But not to Lybia’s barren climes alone, To Chili, or the wild Siberian zone, Belong the wretched heart and haggard eye, Degraded worth, and poor misfortune’s sigh!— Ye orient realms, where Ganges’ waters run! Prolific fields! dominions of the sun! How long your tribes have trembled and obeyed! How long was Timour’s iron sceptre swayed,[15] Whose marshalled hosts, the lions of the plain, From Scythia’s northern mountains to the main, Raged o’er your plundered shrines and altars bare, With blazing torch and gory scimitar,— Stunned with the cries of death each gentle gale, And bathed in blood the verdure of the vale! Yet could no pangs the immortal spirit tame, When Brahma’s children perished for his name; The martyr smiled beneath avenging power, And braved the tyrant in his torturing hour! When Europe sought your subject realms to gain, And stretched her giant sceptre o’er the main, Taught her proud barks the winding way to shape, And braved the stormy spirit of the Cape;[16] Children of Brahma! then was Mercy nigh To wash the stain of blood’s eternal dye? Did Peace descend, to triumph and to save, When freeborn Britons crossed the Indian wave? Ah, no!—to more than Rome’s ambition true, The Nurse of Freedom gave it not to you! She the bold route of Europe’s guilt began, And, in the march of nations, led the van! Rich in the gems of India’s gaudy zone, And plunder piled from kingdoms not their own, Degenerate trade! thy minions could despise The heart-born anguish of a thousand cries; Could lock, with impious hands, their teeming store, While famished nations died along the shore:[17] Could mock the groans of fellow-men, and bear The curse of kingdoms peopled with despair; Could stamp disgrace on man’s polluted name, And barter, with their gold, eternal shame! But hark! as bowed to earth the Brahmin kneels, From heavenly climes propitious thunder peals! Of India’s fate her guardian spirits tell, Prophetic murmurs breathing on the shell, And solemn sounds that awe the listening mind, Roll on the azure paths of every wind.