Of all the knights of England,
That ever in armor shone,
The boldest and the truest heart
Was that of brave Sir John.{12}
He had pass’d through perils on the land,
And perils on the sea,
And oftentimes confronted death
In Gaul and Germany;
And many a Transylvanian
Could point to the spot and show
Where the boldest of the Turkish knights
Were by his hand laid low.
And when confined in dungeons,
Or driven as a slave,
The rescue that his own arm brought,
Proved well Sir John was brave.
But now he was a pioneer
In a new world’s solitude;
The first to tread his pathless way
Where frown’d the wild old wood;
And wilder still, the savage tribes
Like fiends look’d fierce and grim,
But they stirr’d not the blood of brave Sir John,
For nothing daunted him.
To plant a British colony
He had cross’d the wide, wide sea,
And found thy future heritage,
O sacred liberty!
Now, infant Jamestown, smiled the morn,
That should behold thy christening;
That gallant band have lined thy shores,
And named thee after England’s king;
And well might English hearts beat high
When first they breath’d thy virgin air,
For never to them seem’d sky so bright,
Nor ever a land so fair.{13}
Young hope was hovering o’er thy groves
With her banner wide unfurl’d,
And on it a mighty empire shone,
The glory of the world.
And fancy saw the wilderness
Like magic melt away,
And tender blossoms of the earth
Spring to the light of day;
And streams, that through the solemn wood
Their ancient courses run,
Felt the fresh breath of mountain airs,
And brighten’d in the sun;
And far along the ocean shore
The sails of commerce flew,
And up a thousand shelter’d bays
Bright cities rose to view;
And all the wide-spread continent,
That slept in dark repose,
Awoke to life and loveliness,
And blossom’d as the rose.