Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/119

 The wary pilot, while he coasts their shores, To mark o'er ocean the thick rising isles ; Woody Cahetta, Birter rough with rocks, Green-rising Barmur, Mincoy's purple hills, And the minute Maldivias, as a swarm Of bees in summer on a poplar's trunk, Clustering innumerable : these behind His stern receding, o'er the clouds he views Ceylon's gray peaks, from whose volcanoes rise Dark smoke and ruddy flame, and glaring rocks Darted in air aloft ; around whose feet Blue cliffs ascend, and aromatic groves, In various prospect ; Ceylon also deem'd The ancient Ophir. Next Bengala's bay, On the vast globe the deepest, while the prow Turns northward to the rich disputed strand Of Cor'mandel, where Traffic grieves to see Discord and Avarice invade her realms, Portending ruinous war, and cries aloud, " Peace, peace, ye blinded Britons ! and ye Gauls ! Nation to nation is a light, a fire, Enkindling virtue, sciences, and arts " ; But cries aloud in vain. Yet, wise defence Against Ambition's wide-destroying pride, Madrass erected, and Saint David's fort, And those which rise on Ganges' twenty streams, Guarding the woven Fleece, Calcutta's tower, And Maldo's and Patana's : from their holds The shining bales our factors deal abroad, And see the country's products, in exchange, Before them heap'd ; cotton's transparent webs, Aloes, and cassia, salutiferous drugs, Alom, and lacque, and clouded tortoiseshell, And brilliant diamonds, to decorate Britannia's blooming nymphs. For these, o'er all