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 ; 310
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 315
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, 320
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 325
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 " ; 330
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, 335
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, 340
Alom, and lacque, and clouded tortoiseshell,
And brilliant diamonds, to decorate
Britannia's blooming nymphs. For these, o'er all