Baquaqua : Afro-Diasporic Text Corpus

Francis Williams c. 1765

Cui, omnes morum, virtutumque dotes bellicarum,
In cumulum accesserunt,

CARMEN

DENIQUE venturum fatis volventibus annum
Cuncta per extensum læta videnda diem,
Excussis adsunt curis, sub imagine clarâ
Felices populi, terraque lege virens.
Te duce, quæ fuerant malesuadâ mente peracta
Irrita, conspectu`non reditura tuo.
Ergo omnis populus, nec non plebecula cernet
Hæsurum collo te relēgāsse jugum,
Et mala, quæ diris quondam cruciatibus, insons
Insula passa fuit; condoluisset onus
Ni victrix tua Marte manus prius inclyta, nostris
Sponte ruinosis rebus adesse velit.
Optimus es servus Regi servire Britanno,
Dum gaudet genio Scotica terra tuo:
Optimus herôum populi fulcire ruinam;
Insula dum superest ipse superstes eris.
Victorem agnoscet te Guadaloupa, suorum
Despiciet meritò diruta castra ducum.
Aurea vexillis slebit jactantibus Iris,
Cumque suis populis, oppida victa gemet.
Crede, meum non est, vir Marti chare! Minerva
Denegat Ethiopi bella sonare ducum.
Concilio, caneret te Buchananus et armis,
Carmine Peleidæ scriberet ille parem .
Ille poeta, decus patriæ, tua facta referre
Dignior, altisono vixque Marone minor.
Flammiferos agitante suos sub sole jugales
Vivimus; eloquium deficit omne focis.
Hoc demum accipias, multâ suligine fusum
Ore sonaturo; non cute, corde valet.
Pollenti stabilita manu, ( Deus almus, eandem
Omnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit)
Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia ; honesto
Nullus inest animo, nullus in arte color.
Cur timeas, quamvis, dubitesve, nigerrima celsam
Cæsaris occidui, scandere Musa domum?
Vade salutatum, nec sit tibi causa pudoris,
Candida quod nigrá corpora pelle geris!
Integritas morum Maurum magis ornat, et ardor
Ingenii, et docto dulcis in ore decor;
Hunc, magè cor sapiens, patriæ virtutis amorque,
Eximit è sociis, conspicuumque facit.
Insula me genuit, celebres aluere Britanni,
Insula, te salvo non dolitura patre!
Hoc precor; o nullo videant te fine, regentem
Florentes populos, terra, Deique locus!

Translation by Edward Long

To
That most upright and valiant Man,
GEORGE HALDANE, Esq;
Governor of the Island of Jamaica ;
Upon whom
All military and moral Endowments are accumulated.

An ODE.

AT length revolving fates th’ expected year
Advance, and joy the live-long day shall cheer,
Beneath the soft’ring law’s auspicious dawn
New harvests rise to glad th’ enliven’d lawn.
With the bright prospect blest, the swains repair
In social bands, and give a loose to care.
Rash councils now, with each malignant plan,
Each faction, that in evil hour began,
At your approach are in confusion fled,
Nor, while you rule, shall rear their dastard head.
Alike the master and the slave shall see
Their neck reliev’d, the yoke unbound by thee.
Ere now our guiltless isle, her wretched fate
Had wept, and groan’d beneath th’ oppressive weight
Of cruel woes; save thy victorious hand,
Long fam’d in war, from Gallia’s hostile land;
And wreaths of fresh renown, with generous zeal,
Had freely turn’d, to prop our sinking weal.
Form’d as thou art, to serve Britannia’s crown,
While Scotia claims thee for her darling son;
Oh! best of heroes, ablest to sustain
A falling people, and relax their chain.
Long as this isle shall grace the Western deep,
From age to age, thy fame shall never sleep.
Thee, her dread victor Guadaloupe shall own,
Crusht by thy arm, her slaughter’d chiefs bemoan ;
View their proud tents all level’d in the dust,
And, while she grieves, confess the cause was juft.
The golden Iris the sad scene will share,
Will mourn her banners scatter’d in the air;
Lament her vanquisht troops with many a sigh,
Nor less to see her towns in ruin lie.
Fav’rite of Mars! believe, th’ attempt were vain,
It is not mine to try the arduous strain.
What! shall an Ethiop touch the martial string,
Of battles, leaders, great atchievements sing?
Ah no ! Minerva, with th’ indignant Nine,
Restrain him, and forbid the bold design.
To a Buchanan does the theme belong;
A theme, that well deserves Buchanan’s song.
‘Tis he, should swell the din of war’s alarms,
Record thee great in council, as in arms;
Recite each conquest by thy valour won,
And equal thee to great Peleides’ son.
That bard, his country’s ornament and pride,
Who e’en with Maro might the bays divide :
Far worthier he, thy glories to rehearse,
And paint thy deeds in his immortal verse.
We live, alas! where the bright god of day,
Full from the zenith whirls his torrid ray:
Beneath the rage of his consuming fires,
All fancy melts, all eloquence expires.
Yet may you deign accept this humble song,
Tho’ wrapt in gloom, and from a falt’ring tongue ;
Tho’ dark the stream on which the tribute flows,
Not from the skin, but from the heart it rose.
To all of human kind, benignant heaven
(Since nought forbids) one common soul has given.
This rule was ‘stablish’d by th’ Eternal Mind;
Nor virtue’s self, nor prudence are confin’d
To colour; none imbues the honest heart;
To science none belongs, and none to art.
Oh! Muse, of blackest tint, why shrinks thy breast,
Why fears t’ approach the Cæsar of the West!
Dispel thy doubts, with confidence ascend
The regal dome, and hail him for thy friend :
Nor blush, altho’ in garb funereal drest,
Thy body’s white, tho’ clad in sable vest.
Manners unsullied, and the radiant glow
Of genius, burning with desire to know;
And learned speech, with modest accent worn,
Shall best the sooty African adorn.
An heart with wisdom fraught, a patriot flame,
A love of virtue; these shall lift his name
Conspicuous, far beyond his kindred race,
Distinguish’d from them by the foremost place.
In this prolific isle I drew my birth,
And Britain nurs’d, illustrious through the earth;
This, my lov’d isle, which never more shall grieve,
Whilst you our common friend, our father live.
Then this my pray’r-“May earth and heaven survey
” A people ever blest, beneath your sway!”

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Long, Edward (1774) History of Jamaica, or A General Survey of the Antient and Modern State of that Island with… etc. London: T. Lowndes. pp 478-483.

Copy of original at Google Books