AN OLD PROPHECY, PRINTED 1686.
Reading edition
When New England shall trouble New Spain, When Jamaica shall be Lady of the Isles and the Main; When Spain shall be in America hid, And Mexico shall prove a Madrid; When Mahomet’s ships on the Baltic shall ride, And Turks shall labour to have ports on that side; When Africa shall no more sell out their Blacks, To make slaves and drudges to the American tracts; When Batavia the Old shall be contemn’d by the New; When a new drove of Tartars shall China subdue, When America shall cease to send out its treasure, But employ it at home in American pleasure; When the New World shall the Old World invade, Nor count them their lords, but their fellows in trade; When men shall almost pass to Venice by land, Not in deep water, but from sand to sand; When Nova Zembla shall be no stay Unto those who pass to or from Cathay, Then think strange things are come to light. Whereof but few have had a foresight.
From the BEACON, October 25, 1812.