THE WEST INDIES. A POEM, IN FOUR PARTS. WRITTEN IN HONOUR OF THE ABOLITION OF THE AFRI- "Receive him for ever; not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved." St Paul's Epist. to Philemon, v. 15, 16, THE WEST INDIES. PART I. ARGUMENT. Introduction; on the Abolition of the Slave Trade.-The Ma riner's Compass.-Columbus.-The Discovery of America.The West Indian Islands.-The Charibs.-Their Extermination. "THY chains are broken, Africa, be free!' Thus saith Britannia.-O, ye winds and waves! Through radiant realms, beneath the burning zone, Where Europe's curse is felt, her name unknown, • Thus saith Britannia, empress of the sea, Thy chains are broken, Africa, be free!' Long lay the ocean-paths from man conceal'd; Light came from heaven,-the magnet was reveal'd, A surer star to guide the seaman's eye Than the pale glory of the northern sky; Alike ordain'd to shine by night and day, Through calm and tempest, with unsetting ray; Where'er the mountains rise, the billows roll, Still with strong impulse turning to the pole, True as the sun is to the morning true, Though light as film, and trembling as the dew. Then man no longer plied with timid oar, And failing heart, along the windward shore ; Broad to the sky he turn'd his fearless sail, Defied the adverse, woo'd the favouring gale, Bared to the storm his adamantine breast, Or soft on ocean's lap lay down to rest; His white-wing'd vessels coursed the unbounded deep; The waves his heritage, the world his home. Then first Columbus, with the mighy hand Of grasping genius, weigh'd the sea and land; The floods o'erbalanced :--where the tide of light, Day after day, roll'd down the gulph of night, There seem'd one waste of waters :-long in vain His spirit brooded o'er the Atlantic main ; When sudden, as creation burst from nought, Sprang a new world through his stupendous thought, Light, order, beauty!-While his mind explored Where'er sublime imagination trod, He heard the voice, he saw the face of God. |