Come then, curst goddess, where thy votaries reign, Inhale their incense from the land and main; Come to Newyork, their conquering arms to greet, Brood o'er their camp and breathe along their fleet; The brother chiefs of Howe's illustrious name Demand thy labors to complete their fame. What shrieks of agony thy praises sound! What grateless dungeons groan beneath the ground! See the black Prison Ship's expanding womb Impested thousands, quick and dead, entomb. Barks after barks the captured seamen bear, Transboard and lodge thy silent victims there; A hundred scows, from all the neighboring shore, Spread the dull sail and ply the constant oar, Waft wrecks of armies from the well fought field, And famisht garrisons who bravely yield; They mount the hulk, and, cramm'd within the cave, Hail their last house, their living, floating grave. She comes, the Fiend! her grinning jaws expand, Her brazen eyes cast lightning o'er the strand, Her wings like thunder-clouds the welkin sweep, Brush the tall spires and shade the shuddering deep; She gains the deck, displays her wonted store, Her cords and scourges wet with prisoners' gore; Gripes, pincers, thumb-screws spread beneath her feet, Slow poisonous drugs and loads of putrid meat; Disease hangs drizzling from her slimy locks, And hot contagion issues from her box. O'er the closed hatches ere she takes her place, She moves the massy planks a little space, Opes a small passage to the cries below, That feast her soul on messages of woe; There sits with gaping ear and changeless eye, Drinks every groan and treasures every sigh, Sustains the faint, their miseries to prolong, Revives the dying and unnerves the strong. But as the infected mass resign their breath. She keeps with joy the register of death. As tost thro portholes from the encumber'd cave, Corpse after corpse fall dashing in the wave; Corpse after corpse, for days and months and years, The tide bears off, and still its current clears; At last, o'erloaded with the putrid gore, The slime-clad waters thicken round the shore. Green Ocean's self, that oft his wave renews, That drinks whole fleets with all their battling crews, That laves, that purifies the earth and sky, Yet ne'er before resign'd his natural dye, Here purples, blushes for the race he bore To rob and ravage this unconquer'd shore; The scaly nations, as they travel by, Catch the contagion, sicken, gasp and die. Now Hesper turns the Hero's tearful eye To other fields where other standards fly; For here constrain'd new warfare to disclose, And show the feats of more than mortal foes, Where interposing with celestial might, His own dread labors must decide the fight, He bids the scene with pomp unusual rise, To teach Columbus how to read the skies.