- TWICE one long year elaps’d, when letters came, [480]
- Which briefly told him of his father’s death.
- Afflicted, filial, yet to Heaven resign’d,
- Soon he reach’d Albion, and as soon embark’d,
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Eager to clasp the object of his love.
- BLOW, prosperous breezes; swiftly sail, thou Po:1 [485]
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Swift sail’d the Po, and happy breezes blew.
- IN Biscay’s2 stormy seas an armed ship,
- Or force superiour, from loud Charente’s3 wave
- Clapt them on board. The frighted flying crew
- Their colours strike; when dauntless Junio, fir’d [490]
- With noble indignation, kill’d the chief,
- Who on the bloody deck dealt slaughter round.
- The Gauls retreat; the Britons loud huzza;
- And touch’d with shame, with emulation stung,
- So plied their cannon, plied their missil fires, [495]
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That soon in air the hapless Thunderer blew.
- BLOW prosperous breezes, swiftly sail thou Po,
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May no more dangerous fights retard thy way!
- SOON Porto Santo’s rocky heights they spy,
VER. 499. Porto Santo] This is one of the Madeira islands, and of course subject to the King of Portugal. It lies in 32.33 degrees of N. latitude. It is neither so fruitful nor so large as Madeira Proper, and is chiefly peopled by convicts, &c.
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Gilmore identifies the Po as the ship that Grainger traveled on to reach St. Kitts in 1759. ↩︎
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An inlet of the Atlantic Ocean to the west of France and the north of Spain; affected by strong currents and storms. ↩︎
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River in southwest France that empties into the Bay of Biscay near Rochefort; the site of an important French naval base. ↩︎