Stanzas Written At The Island Of Madeira[182]

On the fatal and unprecedented torrents of water which collected from the mountains on the ninth of October, 1803, and destroyed a considerable part of the city of Funchal, drowned a vast number of people, and damaged, to a great amount, several plantations and villages in that neighborhood.

The rude attack, if none will tell, On Bacchus, in his favorite isle; If none in verse describe it well, If none assume a poet's style These devastations to display;-- Attend me, and perhaps I may.

To those who own the feeling heart This tragic scene I would present, No fiction, or the work of art, Nor merely for the fancy meant: Twas all a shade, a darken'd scene, Old Noah's deluge come again!

From hills beyond the clouds that soar, The vaults of heaven, the torrents run, And rushing with resistless power, Assail'd the island of the sun: Fond nature saw the blasted vine, And seem'd to sicken and repine.

As skyward stream'd the electric fire The heavens emblazed, or wrapt in gloom; The clouds appear, the clouds retire And terror said, "the time is come When all the groves, and hill, and plain Will sink to ocean's bed again."

The cheery god, who loves to smile And gladness to the heart bestows, Almost resolved to quit his isle, And in unwonted passion rose; He sought his caves in wild dismay And left the heavens to have their way.

The whistling winds had ceased to blow; Not one, of all the aerial train-- No gale to aid that night of wo Disturb'd the slumbers of the main; In distant woods they silent slept; Or, in the clouds, the tempest kept.

The bursting rains in seas descend, Machico[A] heard the distant roar, And lightnings, while the heavens they rend, Show'd ruin marching to the shore: Egyptian darkness brought her gloom And fear foreboded nature's doom.

[A] A distant village on the island.--Freneau's note.

The heavens on fire, an ocean's force Seized forests, vineyards, herds, and men, And swelling streams from every source Bade ancient chaos come again: Through Fonchal's[B] road their courses held And ocean saw his waves repell'd.

[B] The capital town of the island.--Ibid.

Ill fated town!--what works of pride In one short hour were swept away! Huge piles that time had long defy'd, In ruthless ruin scatter'd lay: Some buried in the opening deep-- With crowds dismiss'd to endless sleep,

From her fond arms the daughter torn, The mother saw destruction near; Both on the whirling surge were borne, Forgetful of the farewell tear: At distance torn, with feeble cries, Far from her arms the infant dies.

Her dear delight, her darling boy In morn of days and dawning bloom, This opening bud of promised joy Too early found a watery tomb, Or floated on the briny waste; No more beloved, no more embraced.

From heights immense, with force unknown, Enormous rocks and mangled trees Were headlong hurl'd and hurrying down, Fix'd their foundation in the seas! Or, rushing with a mountain's weight, Hurl'd to the deeps their domes of state.

On heaven intent the affrighted priest Where church was left, to churches ran, With suppliant voice the skies addrest, And wail'd the wickedness of man: For which he thought, this scourge was meant, And, weeping, said, repent, repent!

But Santa Clara's lofty walls, Where pines through life the pious nun, Whose prison to the mind recalls What superstition's power has done: No conquest there the floods essay'd, Religion guarded man and maid.

What seem'd beyond the cannon's power, The walls of rock, were torn away; To ruin sunk the church and tower, And no respect the flood would pay To silver saints, or saints of wood, The bishop's cap, the friar's hood.

Hard was their fate! more happy thou The lady of the mountain tall;[C] When desolation raged below She stood secure, and scorn'd it all, Where Gordon,[D] for retirement, chose His groves, his gardens, and the muse.

[C] Nossa Senyora da Montana, a fine church on a high eminence in the mountains.--Freneau's note.

[D] A respectable gentleman of the island.--Ibid.

Who on this valley's drowning bed Would plan a street, or build again, Unthinking as the Brazen head[E] For wretches builds a source of pain, A church, a street, that soon or late May share the same, or a worse fate.

[E] A rocky promontory a few miles eastward of the capital.--Ibid.

Let some vast bridge assume their place Like those the romans raised of old, With arches, firm as nature's base, Of architecture grand and bold; So will the existing race engage The thanks of a succeeding age.

Pontinia[F] long must wear the marks Of this wide-wasting scene of wo, Where near the Loo, the tar embarks When prosperous winds, to waft him, blow: These ravages may time repair, But he and I will not be there.

[F] The western quarter, near the Loo fort, where is the only eligible place of landing.--Ibid.

From the edition of 1815. Freneau sailed from Charleston January 25, 1804, and on March 7 he arrived at Madeira. On April 15 he was at Santa Cruz, and on May 11 he sailed for home.

GENERAL NOTE.

From the best accounts that could be procured at Madeira, there perished in and near the city of Funchal, five hundred and fifty persons. The ravages were chiefly confined to the eastern parts of the town where the loss was immense in bridges, houses, streets and other property, public as well as private--there was one magnificent church totally destroyed, standing near the sea, and called in the portuguese tongue, Nossa Senyora da Caillou (lady of the beach) besides this, there were five handsome chapels carried away. Five very considerable streets with their immense stone buildings have entirely disappeared, or but some insignificant parts remaining. The water rose in a short space of time from 14 to 16 feet in the adjacent parts of the city, and bursting into the buildings, where it did not much injure the latter, it greatly damaged the merchantile property lodged therein. There were about two hundred persons supposed to be lost in other parts of the island, particularly in the villages, and small towns. The following circumstance it was asserted, added not a little to the devastations occasioned by the accumulation of water in the vallies. The governor, with several other considerable landholders in the mountains, had, for several years back, been in the practice of erecting stone dams across the vast and spacious valley above the city, at different intervals of distance for the purpose of watering the adjacent grounds, or leading off streams in a variety of directions--when the immense body of rain fell in October last, all this gave way, and carried death and destruction therewith.--Freneau's note.