The Ship, thus eased, some little respite finds In this rude conflict of the Seas and Winds--

Such ease ALCIDES felt, when, clogged with gore,
Th' envenom'd Mantle from his side he tore;
When, stung with burning pain, he strove too late
To stop the swift career of cruel Fate;

Yet then his heart one ray of Hope procured,
Sad harbinger of sevenfold pangs endured---
Such, and so short, the pause of woe She found!
Cimmerian darkness shades the Deep around,
Save when the lightnings in terrific blaze
Deluge the cheerless gloom with horrid rays:
Above, all Ether fraught with scenes of woe
With grim destruction threatens all below;
Beneath, the storm-lashed Surges furions rise,
And wave uprolled on wave assails the skies;
With ever-floating bulwarks they surround
The Ship, half swallowed in the black profound.
With ceaseless hazard and fatigue opprest,
Dismay and anguish every heart possest;
For while, with sweeping inundation, o'er
The sea-beat Ship the booming Waters roar,

Displaced beneath by her capacious womb,

They rage

their ancient station to resume;

By secret ambushes, their force to prove,

Through many a winding channel first they rove;
Till gathering fury, like the fevered blood,

Through her dark veins they roll a rapid flood:
When unrelenting thus the Leaks they found,
The clattering Pumps with clanking strokes resound;
Around each leaping valve, by toil subdued,

The tough bull-hide must ever be renewed:

Their sinking hearts unusual horrors chill,
And down their weary limbs thick dews distil;
No ray of light their dying Hope redeems,
Pregnant with some new woe, each moment teems.
Again the Chief th' instructive Chart extends,
And o'er the figured plane attentive bends;
To him the motion of each orb was known,
That wheels around the Sun's refulgent throne;
But here, alas! his science nought avails,
Skill droops unequal, and experience fails:
The different Traverses, since twilight made,
He on the hydrographic circle laid;

78

FALCONERA, ST GEORGE, Gardalor.

Then, in the graduated Arch contained,

The angle of lee-way, seven points, remained.--Her place discovered by the rules of art,

Unusual terrors shook the Master's heart,

When, on th' immediate line of drift, he found

The rugged Isle, with rocks and breakers bound, Of FALCONERA; distant only now

Nine lessening leagues beneath the leeward bow:
For, if on those destructive shallows tost,

The helpless Bark with all her Crew are lost;
As fatal still appears, that danger o'er,
The steep St GEORGE, and rocky Gardalor.
With him the Pilots, of their hopeless state,
In mournful consultation, long debate---
Not more perplexing doubts her Chiefs appal
When some proud City verges to her fall,
While ruin glares around, and pale affright

Convenes her Councils in the dead of night.
No blazoned Trophies o'er their Concave spread,

Nor storied Pillars raised aloft their head:

But here the Queen of shade around them threw

Her dragon wing, disastrous to the view!

Dire was the Scene with whirlwind, hail and shower;

Black Melancholy ruled the fearful hour:
Beneath, tremendous rolled the flashing Tide,
Where Fate on every billow seemed to ride---
Enclosed with ills, by Peril unsubdued,

Great in distress the Master-Seaman stood!
Skilled to command; deliberate to advise;
Expert in action; and in council wise---
Thus to his partners, by the Crew unheard,
The dictates of his soul the Chief referred:

"Ye faithful Mates! who all my troubles share, "Approved Companions of your Master's care!

"To

you, alas! 'twere fruitless now to tell

"Our sad distress, already known too well:

"This Morn with favouring gales the Port we left,

Though now of every flattering Hope bereft :

"No skill, nor long experience could forecast "Th' unseen approach of this destructive Blast; "These Seas, where Storms at various seasons blow, "No reigning Winds nor certain omens know: "The hour, th' occasion, all your skill demands, "A leaky Ship, embayed by dangerous lands!

"Our Bark no transient jeopardy surrounds,

Groaning she lies beneath unnumbered wounds:

""Tis ours the doubtful remedy to find,

"To shun the fury of the Seas and Wind;

"For in this hollow Swell, with labour sore,

"Her flank can bear the bursting floods no more. "One only shift, though desperate, we must try, "And that, before the boisterous Storm to fly: « Then less her sides will feel the Surges' power, "Which thus may soon the foundering hull devour. ""Tis true, the Vessel and her costly freight "To me consigned, my orders only wait; "Yet, since the charge of every life is mine, "To equal votes our Counsels I resign

"Forbid it, Heaven! that in this dreadful hour "I claim the dangerous reins of purblind Power! "But should we now resolve to bear away, "Our hopeless state can suffer no delay:

"Nor can we, thus bereft of every Sail,

Attempt to steer obliquely on the Gale;

« For then, if broaching sideway to the sea,

“Our dropsied Ship may founder by the lee;