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And wheresoe'er we turn our anxious gaze,
Each feature still its infancy pourtrays:
If we its wilds and woody desarts scan,
The brutal tribes dispute the right with man;
O'er his dark poison broods the vengeful snake,
And alligators haunt the reedy lake.

But worse than these, and ah! more dreadful far,
The native Indian wages barb'rous war;
Inui'd to hardships, famine, floods and fire,
No dangers frighten, and no toils can tire.
A faithful friend, but a determin'd foe,
Time may retard, but not prevent his blow;
Staunch as the blood-hound to his destin'd prey,
Heart-sick'ning horrors mark his carnag'd way;
His keener optics, on the printless grass
Can trace the footsteps, if a white man pass,
Then lurking patient, 'till the midnight gloom,
The direful war-whoop peals the victim's doom;
At the dread yell deep forests echo round,
Each bosom thrills and shudders at the sound!

Here humid fens and long extended swamps,
Wide o'er the scene diffuse unwholesome damps;
Their baneful dews relax life's active springs,
And chilling ague shakes his fev'rish wings;
Contagion flies, with pestilential breath,
And sallow hue-the harbinger of death.

Ah me! my friend, why do I live to tell, "Twas thus the partner of my bosom fell? Fled is the smile that soften'd ev'ry ill,

And cold the tongue that whisper'd comfort still!
Sad was the stroke, and as I mourn'd the blow,
Fate plung'd me deeper in the gulph of woe!
My infant Anna, latest pledge of love,
That round my knees with fond affection strove,

One fatal morn, far in the wild wood stray'd,
All search was vain within its boundless shade-
Death seiz'd the flow'ret, midst the gloomy wild-
And my sad heart of its last hope beguil'd!
Thus o'er my griefs an exile doom'd to sigh,
No prospect brightens to my joyless eye!
The hapless land that gave these griefs to flow
Affords no friend to soothe a stranger's woe.

Perhaps, some breast that pants with Freedom's flame,
And heaves with rapture at her sacred name,
May deem that place a paradise below
Where Independence lifts her dauntless brow.
What is this bliss, so much Columbia's boast ?
'Twas hapless Selkirk's on Fernandes' coast!
Tho' bounteous Nature smiling own'd his sway,
No joy was his, to hail the rising day :
So here sequester'd, each man lives alone,
The sweets and social ties of life unknown;
The chords of sympathy are here untied,
By lust of wealth, and independent pride;
No gen'rous feelings here expand the soul,
Self all the care, that self is deem'd the whole;
Each for his wants must on himself rely,
Nor look for friends, but such as wealth can buy.
Ah! how unlike that land I left behind,

Whose sea-girt shores still haunt my restless mind;
Where age was chearful, while the nymphs and swains
With jocund health stray'd lightly o'er the plains:
Oft when the sun sinks in the distant west,
I wistful gaze, with sadd'ning thoughts opprest;
'Till all my soul absorb'd in Fancy's dream,
I waft my blessing on his sinking beam,
That fades from me, to light that happier shore,
Those native vales. I shall behold no more!

Ye Scotian swains, still to my bosom dear,
(As now can witness this descending tear,)
Be warn'd by him who rashly dar'd to roam!
And prize the bliss that hovers round your home.
And may the griefs that prompt this plaintive tale,
Be ever far, from -'s peaceful vale:

Or if a sigh some gentle breast must swell,
Be it for him, who writes-A long Farewell!

VENUS'S WILL.

ΤΟ

From the French of Rousseau.

ADVANCED in years, the goddess Venus
Sought in a holy cloister rest,
Bequeathing, dearest maid, between us,
All that her goddessship possess'd.

Of an executor the duty

She trusted to her eldest son:
But he, sad rogue! seduc'd by beauty,
Injustice to my right has done.

Unfairly he the Cyprian treasures
Allotted to his mother's heirs;

To you

he gave the smiles and pleasures, To me he left the tears and cares.

R. A. DAVENPORT.

EPITAPH.

His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani

Munere.

VIRG.

To the Memory
of

THP,

late of his Majesty's Royal Navy,
who,

After six Years of Difficulty and Danger,
and at the Moment of

aspiring to a more elevated and happier Rank
in his Profession,

fell a Victim to the Ravages of an unrelenting Fever,
August 21, 1807, in the twentieth Year
of his Age.

BORN to excell in every nobler part,
The ardent spirit, and the feeling heart;
This form'd with native candour to engage,
And that to give an hero to the age!
Sought by the valiant, by the good approv'd
In death lamented, as in life belov'd,
Go, Henry, go,-thy storms, thy perils o'er,
Enjoy that calm thy lot forbad before;
Go, and 'midst scenes of never-fading youth
Reap the rewards of purity and truth.
What tho' thy laurels wither in their bloom,
And Hope despondent sickens o'er thy tomb;
Tho' Fancy cheers no more the opening scene,
But vainly pictures what thou wouldst have been ;
VOL. VI.

D

Yet while Remembrance bids our sorrows flow,
(Eternal source, yet solace of our woe!)

Bright from her stores a gleam of rapture starts
To sooth the ills her chast'ning power imparts.
Yes, honor'd youth! thy merits shall remain
In sweet memorial to relieve our pain;
Thy life unstain'd with falsehood or with crime,
Thy virtues destin'd to an happier clime,
These fondly cherish'd shall remain, and prove
A bliss, no time, no fortune can remove.

W. Pa

TO A LADY.

WHEN first I knew thee thou wast kind,

Oh! who so kind could be!

But all thy kindness, now I find,
Was worst of cruelty.

For hadst thou then disdained me-sure
I'd been too proud to love;

And so the griefs I now endure

Had ne'er been doom'd to prove.

Thus who from earliest youth has dwelt
Amidst eternal snows,

The Heavens can brave-no suffering felt,
Though fierce the north wind blows.

Not so who all his hours has past
Beneath soft summer skies ;

Expose him to the wintry blast
He shivers, droops, and dies.

S. W. J.

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