When the third morning came, the Grecian band
Their vessel moor'd, on Paphlagonia's strand.
Where sounding Halys rushes to the deep;

They land, the rites of Hecate to keep;

So bids the maid.-No conscious heart shall know
Those mystic rites; no rhimes irreverent show;
Be far, from such attempt, my pious song;
To night and awful silence they belong.

Yet, still the structure crowns the sounding shore,
Rais'd by those heroes in the times of yore.

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Now Jason calls to mind the prescient strain, Alike remembered by the social train: How Phineus sung, that, having won the fleece, A different course should lead them home to Greece. -But what the destin'd course, in doubt remain'd'; Till Argus thus the latent truth explain'd.

"To reach Orchomenus, we trace the way, "Describ'd by Phineus, in prophetic lay."That mariners a varying track may hold "The sacred ministers of Heav'n unfold;

6.6

They who the worship of the Gods attend,
"Where Thebes beholds Tritonian tow'rs ascend.
"Oldest of mortals they, who peopled earth;

"Ere yet in Heav'n the radiant signs had birth.
"The Danai, sacred race, were they unknown;
"Th' Arcadians held the plains of Greece alone,
"On acorns wont, in silvan wilds, to feed;
"Ere men the lunar wand'rings learn'd to read;
"Ere yet the heroes, of Deucalion's blood,
"Pelasgia peopled, with a glorious brood.
"The fertile plains of Egypt flourish'd then,
"Productive cradle of the first of men.

"There Triton, beauteous stream, irriguous flows,
"And o'er th' expanse fertility bestows.

* In Egypt.

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"No rains from Heav'n bedew the farmer's toil;
“But inundations bathe the pregnant soil.
"From thence, 'tis said, o'er many a distant land,
"A valiant chieftain led his hardy band.-
"Heroic guide of heroes to the fight,

"With Europe, Asia bow'd beneath his might.
"Yet not to ravage o'er the land he spread,
"For walls he rais'd and colonies he led.
"A thousand states his conquering arms assail'd.
"A favour'd few o'er war and time prevail'd.
"Of most, nor trace nor memory appears,
"For ever swallow'd, in th' abyss of years;

But, firm thro' ages, Æa's walls remain,
"Firm the descendants, of that martial train,
"Whom to that station first the warrior drew;
"When o'er the land his conquering myriads flew.
"Still they preserve, with reverential awe,
"Sacred memorials of their ancient law;

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"And tablets sculptur'd, in the times of old, "The paths and bounds of earth and seas unfold; 410 "What course the deeps to mariners expand; "And what the plains, to those who traverse land. "Of spreading ocean the remotest horn,

"Ample and deep a mighty stream is borne. "From springs remote his sounding waters glide, "And loaded ships, may on his bosom ride, "Majestic Ister.-From Riphean hills, "Fill'd, with the tribute of a thousand rills, "Swoln, with the melting of perpetual snow, 66 Beyond the seats, where Boreas 'gins to blow, 420 "O'er many a region, from his mountain source, He rolls, at first, with undivided force.

"When Scythian realms, and Thracia's bound he gains, "In sever'd streams he rushes o'er the plains. "One arm to meet th' Ionian wave he guides,

"And one he sends, to swell Trinacria's tides,

"Thro' the deep bay, that joins my native coast;* "If I may knowledge of tradition boast.".

He ceas'd.The Queen of Heav'n a sign display'd,

Auspicious omen of celestial aid.

The heroes shout, exulting at the view,
And urge their chief his voyage to pursue.
To mark the course, where leading meteors fly,
And lambent lightnings flash along the sky.
Here Lycus' offspring† separates from the band,
And seeks his father's court, and native land.-
They plough the waves, the wind their canvas fills,
They hold in view the Paphlagonian hills.

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Not round Carambis do they wind their way;
But breathing gales, and heav'nly fires obey;
For still the breeze prevail'd, and splendour glow'd,
Until they came, where swelling Ister flow'd.

Their frustrate hours, meantime, the Colchians waste,
Thro' the Cyanean rocks, a squadron past.
Led by their youthful prince, a different train,
Explor'd the seats, where Ister seeks the main.
To cut of all retreat his course he sped,
Across a branch, where parted Ister spread.
Thence onward, round the narrow point of land,
His ships anticipate the Grecian band:
And, while they sail the jutting headland round,
By route compendious gain the bay profound.
Their limits where th' Ionian deeps have trac❜d,
In form triangular an isle is plac'd;

Peuce it's name, that, dark with stately pines,
The spreading outlet of the stream confines.

* See the notes on this

second volume.

+ Dascylus.

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The vertex meets the current, and divides;
Th' extended base resists the roaring tides.
The flood becomes another, and the same;
Each parted branch assumes a diff'rent name.-
Above, the turbid Arax seeks the waves;
That isle below the smoother Calon laves.
Thro' this the prince his Colchian followers drew;
The branch superior while the Greeks pursue.
There, wide the verdant pastures were display'd;
And flocks deserted by their keepers stray'd.—
The rude and timorous natives of the plain
Seem'd to behold, emergent from the main,
Devouring monsters, vast in bulk, arise;
For ships were strangers to their simple eyes;
And never yet the neighbouring tribes of Thrace
Had mix'd in commerce with the Scythian race,
The wild Sigynian, the Graucenian bands,
The Sindians, who possess the Laurian lands,
Wide-stretch'd and waste.. At such stupendous sight,
The savage tribes their safety plac'd in flight.

Near tall Angurus now the Minya steer'd; And distant now the Cauliac rocks appear'd; Where bellowing Ister breaks his ample horn, To meet the waves, in parted channels borne. Now, had they coasted the Talaurian land; By shorter progress, while the Colchian band, Had reach'd already to the Chronian deep, And all the outlets of the river keep,

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Where, as they deem'd, the Greeks their course must shape;

That none the vengeance of their king might 'scape.-
Not so the wary Minye.-Far behind

A safer passage up the stream they find.
Two isles they reach, to virgin Dian dear,
To Dian whom th' Illyrian tribes revere.

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One, sacred structure, boasts her awful fane,

One from their ship receives th' adventurous train,
Safe from the myriads, that, athirst for war,
With young Absyrtus guard the coast afar,

Those isles they shunn'd; for reverence of the place,
Restrain'd the fury of that savage race.

But, these except, beset with arms they found
Each isle and shore, that clos'd the channel round.
In every station adverse myriads stood;

To Nestis' plain and to Salanco's flood.

Now, crouds, prevailing o'er undaunted might,
Had crush'd the Minya in unequal fight;
But treaty interrupts the rude alarms,
And sober compact stays the clang of arms.—
The Minya, by concession, bear the fleece,
Hope of their voyage, to the shores of Greece,
The prize their chief by bold exertion gain'd,
In dreadful trials by the king ordain'd.
Tho' force or stratagem possession gave
Let them retain, and waft it o'er the wave.
But, for the maid, chief subject of debate,
In Dian's fane let her the future wait;
Till sceptred wisdom shall her fate decide;
Or, home returning, with her sire to bide,
Or, with the sons of Phryxus, to explore
Unknown Orchomenus and Pthia's shore;
Or, yet more welcome to th' enamour'd fair,
To Hellas with the Grecian chiefs repair.

In such alternatives for peace they sought.-
But various passions on the virgin wrought.—
She mark'd their views, with agonizing mind;
For who the wakefal eyes of love may blind.
Apart their leader from the chiefs she drew,
Alike remote from hearing and from view.

Then, streaming tears and mournful sounds exprest
The painful thoughts, that labour'd in her breast.

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