Amid the ships that bear around
The wealth of half the world,
Are those that, for the Quorra bound,
Have just their sails unfurled.
Freighted with goods that new-found climes
May envy English skill,
They bear no thunders o’er the deep
To work our nation’s will.
In peace they go, with pure intent,
And with this noble aim;
Barbaric hordes to civilize,
By traffic to reclaim.
Not as they went in former days,
To bear the wretched slave;
To pine beneath a foreign sky,
Or perish on the wave.
They go for knowledge, and in hope
Such knowledge may avail,
To draw the savage and unknown
Within the social pale.
A deep and ardent sympathy,
The heart has with the bold;
The cheek is flushed, the eye is bright,
Whene’er their deeds are told.
We half forget the conqueror’s crime,
In honour of the brave,
And raise the banner and the arch,
Although upon the grave.
But here the danger and the toil
Of no false light have need,
Tho’ courage and tho’ constancy
Deserve the highest meed.
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