And av'rice rises awful in each soul.
At length they all unanimous conclude
To act by fraud, then bathe their swords in blood. As hungry wolves, when clouds involve the day, Rush from their dens, and prowling wide for prey, Howl to the tempest, while the savage brood
Stretch'd in the cavern, pant and thirst for blood:
Thus from their ships they send their boats to land
The bloody ruffians on the yellow sand.
Now lo, through groves five artful villains stray'd,
The rest in ambush march'd the woodland shade;
They stray'd, or seem'd to stray, with grief along,
By streams where nodding cedars overhung;
And lo, they found good ANGO as they sought,
A faithful neighbor, and without a fault:
The tyrants found him busied as he sat,
Before the threshold of his rustic gate.
Around the mansion in a circle shone
A rural portico of mud and stone:
ANGO with honest and industr'ous toil,
With his own hands had rais'd the rural pile;
The wall part wood, and stone from quarries borne,
Encircled with a fence of native thorn,
And strong with pales by many a weary stroke
Of stubborn labour hewn from heart of oak.
As the impostors near th'inclosure drew,
With open mouths three furious mastiffs flew;
Then stop'd the ruffians, cautious to withstand,
Each held his hat before him in his hand;
Sudden the master runs, aloud he calls,
And from his hasty hand the weapon falls;
With show'rs of stones he drives them far away,
The scatter'd dogs around at distance bay,
The villains now approach the good man's door,
With tears they cry « Thy succour we implore,
Respect us human and relieve us poor,
At least some hospitable gifts bestow,
'Tis what the blessed to the wretched owe,
"Tis what our God requires....our God revere,
The poor and stranger are his constant care :
To heav'n our cause and our revenge belongs,
God wonders with us, and he feels our wrongs:
Pity us while we lift our suppliant hands,
For lo, keen misery before thee stands.
Twice ten tempestuous nights we roll'd resign'd
To roaring billows and the veering wind:
Heav'n bade the deep to spare, but heav'n our foe,
Spares only to inflict some mightier woe.
Inur'd to cares and death in all its forms,
Outcasts we rove familiar with the storms.
Once more we view the face of human kind,
Oh, let soft pity touch your gen'rous mind,
Unconscious of what air we breathe, we stand
Helpless, defenceless on a foreign land.
If thou the stranger's righteous cause decline,
Ours is the suff'rance but the sin is thine."
"Unhappy strangers" thus the faithful swain
Began with accent gracious and humane,
"What sorrow had been mine if at my gate
The helpless stranger met a shameful fate,
Enough of woes already have I known,
Enough my neighbor's sorrows and my own
But enter this my homely roof and see
Our wood's not void of hospitality;
Now tell me whence you are, and what the share
Of woes and wand'rings you were born to bear :
He said, and seconding the kind request, -
With friendly steps precedes each unknown guest;
A brind'led lion's hide beneath them spread,
And with fresh rushes heap'd an ample bed:
Still fraudulent of soul the tyrants find,
So just reception from a host so kind.
"And Oh, our God with all your blessings grace,
(With guile they spoke) this friend of human race."
The swain reply'd, " It never was our guise
To slight the poor or aught humane despise ;
For heav'n unfolds our hospitable door,
'Tis heav'n that sends the stranger and the poor : Little alas is all the good I can,
A man myself, dependant, yet a man."
Then lo, he girds his garments round his waist,
Forth rush'd the swain with hospitable haste,
Straight to the lodgment of his herd he run,
Where the fat barrows slept beneath the sun;
Of two his cutlass launch'd the spouting blood,
These quarter'd, sing'd and fix'd on forks of wood,
All hast❜ly on the hissing coals he threw,
And smoking back the tasteful viands drew.
Then with delight he on the board display'd
The ready meal before the strangers laid,
And sat companion of the friendly feast,
With open look, and thus bespoke each guest;
“Now take with freedom what our hands prepare,
Such food as falls to simple servants' share."
Thus he benignant, while each treachʼrous guest
Now swills the palm wine, then devours the feast,
While schemes of veng'ance ripen in each breast;
"And now my venerable friends declare
Your names, your parents and your native air;
Sincere, from whence began your course, relate,
And to what ship I owe the friendly freight :
Whom want itself can force untruths to tell,
My soul detests him as the gates of hell."
Then spoke the tyrants, " Witness God of love,
And all ye first born sons of light above,
And mother earth, and heav'ns diurnal light,
And ye fell furies of the realms of night,
Who punish sinners and dread woes prepare
For perjur'd men, and all who falsely swear,
That we are helpless wretched and forlorn,
Wreck'd on this coast and shatter'd by the storm:
If this be false may heav'n its veng'ance shed,
And levell❜d thunder strike each guilty head."
This shows our friend by old experience taught,
And learn'd in all the wiles of human thought
How prone to doubt how cautious are the wise:
"But hear again, O hear ye sacred skies,
Hear heav'nly worlds, and hear thou roaring main
And all ye pow'rs that all these worlds contain,
No form, design, no meditated end
Lurks in our minds, thou sympathizing friend;
Our narratives are true, sincere our aim,
The same our practice were our fate the same,
Heav'n has not curs'd us with hard hearts of steel,
But giv'n the sense to pity and to feel.
From Russian fields sad wand'rers o'er the main,
Behold the relics of the Russian train;
Through various seas by various perils toss'd,
And forc'd by storms unwilling on your coast;
Far from our destin'd course and native land,
Such was our fate, and such our God's command:
Not what we are befits us to disclaim,
Great PETER's friends, in arms a mighty name:
The rude winds dash'd our ships against a rock,
Fast by your shore the gallant vessels broke,
Scarce with these few we 'scap'd of all our train,
Whom foaming billows 'whelm'd beneath the main,
The scatter'd wrecks the winds blew back again."
To whom the swain, "O strangers cease your care,
Great woes you've seen but man is born to bear:
Heav'n weighs affairs of earth in dubious scales,
And the good suffers while the bad prevails :
Bear, bear with souls resign'd the will of Jove,
Who breathes must mourn, your woes are from above;
But since you tread our hospitable shore,
'Tis mine to bid the wretched grieve no more,
To clothe the naked and your way to guide,
And thus my little all with you divide :
'Tis ours the sons of sorrow to relieve,
To cheer their hearts nor let affliction grieve.
Of all that breathes or grov'ling creeps the earth
Most vain is man, calamitous by birth :
To-day with pow'r elate in strength he blooms,
The haughty creature on that pow'r presumes:
Anon from heav'n a sad reverse he feels,
Untaught to bear, 'gainst heav'n the wretch rebels;
For man is changeful as his bliss or woe,
Too high when prosp❜rous, when distress'd too low :
Then man should ne'er be proud, but firm of mind,
Bear the best humbly, to the worst resign'd.”
He spoke; the ruffians all at once display
Their arms, and evil for his good repay,
Force him and all his family away;
His wife and daughters serve their brutal lust,
His sons resent and bite the crimson dust.
So whilst he feeds luxurious in the stall,
The sov'reign of the herd is doom'd to fall:
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