1611年6月22日哈得逊湾的浅滩在寂寞的海面上，只看见一只船，上帝知道!但我的船冲破了这片水域的冰封之门，自我们离开英格兰海岸以来，这门比任何一扇都要大。我们是第一个，我的伙伴们，在冰山和浮冰之间，在这宽阔的海浪中战斗。这个海湾是我的;我能想到的!那张飞帆是我的!就在那里，船身在那张飞帆的下面，那艘摇摇晃晃回家的船是我的，我的，我的!我的发现号!叛变者的恶狗，母狗的幼崽，抢他们的食物，咬养他们的手，偷走了她。你这个忘恩负义的亨利·格林，我把你从亨兹迪奇的阴沟里挑出来，替你还债，把你留在我的家里，把你带到这里来，让你成为一个男子汉! You Robert Juet, ancient, crafty man, Toothless and tremulous, how many times Have I employed you as a master's mate To give you bread? And you Abacuck Prickett, You sailor-clerk, you salted puritan, You knew the plot and silently agreed, Salving your conscience with a pious lie! Yes, all of you -- hounds, rebels, thieves! Bring back My ship! Too late, -- I rave, -- they cannot hear My voice: and if they heard, a drunken laugh Would be their answer; for their minds have caught The fatal firmness of the fool's resolve, That looks like courage but is only fear. They'll blunder on, and lose my ship, and drown, -- Or blunder home to England and be hanged. Their skeletons will rattle in the chains Of some tall gibbet on the Channel cliffs, While passing mariners look up and say: "Those are the rotten bones of Hudson's men "Who left their captain in the frozen North!" O God of justice, why hast Thou ordained Plans of the wise and actions of the brave Dependent on the aid of fools and cowards? Look, -- there she goes, -- her topsails in the sun Gleam from the ragged ocean edge, and drop Clean out of sight! So let the traitors go Clean out of mind! We'll think of braver things! Come closer in the boat, my friends. John King, You take the tiller, keep her head nor'west. You Philip Staffe, the only one who chose Freely to share our little shallop's fate, Rather than travel in the hell-bound ship, -- Too good an English seaman to desert These crippled comrades, -- try to make them rest More easy on the thwarts. And John, my son, My little shipmate, come and lean your head Against your father's knee. Do you recall That April morn in Ethelburga's church, Five years ago, when side by side we kneeled To take the sacrament with all our men, Before the Hopewell left St. Catherine's docks On our first voyage? It was then I vowed My sailor-soul and years to search the sea Until we found the water-path that leads From Europe into Asia. I believe That God has poured the ocean round His world, Not to divide, but to unite the lands. And all the English captains that have dared In little ships to plough uncharted waves, -- Davis and Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher, Raleigh and Gilbert, -- all the other names, -- Are written in the chivalry of God As men who served His purpose. I would claim A place among that knighthood of the sea; And I have earned it, though my quest should fail! For, mark me well, the honour of our life Derives from this: to have a certain aim Before us always, which our will must seek Amid the peril of uncertain ways. Then, though we miss the goal, our search is crowned With courage, and we find along our path A rich reward of unexpected things. Press towards the aim: take fortune as it fares! I know not why, but something in my heart Has always whispered, "Westward seek your goal!" Three times they sent me east, but still I turned The bowsprit west, and felt among the floes Of ruttling ice along the Gröneland coast, And down the rugged shore of Newfoundland, And past the rocky capes and wooded bays Where Gosnold sailed, -- like one who feels his way With outstretched hand across a darkened room, -- I groped among the inlets and the isles, To find the passage to the Land of Spice. I have not found it yet, -- but I have found Things worth the finding! Son, have you forgot Those mellow autumn days, two years ago, When first we sent our little ship Half-Moon, -- The flag of Holland floating at her peak, -- Across a sandy bar, and sounded in Among the channels, to a goodly bay Where all the navies of the world could ride? A fertile island that the redmen called Manhattan, lay above the bay: the land Around was bountiful and friendly fair. But never land was fair enough to hold The seaman from the calling of the sea. And so we bore to westward of