Meanwhile the Spaniards in America, Near to the line the sun approaching saw, And hoped their European coasts to find Clear'd from our ships by the autumnal wind; Their huge capacious galleons stuff'd with plate, The lab'ring winds drive slowly t'wards their fate. Before St. Lucar they their guns discharge To tell their joy, or to invite a barge; This heard some ships of ours (though out of view), And, swift as eagles, to the quarry flew; 40 So heedless lambs, which for their mothers bleat, Wake hungry lions, and become their meat. Arrived, they soon begin that tragic play, And with their smoky cannons banish day; Night, horror, slaughter, with confusion meets, And in their sable arms embrace the fleets. Through yielding planks the angry bullets fly, And, of one wound, hundreds together die; Born under diff'rent stars, one fate they have, The ship their coffin, and the sea their grave! 50 Bold were the men which on the ocean first Spread their new sails, when shipwreck was the worst; More danger now from man alone we find Than from the rocks, the billows, or the wind. They that had sail'd from near th'Antarctic Pole, Their treasure safe, and all their vessels whole, In sight of their dear country ruin'd be, Without the guilt of either rock or sea! What they would spare, our fiercer art destroys, Surpassing storms in terror and in noise. 60 Once Jove from Ida did both hosts survey, And, when he pleased to thunder, part the fray; Here, heaven in vain that kind retreat should sound, The louder cannon had the thunder drown'd. Some we made prize; while others, burn'd and rent, With their rich lading to the bottom went; Down sinks at once (so Fortune with us sports:) The pay of armies, and the pride of courts. Vain man! whose rage buries as low that store, As avarice had digg'd for it before; 70 What earth, in her dark bowels, could not keep From greedy hands, lies safer in the deep, Where Thetis kindly does from mortals hide Those seeds of luxury, debate, and pride.