Part I, Madoc in Wales: V

Madoc had paused awhile ; but every eye
Still watched his lips, and every voice was hushed.
Soon as I leapt ashore, pursues the Lord
Of Ocean, prostrate on my face I fell,
Kissed the dear earth, and prayed with thankful tears.
Hard by, a brook was flowing ;. . never yet,
Even from the gold-tipt horn of victory,
With harp and song, amid my father's hall,
Pledged I so sweet a draught, as lying there,
Beside that streamlet's brink ! . . to feel the ground,
To quaff the cool clear water, to inhale
The breeze of land, while fears and dangers past
Recurred, and heightened joy, as summer storms
Make the fresh evening lovelier !

To the shore
The natives thronged ; astonished, they beheld
Our winged barks, and gazed in wonderment
On the strange garb, and bearded countenance,
And skin so white, in all unlike themselves.
I see with what enquiring eyes you ask
What men were they: of dark-brown colour, tinged
With sunny redness ; wild of eye ; their brows
So smooth, as never yet anxiety,
Nor busy thought, had made a furrow there ;
Beardless, and each to each of lineaments
So like, they seemed but one great family.
Their loins were loosely cinctured, all beside
Bare to the sun and wind; and thus their limbs,
Unmanacled, displayed the truest forms
Of strength and beauty : fearless, sure, they were,
And, while they eyed us, grasped their spears, as if,
Like Britain's injured but unconquered sons,
They, too, had known how perilous it was
To see an armed stranger set his foot
In their free country.

Soon the courteous guise
Of men, nor purporting nor fearing ill,
Won confidence ; their wild distrustful looks
Assumed a milder meaning ; over one
I cast my mantle, on another's head
The velvet bonnet placed, and all was joy.
We now besought for food ; at once they read
Our gestures ; but I cast a hopeless eye
On mountains, thickets, woods, and marshy plains,
A waste of rank luxuriance all around.
Thus musing, to a lake I followed them,
Left, when the rivers to their summer course
Withdrew ; they scattered on its water drugs
Of such strange potency, that soon the shoals,
Cooped there by Nature, prodigally kind,
Floated inebriate. As I gazed, a deer
Sprung from the bordering thicket ; the true shaft
Scarce with the distant victim's blood had stained
Its point, when instantly he dropt and died,
Such deadly juice imbued it: yet on this
We banqueted unharmed, and I perceived,
The wisest leech that ever in our world
Culled herbs of hidden virtue, was to these
Even as an infant.

Sorrowing we beheld
The night come on ; but soon did night display
More wonders than it veiled : innumerous tribes
From the wood-cover swarmed, and darkness made
Their beauties visible ; one while, they streamed
A bright blue radiance upon flowers that closed
Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day ;
Now, motionless and dark, eluded search,
Self-shrouded ; and anon, starring the sky,
Rose like a shower of fire.

Our friendly hosts
Now led us to the hut, our that night's home,
A rude and spacious dwelling : twisted boughs,
And canes, and withies, formed the walls and roof ;
And from the unhewn trunks which pillared it,
Low nets of interwoven reeds were hung.
With shouts of honour here they gathered round me,
Ungarmented my limbs, and in a net,
With softest feathers lined, a pleasant couch,
They laid and left me.

To our ships returned,
After short sojourn here, we coasted on,
Insatiate of the wonders and the charms
Of earth, and air, and sea. Thy summer woods
Are lovely, O my mother isle! the birch
Light bending on thy banks, thy elmy vales,
Thy venerable oaks ! .. but there, what forms
Of beauty clothed the inlands and the shore !
All these in stateliest growth, and, mixt with these,
Dark-spreading cedar, and the cypress tall,
Its pointed summit waving to the wind,
Like a long beacon-flame ; and, loveliest
Amid a thousand strange and lovely shapes,
The lofty palm, that with its nuts supplied
Beverage and food ; they edged the shore, and crowned
The far-off mountain summits, their straight stems
Bare, without leaf or bough, erect and smooth,
Their tresses nodding like a crested helm,
The plumage of the grove.

Will ye believe
The wonders of the ocean ? how its shoals
Sprung from the wave, like flashing light, .. took wing,
And, twinkling with a silver glitterance,
Flew through the air and sunshine ? yet were they
To sight less wondrous than the tribe who swam,
Following, like fowlers, with uplifted eye,
Their falling quarry: .. language cannot paint
Their splendid tints! though in blue ocean seen,
Blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue,
In all its rich variety of shades,
Suffused with glowing gold.

Heaven, too, had there
Its wonders :...from a deep, black, heavy cloud,
What shall I say ?..a shoot,..a trunk,..an arm
Came down ;.. yea! like a demon's arm, it seized
The waters : Ocean smoked beneath its touch,
And rose, like dust before the whirlwind's force.

But we sailed onward over tranquil seas,
Wafted by airs so exquisitely mild,
That even the very breath became an act
Of will, and sense, and pleasure! Not a cloud
With purple islanded the dark-blue deep.
By night, the quiet billows heaved and glanced
Under the moon, . . that heavenly moon! so bright,
That many a midnight have I paced the deck,
Forgetful of the hours of due repose ;
By day, the Sun, in his full majesty,
Went forth, like God beholding his own works.

Once, when a chief was feasting us on shore,
A captive served the food: I marked the youth,
For he had features of a gentler race ;
And oftentimes his eye was fixed on me,
With looks of more than wonder. We returned,
At evening, to our ships ; at night, a voice
Came from the sea, the intelligible voice
Of earnest supplication : he had swam
To trust our mercy ; up the side he sprung,
And looked among the crew, and, singling me,
Fell at my feet. Such friendly tokenings
As our short commerce with the native tribes
Had taught, I proffered, and sincerity
Gave force and meaning to the half-learnt forms ;
For one we needed, who might speak for us,
And well I liked the youth, the open lines
That charactered his face, the fearless heart,
That gave at once, and won full confidence.
So that night at my feet Lincoya slept.

When I displayed whate'er might gratify,
Whate'er surprise, with most delight he viewed
Our arms, the iron helm, the pliant mail,
The buckler, strong to save ; and then he shook
The lance, and grasped the sword, and turned to me
With vehement words and gestures, every limb
Working with one strong passion ; and he placed
The falchion in my hand, and gave the shield,
And pointed south and west, that I should go,
To conquer and protect ; anon, he wept
Aloud, and clasped my knees, and, falling, fain
He would have kissed my feet. Went we to shore?
Then would he labour restlessly, to show
A better place lay onward ; and jn the sand,
To south and west, he drew the line of coast,
And figured how a mighty river there
Ran the sea. The land bent westward soon,
And, thus confirmed, we voyaged on to seek
The river inlet, following at the will
Of our new friend: and we learnt after him,
Well pleased, and proud to teach, what this was called,
What that, with no unprofitable toil.
Nor light the joy I felt at hearing first
The pleasant accents of my native tongue,
Albeit in broken words, and tones uncouth,
Come from these foreign lips.

At length we came
Where the great river, amid shoals, and banks,
And islands, growth of its own gathering spoils,
Through many a branching channel, wide and full,
Rushed to the main. The gale was strong; and safe,
Amid the uproar of conflicting tides,
Our gallant vessels rode. A stream as broad,
As turbid, when it leaves the Land of Hills,
Old Severn rolls ; but banks so fair as these
Old Severn views not in his Land of Hills,
Nor even where his turbid waters swell,
And sully the salt sea.

So we sailed on
By shores, now covered with impervious woods,
Now stretching wide and low, a reedy waste,
And now, through vales where earth profusely poured
Her treasures, gathered from the first of days.
Sometimes a savage tribe would welcome us,
By wonder from their lethargy of life
Awakened; then again we voyaged on
Through tracks all desolate, for days and days,
League after league, one green and fertile mead,
That fed a thousand herds.

A different scene
Rose on our view, of mount on mountain piled,
Which when I see again in memory,
The giant Cader Idris by their bulk
Is dwarfed, and Snowdon, with its eagle haunts,
Shrinks, and seems dwindled like a Saxon hill.

Here, with Cadwallon and a chosen band,
I left the ships. Lincoya guided us
A toilsome way among the heights ; at dusk
We reached the village skirts ; he bade us halt,
And raised his voice; the elders of the land
Came forth, and led us to an ample hut,
That in the centre of their dwellings stood, . .
The Stranger's House. They eyed us wondering,
Yet not for wonder ceased they to observe
Their hospitable rites ; from hut to hut
They spread the tale that strangers were arrived,
Fatigued, and hungry, and athirst ; anon,
Each from his means supplying us, came food
And beverage, such as cheers the weary man.