Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/29
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THE
WEST INDIES.
PART II.
ARGUMENT.
The Cane.—Africa.—The Negro.—The Slave-carrying Trade.—The Means and Resources of the Slave Trade.—The Portuguese.—Dutch,—Dunes,—French,—and English in America.
Among the bowers of paradise, that graced
Those islands of the world-dividing waste,
Where towering cocoas waved their graceful locks,
And vines luxuriant cluster'd round the rocks;
Where orange-groves perfumed the circling air,
With verdure, flowers, and fruit for ever fair;
Gay mirtle-foliage track'd the winding rills,
And cedar forests slumber'd on the hills;
Those islands of the world-dividing waste,
Where towering cocoas waved their graceful locks,
And vines luxuriant cluster'd round the rocks;
Where orange-groves perfumed the circling air,
With verdure, flowers, and fruit for ever fair;
Gay mirtle-foliage track'd the winding rills,
And cedar forests slumber'd on the hills;