Occasion called to touch at CANDIA's shore,

Which, blest with favouring Winds, they soon explore;
The Haven enter, borne before the gale,
Dispatch their Commerce, and prepare to sail.
Eternal powers! what ruins from afar

Mark the fell track of desolating War!

Here Arts and Commerce with auspicious reign Once breathed sweet influence on the happy plain; While o'er the lawn, with dance and festive song,

Young Pleasure led the jocund Hours along ; ·

In luxuriance CERES too was seen gay

To crown the vallies with eternal green:

For wealth, for valour, courted and revered,
What ALBION is, fair CANDIA then appeared.-
Ah! who the flight of Ages can revoke?
The free-born spirit of her Sons is broke,
They bow to OTTOMAN's imperious yoke;

No longer Fame their drooping heart inspires,
For stern Oppression quenched its genial fires:
Though still her fields, with golden harvests crown'd,
Supply the barren shores of Greece around,

Sharp penury afflicts these wretched Isles,

There Hope ne'er dawns, and Pleasure never smiles;

The vassal wretch contented drags his chain,

And hears his famished babes lament in vain;
These eyes have seen the dull reluctant Soil
A seventh year mock the weary labourer's toil.-
No blooming VENUS, on the desert shore,
Now views with triumph captive gods adore;
No lovely HELENS now with fatal charms
Excite th' avenging Chiefs of GREECE to arms;
No fair PENELOPES enchant the eye,

For whom contending kings were proud to die;
Here sullen Beauty sheds a twilight ray,

While Sorrow bids her vernal bloom decay;

Those Charms, so long renowned in Classic strains, Had dimly shone on ALBION's happier plains!

Now, in the southern hemisphere, the Sun

Through the bright VIRGIN, and the SCALES, had run,
And on th' ecliptic wheeled his winding way
Till the fierce SCORPION felt his flaming ray.
Four days becalmed the Vessel here remains,
And yet no hopes of aiding Wind obtains;

For sickening vapours lull the air to sleep,
And not a Breeze awakes the silent Deep :
This, when th' autumnal Equinox is o'er,
And Phoebus in the north declines no more,
The watchful mariner, whom Heaven informs,
Oft deems the prelude of approaching Storms.-
No dread of Storms the Master's soul restrain,
A Captive fettered to the oar of gain:
His anxious heart, impatient of delay,
Expects the Winds to sail from CANDIA's bay,
Determined, from whatever point they rise,

To trust his fortune to the Seas, and Skies.
Thou living ray of intellectual Fire,
Whose voluntary gleams my verse inspire,
Ere yet the deepening Incidents prevail,
Till roused attention feel our plaintive tale;
Record whom chief among the gallant Crew
Th' unblest pursuit of Fortune hither drew:
Can Sons of NEPTUNE, generous, brave, and bold,
In pain and hazard toil for sordid Gold?

They can! for Gold too oft with magic art

Can rule the Passions, and corrupt the Heart:

This crowns the prosperous Villain with applause,
To whom in vain sad Merit pleads her cause;
This strews with roses Life's perplexing road,
And leads the way to Pleasure's soft abode;
This spreads with slaughtered heaps the bloody plain,
And pours adventurous thousands o'er the Main.

II. The stately Ship, with all her daring Band, To skilful ALBERT owned the chief command: Though trained in boisterous elements, his mind Was yet by soft humanity refined;

Each joy of wedded love, at home, he knew,
Aboard, confest the Father of his Crew!
Brave, liberal, just! the calm domestic scene
Had o'er his temper breathed a gay serene:
Him Science taught by mystic lore to trace
The planets wheeling in eternal race!

To mark the Ship in floating balance held,
By Earth attracted, and by Seas repell'd ;

Or point her devious track through Climes unknown,

That leads to every shore and every zone:

He saw the Moon through Heaven's blue concave glide,

And into motion charm th' expanding Tide,

While Earth impetuous round her axle rolls,
Exalts her watery zone, and sinks the Poles;
Light and Attraction, from their genial source,
He saw still wandering with diminished force;
While on the margin of declining day
Night's shadowy cone reluctant melts away-
Inured to peril, with unconquered soul,
The Chief beheld Tempestuous Oceans roll;
O'er the wild Surge when dismal shades preside,
His equal skill the lonely Bark could guide;
His genius, ever for th' event prepared,

Rose with the Storm, and all its dangers shared.
RODMOND the next degree to ALBERT bore,

A hardy son of England's farthest shore,
Where bleak NORTHUMBRIA pours her savage train

In sable squadrons o'er the northern main;
That, with her pitchy entrails stored, resort,

A sooty tribe, to fair AUGUSTA's port:
Where'er in ambush lurk the fatal Sands,

They claim the danger, proud of skilful bands;
For while with darkling course their Vessels sweep

The winding shore, or plough the faithless deep,