Blest—ever blest, remain the gentle band! Whose peaceful spirits and whose Christian hand, Have loos'd the fetters of the captive race, And bade fair freedom seize oppression's place. _Friends_ be their well-earn'd name, emphatic given, _Friends_ to mankind, and delegates of heav'n! No frantic wars disgrace their mild abodes; Nor rigour bends, nor selfish guile corrodes; Nor impious oath their pure affirmance stains; Peace lights their gentle path, and wisdom reigns. Freedom, simplicity, religion's rays, Combin'd, restore _Astræa_'s golden days. O would mankind the bright example view, Press the smooth track, the godlike aim pursue! Would they conjoin'd the virtuous purpose aid, Soon the black vitals of th' opprobrious trade Would fail; soon cease the blood-disfigur'd scene, The captive's woe, the victim's trembling mein, And all the ills (a lamentable train) That new demand the renovated strain. The hateful purchase made—compressive stow'd, The floating dungeon with th' unnatural load Is cramm'd profane: immers'd in deadly gloom, The shackled sufferers wait th' ambigious doom, Till the bark, glutted with the purchas'd gore, Hoists the full sail, and quits the wasted shore. Now from the scanty crew the goblins dire Avert awhile the dart: the fiends require A fuller carnage. On the hapless train, T' avenge whose wrongs they left the burning plain, They turn insatiate; and with recreant rage, On the chain'd sufferers wars atrocious wage. Soon as umbrageous night on raven-wings O'er the sad freight her dewy opiates flings, Pack'd in close misery, the reeking crowd, Sweltering in chains, pollute the hot abode. In painful rows with studious art comprest, Smoking they lie, and breathe the humid pest: Moisten'd with gore, on the hard platform ground, The bare-rub'd joint soon bursts the painful bound; Sinks in th' obdurate plank with racking force, And ploughs—dire task, its agonizing course! Nor can they turn to an exchange of pains, Prest in their narrow cribs, and whelm'd with chains, Th' afflictive posture all relief denies, Recruiting sleep the squalid mansion flies, One long sad groan the feeble throng unite; One strain of anguish wastes the dismal night. With broad'ning disk, and slow increasing ray, Up from old ocean climbs the orb of day. Then the drear hatchway morning hands disclose, And point the sufferers to a change of woes.