Page:Tale of Paraguay - Southey.djvu/31

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A feeble nation of Guarani race, Thinn'd by perpetual wars, but unsubdued, Had taken up at length a resting place Among those tracts of lake and swamp and wood, Where Mondai issuing from its solitude Flows with slow stream to Empalado's bed. It was a region desolate and rude; But thither had the horde for safety fled. And being there conceal'd in peace their lives they led.

There had the tribe a safe asylum found Amid those marshes wide and woodlands dense, With pathless wilds and waters spread around, And labyrinthine swamps, a sure defence From human foes,—but not from pestilence. The spotted plague appear'd, that direst ill,— How brought among them none could tell, or whence; The mortal seed had lain among them still. And quicken'd now to work the Lord's mysterious will.