On thy supreme assistance we rely;
Thy mercy supplicate, if doomed to die!
Perhaps this storm is sent with healing breath
From neighb’ring shores to scourge disease and death:
’Tis ours on thine unerring laws to trust,
With thee, great Lord! ‘whatever is, is just.’”
He said: and, with consenting reverence fraught,
The sailors joined his prayer in silent thought:
His intellectual eye, serenely bright,
Saw distant objects with prophetic light—