Of navigation, that, in hopeless sloth,
Had slumber'd on the vast atlantic deep,
For idle ages, starting, heard at last
The [1]Lusitanian Prince; who, Heav'n-inspir'd,1005
To love of useful glory rous'd mankind,
And in unbounded commerce mix'd the world.
Increasing still the terrors of these storms,
His jaws horrific arm'd with threefold fate,
Here dwells the direful shark. Lur'd by the scent 1010
Of steaming crouds, of rank disease, and death,
Behold! he rushing cuts the briny flood,
Swift as the gale can bear the ship along;
And, from the partners of that cruel trade,
Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons, 1015
Demands his share of prey, demands themselves.
The stormy fates descend: one death involves
Tyrants and slaves; when strait, their mangled limbs
Crashing at once, he dyes the purple seas
With gore, and riots in the vengeful meal. 1020
When o'er this world, by equinoctial rains
Flooded immense, looks out the joyless sun,
And draws the copious stream: from swampy fens,
Where putrefaction into life ferments,
And breathes destructive myriads; or from woods,1025
Impenetrable shades, recesses foul,
In vapours rank and blue corruption wrapt,
Whose gloomy horrors yet no desperate foot
Has ever dar'd to pierce; then, wasteful, forth
Walks the dire power of pestilent disease. 1030
A thousand hideous fiends her course attend,
Sick
- ↑ Don Henry, third son to John the first, King of Portugal. His strong genius to the discovery of new countries was the source of all the modern improvements in navigation.
