Where the sun in December appears to decline Far off to the southward, and south of the line, A merchant[A] of Florence, more fortunate still, Explored a new track, and discovered Brazil: [A] Americus Vespucius.--_Freneau's note._ Good Fortune, Vespucius, pronounced thee her own, Or else to mankind thou hadst scarcely been known-- By giving thy name, thou art ever renowned-- Thy name to a world that another had found! Columbia, the name was, that merit decreed, But Fortune and Merit have never agreed-- Yet the poets, alone, with commendable care Are vainly attempting the wrong to repair. The bounds I prescribe to my verse are too narrow To tell of the conquests of Francis Pizarro; And Cortez 'tis needless to bring into view, One Mexico conquered, the other Peru. Montezuma with credit in verse might be read, But Dryden has told you the monarch[B] is dead! And the woes of his subjects--what torments they bore, Las Casas, good bishop, has mentioned before: [B] Indian Emperor, a tragedy.--_Freneau's note._ Let others be fond of their stanzas of grief-- I hate to descant on the fall of the leaf-- Two scenes are so gloomy, I view them with pain, The annals of death, and the triumphs of Spain. Poor Atahualpa we cannot forget-- He gave them his utmost--yet died in their debt, His wealth was a crime that they could not forgive, And when they possessed it, forbade him to live. Foredoomed to misfortunes (that come not alone) He was the twelfth Inca that sat on the throne, Who fleecing his brother[C] of half his domains, At the palace of Cusco confined him in chains. [C] Huascar, who was legal heir to the throne.--_Ib._ * * * * * But what am I talking--or where do I roam? 'Tis time that our story was brought nearer home-- From Florida's cape did Cabot explore To the fast frozen region of cold Labradore. In the year fourteen hundred and ninety and eight He came, as the annals of England relate, But finding no gold in the lengthy domain, And coasting the country, he left it again. Next Davis--then Hudson adventured, they say, One found out a streight, and the other a bay, Whose desolate region, or turbulent wave One present bestowed him--and that was a grave. * * * * * In the reign of a virgin (as authors discover) Drake, Hawkins, and Raleigh in squadrons came over While Barlow and Grenville succeeded to these, Who all brought their colonies over the seas. These, left in a wilderness teeming with woes, The natives, suspicious, concluded them foes, And murdered them all without notice or warning, Ralph Lane, with his vagabonds, scarcely returning.