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They load with pond'rous chains his gen'rous hands,
And drag him from his dear paternal lands:
His house they plunder, and with dire alarms,
The unmask'd ruffians shine in glittʼring arms.
So from his den, the winter slept away,

Shoots forth the burnish'd snake in open day,
Who fed with ev'ry poison of the plain,

Sheds his old spoils, and shines in arms again :
Proud of his golden scales, rolls tow'ring on,
Birds fascinated view him in the sun.

They now pursue their course with artful guile
T' enslave the artless children as they smile,
And now approach a village near the main,

As they drew near th' address'd the sable train ;

The smooth tongue Christians gain them to their mind,
For words deceive the best of human kind.

As from some rock that overhangs the flood
The artful fisher casts th' insidious food,
With fraudful care he waits the finny prize,
And sudden lifts it quiv'ring to the skies :
With equal artifice with equal care,

The treach'rous foe the sable maids ensnare ;
A sudden trust now confidently grew,

And smiling children round the ruffians drew;
"Give me some beads," the fearless damsel cries,
"Haste, then," the cunning slaver thus replies,
"To yon grand ship there riches we'll bestow,
Nor doubt our words nor fear an artful foe."
"Swear first" they cry 66 ye Christians to restore
Us safe again to our paternal shore.”

And as they spoke the perjured slavers swore.
They swore, and swearing lift their guileful eyes
And hands, with seeming rev'rence to the skies;
They swore that oath that never should be vain ;

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"By heaven, by hell, by earth and by the main,
And all the pow'rs that all the four contain,
The infernal monarch and the fiends below,
And God who punishes the broken vow;
To sanctify our words behold we stand,"

They cry,
❝ and on each breast we lay each honest hand;
No art shall win us and no pow'r compel,

Not tho' the golden skies should plunge to hell;
Yon starry splendors from their spheres should fall,
And ocean spread its waters o'er the ball."
They now alas, the hapless natives bring,
And more, the youthful offspring of the king;
Each ruffian seiz'd a maiden's willing arm,
They follow'd smiling, innocent of harm,
Like bleating lambs they lead them safe away,
A noble prize, and to the ships convey;
They now ascend the lofty painted sides
Of the high ships amid the briny tides;
When on the decks the simple natives came,

They show them amber chains, elaborate frame,
And toys like gold, but only gold in name.
Each female eye the beads and links employ,
They turn, review and cheapen every toy,
And while the glitt❜ring trinkets they behold,
The sailors force them in the dismal hold:
The eagle thus who soars through fields of air,
Snatches the snowy swan or quiv'ring hare.

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The wretched slaves beneath the decks were stowed,
While to the shore the cruel ruffians row'd;
The poor unhappy infants left behind,
To more than mortal miseries consign'd, -
The ambush now approach the distant plain,
All bent to intercept the dancing train :

They march thro' groves and thro' the verdant wood,

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A place for ambush sought, and there they stood;
Four spies at distance lurk to watch the scene,
And view their movements through the flow'ry green ;
Soon maids unthoughtful dance along the plains,
By silver fountains and by limpid streams;
The joyful bridegroom, and the shepherd swains
Before them piping on their reeds, they go,
Nor fear an ambush nor suspect a foe;
The maidens wake the sweet ambrosial strings,
And to the simple lays each sweetly sings:
Behind irreg'lar move the chaunting train,
All time the voice and answer to the strain :
Twice twenty warriors as their guardians stand,
Six shepherd's dogs compleat the rural band,
And snowy flocks that crop the verdant green,
Skip o'er the lawns and whiten all the scene :
While round their youthful queen the nymphs advance,
She tow'rs majestic as she leads the dance;

She moves in pomp superior to the rest,

And sacred transports touch'd AVENIA's breast:
The joyful nymphs still trip along the meads,
Flow'rs in their hands and garlands on their heads.
In arms the Christians suddenly rise round,
Rush furious, slay the foremost, heap the ground
With hills of slaughter and with death profound.
So with her young amid the woodland shades,
A tim'rous hind the lion's court invades,

Leaves in the fatal lair the tender fawns,

Climbs the green clifts or feeds on flow'ry lawns ;
Meantime return'd with dire remorseless sway,
The monarch savage rends the trembling prey.
With equal fury and with equal fame,
Soon shall the warrior chiefs avenge the slain,
The maids are all insulted on the plain,

While in the midst lies dead the shepherd swain,
Sudden from thence the sounds of terror flow,
And joyful songs now end in screams of woe;
One youth escap'd of all the warrior train,
One was enslav'd....ANGOLA was his name;
The rest lay gasping on the purple plain,
And grasp'd the grass and bit the dust with pain,
Not for himself the brave ANGOLA fears,

But for AVENIA sheds his silent tears;
He strives to rescue her, he calls her name,
O'erpower'd by numbers, he but strives in vain ;
As the grim prowling wolf, amidst her play
Leaps on the lamb and rends the tender prey,
While roams the bleating mother round the plain,
Seeks and laments her slaughter'd child in vain;
Thus the kind husband now in vain complains,
The tyrants bind him in coercive chains :
Towards the floating dungeon sad he moves.
Hapless with grief and hapless in his loves;
They near him walk'd with solemn pace and slow,
Promoters of his misery and woe.

The brave bold hero grievously oppress'd,

In all his woes the warrior shin'd confess'd;
The 'vengeful Christians drag him thro' the wood,
While blushing roses were bedropt with blood;
A ruffian by the royal victim stands

With fi'ry eyes and sabre in his hands,
Still he, th' intrepid youth, no fears express ;
August in grief, majestic in distress.

His soul's far dearer part with woes oppress'd,
The sweet AVENIA with dire pangs distress'd,
Now swoons a victim at her tyrant's feet,
And but recovers to complain and weep;
She cries while pearly tears her words attend,

"Oh! where is ANGOLA, my dear dear friend ;”
She sighs and moans and tears her hair in vain;
And bathes with big round tears the purple plain;
And cries, "How happy is the virgin's lot,
The world forgetting by the world forgot;
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind,
By heav'n protected, and to heav'n resign'd;
Labor and rest that equal periods keep,
Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep,
Desires compos'd affections ever even,
Love that delights, nor of that love bereaven,
Peace shines around her with serenest beams,
And whispering spirits prompt her golden dreams,
For her, sweet nymphs, the bridal garlands bring,
For her sweet virgins songs triumphant sing,
For her the unfading rose and myrtle blooms,
While heav'n protects and sheds divine perfumes,
Shields her from Christain, bloody Christian foes,
From disappointed love, exhaustless woes.
She lives to love, to love she dies away,
And clasps her lover in eternal day;

But me, ah me...," and still she strove to say,
But groans and sighs and tears stopt up the way;
With frantic and delirious grief she raves,
While ruffians chain her with the sable slaves;
She loves, she hates, despairs, and hopes again,
And then with rage she shakes her clanking chain;
Here cease my muse, for they who lov'd so well,
They only they can half her sorrows tell;
These only these can pity weep and melt,
Those cannot sympathize who never felt :.

The youth who 'scap'd now hastens to impart
With weeping eyes and agonizing heart.
Swift fled the lad, nor not a moment stands

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