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Not [1] Iſles of Pearl, not rich [2] Pacifick Seas,
Not the more Fruitful [3] Caribbees,
Not [4] Africks Wealth or Chilean Stores,
The Silver [5] Mountains, or the Golden Shores,
Could ſuch an [6] Unexhauſted Treaſure boaſt,
A Treaſure how ſupinely loſt!
What Pains has Scotland taken to be Poor,
That has the Indies at her Door;
That lets her Courſeſt Fate of Choice remain,
And ſees her Maker Bountiful in Vain.
When Caledonians, when will you be wiſe,
And ſearch for certain Wealth in Native Seas?
A Wealth by Heav'n deſign'd for none but You,
- ↑ Islands so call'd lying in the Gulph of Mexico, where the Pearl Fi|shing has been worth Immense Sums to the Spaeniard.
- ↑ The Great Ocean on the West-side of America, Vulgarly, Tho I think Improperly, call'd, The South Seas.
- ↑ The Caribbees Islands, which, as now Improv'd by the English, are suppos'd to yield the greatest Produce of any Spot of Ground in the World of equal Extent.
- ↑ Guinea in Africk, and Chili in America, being the two principal places which supply the World with Gold.
- ↑ Silver Mountains. The Mountains of Potosi in the Country of Peru, thought by some to be all Silver, but without Question, is the richest of that kind in the World. Golden Shores: Meaning the Rivers of Guinea, in the Sands of which is taken up the Gold Dust, as it is wash'd out of the Mountains by the Water.
- ↑ Ʋnexhausted Treasure. The Fishery, and therefore very well propos'd to match the Treasures before spoken of, not only in its Value, but in this Peculiar, That 'tis never exhausted. Nor is it all the less for the Prodigious Quantities that are or might be Annually taken. Which some Authors have observ'd, That they were enough to subsist the whole Nation, if there were no other Provision. Tanta Piscium est Exundantia, cum ubique tum quo magis ad Septentrionem accedas, ut vel ii soli sufficere possint ad pastum Insulae totius: Boeth. de Descrip. Reg. Scot
