Columbus heard; and, with a heaving sigh, Dropt the full tear that started in his eye: O hapless day! his trembling voice replied, That saw my wandering pennon mount the tide. Had but the lamp of heaven to that bold sail Ne'er mark'd the passage nor awoke the gale, Taught foreign prows these peopled shores to find, Nor led those tigers forth to fang mankind; Then had the tribes beneath these bounteous skies Seen their walls widen and their harvests rise; Down the long tracts of time their glory shone, Broad as the day and lasting as the sun. The growing realms, behind thy shield that rest, Paternal monarch, still thy power had blest, Enjoy'd the pleasures that surround thy throne, Survey'd thy virtues and improved their own. Forgive me, prince; this luckless arm hath led The storm unseen that hovers o'er thy head; Taught the dark sons of slaughter where to roam, To seize thy crown and seal the nation's doom. Arm, sleeping empire, meet the murderous band, Drive back the invaders, save the sinking land.-- But vain the call! behold the streaming blood! Forgive me, Nature! and forgive me, God! While sorrows thus his patriarch pride control, Hesper reproving sooths his tender soul: Father of this new world, thy tears give o'er, Let virtue grieve and heaven be blamed no more. Enough for man, with persevering mind, To act his part and strive to bless his kind; Enough for thee, o'er thy dark age to soar, And raise to light that long-secluded shore. For this my guardian care thy youth inspired, To virtue rear'd thee, and with glory fired, Bade in thy plan each distant world unite, And wing'd thy vessel for the venturous flight. Nor think the labors vain; to good they tend; Tyrants like these shall ne'er defeat their end; Their end that opens far beyond the scope Of man's past efforts and his present hope. Long has thy race, to narrow shores confined, Trod the same round that fetter'd fast the mind; Now, borne on bolder plumes, with happier flight, The world's broad bounds unfolding to the sight, The mind shall soar; the coming age expand Their arts and lore to every barbarous land; And buried gold, drawn copious from the mine, Give wings to commerce and the world refine. Now to yon southern cities turn thy view, And mark the rival seats of rich Peru. See Quito's airy plains, exalted high, With loftier temples rise along the sky; And elder Cusco's shining roofs unfold, Flame on the day, and shed their suns of gold. Another range, in these pacific climes, Spreads a broad theatre for unborn crimes; Another Cortez shall their treasures view, His rage rekindle and his guilt renew; His treason, fraud, and every fell design, O curst Pizarro, shall revive in thine.