fear their prisoner evade:
Others and others coming, soon the band
grappleth Velloso, who finds none to aid;
I haste, our gallant oarsmen strenuous working,
when shows a Negro flock120 in ambush lurking.
33
“Now from the clashing cloud a rattling rain
of shafts and stones began on us to pour,
nor did they hurtle through the lift in vain,
for thence my leg this hurt of arrow bore.
But we, like men with causes to complain,
send such thick-woven answer strong and sore
that from their exploit gainèd some, perhaps,
a blush of honours crimson as their caps.
34
“And, saved Velloso from such imm’inent fate,
fast to the Squadron both the boats retirèd,
seeing the rude intent and ugly hate
of brutes by bestial rage and malice firèd;
from whom no better tidings could we ’wait
anent that India-land, the dear-desirèd,
save it lay far, far, far, the fellows said:—
Once more the canvas to the breeze I spread.
35
“Then to Velloso quoth a mate in jest
(while all with meaning smile the jibe attend),
‘Holá, Velloso! sure that hilly crest
is hard to climb as easy to descend.’
‘Yea, true!’ the daring volunteer confest;
‘but when so many curs afar I ken’d
packing, I hurried, for I ’gan to doubt me
ill-luck might catch you were ye there without me.’
36
“He then recounted how, when duly made
that wooded Mount, the blacks of whom I speak,
his further travel o’er the land forbade
threat’ening unless he turn death-wrong to wreak:
Then, straight returning, ambuscade they laid,
that we when landing a lost mate to seek,
might straight be banisht to the Reign obscure,
that at more leisure they the loot secure.
37
“But now five other suns had come and gone,
since from our landfall went we forth to plow
seas to the seaman still unseen, unknown,
while from astern the breezes favouring blow;
when, as a night closed in, all careless strown
the Crew kept watch upon the cutting Prow,
deep’ening the welkin’s darkling hues, a cloud
sails high o’erhead, and seems the sky to shroud.
38
“It came so chargèd with such tem’erous stride
in every falt’ering heart blank fear it bred:
Roars from afar and raves the sombre tide
as though vain thunder’ing on some rocky head:
‘Almighty Pow’r, o’er worlds sublime!’ I cried,
‘what threat from Heaven, or what secret dread,
shall now this climate and this sea deform,
what greater horror than the natural storm?’
39
“These words I ended not, when saw we rise
a Shape in air, enormous, sore the view o’it;
a Form disformèd of a giant size;
frownèd its face; the long beard squalid grew o’it;
its mien dire menacing; its cavern’d eyes
glared ghastly ’mid the mouldy muddy hue o’it;
stainèd a clayey load its crispy hair
and coal-black lips its yellow tusks lay bare.
40
“So vast its eerie members, well I can
assure thee, all the double deemed to sight
of Rhodes’ Colossus, whose inord’inate span
one of the world’s Seven Wonders once was hight.
But when its gross and horrent tones began
to sound as surged from Ocean’s deepest night:
ah! crept the flesh, and stood the hair of me
and all, that gruesome Thing to hear and see.
41
“ ‘O rasher, bolder Race:’—’twas thus it spoke—
‘than all whose daring deeds have tempted Fate;
thou, whom no labours tame nor war’s fell stroke,
nor rest wilt grant on human toils to ’wait:
Since these forbidden bounds by thee are broke
who durst my Virgin Seas to violate,
which long I guardèd, where I ne’er allow
plowing to foreign or to native prow:
42
“ ‘Since the dark secrets com’st thou here to ’spy
of Nature and her humid element,
which from Man’s highest lore deep hidden lie,
on noble or immortal mission sent;
from me the Terrors which ye dare defy
hear now, the sequence of thy rash intent,
o’er ev’ery largest Sea, o’er ev’ery Land
which still thy cruel conquest shall command.
43
“ ‘This know, what ships shall sail my waters o’er
and brave, as brav’est thou me, to work my worst;
to them assurèd foe shall prove my shore,
where blow the storm-winds, and the tempests burst:
Hear! the first Squadron121 that shall dare explore
and through my restless waves shall cleave the first,
such improvisèd chastisement shall see,
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