Still to compensate toils and hazards past
Restored them to maternal plains at last.
Thrice had the sun to rule the varying year
Across the equator rolled his flaming sphere,
Since last the vessel spread her ample sail
From Albion’s coast, obsequious to the gale;
She o’er the spacious flood from shore to shore
Unwearying wafted her commercial store;
The richest ports of Afric she had viewed,
Thence to fair Italy her course pursued;