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Withdraw your armies from th' Americ' shore, And vex Columbia[23] with your fleets no more; Vain are their conquests, past experience shews, For what this hour they gain, the next they lose. Implore the friendship of these injur'd States; No longer strive against the stubborn fates.
Since heav'n has doom'd Columbia to be free, What is her commerce and her wealth to thee? Since heav'n that land of promise has denied, Regain by prudence[24] what you lost by pride: Immediate ruin each delay attends,
Imperial Britain scarce her coast defends; Hibernia sees the threat'ning foes advance, And feels an ague at the thoughts of France; Jamaica mourns her half-protected state, Barbadoes soon may share Grenada's fate, And every isle that owns your reign to-day, May bow to-morrow to great Louis'[25] sway.
Yes--while I speak, your empire, great before, Contracts its limits, and is great no more. Unhappy prince! what madness has possest,
What worse than madness seiz'd thy vengeful breast, When white-rob'd peace before thy portal stood,
To drive her hence, and stain the world with blood? For this destruction threatens from the skies;
See hostile navies to our ruin rise;
Our fleets inglorious shun the force of Spain,
And France triumphant stems the subject main.
[N] Dr. William Dodd, whose history is well known.--Ib. [O] In the case of Uriah.--Ib.
[P] "The connection between vice and meanness is a fit object for satire; but when the satire is a fact, it cuts with the irresistible power of a diamond. If a Quaker, in defence of his just rights, his property, and the chastity of his house, takes up a musket, he is expelled the meeting; but the present king of England, who seduced and took into keeping a sister of their society, is reverenced and supported with repeated testimonies, while the friendly noodle from whom she was taken, (and who is now in this city) continues
a drudge in the service of his rival, as if proud of being cuckolded by a creature called a king."--American Crisis, No. 3, Printed at
Philadelphia, 1777.--Ib.
[6] First published in the United States Magazine, December, 1779. The test follows the edition of 1786.
"Early in June, the French fleet of thirty-one ships of the line, yielding to Spanish importunities, put to sea from Brest; and yet they were obliged to wait off the coast of Spain for the Spaniards. After a loss of two months in the best season of the year, a junction was effected with more than twenty ships of war under the command of ... Count Gaston; and the combined fleet, the largest force that had ever been afloat, sailed for the British Channel.... The united fleet rode unmolested by the British.... On the 16th of August they appeared off Plymouth, but did not attack the town. After two idle days a strong wind drove them to the west; when the gale
had abated, the allies rallied, returned up the channel, and the British retreated before them. No harmony existed between the French and Spanish officers. A deadly malady ravaged the French ships and infected the Spanish. The combined fleet never had one chief. The French returned to port and remained there; the Spaniards sailed for Cadiz, execrating their allies."--Bancroft.
[7] "Charly Fox."--Ed. 1795.
[8] Fox's opposition to the American war is too well known to need comment. [9] "Their cause."--Ed. 1795.
[10] "Sufferings."--Ed. 1809.
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[11] "Gods."--Ed. 1795. [12] "We."--Ib.
[13] "Sackville."--Ed. 1795. [14] "Thundering."--Ib.
[15] "Careless."--Ib. [16] "Our."--Ed. 1795. [17] "Us."--Ib.
[18] "Our."--Ib.
[19] "George."--Ed. 1795.
[20] This and the following seventeen lines omitted from the edition of 1795. [21] "Instant."--Ed. 1795.
[22] "Catharine."--Ib. [23] "Her oceans."--Ib.
[24] "Cunning."--Ed. 1809.
[25] "The Frenchman's."--Ed. 1795. [Pg 18]
THE BRITISH PRISON SHIP[26] Written 1780
Canto I.--The Capture
Amid these ills no tyrant dared refuse
My right to pen the dictates of the muse, To paint the terrors of the infernal place, And fiends from Europe, insolent as base. Assist me, Clio! while in verse I tell
The dire misfortunes that a ship befell,
Which outward bound, to St. Eustatia's shore, Death and disaster through the billows bore. From Philadelphia's crowded port she came;
For there the builder plann'd her lofty frame,[Pg 19] With wond'rous skill, and excellence of art
He form'd, dispos'd, and order'd every part, With joy beheld the stately fabric rise
To a stout bulwark of stupendous size,
'Till launch'd at last, capacious of the freight, He left her to the Pilots, and her fate.
First from her depths the tapering masts ascend, On whose firm bulk the transverse yards depend, By shrouds and stays secur'd from side to side Trees grew on trees, suspended o'er the tide,
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Firm to the yards extended, broad and vast They hung the sails susceptive of the blast, Far o'er the prow the lengthy bowsprit lay,
Supporting on the extreme the taught Gib-stay, Twice ten six pounders at their port holes plac'd And rang'd in rows, stood hostile in the waist: Thus all prepar'd, impatient for the seas,
She left her station with an adverse breeze, This her first outset from her native shore, To seas a stranger, and untry'd before.
From the bright radiance that his glories spread Ere from the east gay Phoebus lifts his head, From the sweet morn, a kindred name she won, Aurora call'd, the offspring of the sun,
Whose form projecting, the broad prow displays, Far glittering o'er the wave, a mimic blaze.
The gay ship now, in all her pomp and pride,
With sails expanded, flew along the tide;[Pg 20]
'Twas thy deep stream, O Delaware, that bore
This pile intended for a southern shore,
Bound to those isles where endless summer reigns, Fair fruits, gay blossoms, and enamell'd plains; Where sloping lawns the roving swain invite,
And the cool morn succeeds the breezy night, Where each glad day a heaven unclouded brings And sky-topt mountains teem with golden springs. From Cape Henlopen, urg'd by favouring gales, When morn emerg'd, we seaward spread our sails, Then east-south-east explor'd the briny way,
Close to the wind, departing from the bay;
No longer seen the hoarse resounding strand, With hearts elate we hurried from the land, Escap'd the dangers of that shelvy ground,
To sailors fatal, and for wrecks renown'd.-- The gale increases as we stem the main,
Now scarce the hills their sky-blue mist retain, At last they sink beneath the rolling wave
That seems their summits, as they sink, to lave; Abaft the beam the freshening breezes play,
No mists advancing to deform the day,
No tempests rising o'er the splendid scene,
A sea unruffled, and a heaven serene.
Now Sol's bright lamp, the heav'n born source of light, Had pass'd the line of his meridian height,
And westward hung--retreating from the view Shores disappear'd, and every hill withdrew, When, still suspicious of some neighbouring foe, Aloft the Master bade a Seaman go,
To mark if, from the mast's aspiring height Through all the round a vessel came in sight. Too soon the Seaman's glance, extending wide, Far distant in the east a ship espy'd,[Pg 21]