hy.
Oh, think upon your little ones! he cried,
Nor be compassion to the weak denied. 240
Caupolican then fixed his aspect mild
On the white woman and her shrinking child,
Then firmly spoke:--
White woman, we were free,
When first thy brethren of the distant sea
Came to our shores! White woman, theirs the guilt!
Theirs, if the blood of innocence be spilt!
Yet blood we seek not, though our arms oppose
The hate of foreign and remorseless foes;
Thou camest here a captive, so abide, 250
Till the Great Spirit shall our cause decide.
He spoke: the warriors of the night obey;
And, ere the earliest streak of dawning day,
They lead her from the scene of blood away.

[217] The first Spaniard who visited Chili. He entered it by the
dreadful passage of the snows of the Andes; but afterwards the passage
was attempted through the desert of Atacama.

[218] The reader is referred to Molina for a particular description of
the war sacrifice, which is very striking and poetical.

[219] Name of the War-deity.

[220] Terrific imaginary beings, called "man-animals," that leave their
caves by night, and scatter pestilence and death as they fly.--See
_Molina._

[221] "Render them back upon the insulted ocean."--_Coleridge._

CANTO FIFTH.

ARGUMENT.

Ocean Cave--Spanish Captive--Wild Indian Maid--Genius of Andes,
and Spirits.

'Tis dawn:--the distant Andes' rocky spires,
One after one, have caught the orient fires.
Where the dun condor shoots his upward flight,
His wings are touched with momentary light.
Meantime, beneath the mountains' glittering heads,
A boundless ocean of gray vapour spreads,
That o'er the champaign, stretching far below,
Moves now, in clustered masses, rising slow,
Till all the living landscape is displayed
In various pomp of colour, light, and shade, 10
Hills, forests, rivers, lakes, and level plain,
Lessening in sunshine to the southern main.
The Llama's fleece fumes with ascending dew;
The gem-like humming-birds their toils renew;
And there, by the wild river's devious side,
The tall flamingo, in its crimson pride,
Stalks on, in richest plumage bright arrayed,
With snowy neck superb,[222] and legs of lengthening shade.
Sad maid, for others may the valleys r