Barb'd with the fleeted fnow, the driving hail, And thro' the dim, unvaried, ling'ring hours, From the rude fummit of yon frozen steep, Contrafting Glory gilds the dreary deep! Lo!-deck'd with vermeil youth and beamy grace, Hope in her ftep, and gladnefs in her face, Light on the icy rock, with outstretch'd hands, The Goddefs of the new Columbus ftands. * Round her bright head the plumy Peterels foar, While o'er the deep in many a dreadful form, The giant Danger howls along the ftorm, Furling the iron fails with numbed hands, Firm on the deck the great Adventurer flands; *Peterels foar.-The peterel is a bird found in the frozen feas; its neck and tail are white, and its wings of a bright blue. The floating fragments." In the course of the laft twenty-four hours, we paffed through feveral fields of broken ice; they were in general narrow, but of confiderable extent. In one part the pieces of ice were fo clofe, that the hip had much difficulty to thread them." Furling the iron fails. Our fails and rigging were so frozen, that they feemed plates of iron " Round glitt'ring mountains hears the billows' rave, Appall'd he hears but checks the rifing figh, Not for himself starts the impaffion'd tear, And now antarctic Zealand's drear domain For his long-wandering foot fhort reft fhall find, * And the vaft ruin-The breaking of one of thefe immenfe mountains of ice, and the prodigious noise it made, is particularly defcribed in Cook's fecond yoyage to the fouth Pole. Till Nature, &c.-" After running four leagues this courfe, with the ice on our ftarboard fide, we found ourfelves quite embay'd, the ice extending from northnorth-east, round by the weft and fouth, to eat, in one compact body; the weather was tolerably clear, yet we could fee no end to it." The olive-branch. To carry a green branch in the hand on landing, is a pacific fignal, univerfally understood by all the islanders in the South Seas." With jealous low'r the frowning natives view And yet there were, who in this iron clime Soar'd o'er the herd on Virtue's wing fublime; Rever'd the ftranger-gueft, and fmiling ftrove To foothe his ftay with hofpitable love! Fann'd in full confidence the tender flame, * Join'd plighted hands, and name exchang'd for name. And pours new wonders on th' uncultur'd shore; So when the Daughter of eternal Jove, *And name exchang'd.-The exchange of names is a pledge of amity among thefe iflanders, and was frequently propofed by them to Captain Cook and his people; fo alfo is the joining nofes. His living ftore.-Captain Cook left various kinds of animals upon this coaft, together with garden-feeds, &c. The Zealanders had hitherto fubfifted upon fifth, and fuch coarfe vegetables as their climate produced; and this want of better provifion, it is fuppofed, induced them to the horrid practice of eating human flefh. The maffy trident with gigantic force Cleaves the firm earth-and gives the ftately Horfe ; Shakes his high front and thunders o'er the plain. Now the warm folftice o'er the fhining bay, Darts from the north its mild meridian ray; Again the Chief invokes the rifing gale, And fpreads again in defart feas the fail; O'er dangerous fhoals his fteady fteerage keeps, O'er walls of coral ambush'd in the deeps; Strong Labour's hands the crackling cordage twine, And † sleepless Patience heaves the founding-line. On a lone beach a ‡ rock-built temple stands, *Walls of coral.-The coral rocks are deferibed as rifing perpendicularly from the greatest depths of the ocean, infomuch that the founding-line could not reach their bottom; and yet they were but just covered with water. Thefe rocks are now found to be fabricated by fea-infects. + And feepless Patience." We had now paffed feveral months with a man conflantly in the chains heaving the lead." A rock-built temple." On one part of this ifle there was a folitary rock, rifing on the coast with arched cavities, like a majeftic temple." Thro' the long aifles the murm'ring tempefte blow, Shade her white neck, and wanton in the wind; *Firft gentle Flora.-Flora is the Goddess of modern Botany, and Fauna of modern Zoology: hence the pupils of Linnæus call their books Flora Anglica Fauna Danica, &c." The Flora of one of these islands contain'd thirty new plants." + Vegetable filk.-In New-Zealand is a flag of which the natives make their nets and cordage. The fibres of this vegetable are longer and ftronger than our hemp and flax; and fome manufactured in London, is as white and gloffy as fine filk. This valuable vegetable will probably grow in our climate. A playful Kangroo. The kangroo is an animal peculiar to thofe climates. It is perpetually jumping along on its hind legs, its fore legs being too short to be used in the manner of other quadrupeds. Beauteous Pois." The poi-bird, common in thofe countries, has feathers of a fine mazarine blue, except thofe of the neck, which are of a beautiful filver grey; and two or three fhort white ones, which are in the pinion-joint of the wing. Under its throat hang Y |