Assail'd by tempests, girt with hostile shores? Arise! approach! unlock thy treasured stores! Full on my soul the dreadful scene display, And give its latent horrors to the day. [Footnote 1: 'A ship-boy,' &c.: Shakspeare's 'Henry the Fourth,' act iii.] [Footnote 2: 'Isthmus:' of Darien.] CANTO I. THE SCENE OF WHICH LIES NEAR THE CITY OF CANDIA. TIME, ABOUT FOUR DAYS AND A HALF. THE ARGUMENT. I. Retrospect of the voyage. Arrival at Candia. State of that island. Season of the year described. II. Character of the master, and his officers, Albert, Rodmond, and Arion. Palemon, son to the owner of the ship. Attachment of Palemon to Anna, the daughter of Albert. III. Noon. Palemon's history. IV. Sunset. Midnight. Arion's dream. Unmoor by moonlight. Morning. Sun's azimuth taken. Beautiful appearance of the ship, as seen by the natives from the shore. I. A ship from Egypt, o'er the deep impell'd By guiding winds, her course for Venice held: Of famed Britannia were the gallant crew, And from that isle her name the vessel drew. The wayward steps of fortune they pursued, And sought in certain ills imagined good: Though caution'd oft her slippery path to shun, Hope still with promised joys allured them on; And, while they listen'd to her winning lore, The softer scenes of peace could please no more. 10 Long absent they from friends and native home The cheerless ocean were inured to roam; Yet Heaven, in pity to severe distress, Had crown'd each painful voyage with success; Still, to compensate toils and hazards past, Restored them to maternal plains at last. Thrice had the sun, to rule the varying year, Across the equator roll'd his naming sphere, Since last the vessel spread her ample sail From Albion's coast, obsequious to the gale; 20 She o'er the spacious flood, from shore to shore Unwearying wafted her commercial store; The richest ports of Afric she had view'd, Thence to fair Italy her course pursued; Had left behind Trinacria's burning isle, And visited the margin of the Nile. And now that winter deepens round the pole, The circling voyage hastens to its goal: They, blind to fate's inevitable law, No dark event to blast their hope foresaw; 30 But from gay Venice soon expect to steer For Britain's coast, and dread no perils near: Inflamed by hope, their throbbing hearts, elate, Ideal pleasures vainly antedate, Before whose vivid intellectual ray Distress recedes, and danger melts away. Already British coasts appear to rise, The chalky cliffs salute their longing eyes; Each to his breast, where floods of rapture roll,