But truth shall not forget that _thou_ wert there,
Scourge of the world! who, borne on ev'ry wind,
From bow'rs of roses [1] sprang to curse mankind.
[Footnote 1: The first medical account of the small-pox is given by the
Arabian physicians, and is traced no farther back than the siege of
Alexandria, about the year of Christ, 640.--Woodville.]


The Indian palm thy devastation knows:
Thou sweep'st the regions of eternal snows [2]:
[Footnote 2: First introduced into Greenland in 1733, and almost
depopulated the country.--Ibid.]

Climbing the mighty period of his years,
The British oak his giant bulk uprears;
He, in his strength, while toll'd the passing bell,
Rejoic'd whole centuries as thy victims fell:
Armies have bled, and shouts of vict'ry rung,
Fame crown'd _their_ deaths, _thy_ deaths are all unsung:
'Twas thine, while victories claim'd th' immortal lay,
Through private life to cut thy desperate way;
And when full power the wondrous magnet gave
Ambition's sons to dare the ocean wave,
Thee, in their train of horrid ills, they drew
Beneath the blessed sunshine of Peru [3].
[Footnote 3: In 1520, says Mr. Woodville, when the small-pox visited New
Spain, it proved fatal to one half of the people in the provinces to which
the infection extended; being carried thither by a negro slave, who
attended Narvaez in his expedition against Cortes. He adds, about fifty
years after the discovery of Peru, The small-pox was carried over from