there,

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Meagre and wan, and scorch'd with heat below,

We loom'd like ghosts, ere death had made us so

How could we else, where heat and hunger join'd

Thus to debase the body and the mind, Where cruel thirst the parching throat invades,

Dries up the man, and fits him for the shades.

No waters laded from the bubbling spring

To these dire ships the British monsters bring

By planks and ponderous beams completely wall'd'

In vain for water, and in vain, I call'd— No drop was granted to the midnight prayer,

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To Dives in these regions of despair!The loathsome cask a deadly dose contains,

Its poison circling through the languid veins;

That charm, whose virtue warms the world beside,

Was by these tyrants to our use denied, While yet they deign'd that healthy juice to lade

The putrid water felt its powerful aid; But when refus'd-to aggravate our pains

Then fevers rag'd and revel'd through our veins;

Throughout my frame I felt its deadly heat,

I felt my pulse with quicker motions beat:

A pallid hue o'er every face was spread,
Unusual pains attack'd the fainting head,
No physic here, no doctor to assist,
My name was enter'd on the sick man's

list;

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