Warm in its love, but in its vengeance fell.
And these Columbian warriors to their strand
Had welcomed Europe’s sons, and rued it sore:—
Men with smooth tongues, but rudely armed hand;
Fabling of peace, when meditating gore;
Who their foul deeds to veil, ceased not to brand
The Indian name on every Christian shore.
What wonder, on such heads, their fury’s flame
Burst, till its terrors gloomed their fairer fame?
For they were not a brutish race, unknowing