Beneath thy branching shade a bannered host
May lie in ambush !) and whose shaggy sides
Trees shade, of endless green, enormous size,
Wondrous in shape, to botany unknown,
Old, as the Deluge. There, in secret haunts,
The watery spirits ope their liquid court;
There, with the wood nymphs, linked in festal band
(Soft airs and Phoebus wing them to their arms),
Hold amorous dalliance. Ah, may none profane,
With fire or steel, their mystic privacy :

For there their fluent offspring first see day,
Coy infants sporting; silver-footed dew

To bathe by night thy sprouts in genial balm;
The green-stoled Naiad of the tinkling rill,
Whose brow the fern-tree shades; the power of rain
To glad the thirsty soil, on which, arranged,
The gemmy summits of the Cane await
Thy negro train (in linen lightly wrapt),
Who, now that painted Iris girds the sky
(Aerial arch, which fancy loves to stride !),
Disperse, all-jocund, o'er the long-hoed land.

CANE-PLANTING DESCRIBED; COMPARED TO THE FORGING OF ACHILLES'S SHIELD; VULCAN.

The bundles some untie; the withered leaves Others strip artful off, and careful lay, Twice one junk, distant in the amplest bed: O'er these, with hasty hoe, some lightly spread The mounded interval; and smooth the trench : Well-pleased, the master swain reviews their toil; And rolls in fancy many a full-fraught cask. So, when the shield was forged for Peleus' son, The swarthy Cyclops shared the important task: With bellows some revived the seeds of fire; Some gold, and brass, and steel, together fused In the vast furnace; while a chosen few, In equal measures lifting their bare arms, Inform the mass; and, hissing in the wave, Temper the glowing orb their sire beholds, Amazed, the wonders of his fusile art.

WHAT LAND IS TO BE PLANTED IN JULY; THE PINE-APPLE; THE AVOCATO PEAR.

While Procyon reigns yet fervid in the sky; While yet the fiery sun in Leo rides ; And the sun's child, the mailed anana, yields His regal apple to the ravished taste; And thou, green avocato, charm of sense, Thy ripened marrow liberally bestow'st ; Begin the distant mountain-land to plant : So shall thy canes defy November's cold, Ungenial to the upland young; so best, Unstinted by the arrow's deadening power, Long yellow joints shall flow with generous juice.

WHAT LAND TO BE PLANTED FROM NOVEMBER TO MAY;
LEMONS, ORANGES, LIMES, PLANTAINS.

But, till the lemon, orange, and the lime,
Amid their verdant umbrage, countless glow
With fragrant fruit of vegetable gold;
Till yellow plantains bend the unstained bough
With crooked clusters, prodigally full;

Till Capricorn command the cloudy sky;
And moist Aquarius melt in daily showers,
Friend to the Cane isles; trust not thou thy tops,
Thy future riches, to the low-land plain :
And if kind Heaven, in pity to thy prayers,

Shed genial influence, as the earth revolves

Her annual circuit, thy rich ripened canes
Shall load thy wagons, mules, and Negro train.

PLANTING SHOULD TAKE PLACE SO THAT THE CANES MAY
JOINT IN A MOIST MONTH JOINTING TIME.

But chief thee, planter, it imports to mark
(Whether thou breathe the mountain's humid air,
Or pant with heat continual on the plain)
What months relent, and which from rain are free.
In different islands of the ocean-stream,
Even in the different parts of the same isle,
The seasons vary; yet attention soon
Will give thee each variety to know.
This once observed, at such a time inhume

Thy plants, that, when they joint (important age,
Like youth just stepping into life), the clouds
May constantly bedew them so shall they
Avoid those ills which else their manhood kill.
Six times the changeful moon must blunt her
horns,

And fill with borrowed light her silvery urn,
Ere thy tops, trusted to the mountain-land,
Commence their jointing: but four moons suffice
To bring to puberty the low-land cane.

ALTERNATION OF SEED-TOPS FROM HILL TO PLAIN, AND VICE
VERSA. THE DIVINE LOVE.

In plants, in beasts, in man's imperial race, An alien mixture meliorates the breed ; Hence canes, that sickened dwarfish on the plain, Will shoot with giant-vigor on the hill. Thus all depends on all; so God ordains. Then let not man, for little selfish ends (Britain, remember this important truth), Presume the principle to counteract Of universal love; for God is love, And wide creation shares alike His care.

THE MOON DOES NOT INFLUENCE THE CANE.

'Tis said by some, and not unlettered they, That chief the planter, if he wealth desire, Should note the phases of the fickle moon. On thee, sweet empress of the night, depend The tides; stern Neptune pays his court to thee; The winds, obedient, at thy bidding shift, And tempests rise or fall; even lordly man Thine energy controls. Not so the cane; The cane its independency may boast, Though some less noble plants thine influence own.

HOW MUCH LAND TO BE PLANTED; ADVANTAGE OF SUCCESSIVE PLANTINGS.

Of mountain-lands economy permits

A third in canes of mighty growth to rise :
But, in the low-land plain, the half will yield,
Though not so lofty, yet a richer cane,
For many a crop; if seasons glad the soil.

While rolls the sun from Aries to the Bull,
And till the Virgin his hot beams inflame,
The cane with richest, most redundant juice,
Thy spacious coppers fills. Then manage so,
By planting in succession, that thy crops
The wondering daughters of the main may waft
To Britain's shore, ere Libra weigh the year:
So shall thy merchant cheerful credit grant,
And well-earned opulence thy cares repay.

HEDGES FOR THE CANE-FIELDS.

Thy fields thus planted, to secure the canes From the goat's baneful tooth, the churning boar, From thieves, from fire, or casual or designed, Unfailing herbage to thy toiling herds Wouldst thou afford, and the spectators charm With beauteous prospects, let the frequent hedge Thy green plantation, regular, divide.

LEMONS, LIMES, ORANGES, LOGWOOD, RICINUS, AND ACACIA.— HEDGES FOR CANE.

With limes, with lemons, let thy fences glow,
Grateful to sense; now children of this clime:
And here and there let oranges erect
Their shapely beauties, and perfume the sky.
Nor less delightful blooms the logwood-hedge,
Whose wood to coction yields a precious balm,
Specific in the flux: endemial ail,
Much cause have I to weep thy fatal sway.
But God is just, and man must not repine.
Nor shall the ricinus unnoted pass;
Yet, if the colie's deathful pangs thou dread'st,
Taste not its luscious nut. The acassee,
With which the sons of Jewry, stiff-necked race,
Conjecture says, our God-Messiah crowned,
Soon shoots a thick, impenetrable fence,
Whose scent perfumes the night and morning sky,
Though baneful be its root.

THE PRIVET AND CARNATION AS A HEDGE; HUMMING-BIRDS.
The privet too,
Whose white flowers rival the first drifts of snow
On Grampia's piny hills (0, might the muse
Tread, flushed with health, the Grampian hills
again!);

Emblem of innocence, shall grace my song.
Boast of the shrubby tribe, carnation fair,
Nor thou repine, though late the muse record
Thy bloomy honors. Tipt with burnished gold,
And with imperial purple crested high,
More gorgeous than the train of Juno's bird,
Thy bloomy honors oft the curious muse
Hath seen transported: seen the humming-bird,
Whose burnished neck bright glows with verdant
Least of the wingéd vagrants of the sky, [gold;
Yet dauntless as the strong-pounced bird of Jove;
With fluttering vehemence attack thy cups,
To rob them of their nectar's luscious store.

And let Vitruvius, aided by the line,

Fence thy plantations with a thick-built wall.

On this lay cuttings of the prickly pear;
They soon a formidable fence will shoot:
Wild liquorice here its red beads loves to hang,
Whilst scandent blossoms, yellow, purple, blue,
Unhurt, wind round its shield-like leaf and spears.
Nor is its fruit inelegant of taste,

Though more its color charms the ravished eye;
Vermeil, as youthful beauty's roseate hue!
As thine, fair Christobelle: ah, when will Fate,
That long hath scowled relentless on the bard,
Give him some small plantation to enclose,
Which he may call his own? Not wealth he craves,
But independence: yet if thou, sweet maid,
In health and virtue bloom, though worse betide,
Thy smile will smooth Adversity's rough brow.

MYRTLE HEDGES RECOMMENDED.

In Italy's green bounds the myrtle shoots A fragrant fence, and blossoms in the sun. Here, on the rockiest verge of these blessed isles, With little care, the plant of love would grow. Then to the citron join the plant of love, And with their scent and shade enrich your isles.

SHADE-TREES NOT NOXIOUS; THEIR UTILITY.
Yet some pretend, and not unspecious they,
The wood-nymphs foster the contagious blast.
Foes to the Dryads, they remorseless fell
Each shrub of shade, each tree of spreading root,
That woo the first glad fannings of the breeze.
Far from the muse be such inhuman thoughts;
Far better recks she of the woodland tribes,
Earth's eldest birth, and earth's best ornament.
Ask him, whom rude necessity compels

To dare the noontide fervor in this clime-
Ah, most intensely hot! - how much he longs
For cooling, vast, impenetrable shade.
The muse, alas, the experienced muse, can tell :
Oft hath she travelled, while solstitial beams
Shot yellow deaths on the devoted land;
Oft, oft hath she their ill-judged avarice blamed,
Who to the stranger, to their slaves and herds,
Denied this best of joys, the breezy shade.
And are there none whom generous pity warms,
Friends to the woodland reign, whom shades
[trees,
Who, round their green domains plant hedgerow
And with cool cedars screen the public way?

delight?

THE GOOD PLANTER DESCRIBED; THE PROSPEROUS EXILE. Yes, good Montano; friend of man was he : Him persecution, virtue's deadliest foe, Drove, a lorn exile, from his native shore ; From his green hills, where many a fleecy flock, Where many a heifer, cropt their wholesome food; And many a swain, obedient to his rule, Him their loved master, their protector, owned. Yet, from that paradise, to Indian wilds, To tropie suns, to fell barbaric hinds,

A poor outcast, an alien, did he roam;
His wife, the partner of his better hours,
And one sweet infant, cheered his dismal way:
Unused to labor; yet the orient sun,
Yet western Phoebus, saw him wield the hoe.
At first a garden all his wants supplied
(For temperance sat cheerful at his board),
With yams, cassada, and the food of strength,
Thrice wholesome tanies: while a neighboring dell
(Which nature to the soursop had resigned),
With ginger and with Raleigh's pungent plant,
Gave wealth; and gold bought better land and slaves.

THE PLANTATION OF THE IMMIGRANT MONTANO DESCRIBED ; COTTON, CACAO, COFFEE, SLAVES.

Heaven blessed his labor : now the cotton shrub, Graced with broad yellow flowers unhurt by worms, O'er many an acre sheds its whitest down : The power of rain in genial moisture bathed His cacao-walk, which teemed with marrowy pods; His coffee bathed, that glowed with berries red As Danae's lip, or, Theodosia, thine, Yet countless as the pebbles on the shore;

Oft, while drought killed his impious neighbor's

grove.

In time, a numerous gang of sturdy slaves,
Well-fed, well-clothed, all emulous to gain
Their master's smile, who treated them like men,
Blackened his cane-lands; which with vast increase,
Beyond the wish of avarice, paid his toil.

THE GOOD PLANTER'S CARE OF HIS HANDS AND MULES; HIS
HOSPITALITY; HIS SHADY TAMARIND-WALK.

No cramps with sudden death surprised his mules; No glander-pest his airy stables thinned: And, if disorder seized his negro-train, Celsus was called, and pining illness flew. His gate stood wide to all; but chief the poor, The unfriended stranger, and the sickly, shared His prompt munificence: no surly dog, Nor surlier Ethiop, their approach debarred. The Muse, that pays this tribute to his fame, Oft hath escaped the sun's meridian blaze, Beneath yon tamarind-vista, which his hands Planted; and which, impervious to the sun, His latter days beheld.

THE ADVICE OF MONTANO, THE W. I. PLANTER, TO HIS SON; MERCY CHARITY.

One noon he sat

Beneath its breezy shade, what time the sun
His sultry vengeance from the Lion poured;
And calmly thus his eldest hope addressed.

'Be pious, be industrious, be humane;
From proud oppression guard the laboring hind.
Whate'er their creed, God is the sire of man,
His image they; then dare not thou, my son,
To bar the gates of mercy on mankind.
Your foes forgive, for merit must make foes;
And in each virtue far surpass your sire.
Your means are ample, heaven a heart bestow !
So health and peace shall be your portion here;

And yon bright sky, to which my soul aspires, Shall bless you with eternity of joy.'

DEATH OF THE GOOD PLANTER.

He spoke, and ere the swift-winged zumbadore The mountain-desert startled with his hum, Ere fire-flies trimmed their vital lamps, and ere Dun evening trod on rapid twilight's heel, His knell was rung;

And all the cane-lands wept their father lost.

Muse, yet a while indulge my rapid course; And I'll unharness soon the foaming steeds.

WEEDING THE CANE; HOEING THE SOIL INTO THE TRENCHES.

If Jove descend, propitious to thy vows, In frequent floods of rain, successive crops Of weeds will spring. Nor venture to repine, Though oft their toil thy little gang renew; Their toil ten-fold the melting heavens repay: For soon thy plants will magnitude acquire, To crush all undergrowth; before the sun, The planets thus withdraw their puny fires. And though untutored, then, thy canes will shoot: Care meliorates their growth. The trenches fill With their collateral mould; as in a town Which foes have long beleaguered, unawares A strong detachment sallies from each gate, And levels all the labors of the plain.

STRIPPING THE CANE-PLANTS.

And now thy cane's first blades their verdure lose, And hang their idle heads. Be these stripped off; So shall fresh sportive airs their joints embrace, And by their dalliance give the sap to rise. But, 0, beware! let no unskilful hand The vivid foliage tear: their channelled spouts, Well-pleased, the watery nutriment convey, With filial duty, to the thirsty stem; And, spreading wide their reverential arms, Defend their parent from solstitial skies.

BOOK II.

ARGUMENT.

Subject proposed. Address to William Shenstone, Esq. Of monkeys. Of rats and other vermin. Of weeds. Of the yellow fly. Of the greasy fly. Of the blast. A hurricane described. Of calms and earthquakes. A tale.

THE SUBJECT STATED. EVILS WHICH AFFECT THE CANEPLANT. THE AUTHOR A SPECTATOR.

Enough of culture. -A less pleasing theme, What ills await the ripening cane, demands My serious numbers: these the thoughtful Muse Hath oft beheld, deep-pierced with generous woe. For she, poor exile! boasts no waving crops; For her no circling mules press dulcet streams; No negro-band huge foaming coppers skim; Nor fermentation (wine's dread sire) for her, With Vulcan's aid, from cane a spirit draws, Potent to quell the madness of despair.

Yet oft the range she walks, at shut of eve;
Oft sees red lightning at the midnight hour,
When nod the watches, stream along the sky;
Not innocent, as what the learned call
The Boreal morn, which, through the azure air,
Flashes its tremulous rays, in painted streaks,
While o'er night's veil her lucid tresses flow:
Nor quits the Muse her walk, immersed in thought,
How she the planter, haply, may advise;
Till tardy morn unbar the gates of light,
And, opening on the main with sultry beam,
To burnished silver turns the blue-green wave.

DEDICATION TO SHENSTONE.

Say, will my Shenstone lend a patient ear, And weep at woes unknown to Britain's isle? Yes, thou wilt weep; for pity chose thy breast, With taste and science for their soft abode : Yes, thou wilt weep: thine own distress thou bear'st Undaunted; but another's melts thy soul.

'O, were my pipe as soft, my dittied song' As smooth as thine, my too, too distant friend, Shenstone; my soft pipe and my dittied song Should hush the hurricane's tremendous roar, And from each evil guard the ripening cane!

MONKEYS DESTRUCTIVE TO THE SUGAR-CANE; DOGS.

Destructive, on the upland sugar-groves
The monkey-nation preys: from rocky heights,
In silent parties, they descend by night,
And, posting watchful sentinels to warn
When hostile steps approach, with gambols they
Pour o'er the cane-grove. Luckless he to whom
That land pertains! in evil hour, perhaps,
And thoughtless of to-morrow, on a die
He hazards millions; or, perhaps, reclines
On luxury's soft lap, the pest of wealth;
And, inconsiderate, deems his Indian crops
Will amply her insatiate wants supply.

From these insidious droles (peculiar pest
Of Liamuiga's hills) wouldst thou defend
Thy waving wealth; in traps put not thy trust,
However baited: treble every watch,
And well with arms provide them; faithful dogs,
Of nose sagacious, on their footsteps wait.
With these attack the predatory bands;
Quickly the unequal conflict they decline,
And, chattering, fling their ill-got spoils away.
So when, of late, innumerous Gallic hosts,
Fierce, wanton, cruel, did by stealth invade
The peaceable American's domains,
While desolation marked their faithless route;
No sooner Albion's martial sons advanced,
Than the gay dastards to their forests fled,
And left their spoils and tomahawks behind.
DAMAGE TO CANE BY RATS; HOW TO DESTROY THEM; CATS;
SNAKES; GALLINAZOS; IBBO NEGROES.

Nor with less waste the whiskered vermin-race, A countless clan, despoil the low-land cane.

These to destroy, while commerce hoists the sail,

Loose rocks abound, or tangling bushes bloom,
What planter knows?-Yet prudence may reduce.
Encourage, then, the breed of savage cats,
Nor kill the winding snake, thy foes they eat.
Thus, on the mangrove-banks of Guayaquil,
Child of the rocky desert, sca-like stream,
With studious care, the American preserves
The gallinazo, else that sea-like stream
(Whence traffic pours her bounties on mankind)
Dread alligators would alone possess,
Thy foes, the teeth-filed Ibbos also love;
Nor thou their wayward appetite restrain.

Some place decoys, nor will they not avail,
Replete with roasted crabs, in every grove
These fell mauraders gnaw; and pay their slaves
Some small reward for every captive foe.
So practise Gallia's sons; but Britons trust
In other wiles; and surer their success.

RATSBANE, MIXED WITH CASSADA, DESTROYS RATS; NIGHTSHADE FRIGHTENS THEM.

With Misnian arsenic, deleterious bane, Pound up the ripe cassada's well-rasped root, And form in pellets; these profusely spread Round the cane-groves, where skulk the verminThey, greedy, and unweeting of the bait, [breed: Crowd to the inviting cates, and swift devour Their palatable death; for soon they seek [die. The neighboring spring, and drink, and swell, and But dare not thou, if life deserve thy care, The infected rivulet taste; nor let thy herds Graze its polluted brinks, till rolling time Have fined the water, and destroyed the bane. "T is safer then to mingle nightshade's juice With flour, and throw it liberal 'mong thy canes : They touch not this; its deadly scent they fly, And sudden colonize some distant vale.

WEEDS OF THE CANE-Fields.

Shall the Muse deign to sing of humble weeds, That check the progress of the imperial cane? In every soil unnumbered weeds will spring; Nor fewest in the best (thus, oft we find Enormous vices taint the noblest souls!): These let thy little gang with skilful hand, Oft as they spread abroad, and oft they spread,Careful pluck up, so swell thy growing heap Of rich manure. And yet some weeds arise, Of aspect mean, with wondrous virtues fraught (And doth not oft uncommon merit dwell In men of vulgar looks, and trivial air?): Such, planter, be not thou ashamed to save From foul pollution and unseemly rot; Much will they benefit thy house and thee.

USE OF THE YELLOW THISTLE-WEED, KNOT-GRASS, AND COW-ITCH.

But chief the yellow thistle thou select, Whose seed the stomach frees from nauseous loads ; And, if the music of the mountain-dove Delight thy pensive ear, sweet friend to thought!

This prompts their cooing, and inflames their love.
Nor let rude hands the knotted grass profane,
Whose juice worms fly: ah, dire endemial ill!
How many fathers, fathers now no more,
How many orphans, now lament thy rage?
The cow-itch also save; but let thick gloves
Thine hands defend, or thou wilt sadly rue
Thy rash imprudence, when ten thousand darts
Sharp as the bee-sting fasten in thy flesh,
And give thee up to torture. But, unhurt,
Planter, thou mayst the humble chickweed cull;
And that which coyly flies the astonished grasp.

EXCELLENT ANTIDOTES TO POISONS.

Not the confection named from Pontus' king;
Not the blessed apple Median climes produce,
Though lofty Maro (whose immortal muse
Distant I follow, and, submiss, adore)
Hath sung its properties, to counteract
Dire spells, slow-muttered o'er the baneful bowl,
Where cruel stepdames poisonous drugs have
brewed;

Can vie with these low tenants of the vale,
In driving poisons from the infected frame.

POISON FISH OF THE CARIBBEAN SEA.

For here, alas! (ye sons of luxury, mark !) The sea, though on its bosom Halcyons sleep, Abounds with poisoned fish; whose crimson fins, Whose eyes, whose scales, bedropt with azure, gold, Purple, and green, in all gay Summer's pride, Amuse the sight; whose taste the palate charms; Yet death, in ambush, on the banquet waits, Unless these antidotes be timely given. But, say what strains, what numbers can recite

VIRTUES OF THE VERVAIN AND WILD LIQUORICE.

Thy praises, vervain; or, wild liquorice, thine?
For not the costly root, the gift of God,
Gathered by those who drink the Volga's wave
(Prince of Europa's streams, itself a sea),
Equals your potency! Did planters know
But half your virtues, not the cane itself
Would they with greater, fonder pains preserve!

INSECTS HURTFUL TO THE CANE; THE YELLOW FLY; THE
COCHINILLE. — WOLFE.

Still other maladies infest the cane, And worse to be subdued. The insect-tribe, That, fluttering, spread their pinions to the sun, Recall the muse nor shall their many eyes, Though edged with gold, their many-colored down, From death preserve them. In what distant clime, In what recesses, are the plunderers hatched? Say, are they wafted in the living gale From distant islands? Thus, the locust-breed, In wingéd caravans, that blot the sky, Descend from far, and, ere bright morning dawn, Astonished Afric sees her crop devoured. Or, doth the cane a proper nest afford, And food adapted to the yellow fly?

The skilled in Nature's mystic lore observe
Each tree, each plant, that drinks the golden day,
Some reptile life sustains: thus cochinille
Feeds on the Indian fig; and should it harm
The foster plant, its worth that harm repays:
But ye, base insects! no bright scarlet yield
To deck the British Wolf; who now perhaps
(So heaven and George ordain) in triumph mounts
Some strong-built fortress, won from haughty Gaul!
And though no plant such luscious nectar yields
As yields the cane-plant, yet, vile parricides!
Ungrateful ye the parent-cane destroy.

REMEDIES AGAINST THE YELLOW FLY; RAIN.

Muse say what remedy hath skill devised To quell this noxious foe? Thy blacks send forth, A strong detachment, ere the increasing pest Have made too firm a lodgment; and, with care, Wipe every tainted blade, and liberal lave With sacred Neptune's purifying stream. But this Augæan toil long time demands, Which thou to more advantage mayst employ : If vows for rain thou ever didst prefer, Planter, prefer them now: the rattling shower, Poured down in constant streams for days and

nights,

Not only swells with nectar sweet thy canes, But in the deluge drowns thy plundering foe.

THE BLAST; OCCASIONED BY BUGS.

When may the planter idly fold his arms, And say, 'My soul, take rest'? Superior ills, Ills which no care nor wisdom can avert, In black succession rise. Ye men of Kent, When nipping Eurus, with the brutal force Of Boreas joined in ruffian league, assail Your ripened hop-grounds, tell me what you feel, And pity the poor planter when the blast, Fell plague of heaven! perdition of the isles! Attacks his waving gold. Though well-manured; A richness though thy fields from nature boast; Though seasons pour; this pestilence invades : Too oft it seizes the glad infant-throng, Nor pities their green nonage their broad blades, Of which the graceful wood-nymphs erst composed The greenest garlands to adorn their brows, First pallid, sickly, dry, and withered show; Unseemly stains succeed; which, nearer viewed By microscopic arts, small eggs appear, Dire fraught with reptile-life; alas! too soon They burst their filmy jail, and crawl abroad, Bugs of uncommon shape; thrice hideous show! Innumerous as the painted shells that load The wave-worn margin of the virgin isles! Innumerous as the leaves the plum-tree sheds, When, proud of her fecundity, she shows Naked her gold fruit to the God of noon.

EFFECTS OF THE BLAST.'

Remorseless to its youth, what pity, say, Can the cane's age expect? In vain its pitch