The wayward steps of Fortune they pursued,
And sought in certain ills imagined good:
Though cautioned oft her slippery path to shun,
Hope still with promised joys allured them on;
And, while they listened to her winning lore,
The softer scenes of Peace could please no more:
Long absent they from friends and native home
The cheerless Ocean were inured to roam;
Yet Heaven, in pity to severe distress,

Had crowned 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 th' equator rolled his flaming sphere,
Since last the Vessel spread her ample sail
From ALBION's coast, obsequious to the gale;
She o'er the spacious flood, from shore to shore
Unwearying wafted her commercial store;
The richest ports of AFRIC she had viewed,
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,
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,
Embracing strains the Mistress of his soul;

Nor less o'erjoyed, with sympathetic truth,

Each faithful Maid expects th' approaching Youth:

In distant souls congenial passions glow,

And mutual feelings mutual bliss bestow—
Such shadowy Happiness their thoughts employ,
Illusion all, and visionary joy!

Thus time elapsed, while o'er the pathless Tide Their Ship through Grecian Seas the pilots guide.

Occasion called to touch at CANDIA's shore,

Which, blest with favouring Winds, they soon explore;
The Haven enter, borne before the gale,

Dispatch their Commerce, and prepare to sail.
Eternal powers! what ruins from afar

Mark the fell track of desolating War:

Here Arts and Commerce with auspicious reign
Once breathed sweet influence on the happy plain;
While o'er the lawn, with dance and festive song,

Young Pleasure led the jocund Hours along;

In

gay luxuriance CERES too was seen

To crown the vallies with eternal green:

For wealth, for valour, courted and revered,
What ALBION is, fair CANDIA then appeared.-

Ah! who the flight of Ages can revoke?
The free-born spirit of her Sons is broke,
They bow to OTTOMAN's imperious yoke;
No longer Fame their drooping heart inspires,
For stern Oppression quenched its genial fires:
Though still her fields, with golden harvests crown'd,
Supply the barren shores of Greece around,

Sharp penury afflicts these wretched Isles,

There Hope ne'er dawns, and Pleasure never smiles;

The vassal wretch contented drags his chain,

And hears his famished babes lament in vain:
These eyes have seen the dull reluctant Soil
A seventh year mock the weary labourer's toil.-
No blooming VENUS, on the desert shore,

Now views with triumph captive gods adore;
No lovely HELENS now with fatal charms

Excite th' avenging Chiefs of GREECE to arms;
No fair PENELOPES enchant the eye,

For whom contending kings were proud to die;
Here sullen Beauty sheds a twilight ray,

While Sorrow bids her vernal bloom decay:

Those Charms, so long renowned in Classic strains,

Had dimly shone on ALBION's happier plains!

Now, in the southern hemisphere, the Sun

Through the bright VIRGIN, and the SCALES, had run,
And on th' ecliptic wheeled his winding way

Till the fierce SCORPION felt his flaming ray.
Four days becalmed the Vessel here remains,
And yet no hopes of aiding Wind obtains;

For sickening vapours lull the air to sleep,
And not a Breeze awakes the silent Deep:
This, when th' autumnal Equinox is o'er,
And Phoebus in the north declines no more,
The watchful mariner, whom Heaven informs,
Oft deems the prelude of approaching Storms.-
No dread of Storms the Master's soul restrain,
A Captive fettered to the oar of gain:
His anxious heart, impatient of delay,
Expects the Winds to sail from CANDIA's bay,
Determined, from whatever point they rise,
To trust his fortune to the Seas, and Skies.
Thou living ray of intellectual Fire,
Whose voluntary gleams my verse inspire,
Ere yet the deepening Incidents prevail,
Till roused attention feel our plaintive tale;
Record whom chief among the gallant Crew
Th' unblest pursuit of Fortune hither drew:
Can Sons of NEPTUNE, generous, brave, and bold,
In pain and hazard toil for sordid Gold? .

They can! for Gold too oft with magic art
Can rule the Passions, and corrupt the Heart: