- Thrice hapless he, whom thus the hand of fate
- Compels to risque the insufferable beam!
- A fiend, the worst the angry skies ordain
- To punish sinful man, shall fatal seize
-
His wretched life, and to the tomb consign. [380]
- WHEN such the ravage of the burning calm,
- On the stout, sunny children of the hill;
- What must thy Cane-lands feel? Thy late green sprouts
- Nor bunch, nor joint; but, sapless, arid, pine:
- Those, who have manhood reach’d, of yellow hue, [385]
- (Symptom of health and strength) soon ruddy show;
- While the rich juice that circled in their veins,
-
Acescent,1 watery, poor, unwholesome tastes.
- NOR only, planter, are thy Cane-groves burnt;
-
Thy life is threatened. Muse, the manner sing. [390]
- THEN earthquakes, nature’s agonizing pangs,
- Oft shake the astonied2 isles: The solfaterre
VER. 392. solfaterre] Volcanos are called sulphurs, or solfaterres, in the West-Indies. There are few mountainous islands in that part of the globe without them, and those probably will destroy them in time. I saw much sulphur and alum3 in the solfaterre at Mountserrat. The stream that runs through it, is almost as hot as boiling water, and its steams soon blacken silver, &c.