The National Intelligencer And Washington Advertiser

The following elegant Italian verses were written at Niagara, in October, 1796, by Dr. GIAN BAPTISTA SCANNELLA, who afterwards, in September, 1798, fell a victim to the yellow-fever, in the city of New-York, just as he had finished his American tour, and was on the eve of embarking for Europe. It will, doubtless, be agreeable to his friends to see this literary model, which he wrote to please an accomplished lady in Upper Canada; and it will be additionally acceptable to every class of readers, on account of the English translation which accompanies it, done by a gentleman who cherishes, with tenderness, the memory of the deceased author.

LA CASCATA DINIAGARA.

Giunta al confin dove il pietroso letto
In voragin si cangia ampia e profonda,
Curva a un tratto precipita gin buida
Da non falsi ocean dipinta a tiro stretto.
Rotto con ruggor cupo, in un istante.
I flutti rimbalzar, che l'aere innonda
Liscio in fumo e al ciel par si contonda:
Sotto pie trema il suol, balza nel petto.
Con passo incerto quell' abisso immenso
Da una rupe a mirar m'invito; e a quel imi
Orror rimani istupidito il senso.
Sul nebbioso volume indi a sublimi
Voli inerge; a calcar natura io penso;
Tal che in me di mortal piu nulla estimi.

[TRANSLATION.]

THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.

Borne to the rocky bed's extremest brow,
The flood leaps headlong, nor a moment waits;
To join the whirlpool deep and vast below,
The faithful ocean* hurries thro' the straits
Hoarse roar from the broken wave; and upward
Adriv'n,
Dash in air—dissolving vapours spread,
Confound the troubled elements with heaven:
Earth quakes beneath: heart trembles in the breast.
With steps uncertain to a jutting rock
To gaze upon the immense abyss, I hie.
And all my senses feel a horrid shock,
As down the steep I turn my dizzy eye.
On cloudy streams I take a flight sublime.
Leaving the world and nature's work behind;
And as the pure empyreal height I climb,
Reflect with rapture on the IMMORTAL MIND.

[* Lake Erie.]