At untaught nature with your practised wit: 
Our naked Indians, then, when wits appear,
Would as soon chuse to have the Spaniards here. 
’Tis true, you have marks enough, the plot, the show,
The poet’s scenes, nay, more, the painter’s too;
If all this fail, considering the cost,
’Tis a true voyage to the Indies lost: 
But if you smile on all, then these designs,
Like the imperfect treasure of our minds,
Will pass for current wheresoe’er they go,
When to your bounteous hands their stamps they owe.

THE
INDIAN EMPEROR
OR,
THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO
BY
THE SPANIARDS.

BEING THE SEQUEL OF
THE INDIAN QUEEN.

Dum relego, scripsisse pudet, quia plurima cerno,
  Me quoque, qui feci, judice, digna limi.  OVID.

TO THE
MOST EXCELLENT
AND MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCESS,
ANNE,
DUCHESS OF MONMOUTH AND BUCCLEUCH,
WIFE TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS
AND HIGH-BORN PRINCE,
JAMES,
DUKE OF MONMOUTH[A].

[Footnote A:  Anne Scott, duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth, was the last scion of a race of warriors, more remarkable for their exploits in the field, than their address in courts, or protection of literature.  She was the heiress of the Scotts, barons and earls of Buccleuch; and became countess, in her own right, upon the death of her elder sister, lady Mary, who married the unfortunate Walter Scott, earl of Tarras, and died without issue in 1662.  In 1665, Anne, countess of Buccleuch, married James Fitzroy, duke of Monmouth, eldest natural son of Charles II.  They were afterwards created duke and duchess of Buccleuch.  She was an accomplished and high-spirited lady, distinguished for her unblemished conduct in a profligate court.  It was her patronage which first established Dryden’s popularity; a circumstance too honourable to her memory to be here suppressed.]

May it please Your Grace, The favour which heroic plays have lately found upon our theatres, has been wholly derived to them from the countenance and approbation they have received at court.  The most eminent persons for wit and honour in the royal circle having so far owned them, that they have judged no way so fit as verse to entertain a noble audience, or to express a noble passion; and among the rest which have been written in this kind, they have been so indulgent to this poem, as to allow it no inconsiderable place.  Since, therefore, to the court I owe its fortune on the stage; so, being now more publicly exposed in print, I humbly recommend it to your grace’s protection, who by all knowing persons are esteemed a principal ornament of the court.  But though the rank which you hold in the royal family might direct the eyes of a poet to you, yet your beauty and goodness detain and fix them.  High objects, it is true, attract the sight; but it looks up with pain on craggy rocks and barren mountains, and continues not intent on any object, which is wanting in shades and greens to entertain