Just where the margin's op'ning shade A vista from the waters made, The broad banana's green embrace Hung shadowy round each tranquil grace; One little beam alone could win The leaves to let it wander in, And, stealing over all her charms, From lip to cheek, from neck to arms, New lustre to each beauty lent,Itself all trembling as it went! Dark lay her eyelid's jetty fringe Was ever vision half so sweet! Nor thought that time's succeeding lapse Should see it grace a lovelier maid. Look, dearest, what a sweet design! Thou seest, it is a simple youth Upon his curled head behind It seems in careless play to lie,1 Yet presses gently, half inclined To bring the truant's lip more nigh Oh happy maid! too happy boy ! The one so fond and little loath, The other yielding slow to joyOh rare, indeed, but blissful both. Imagine, love, that I am he, So may we try the graceful way And thus I feel thee breathing sweet, Ah! that I could, at once, forget All, all that haunts me so And yet, thou witching girl, and yet, To die were sweeter than to let Oh! say, is it thus, in the mirth-bringing hour, When friends are assembled, when wit, in full flower, The loved remembrance go. No; if this slighted heart must see TO JOSEPH ATKINSON, ESQ. FROM BERMUDA "THE daylight is gone-but, before we depart, "One cup shall go round to the friend of my heart, "The kindest, the dearest-oh! judge by the tear "I now shed while I name him, how kind and how dear." 'Twas thus in the shade of the Calabash-Tree, With a few, who could feel and remember like me, The charm that, to sweeten my goblet, I threw Was a sigh to the past and a blessing on you. Shoots forth from the lip, under Bacchus's dew, there! Last night, when we came from the Calabash- When my limbs were at rest and my spirit was free, 1 Pinkerton has said that "a good history and description of the Bermudas might afford a pleasing addition to the geographical library;" but there certainly are not materials for such a work. The island, since the time of its discovery, has experienced so very few vicissitudes, the people have been so indolent, and their trade so limited, that there is but little which the historian could amplify into importance; and, with respect to the natural productions of the country, the few which the ahabitants can be induced to cultivate are so common in the West Indies, that they have been described by every naturalis, who has written any account of those islands. It is often asserted by the trans-Atlantic politicians that this little colony deserves more attention from the mother country than it receives, and it certainly possesses advantages of situation, to which we should not be long insensible if it were once in the hands of an enemy. I was told by a celebrated friend of Washington, at New York, that they had formed a plan for its capture towards the conclusion of the American War; "with the intention (as he expressed himself) of making it a nest of hornets for the annoyance of British trade in that part of the world." And there is no doubt it lies so conveniently in the track to the West Indies, that an enemy might with ease convert it into a very harassing impediment. The plan of Bishop Berkeley for a college at Bermuda, where American savages might be converted and educated, though concurred in by the government of the day, was a wild and useless speculation. Mr. Hamilton, who was governor of the island some years since, proposed, if I mistake not, the estab lishment of a marine academy for the instruction of those children of West Indians, who might be intended for any nautical employment. This was a more rational idea, and for something of this nature the island is admirably calculated. But the plan should be much more extensive, and embrace a general system of education; which would relieve the colonists from the alternative to which they are reduced at present, of either sending their sons to England for instruction, or intrusting them to colleges in the states of America, where ideas, by no means favorable to Great Britain, are very sedulously inculcated. The women of Bermuda, though not generally handsome, have an affectionate languor in their look and manner, which is always interesting. What the French imply by their epithet aimante seems very inuch the character of the young Bermudian girls-that predisposition to loving, which, without being awakened by any particular object, diffuses itself through the general manner in a tone of tenderness that never fails to fascinate. The men of the island, I confess, are not very civilized and the old philosopher, who imagined that, after this life, men would be changed into mules, and women into turtle-doves, would find the metamorphosis in some degree anticipated at Berinuda. 2 Mountains of Sicily, upon which Daphnis, the first inventor of bucolic poetry, was nursed by the nymphs. See the lively description of these mountains a Diodorus Siculus, lib. iv. Πραια γαρ όρη κατα την Σικελίαι εστίν, ά βασι καλ λει, κ. τ. λ. Oh magic of love! unembellish'd by you, Hath the garden a blush or the landscape a hue? Or shines there a vista in nature or art, Like that which Love opes thro' the eye to the heart? Alas, that a vision so happy should fade! That, when morning around me in brilliancy play'd, The rose and the stream I had thought of at night Should still be before me, unfadingly bright; While the friends, who had seem'd to hang over the stream, And to gather the roses, had fled with my dream. But look, where, all ready, in sailing array, The bark that's to carry these pages away,1 Impatiently flutters her wing to the wind, And will soon leave these islets of Ariel behind. What billows, what gales is she fated to prove, Ere she sleep in the lee of the land that I love! Yet pleasant the swell of the billows would be, And the roar of those gales would be music to me. Not the tranquillest air that the winds ever blew, Not the sunniest tears of the summer-eve dew, Were as sweet as the storm, or as bright as the foam Of the surge, that would hurry your wanderer home. THE STEERSMAN'S SONG, WRITTEN ABOARD THE BOSTON FRIGATE 28TH APRIL. WHEN freshly blows the northern gale, Port, my boy! port. When calms delay, or breezes blow My bliss with one that's far away, 1 A ship, ready to sail for England. I left Bermuda in the Boston about the middle of April, in company with the Cambrian and Leander, aboard the latter of which was the Admiral, Sir Andrew Mitchell, who divides his year between Halifax and Bermuda, and is the very soul of society and good-fellowship to both. We separated in a few days, and the Boston, after a short cruise, proceeded to New York. To wing its way unguided and alone, Oh! nothing but that soul which God has given, Could lead us thus to look on earth for heaven; O'er dross without to shed the light within, And dream of virtue while we see but sin. Even here, beside the proud Potowmac's stream, Might sages still pursue the flatt'ring theme Of days to come, when man shall conquer fate, Rise o'er the level of his mortal state, Belie the monuments of frailty past, And plant perfection in this world at last! "Here," might they say, "shall power's divided reign "Evince that patriots have not bled in vain. "Here godlike liberty's herculean youth, "Cradled in peace, and nurtured up by truth "To full maturity of nerve and mind, "Shall crush the giants that bestride mankind.1 "Here shall religion's pure and balmy draught " In form no more from cups of state be quaff"d, "But flow for all, through nation, rank, and sect "Free as that heaven its tranquil waves reflect. "Around the columns of the public shrine "Shall growing arts their gradual wreath intwine, "Nor breathe corruption from the flow'ring braid, "Nor mine that fabric which they bloom to shade. 1 Thus Morse. "Here the sciences and the arts of civilized life are to receive their highest improvements: here civil and religious liberty are to flourish, unchecked by the cruel hand of civil or ecclesiastical tyranny: here genius, aided by all the improvements of former ages, is to be exerted in humanizing mankind, in expanding and enriching their minds with religious and philosophical knowledge," &c. &c. -P. 569. "What will be the old age of this government, if it is thus early decrepit!" Such was the remark of Fauchet, the "No longer here shall justice bound her view, "Or wrong the many, while she rights the few; "But take her range through all the social frame, " Pure and pervading as that vital flame "Which warms at once our best and meanest part, "And thrills a hair while it expands a heart!" Oh golden dream! what soul that loves to scan The bright disk rather than the dark of man, That owns the good, while smarting with the ill, And loves the world with all its frailty still,What ardent bosom does not spring to meet The generous hope, with all that heavenly heat, Which makes the soul unwilling to resign The thoughts of growing, even on earth, divine! Yes, dearest friend, I see thee glow to think The chain of ages yet may boast a link Of purer texture than the world has known, And fit to bind us to a Godhead's throne. But, is it thus? doth even the glorious dream Already has the child of Gallia's school, And were these errors but the wanton tide Of young luxuriance or unchasten'd pride; French minister at Philadelphia, in that famous dispatch to his government, which was intercepted by one of our cruisers in the year 1794. This curious memorial may be found in Porcupine's Works, vol. i. p. 279. It remains a striking monuinent of republican intrigue on one side, and republican profligacy on the other; and I would recommend the perusal of it to every honest politician, who may labor under a mo ment's delusion with respect to the paity of American patriotism. |