Near Kingston,[279] in the island of Jamaica, on being refused a puncheon of water Written August, 1784 "_The celestial Deities protect and relieve strangers in every country, as long as those strangers respect and submit to the laws of the country._" --KIEN-LHI, _alias_ JOHN TUCK, _Viceroy of Canton_. Can he, who o'er two Indies holds the sway, Where'er the ocean flows, whose fleets patrole, Who bids Hibernia's rugged sons obey, And at whose nod (you say) shakes either pole:-- Can he, whose crown a thousand jewels grace Of worth untold--can he, so rich, deny One wretched puncheon from this ample waste, Begg'd by his quondam subject--very dry? Vast are the springs in yonder cloud-capt hill: Why, then, refuse the abundant flowing wave? Where hogs, and dogs, and keepers drink their fill, May we not something from such plenty crave? Keeper!--must we with empty cask return! Just view the limpid stream that runs to waste!-- Denied the stream that flows from Nature's urn, By locks and bolts secur'd from rebel taste? Well!--if we must, inform the royal ear, Poor are some kings that now in Britain live: Tell him, that Nature is no miser here; Tell him--that he withholds--what beggars give. [278] From the edition of 1809. The poem seems first to have appeared in the _National Gazette_ of January 12, 1792, with the following note: "The following lines were written some years ago (Sept. 1784) on board the brig _Dromilly_, in Kingston harbour, Jamaica; and sent to the keeper of the King's waterworks, near Rock fort; who had refused the writer a puncheon of water from a reservoir that was, by royal order, appropriated to the use of the royal navy." The present text is somewhat varied from that in the edition of 1795. [279] "Rock-Fort."--_Ed. 1795._ LINES[280] Written at Port-Royal, in the Island of Jamaica