‘See these mournful spectres sweeping Ghastly o’er this hated wave, Whose wan cheeks are stain’d with weeping-- These were English captains brave! Mark those numbers pale and horrid-- Those were once my sailors bold! Lo! each hangs his drooping forehead, While his dismal tale is told. ‘I by twenty sail attended Did this Spanish town affright: Nothing then its wealth defended But my orders not to fight. Oh! that in this rolling ocean I had cast them with disdain, And obey’d my heart’s warm motion, To have quell’d the pride of Spain! ‘For resistance I could fear none, But with twenty ships had done What thou, brave and happy Vernon, Hast achieved with six alone. Then the Bastimentos never Had our foul dishonour seen, Nor the sea the sad receiver Of this gallant train had been. ‘Thus, like thee proud Spain dismaying, And her galleons leading home, Though condemn’d for disobeying, I had met a traitor’s doom; To have fallen, my country crying, He has play’d an English part, Had been better far than dying, Of a griev’d and broken heart. ‘Unrepining at thy glory, Thy successful arms we hail; But remember our sad story, And let Hosier’s wrongs prevail. Sent in this foul clime to languish, Think what thousands fell in vain, Wasted with disease and anguish, Not in glorious battle slain. ‘Hence with all my train attending, From their oozy tombs below, Through the hoary foam ascending, Here I feed my constant woe: Here the Bastimentos viewing, We recall our shameful doom, And, our plaintive cries renewing, Wander through the midnight gloom. ‘O’er these waves for ever mourning Shall we roam depriv’d of rest, If to Britain’s shores returning You neglect my just request. After this proud foe subduing, When your Patriot friends you see, Think on vengeance for my ruin, And for England sham’d in me!’ _VERNON’S GLORY: OR, THE SPANIARDS’ DEFEAT._ Being an account of the taking of Carthagena by Vice-Admiral Vernon, Rear-Admiral Ogle, and Commodore Lestock, on the First of April last. Written by a sailor on board the _Shrewsbury_, and brought over by the _Spence_ sloop. Tune of _Brave Vernon’s Triumph_. Once more, brave boys, let us proclaim Brave noble Admiral Vernon’s fame, With Sir Chaloner Ogle too: They now have made the Spaniards rue; For Carthageen they now have ta’en, And laid it level with the ground; Seven castles so brave their town could not save, For Vernon and Ogle have beat them down.