Page:Tale of Paraguay - Southey.djvu/90

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But keen of eye in their pursuit of gain The conquerors look'd for lucre in this tree: An annual harvest there might they attain, Without the cost of annual industry. 'Twas but to gather in what there grew free And share Potosi's wealth. Nor thence alone, But gold in glad exchange they soon should see From all that once the Incas called their own, Or where the Zippa's power or Zaque's laws were known.

For this, in fact tho' not in name a slave, The Indian from his family was torn; And droves on droves were sent to find a grave In woods and swamps, by toil severe outworn, No friend at hand to succour or to mourn, In death unpitied, as in life unblest. O miserable race, to slavery born! Yet when we look beyond this world's unrest, More miserable then the oppressors than the opprest.