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Requital which is his due for monstrous transgressions against thee. A pirate he cruised through thy waters, the banner of the cross Was his ensign, enlightenment the feigned beacon he steered for; But his sails were swollen with the foul breath of greed, His hull guided by the hand of one rapaciously exulting in plunder, A sword was his oar, a spear his plummet for thy depths, And behind his vessel ever floated in blood a cluster of corpses— Thy slain. Heaven itself would have wept To behold the fruit of its gentle labours on the field of mankind, Happiest race of them all, when a black curse Mowed it down, and to behold the outcome of its tending, Greatest in number of dwellers, when virulent savagery Harried it to the bane of ages; in fine, to behold An image most like unto itself upon earth, when in God's name Godlessness evilly vexed it, and for the sake of the cross Nailed, as it were to the cross, the gentlest of tribes. The devoutest on earth,