Chapter 18

[320]The Nabathean mountains; so named from Nabaoth, the son of Ishmael.[321]Beyond where Trajan.—The Emperor Trajan extended the bounds of the Roman Empire in the East far beyond any of his predecessors. His conquests reached to the river Tigris, near which stood the city of Ctesiphon, which he subdued. The Roman historians boasted that India was entirely conquered by him; but they could only mean Arabia Felix.—Vid. Dion. Cass. Euseb. Chron. p. 206.[322]Qui mores hominum multorum vidit.—Hor.[323]Emmanuel was cousin to the late king, John II. and grandson to king Edward, son of John I.[324]The river Indus, which gave name to India.[325]Vasco de Gama, who is, in a certain sense, the hero of the Lusiad, was born in 1469, at Sines, a fishing town on the Atlantic, midway between Lisbon and Cape St. Vincent, where, in a small church on a cliff, built by the great navigator after his appointment as Viceroy of India, is an inscription to his memory.—Ed.[326]Hercules.[327]Orac'lous Argo.—According to the fable, the vessel of the Argonauts spoke and prophesied. SeeThe Argonauticsof Apollonius Rhodius.—Ed.[328]This fact is according to history: Aberat Olysippone prope littus quatuor passuum millia templum sanè religiosum et sanctum ab Henrico in honorem Sanctissimæ Virginis edificatum.... In id Gama pridie illius diei, quo erat navem conscensurus, se recepit, ut noctem cum religiosis hominibus qui in ædibus templo conjunctis habitabant, in precibus et votis consumeret. Sequenti die cum multi non illius tantùm gratia, sed aliorum etiam, qui illi comites erant, convenissent, fuit ab omnibus in scaphis deductus. Neque solùm homines religiosi, sed reliqui omnes voce maxima cum lacrymis à Deo precabantur, ut benè et prosperè illa tam periculosa navigatio omnibus eveniret, et universi re benè gesta, incolumes in patriam redirent.[329]By this old man is personified the populace of Portugal. The endeavours to discover the East Indies by the Southern Ocean, for about eighty years had been the favourite topic of complaint, and never was any measure of government more unpopular than the expedition ofGama. Emmanuel's council were almost unanimous against the attempt. Some dreaded the introduction of wealth, and its attendants, luxury and effeminacy; while others affirmed, that no adequate advantages could arise from so perilous and remote a navigation. The expressions of the thousands who crowded the shore whenGamagave his sails to the wind, are thus expressed by Osorius: "A multis tamen interim is fletus atque lamentatio fiebat, un funus efferre viderentur. Sic enim dicebant: En quo miseros mortales provexit cupiditas et ambitio? Potuitne gravius supplicium hominibus istis constitui, si in se scelestum aliquod facinus admisissent? Est enim illis immensi maris longitudo peragranda, fluctus immanes difficillima navigatione superandi, vitæ discrimen in locis infinitis obeundum. Non fuit multò tolerabilius, in terra quovis genere mortis absumi, quàm tam procul à patria marinis fluctibus sepeliri. Hæc et alia multa in hanc sententiam dicebant, cùm omnia multò tristiora fingere præ metu cogerentur." The tender emotion and fixed resolution ofGama, and the earnest passion of the multitudes on the shore, are thus added by the same venerable historian: "Gama tamen quamvis lacrymas suorum desiderio funderet, rei tamen benè gerendæ fiducia confirmatus, alacriter in navem faustis ominibus conscendit.... Qui in littore consistebant, non prius abscedere voluerunt, quàm naves vento secundo plenissimis velis ab omnium conspectu remotæ sunt."[330]More literally rendered by Capt. R. Burton:—"——He spokeFrom a full heart, and skill'd in worldly lore,In deep, slow tones this solemn warning, fraughtWith wisdom, by long-suffering only taught:'O passion of dominion! O fond lustOf that poor vanity which men call fame!O treach'rous appetite, whose highest gustIs vulgar breath that taketh honour's name!O fell ambition, terrible but justArt thou to breasts that cherish most thy flame!Brief life for them in peril, storm, and rage;This world a hell, and death their heritage."'Shrewd prodigal! whose riot is the dearthOf states and principalities oppress'd,Plunder and rape are of thy loathly birth,Thou art alike of life and soul the pest.High titles greet thee on this slavish earth,Yet, none so vile but they would fit thee best.But Fame, forsooth, and Glory thou art styl'd,And the blind herd is by a sound beguil'd.'"[331]The Moor.—Ed.[332]The Muses.—Ed.[333]Prometheus is said to have stolen fire from heaven.—Ed.[334]Alluding to the fables of Phaeton and Icarus; the former having obtained from Helios, his father, permission to guide the chariot of the sun for one day, nearly set the world on fire. He perished in the river Eridanus (the Po.) Icarus, the sun having melted the wax with which his wings were cemented, fell into that part of the Ægean which, from his misfortune, was called theIcarian Sea.—Ed.[335]The sun is in the constellation Leo in July.—Ed.[336]The Serra de Cintra, situated about 15 miles N.W. of Lisbon.—Ed.[337]See the life of Don Henry, prince of Portugal, in the preface.[338]Morocco.[339]The discovery of some of the West Indian islands by Columbus was made in 1492 and 1493. His discovery of the continent of America was not till 1498. The fleet ofGamasailed from the Tagus in 1497.[340]Called by the ancientsInsulæ Purpurariæ. Now Madeira, and Porto Santo. The former was so named by Juan Gonzales, and Tristan Vaz, from the Spanish wordmadera, wood. These discoverers wens sent out by the great Don Henry.[341]The Tropic of Cancer.—Ed.[342]Called by PtolemyCaput Assinarium, now Cape Verde.[343]The Canaries, called by the ancientsInsulæ Fortunatæ.[344]The province of Jalofo lies between the two rivers, the Gambia and the Zanago. The latter has other names in the several countries through which it runs. In its course it makes many islands, inhabited only by wild beasts. It is navigable for 150 leagues, at the end of which it is crossed by a stupendous ridge of perpendicular rocks, over which the river rushes with such violence, that travellers pass under it without any other inconvenience than the prodigious noise. The Gambia, orRio Grande, runs 180 leagues, but is not so far navigable. It carries more water, and runs with less noise than the other, though filled with many rivers which water the country of Mandinga. Both rivers are branches of the Niger. Their waters have this remarkable quality; when mixed together they operate as an emetic, but when separate do not. They abound with great variety of fishes, and their banks are covered with horses, crocodiles, winged serpents, elephants, ounces, wild boars, with great numbers of others, wonderful for the variety of their nature and different forms.—Faria y Sousa.[345]Timbuctu, the mart of Mandinga gold, was greatly resorted to by the merchants of Grand Cairo, Tunis, Oran, Tlemicen, Fez, Morocco, etc.[346]Contra hoc promontorium (Hesperionceras) Gorgades insulæ narrantur, Gorgonum quondam domus, bidui navigatione distantes a continente, ut tradit Xenophon Lampsacenus. Penetravit in eas Hanno Pœnorum imperator, prodiditque hirta fœminarum corpora viros pernicitate evasisse, duarumque Gorgonum cutes argumenti et miraculi gratia in Junonis templo posuit, spectatas usque ad Carthaginem captam.—Plin.Hist. Nat. l. 6. c. 31.[347]Sierra Leone.[348]Cape Palmas.—Ed.[349]During the reign of John II. the Portuguese erected several forts, and acquired great power in the extensive regions of Guinea. Azambuja, a Portuguese captain, having obtained leave from Caramansa, a negro prince, to erect a fort on his territories, an unlucky accident had almost proved fatal to the discoverers. A huge rock lay very commodious for a quarry; the workmen began on it; but this rock, as the devil would have it, happened to be a negro god. The Portuguese were driven away by the enraged worshippers, who were afterwards with difficulty pacified by a profusion of such presents as they most esteemed.[350]The Portuguese, having brought an ambassador from Congo to Lisbon, sent him back instructed in the faith. By this means the king, queen, and about 100,000 of the people were baptized; the idols were destroyed and churches built. Soon after, the prince, who was then absent at war, was baptized by the name ofAlonzo. His younger brother, Aquitimo, however, would not receive the faith, and the father, because allowed only one wife, turned apostate, and left the crown to his pagan son, who, with a great army, surrounded his brother, when only attended by some Portuguese and Christian blacks, in all only thirty-seven. By the bravery of these, however, Aquitimo was defeated, taken, and slain. One of Aquitimo's officers declared, they were not defeated by the thirty-seven Christians, but by a glorious army who fought under a shining cross. The idols were again destroyed, and Alonzo sent his sons, grandsons, and nephews to Portugal to study; two of whom were afterwards bishops in Congo.—Extracted fromFaria y Sousa.[351]According to fable, Calisto was a nymph of Diana. Jupiter having assumed the figure of that goddess, completed his amorous desires. On the discovery of her pregnancy, Diana drove her from her train. She fled to the woods, where she was delivered of a son. Juno changed them into bears, and Jupiter placed them in heaven, where they form the constellations of Ursa Major and Minor. Juno, still enraged, entreated Thetis never to suffer Calisto to bathe in the sea. This is founded on the appearance of the northern pole-star, to the inhabitants of our hemisphere; but, whenGamaapproached the austral pole, the northern, of consequence, disappeared under the waves.[352]The Southern Cross.[353]The constellation of the southern pole was calledThe Crossby the Portuguese sailors, from the appearance of that figure formed by seven stars. In the southern hemisphere, as Camoëns observes, the nights are darker than in the northern, the skies being adorned with much fewer stars.[354]Non, mihi si linguæ centum sunt, oraquecentum, Ferrea vox, omnes scelerum comprendere formas.—ÆN.vi.[355]That living fire, by seamen held divine.—The sulphureous vapours of the air, after being violently agitated by a tempest, unite, and when the humidity begins to subside, as is the case when the storm is almost exhausted, by the agitation of their atoms they take fire, and are attracted by the masts and cordage of the ship. Being thus, naturally, the pledges of the approaching calm, it is no wonder that the superstition of sailors should in all ages have esteemed them divine, and—Of heaven's own care in storms the holy sign.In the expedition of the Golden Fleece, in a violent tempest these fires were seen to hover over the heads of Castor and Pollux, who were two of the Argonauts, and a calm immediately ensued. After the apotheoses of these heroes, the Grecian sailors invoked these fires by the names of Castor and Pollux, orthe sons of Jupiter. The Athenians called themΣωτῆρες,Saviours.[356]In this book, particularly in the description of Massilia, the Gorgades, the fires called Castor and Pollux, and the water-spout, Camoëns has happily imitated the manner of Lucan. It is probable that Camoëns, in his voyage to the East Indies, was an eye witness of the phenomena of the fires and water-spout. The latter is thus described by Pliny, l. 2. c. 51.Fit et caligo, belluæ similis nubes dira navigantibus vocatur et columna, cum spissatus humor rigensque ipse se sustinet, et in longam veluti fistulam nubes aquam trahit.When the violent heat attracts the waters to rise in the form of a tube, the marine salts are left behind, by the action of rarefaction, being too gross and fixed to ascend. It is thus, when the overloaded vapour bursts, that it descends—Sweet as the waters of the limpid rill.[357]That sage device.—The astrolabe, an instrument of infinite service in navigation, by which the altitude of the sun, and distance of the stars is taken. It was invented in Portugal during the reign of John II. by two Jewish physicians, named Roderic and Joseph. It is asserted by some that they were assisted by Martin of Bohemia, a celebrated mathematician.—Partly fromCastera. Vid. Barros, Dec. 1. lib. iv. c. 2.[358]Arabic, one of the most copious and wide-spoken of languages.—Ed.[359]Camoëns, in describing the adventure of Fernando Velosó, by departing from the truth of history, has shown his judgment as a poet. The place where the Portuguese landed they named the Bay of St. Helen. They caught one of two negroes, says Faria, who were busied in gathering honey on a mountain. Their behaviour to this savage, whom they gratified with a red cap, some glasses and bells, induced him to bring a number of his companions for the like trifles. Though some who accompaniedGamawere skilled in the various African languages, not one of the natives could understand them. A commerce, however, was commenced by signs and gestures.Gamabehaved to them with great civility; the fleet was cheerfully supplied with fresh provisions, for which the natives received cloths and trinkets. But this friendship was soon interrupted by a young, rash Portuguese. Having contracted an intimacy with some of the negroes, he obtained leave to penetrate into the country along with them, to observe their habitations and strength. They conducted him to their huts with great good nature, and placed before him, what they esteemed an elegant repast, a sea-calf dressed in the way of their country. This so much disgusted the delicate Portuguese, that he instantly got up and abruptly left them. Nor did they oppose his departure, but accompanied him with the greatest innocence. As fear, however, is always jealous, he imagined they were leading him as a victim to slaughter. No sooner did he come near the ships, than he called aloud for assistance. Coëllo's boat immediately set off for his rescue. The Africans fled to the woods; and now esteeming the Portuguese as a band of lawless plunderers, they provided themselves with arms, and lay in ambush. Their weapons were javelins, headed with short pieces of horn, which they throw with great dexterity. Soon after, whileGamaand some of his officers were on the shore taking the altitude of the sun by the astrolabe, they were suddenly and with great fury attacked by the ambush from the woods. Several were much wounded,multos convulnerant, inter quos Gama in pede vulnus accepit, andGamareceived a wound in the foot. The admiral made a speedy retreat to the fleet, prudently choosing rather to leave the negroes the honour of the victory, than to risk the life of one man in a quarrel so foreign to the destination of his expedition, and where, to impress the terror of his arms could be of no service to his interest. When he came nearer to the East Indies he acted in a different manner. He then made himself dreaded whenever the treachery of the natives provoked his resentment.—Collected fromFaria and Osorius.[360]The critics have vehemently declaimed against the least mixture of the comic, with the dignity of the epic poem. It is needless to enter into any defence of this passage of Camoëns, farther than to observe that Homer, Virgil, and Milton have offended the critics in the same manner, and that this piece of raillery in the Lusiad is by much the politest, and the least reprehensible, of anything of the kind in the four poets. In Homer are several strokes of low raillery. Patroclus having killed Hector's charioteer, puns thus on his sudden fall:It is a pity he is not nearer the sea! He would soon catch abundance of oysters, nor would the storms frighten him. See how he dives from his chariot down to the sand! What excellent divers are the Trojans!Virgil, the most judicious of all poets, descends even to burlesque, where the commander of a galley tumbles the pilot into the sea:———Segnemque MenœtenIn mare præcipitem puppi deturbat ab alta.At gravis ut sundo vix tandem redditus imo estJam senior, madidaque fluens in veste Menœtes,Summa petit scopuli siccaque in rupe resedit.Illum et labentem Teucri, et risere natantem;Et salsos rident revomentem pectore fluctus.And, though the character of the speakers, the ingenious defence which has been offered for Milton, may, in some measure, vindicate the raillery which he puts into the mouths of Satan and Belial, the lowness of it, when compared with that of Camoëns, must still be acknowledged. Talking of the execution of the diabolical artillery among the good angels, they, says Satan—"Flew off, and into strange vagaries fellAs they would dance, yet for a dance they seem'dSomewhat extravagant and wild, perhapsFor joy of offer'd peace.——To whom thus Belial, in like gamesome mood.Leader, the terms we sent were terms of weight,Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home,Such as we might perceive amus'd them all,And stumbled many————this gift they have beside,They show us when our foes walk not upright."[361]The translator in reply to the critics will venture the assertion, that the fiction of the apparition of the Cape of Tempests, in sublimity and awful grandeur of imagination, stands unsurpassed in human composition.[362]The next proud fleet.—On the return ofGamato Portugal, a fleet of thirteen sail, under the command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, was sent out on the second voyage to India, where the admiral with only six ships arrived. The rest were mostly destroyed by a terrible tempest at the Cape of Good Hope, which lasted twenty days. "The daytime," says Faria, "was so dark that the sailors could scarcely see each other, or hear what was said for the horrid noise of the winds." Among those who perished was the celebrated Bartholomew Diaz, who was the first modern discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, which he named the Cape of Tempests.[363]Behold a hero come.—Don Francisco de Almeyda. He was the first Portuguese viceroy of India, in which country he obtained several great victories over the Mohammedans and pagans. He was the first who conquered Quiloa and Mombas, or Mombaz. On his return to Portugal he put into the bay of Saldanha, near the Cape of Good Hope, to take in water and provisions. The rudeness of one of his servants produced a quarrel with the Caffres, or Hottentots. His attendants, much against his will, forced him to march against the blacks. "Ah, whither," he exclaimed, "will you carry the infirm man of sixty years?" After plundering a miserable village, on the return to their ships they were attacked by a superior number of Caffres, who fought with such fury in rescue of their children, whom the Portuguese had seized, that the viceroy and fifty of his attendants were slain.[364]The crescent, the symbol of Mohammedanism.—Ed.[365]This poetical description of the miserable catastrophe of Don Emmanuel de Souza, and his beautiful spouse, Leonora de Sà, is by no means exaggerated. He was several years governor of Diu in India, where he amassed immense wealth. On his return to his native country, the ship in which was his lady, all his riches, and five hundred men, his sailors and domestics, was dashed to pieces on the rocks at the Cape of Good Hope. Don Emmanuel, his lady, and three children, with four hundred of the crew escaped, having only saved a few arms and provisions. As they marched through the wild uncultivated deserts, some died of famine, of thirst, and fatigue; others, who wandered from the main body in search of water, were murdered by the savages, or destroyed by the wild beasts. They arrived, at last, at a village inhabited by African banditti. At first they were courteously received, but the barbarians, having unexpectedly seized their arms, stripped the whole company naked, and left them destitute to the mercy of the desert. The wretchedness of the delicate and exposed Leonora was increased by the brutal insults of the negroes. Her husband, unable to relieve, beheld her miseries. After having travelled about 300 leagues, her legs swelled, her feet bleeding at every step, and her strength exhausted, she sunk down, and with the sand covered herself to the neck, to conceal her nakedness. In this dreadful situation, she beheld two of her children expire. Her own death soon followed. Her husband, who had been long enamoured of her beauty, received her last breath in a distracted embrace. Immediately, he snatched his third child in his arms, and uttering the most lamentable cries, he ran into the thickest of the wood, where the wild beasts were soon heard to growl over their prey. Of the whole four hundred who escaped the waves, only six and twenty arrived at another village, whose inhabitants were more civilized, and traded with the merchants of the Red Sea, from whence they found a passage to Europe, and brought the tidings of the unhappy fate of their companions. Jerome de Cortereal, a Portuguese poet, has written an affecting poem on the shipwreck, and deplorable catastrophe of Don Emmanuel, and his beloved spouse.—Partly fromCastera.[366]The giants or Titans; called "sons of God" in Gen. vi. 2.—Ed.[367]Briareus.[368]Doris, the sister and spouse of Nereus, and mother of the Nereides. By Nereus, in the physical sense of the fable, is understood the water of the sea, and by Doris, the bitterness or salt, the supposed cause of its prolific quality in the generation of fishes.[369]And give our wearied minds a lively glow.—Variety is no less delightful to the reader than to the traveller, and the imagination of Camoëns gave an abundant supply. The insertion of this pastoral landscape, between the terrific scenes which precede and follow, has a fine effect. "Variety," says Pope, in one of his notes on the Odyssey, "gives life and delight; and it is much more necessary in epic, than in comic or tragic, poetry, sometimes to shift the scenes, to diversify and embellish the story."The Portuguese, sailing upon the Atlantic Ocean, discovered the most southern point of Africa: here they found an immense sea, which carried them to the East Indies. The dangers they encountered in the voyage, the discovery of Mozambique, of Melinda, and of Calecut, have been sung by Camoëns, whose poem recalls to our minds the charms of the Odyssey, and the magnificence of the Æneid.—Montesquieu, Spirit of Laws, bk. xxi. c. 21.[370]Virgil.[371]A small island, namedSanta Cruzby Bartholomew Diaz, who discovered it. According to Faria y Sousa, he went twenty-five leagues further, to the river Del Infante, which, till passed byGama, was the utmost extent of the Portuguese discoveries.[372]It was the force of this rushing current which retarded the further discoveries of Diaz.Gamagot over it by the assistance of a tempest. The seasons when these seas are safely navigable, are now perfectly known.[373]The wise men of the East, or magi, whom the Roman Catholic writers will have to have been kings.—Ed.[374]The Epiphany.—Ed.[375]Dos Reis,i.e., of the kings.—Ed.[376]The frequent disappointments of the Portuguese, when they expect to hear some account of India, is a judicious imitation of several parts of Virgil; who, in the same manner, magnifies the distresses of the Trojans in their search for the fated seat of Empire:———O gensInfelix! cui to exitio fortuna reservat?Septima post Trojæ excidium jam vertitur æstas;Cum freta, cum terras omnes, tot inhospita saxaSideraque emensæ ferimur: dum per mare magnumItaliam sequimur fugientem, et volvimur undis.Æn.v. 625.[377]Hop.[378]It had been extremely impolitic inGamato mention the mutiny of his followers to the King of Melinda. The boast of their loyalty, besides, has a good effect in the poem, as it elevates the heroes, and gives uniformity to the character of bravery, which the dignity of the epopea required to be ascribed to them. History relates the matter differently. In standing for the Cape of Good Hope,Gamagave the highest proofs of his resolution. The fleet seemed now tossed to the clouds,ut modo nubes contingere, and now sunk to the lowest whirlpools of the abyss. The winds were insufferably cold, and, to the rage of the tempest was added the horror of an almost continual darkness. The crew expected every moment to be swallowed up in the deep. At every interval of the storm, they came roundGama, asserting the impossibility to proceed further, and imploring him to return. This he resolutely refused. A conspiracy against his life was formed, but was discovered by his brother. He guarded against it with the greatest courage and prudence; put all the pilots in chains, and he himself, with some others, took the management of the helms. At last, after having many days withstood the tempest, and a perfidious conspiracy,invicto animo, with an unconquered mind, a favourable change of weather revived the spirits of the fleet, and allowed them to double the Cape of Good Hope.—Extr. fromOsorius's Historia.[379]Gamaand his followers were, from the darkness of the Portuguese complexion, thought to be Moors. WhenGamaarrived in the East, a considerable commerce was carried on between the Indies and the Red Sea by the Moorish traders, by whom the gold mines of Sofala, and the riches of East Africa were enjoyed. The traffic was brought by land to Cairo, from whence Europe was supplied by the Venetian and Antwerpian merchants.[380]"O nome lhe ficou dos Bons-Signais."[381]Raphael. See Tobit, ch. v. and xii.—Ed.[382]It was the custom of the Portuguese navigators to erect crosses on the shores of new-discovered countries.Gamacarried materials for pillars of stone with him, and erected six crosses during his expedition. They bore the name and arms of the king of Portugal, and were intended as proofs of the title which accrues from first discovery.[383]This poetical description of the scurvy is by no means exaggerated. It is what sometimes really happens in the course of a long voyage.[384]King of Ithaca.[385]Æneas.[386]Homer.[387]Virgil.[388]The Muses.[389]Homer's Odyssey, bk. x. 460.[390]See the Odyssey, bk. ix.[391]See Æn. v. 833[392]The Lotophagi, so named from the lotus, are thus described by Homer:—"Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest,They eat, they drink, and Nature gives the feast;The trees around them all their fruit produce;Lotos the name; divine, nectareous juice;(Thence call'd Lotophagi) which whoso tastes,Insatiate, riots in the sweet repasts,Nor other home, nor other care intends,But quits his home, his country, and his friends:The three we sent, from off th' enchanting groundWe dragg'd reluctant, and by force we bound:The rest in haste forsook the pleasing shore,Or, the charm tasted, had return'd no more."Pope, Odyss. ix. 103.The Libyan lotus is a shrub like a bramble, the berries like the myrtle, purple when ripe, and about the size of an olive. Mixed with bread-corn, it was used as food for slaves. They also made an agreeable wine of it, but which would not keep above ten days. See Pope's notein loco.[393]In skins confin'd the blust'ring winds control.—The gift of Æolus to Ulysses."The adverse winds in leathern bags he brac'd,Compress'd their force, and lock'd each struggling blast:For him the mighty sire of gods assign'd,The tempest's lord, the tyrant of the wind;His word alone the list'ning storms obey,To smooth the deep, or swell the foamy sea.These, in my hollow ship the monarch hung,Securely fetter'd by a silver thong;But Zephyrus exempt, with friendly galesHe charg'd to fill, and guide the swelling sails:Rare gift! but oh, what gift to fools avails?"}Pope, Odyss. x. 20.The companions of Ulysses imagined that these bags contained some valuable treasure, and opened them while their leader slept. The tempests bursting out, drove the fleet from Ithaca, which was then in sight, and was the cause of a new train of miseries.[394]See the third Æneid.[395]See the sixth Æneid, and the eleventh Odyssey.[396]Alexander the Great.—Ed.[397]Achilles, son of Peleus.—Ed.[398]Virgil, born at Mantua.—Ed.[399]Don Francisco de Gama, grandson of Vasco de Gama, the hero of the Lusiad.—Ed.[400]Cleopatra.[401]Every display of eastern luxury and magnificence was lavished in the fishing parties on the Nile, with which Cleopatra amused Mark Antony, when at any time he showed symptoms of uneasiness, or seemed inclined to abandon the effeminate life which he led with his mistress. At one of these parties, Mark Antony, having procured divers to put fishes upon his hooks while under the water, he very gallantly boasted to his mistress of his great dexterity in angling. Cleopatra perceived his art, and as gallantly outwitted him. Some other divers received her orders, and in a little while Mark Antony's line brought up a fried fish in place of a live one, to the vast entertainment of the queen, and all the convivial company. Octavius was at this time on his march to decide who should be master of the world.

[320]The Nabathean mountains; so named from Nabaoth, the son of Ishmael.

[321]Beyond where Trajan.—The Emperor Trajan extended the bounds of the Roman Empire in the East far beyond any of his predecessors. His conquests reached to the river Tigris, near which stood the city of Ctesiphon, which he subdued. The Roman historians boasted that India was entirely conquered by him; but they could only mean Arabia Felix.—Vid. Dion. Cass. Euseb. Chron. p. 206.

[322]Qui mores hominum multorum vidit.—Hor.

[323]Emmanuel was cousin to the late king, John II. and grandson to king Edward, son of John I.

[324]The river Indus, which gave name to India.

[325]Vasco de Gama, who is, in a certain sense, the hero of the Lusiad, was born in 1469, at Sines, a fishing town on the Atlantic, midway between Lisbon and Cape St. Vincent, where, in a small church on a cliff, built by the great navigator after his appointment as Viceroy of India, is an inscription to his memory.—Ed.

[326]Hercules.

[327]Orac'lous Argo.—According to the fable, the vessel of the Argonauts spoke and prophesied. SeeThe Argonauticsof Apollonius Rhodius.—Ed.

[328]This fact is according to history: Aberat Olysippone prope littus quatuor passuum millia templum sanè religiosum et sanctum ab Henrico in honorem Sanctissimæ Virginis edificatum.... In id Gama pridie illius diei, quo erat navem conscensurus, se recepit, ut noctem cum religiosis hominibus qui in ædibus templo conjunctis habitabant, in precibus et votis consumeret. Sequenti die cum multi non illius tantùm gratia, sed aliorum etiam, qui illi comites erant, convenissent, fuit ab omnibus in scaphis deductus. Neque solùm homines religiosi, sed reliqui omnes voce maxima cum lacrymis à Deo precabantur, ut benè et prosperè illa tam periculosa navigatio omnibus eveniret, et universi re benè gesta, incolumes in patriam redirent.

[329]By this old man is personified the populace of Portugal. The endeavours to discover the East Indies by the Southern Ocean, for about eighty years had been the favourite topic of complaint, and never was any measure of government more unpopular than the expedition ofGama. Emmanuel's council were almost unanimous against the attempt. Some dreaded the introduction of wealth, and its attendants, luxury and effeminacy; while others affirmed, that no adequate advantages could arise from so perilous and remote a navigation. The expressions of the thousands who crowded the shore whenGamagave his sails to the wind, are thus expressed by Osorius: "A multis tamen interim is fletus atque lamentatio fiebat, un funus efferre viderentur. Sic enim dicebant: En quo miseros mortales provexit cupiditas et ambitio? Potuitne gravius supplicium hominibus istis constitui, si in se scelestum aliquod facinus admisissent? Est enim illis immensi maris longitudo peragranda, fluctus immanes difficillima navigatione superandi, vitæ discrimen in locis infinitis obeundum. Non fuit multò tolerabilius, in terra quovis genere mortis absumi, quàm tam procul à patria marinis fluctibus sepeliri. Hæc et alia multa in hanc sententiam dicebant, cùm omnia multò tristiora fingere præ metu cogerentur." The tender emotion and fixed resolution ofGama, and the earnest passion of the multitudes on the shore, are thus added by the same venerable historian: "Gama tamen quamvis lacrymas suorum desiderio funderet, rei tamen benè gerendæ fiducia confirmatus, alacriter in navem faustis ominibus conscendit.... Qui in littore consistebant, non prius abscedere voluerunt, quàm naves vento secundo plenissimis velis ab omnium conspectu remotæ sunt."

[330]More literally rendered by Capt. R. Burton:—"——He spokeFrom a full heart, and skill'd in worldly lore,In deep, slow tones this solemn warning, fraughtWith wisdom, by long-suffering only taught:'O passion of dominion! O fond lustOf that poor vanity which men call fame!O treach'rous appetite, whose highest gustIs vulgar breath that taketh honour's name!O fell ambition, terrible but justArt thou to breasts that cherish most thy flame!Brief life for them in peril, storm, and rage;This world a hell, and death their heritage."'Shrewd prodigal! whose riot is the dearthOf states and principalities oppress'd,Plunder and rape are of thy loathly birth,Thou art alike of life and soul the pest.High titles greet thee on this slavish earth,Yet, none so vile but they would fit thee best.But Fame, forsooth, and Glory thou art styl'd,And the blind herd is by a sound beguil'd.'"

[330]More literally rendered by Capt. R. Burton:—

"——He spokeFrom a full heart, and skill'd in worldly lore,In deep, slow tones this solemn warning, fraughtWith wisdom, by long-suffering only taught:'O passion of dominion! O fond lustOf that poor vanity which men call fame!O treach'rous appetite, whose highest gustIs vulgar breath that taketh honour's name!O fell ambition, terrible but justArt thou to breasts that cherish most thy flame!Brief life for them in peril, storm, and rage;This world a hell, and death their heritage."'Shrewd prodigal! whose riot is the dearthOf states and principalities oppress'd,Plunder and rape are of thy loathly birth,Thou art alike of life and soul the pest.High titles greet thee on this slavish earth,Yet, none so vile but they would fit thee best.But Fame, forsooth, and Glory thou art styl'd,And the blind herd is by a sound beguil'd.'"

[331]The Moor.—Ed.

[332]The Muses.—Ed.

[333]Prometheus is said to have stolen fire from heaven.—Ed.

[334]Alluding to the fables of Phaeton and Icarus; the former having obtained from Helios, his father, permission to guide the chariot of the sun for one day, nearly set the world on fire. He perished in the river Eridanus (the Po.) Icarus, the sun having melted the wax with which his wings were cemented, fell into that part of the Ægean which, from his misfortune, was called theIcarian Sea.—Ed.

[335]The sun is in the constellation Leo in July.—Ed.

[336]The Serra de Cintra, situated about 15 miles N.W. of Lisbon.—Ed.

[337]See the life of Don Henry, prince of Portugal, in the preface.

[338]Morocco.

[339]The discovery of some of the West Indian islands by Columbus was made in 1492 and 1493. His discovery of the continent of America was not till 1498. The fleet ofGamasailed from the Tagus in 1497.

[340]Called by the ancientsInsulæ Purpurariæ. Now Madeira, and Porto Santo. The former was so named by Juan Gonzales, and Tristan Vaz, from the Spanish wordmadera, wood. These discoverers wens sent out by the great Don Henry.

[341]The Tropic of Cancer.—Ed.

[342]Called by PtolemyCaput Assinarium, now Cape Verde.

[343]The Canaries, called by the ancientsInsulæ Fortunatæ.

[344]The province of Jalofo lies between the two rivers, the Gambia and the Zanago. The latter has other names in the several countries through which it runs. In its course it makes many islands, inhabited only by wild beasts. It is navigable for 150 leagues, at the end of which it is crossed by a stupendous ridge of perpendicular rocks, over which the river rushes with such violence, that travellers pass under it without any other inconvenience than the prodigious noise. The Gambia, orRio Grande, runs 180 leagues, but is not so far navigable. It carries more water, and runs with less noise than the other, though filled with many rivers which water the country of Mandinga. Both rivers are branches of the Niger. Their waters have this remarkable quality; when mixed together they operate as an emetic, but when separate do not. They abound with great variety of fishes, and their banks are covered with horses, crocodiles, winged serpents, elephants, ounces, wild boars, with great numbers of others, wonderful for the variety of their nature and different forms.—Faria y Sousa.

[345]Timbuctu, the mart of Mandinga gold, was greatly resorted to by the merchants of Grand Cairo, Tunis, Oran, Tlemicen, Fez, Morocco, etc.

[346]Contra hoc promontorium (Hesperionceras) Gorgades insulæ narrantur, Gorgonum quondam domus, bidui navigatione distantes a continente, ut tradit Xenophon Lampsacenus. Penetravit in eas Hanno Pœnorum imperator, prodiditque hirta fœminarum corpora viros pernicitate evasisse, duarumque Gorgonum cutes argumenti et miraculi gratia in Junonis templo posuit, spectatas usque ad Carthaginem captam.—Plin.Hist. Nat. l. 6. c. 31.

[347]Sierra Leone.

[348]Cape Palmas.—Ed.

[349]During the reign of John II. the Portuguese erected several forts, and acquired great power in the extensive regions of Guinea. Azambuja, a Portuguese captain, having obtained leave from Caramansa, a negro prince, to erect a fort on his territories, an unlucky accident had almost proved fatal to the discoverers. A huge rock lay very commodious for a quarry; the workmen began on it; but this rock, as the devil would have it, happened to be a negro god. The Portuguese were driven away by the enraged worshippers, who were afterwards with difficulty pacified by a profusion of such presents as they most esteemed.

[350]The Portuguese, having brought an ambassador from Congo to Lisbon, sent him back instructed in the faith. By this means the king, queen, and about 100,000 of the people were baptized; the idols were destroyed and churches built. Soon after, the prince, who was then absent at war, was baptized by the name ofAlonzo. His younger brother, Aquitimo, however, would not receive the faith, and the father, because allowed only one wife, turned apostate, and left the crown to his pagan son, who, with a great army, surrounded his brother, when only attended by some Portuguese and Christian blacks, in all only thirty-seven. By the bravery of these, however, Aquitimo was defeated, taken, and slain. One of Aquitimo's officers declared, they were not defeated by the thirty-seven Christians, but by a glorious army who fought under a shining cross. The idols were again destroyed, and Alonzo sent his sons, grandsons, and nephews to Portugal to study; two of whom were afterwards bishops in Congo.—Extracted fromFaria y Sousa.

[351]According to fable, Calisto was a nymph of Diana. Jupiter having assumed the figure of that goddess, completed his amorous desires. On the discovery of her pregnancy, Diana drove her from her train. She fled to the woods, where she was delivered of a son. Juno changed them into bears, and Jupiter placed them in heaven, where they form the constellations of Ursa Major and Minor. Juno, still enraged, entreated Thetis never to suffer Calisto to bathe in the sea. This is founded on the appearance of the northern pole-star, to the inhabitants of our hemisphere; but, whenGamaapproached the austral pole, the northern, of consequence, disappeared under the waves.

[352]The Southern Cross.

[353]The constellation of the southern pole was calledThe Crossby the Portuguese sailors, from the appearance of that figure formed by seven stars. In the southern hemisphere, as Camoëns observes, the nights are darker than in the northern, the skies being adorned with much fewer stars.

[354]Non, mihi si linguæ centum sunt, oraquecentum, Ferrea vox, omnes scelerum comprendere formas.—ÆN.vi.

[355]That living fire, by seamen held divine.—The sulphureous vapours of the air, after being violently agitated by a tempest, unite, and when the humidity begins to subside, as is the case when the storm is almost exhausted, by the agitation of their atoms they take fire, and are attracted by the masts and cordage of the ship. Being thus, naturally, the pledges of the approaching calm, it is no wonder that the superstition of sailors should in all ages have esteemed them divine, and—Of heaven's own care in storms the holy sign.In the expedition of the Golden Fleece, in a violent tempest these fires were seen to hover over the heads of Castor and Pollux, who were two of the Argonauts, and a calm immediately ensued. After the apotheoses of these heroes, the Grecian sailors invoked these fires by the names of Castor and Pollux, orthe sons of Jupiter. The Athenians called themΣωτῆρες,Saviours.

Of heaven's own care in storms the holy sign.

In the expedition of the Golden Fleece, in a violent tempest these fires were seen to hover over the heads of Castor and Pollux, who were two of the Argonauts, and a calm immediately ensued. After the apotheoses of these heroes, the Grecian sailors invoked these fires by the names of Castor and Pollux, orthe sons of Jupiter. The Athenians called themΣωτῆρες,Saviours.

[356]In this book, particularly in the description of Massilia, the Gorgades, the fires called Castor and Pollux, and the water-spout, Camoëns has happily imitated the manner of Lucan. It is probable that Camoëns, in his voyage to the East Indies, was an eye witness of the phenomena of the fires and water-spout. The latter is thus described by Pliny, l. 2. c. 51.Fit et caligo, belluæ similis nubes dira navigantibus vocatur et columna, cum spissatus humor rigensque ipse se sustinet, et in longam veluti fistulam nubes aquam trahit.When the violent heat attracts the waters to rise in the form of a tube, the marine salts are left behind, by the action of rarefaction, being too gross and fixed to ascend. It is thus, when the overloaded vapour bursts, that it descends—Sweet as the waters of the limpid rill.

Sweet as the waters of the limpid rill.

[357]That sage device.—The astrolabe, an instrument of infinite service in navigation, by which the altitude of the sun, and distance of the stars is taken. It was invented in Portugal during the reign of John II. by two Jewish physicians, named Roderic and Joseph. It is asserted by some that they were assisted by Martin of Bohemia, a celebrated mathematician.—Partly fromCastera. Vid. Barros, Dec. 1. lib. iv. c. 2.

[358]Arabic, one of the most copious and wide-spoken of languages.—Ed.

[359]Camoëns, in describing the adventure of Fernando Velosó, by departing from the truth of history, has shown his judgment as a poet. The place where the Portuguese landed they named the Bay of St. Helen. They caught one of two negroes, says Faria, who were busied in gathering honey on a mountain. Their behaviour to this savage, whom they gratified with a red cap, some glasses and bells, induced him to bring a number of his companions for the like trifles. Though some who accompaniedGamawere skilled in the various African languages, not one of the natives could understand them. A commerce, however, was commenced by signs and gestures.Gamabehaved to them with great civility; the fleet was cheerfully supplied with fresh provisions, for which the natives received cloths and trinkets. But this friendship was soon interrupted by a young, rash Portuguese. Having contracted an intimacy with some of the negroes, he obtained leave to penetrate into the country along with them, to observe their habitations and strength. They conducted him to their huts with great good nature, and placed before him, what they esteemed an elegant repast, a sea-calf dressed in the way of their country. This so much disgusted the delicate Portuguese, that he instantly got up and abruptly left them. Nor did they oppose his departure, but accompanied him with the greatest innocence. As fear, however, is always jealous, he imagined they were leading him as a victim to slaughter. No sooner did he come near the ships, than he called aloud for assistance. Coëllo's boat immediately set off for his rescue. The Africans fled to the woods; and now esteeming the Portuguese as a band of lawless plunderers, they provided themselves with arms, and lay in ambush. Their weapons were javelins, headed with short pieces of horn, which they throw with great dexterity. Soon after, whileGamaand some of his officers were on the shore taking the altitude of the sun by the astrolabe, they were suddenly and with great fury attacked by the ambush from the woods. Several were much wounded,multos convulnerant, inter quos Gama in pede vulnus accepit, andGamareceived a wound in the foot. The admiral made a speedy retreat to the fleet, prudently choosing rather to leave the negroes the honour of the victory, than to risk the life of one man in a quarrel so foreign to the destination of his expedition, and where, to impress the terror of his arms could be of no service to his interest. When he came nearer to the East Indies he acted in a different manner. He then made himself dreaded whenever the treachery of the natives provoked his resentment.—Collected fromFaria and Osorius.

[360]The critics have vehemently declaimed against the least mixture of the comic, with the dignity of the epic poem. It is needless to enter into any defence of this passage of Camoëns, farther than to observe that Homer, Virgil, and Milton have offended the critics in the same manner, and that this piece of raillery in the Lusiad is by much the politest, and the least reprehensible, of anything of the kind in the four poets. In Homer are several strokes of low raillery. Patroclus having killed Hector's charioteer, puns thus on his sudden fall:It is a pity he is not nearer the sea! He would soon catch abundance of oysters, nor would the storms frighten him. See how he dives from his chariot down to the sand! What excellent divers are the Trojans!Virgil, the most judicious of all poets, descends even to burlesque, where the commander of a galley tumbles the pilot into the sea:———Segnemque MenœtenIn mare præcipitem puppi deturbat ab alta.At gravis ut sundo vix tandem redditus imo estJam senior, madidaque fluens in veste Menœtes,Summa petit scopuli siccaque in rupe resedit.Illum et labentem Teucri, et risere natantem;Et salsos rident revomentem pectore fluctus.And, though the character of the speakers, the ingenious defence which has been offered for Milton, may, in some measure, vindicate the raillery which he puts into the mouths of Satan and Belial, the lowness of it, when compared with that of Camoëns, must still be acknowledged. Talking of the execution of the diabolical artillery among the good angels, they, says Satan—"Flew off, and into strange vagaries fellAs they would dance, yet for a dance they seem'dSomewhat extravagant and wild, perhapsFor joy of offer'd peace.——To whom thus Belial, in like gamesome mood.Leader, the terms we sent were terms of weight,Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home,Such as we might perceive amus'd them all,And stumbled many————this gift they have beside,They show us when our foes walk not upright."

——Segnemque MenœtenIn mare præcipitem puppi deturbat ab alta.At gravis ut sundo vix tandem redditus imo estJam senior, madidaque fluens in veste Menœtes,Summa petit scopuli siccaque in rupe resedit.Illum et labentem Teucri, et risere natantem;Et salsos rident revomentem pectore fluctus.

And, though the character of the speakers, the ingenious defence which has been offered for Milton, may, in some measure, vindicate the raillery which he puts into the mouths of Satan and Belial, the lowness of it, when compared with that of Camoëns, must still be acknowledged. Talking of the execution of the diabolical artillery among the good angels, they, says Satan—

"Flew off, and into strange vagaries fellAs they would dance, yet for a dance they seem'dSomewhat extravagant and wild, perhapsFor joy of offer'd peace.——To whom thus Belial, in like gamesome mood.Leader, the terms we sent were terms of weight,Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home,Such as we might perceive amus'd them all,And stumbled many————this gift they have beside,They show us when our foes walk not upright."

[361]The translator in reply to the critics will venture the assertion, that the fiction of the apparition of the Cape of Tempests, in sublimity and awful grandeur of imagination, stands unsurpassed in human composition.

[362]The next proud fleet.—On the return ofGamato Portugal, a fleet of thirteen sail, under the command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, was sent out on the second voyage to India, where the admiral with only six ships arrived. The rest were mostly destroyed by a terrible tempest at the Cape of Good Hope, which lasted twenty days. "The daytime," says Faria, "was so dark that the sailors could scarcely see each other, or hear what was said for the horrid noise of the winds." Among those who perished was the celebrated Bartholomew Diaz, who was the first modern discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, which he named the Cape of Tempests.

[363]Behold a hero come.—Don Francisco de Almeyda. He was the first Portuguese viceroy of India, in which country he obtained several great victories over the Mohammedans and pagans. He was the first who conquered Quiloa and Mombas, or Mombaz. On his return to Portugal he put into the bay of Saldanha, near the Cape of Good Hope, to take in water and provisions. The rudeness of one of his servants produced a quarrel with the Caffres, or Hottentots. His attendants, much against his will, forced him to march against the blacks. "Ah, whither," he exclaimed, "will you carry the infirm man of sixty years?" After plundering a miserable village, on the return to their ships they were attacked by a superior number of Caffres, who fought with such fury in rescue of their children, whom the Portuguese had seized, that the viceroy and fifty of his attendants were slain.

[364]The crescent, the symbol of Mohammedanism.—Ed.

[365]This poetical description of the miserable catastrophe of Don Emmanuel de Souza, and his beautiful spouse, Leonora de Sà, is by no means exaggerated. He was several years governor of Diu in India, where he amassed immense wealth. On his return to his native country, the ship in which was his lady, all his riches, and five hundred men, his sailors and domestics, was dashed to pieces on the rocks at the Cape of Good Hope. Don Emmanuel, his lady, and three children, with four hundred of the crew escaped, having only saved a few arms and provisions. As they marched through the wild uncultivated deserts, some died of famine, of thirst, and fatigue; others, who wandered from the main body in search of water, were murdered by the savages, or destroyed by the wild beasts. They arrived, at last, at a village inhabited by African banditti. At first they were courteously received, but the barbarians, having unexpectedly seized their arms, stripped the whole company naked, and left them destitute to the mercy of the desert. The wretchedness of the delicate and exposed Leonora was increased by the brutal insults of the negroes. Her husband, unable to relieve, beheld her miseries. After having travelled about 300 leagues, her legs swelled, her feet bleeding at every step, and her strength exhausted, she sunk down, and with the sand covered herself to the neck, to conceal her nakedness. In this dreadful situation, she beheld two of her children expire. Her own death soon followed. Her husband, who had been long enamoured of her beauty, received her last breath in a distracted embrace. Immediately, he snatched his third child in his arms, and uttering the most lamentable cries, he ran into the thickest of the wood, where the wild beasts were soon heard to growl over their prey. Of the whole four hundred who escaped the waves, only six and twenty arrived at another village, whose inhabitants were more civilized, and traded with the merchants of the Red Sea, from whence they found a passage to Europe, and brought the tidings of the unhappy fate of their companions. Jerome de Cortereal, a Portuguese poet, has written an affecting poem on the shipwreck, and deplorable catastrophe of Don Emmanuel, and his beloved spouse.—Partly fromCastera.

[366]The giants or Titans; called "sons of God" in Gen. vi. 2.—Ed.

[367]Briareus.

[368]Doris, the sister and spouse of Nereus, and mother of the Nereides. By Nereus, in the physical sense of the fable, is understood the water of the sea, and by Doris, the bitterness or salt, the supposed cause of its prolific quality in the generation of fishes.

[369]And give our wearied minds a lively glow.—Variety is no less delightful to the reader than to the traveller, and the imagination of Camoëns gave an abundant supply. The insertion of this pastoral landscape, between the terrific scenes which precede and follow, has a fine effect. "Variety," says Pope, in one of his notes on the Odyssey, "gives life and delight; and it is much more necessary in epic, than in comic or tragic, poetry, sometimes to shift the scenes, to diversify and embellish the story."The Portuguese, sailing upon the Atlantic Ocean, discovered the most southern point of Africa: here they found an immense sea, which carried them to the East Indies. The dangers they encountered in the voyage, the discovery of Mozambique, of Melinda, and of Calecut, have been sung by Camoëns, whose poem recalls to our minds the charms of the Odyssey, and the magnificence of the Æneid.—Montesquieu, Spirit of Laws, bk. xxi. c. 21.

The Portuguese, sailing upon the Atlantic Ocean, discovered the most southern point of Africa: here they found an immense sea, which carried them to the East Indies. The dangers they encountered in the voyage, the discovery of Mozambique, of Melinda, and of Calecut, have been sung by Camoëns, whose poem recalls to our minds the charms of the Odyssey, and the magnificence of the Æneid.—Montesquieu, Spirit of Laws, bk. xxi. c. 21.

[370]Virgil.

[371]A small island, namedSanta Cruzby Bartholomew Diaz, who discovered it. According to Faria y Sousa, he went twenty-five leagues further, to the river Del Infante, which, till passed byGama, was the utmost extent of the Portuguese discoveries.

[372]It was the force of this rushing current which retarded the further discoveries of Diaz.Gamagot over it by the assistance of a tempest. The seasons when these seas are safely navigable, are now perfectly known.

[373]The wise men of the East, or magi, whom the Roman Catholic writers will have to have been kings.—Ed.

[374]The Epiphany.—Ed.

[375]Dos Reis,i.e., of the kings.—Ed.

[376]The frequent disappointments of the Portuguese, when they expect to hear some account of India, is a judicious imitation of several parts of Virgil; who, in the same manner, magnifies the distresses of the Trojans in their search for the fated seat of Empire:———O gensInfelix! cui to exitio fortuna reservat?Septima post Trojæ excidium jam vertitur æstas;Cum freta, cum terras omnes, tot inhospita saxaSideraque emensæ ferimur: dum per mare magnumItaliam sequimur fugientem, et volvimur undis.Æn.v. 625.

——O gensInfelix! cui to exitio fortuna reservat?Septima post Trojæ excidium jam vertitur æstas;Cum freta, cum terras omnes, tot inhospita saxaSideraque emensæ ferimur: dum per mare magnumItaliam sequimur fugientem, et volvimur undis.Æn.v. 625.

[377]Hop.

[378]It had been extremely impolitic inGamato mention the mutiny of his followers to the King of Melinda. The boast of their loyalty, besides, has a good effect in the poem, as it elevates the heroes, and gives uniformity to the character of bravery, which the dignity of the epopea required to be ascribed to them. History relates the matter differently. In standing for the Cape of Good Hope,Gamagave the highest proofs of his resolution. The fleet seemed now tossed to the clouds,ut modo nubes contingere, and now sunk to the lowest whirlpools of the abyss. The winds were insufferably cold, and, to the rage of the tempest was added the horror of an almost continual darkness. The crew expected every moment to be swallowed up in the deep. At every interval of the storm, they came roundGama, asserting the impossibility to proceed further, and imploring him to return. This he resolutely refused. A conspiracy against his life was formed, but was discovered by his brother. He guarded against it with the greatest courage and prudence; put all the pilots in chains, and he himself, with some others, took the management of the helms. At last, after having many days withstood the tempest, and a perfidious conspiracy,invicto animo, with an unconquered mind, a favourable change of weather revived the spirits of the fleet, and allowed them to double the Cape of Good Hope.—Extr. fromOsorius's Historia.

[379]Gamaand his followers were, from the darkness of the Portuguese complexion, thought to be Moors. WhenGamaarrived in the East, a considerable commerce was carried on between the Indies and the Red Sea by the Moorish traders, by whom the gold mines of Sofala, and the riches of East Africa were enjoyed. The traffic was brought by land to Cairo, from whence Europe was supplied by the Venetian and Antwerpian merchants.

[380]"O nome lhe ficou dos Bons-Signais."

[381]Raphael. See Tobit, ch. v. and xii.—Ed.

[382]It was the custom of the Portuguese navigators to erect crosses on the shores of new-discovered countries.Gamacarried materials for pillars of stone with him, and erected six crosses during his expedition. They bore the name and arms of the king of Portugal, and were intended as proofs of the title which accrues from first discovery.

[383]This poetical description of the scurvy is by no means exaggerated. It is what sometimes really happens in the course of a long voyage.

[384]King of Ithaca.

[385]Æneas.

[386]Homer.

[387]Virgil.

[388]The Muses.

[389]Homer's Odyssey, bk. x. 460.

[390]See the Odyssey, bk. ix.

[391]See Æn. v. 833

[392]The Lotophagi, so named from the lotus, are thus described by Homer:—"Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest,They eat, they drink, and Nature gives the feast;The trees around them all their fruit produce;Lotos the name; divine, nectareous juice;(Thence call'd Lotophagi) which whoso tastes,Insatiate, riots in the sweet repasts,Nor other home, nor other care intends,But quits his home, his country, and his friends:The three we sent, from off th' enchanting groundWe dragg'd reluctant, and by force we bound:The rest in haste forsook the pleasing shore,Or, the charm tasted, had return'd no more."Pope, Odyss. ix. 103.The Libyan lotus is a shrub like a bramble, the berries like the myrtle, purple when ripe, and about the size of an olive. Mixed with bread-corn, it was used as food for slaves. They also made an agreeable wine of it, but which would not keep above ten days. See Pope's notein loco.

[392]The Lotophagi, so named from the lotus, are thus described by Homer:—

"Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest,They eat, they drink, and Nature gives the feast;The trees around them all their fruit produce;Lotos the name; divine, nectareous juice;(Thence call'd Lotophagi) which whoso tastes,Insatiate, riots in the sweet repasts,Nor other home, nor other care intends,But quits his home, his country, and his friends:The three we sent, from off th' enchanting groundWe dragg'd reluctant, and by force we bound:The rest in haste forsook the pleasing shore,Or, the charm tasted, had return'd no more."Pope, Odyss. ix. 103.

The Libyan lotus is a shrub like a bramble, the berries like the myrtle, purple when ripe, and about the size of an olive. Mixed with bread-corn, it was used as food for slaves. They also made an agreeable wine of it, but which would not keep above ten days. See Pope's notein loco.

[393]In skins confin'd the blust'ring winds control.—The gift of Æolus to Ulysses."The adverse winds in leathern bags he brac'd,Compress'd their force, and lock'd each struggling blast:For him the mighty sire of gods assign'd,The tempest's lord, the tyrant of the wind;His word alone the list'ning storms obey,To smooth the deep, or swell the foamy sea.These, in my hollow ship the monarch hung,Securely fetter'd by a silver thong;But Zephyrus exempt, with friendly galesHe charg'd to fill, and guide the swelling sails:Rare gift! but oh, what gift to fools avails?"}Pope, Odyss. x. 20.The companions of Ulysses imagined that these bags contained some valuable treasure, and opened them while their leader slept. The tempests bursting out, drove the fleet from Ithaca, which was then in sight, and was the cause of a new train of miseries.

[393]In skins confin'd the blust'ring winds control.—The gift of Æolus to Ulysses.

"The adverse winds in leathern bags he brac'd,Compress'd their force, and lock'd each struggling blast:For him the mighty sire of gods assign'd,The tempest's lord, the tyrant of the wind;His word alone the list'ning storms obey,To smooth the deep, or swell the foamy sea.These, in my hollow ship the monarch hung,Securely fetter'd by a silver thong;

Pope, Odyss. x. 20.

The companions of Ulysses imagined that these bags contained some valuable treasure, and opened them while their leader slept. The tempests bursting out, drove the fleet from Ithaca, which was then in sight, and was the cause of a new train of miseries.

[394]See the third Æneid.

[395]See the sixth Æneid, and the eleventh Odyssey.

[396]Alexander the Great.—Ed.

[397]Achilles, son of Peleus.—Ed.

[398]Virgil, born at Mantua.—Ed.

[399]Don Francisco de Gama, grandson of Vasco de Gama, the hero of the Lusiad.—Ed.

[400]Cleopatra.

[401]Every display of eastern luxury and magnificence was lavished in the fishing parties on the Nile, with which Cleopatra amused Mark Antony, when at any time he showed symptoms of uneasiness, or seemed inclined to abandon the effeminate life which he led with his mistress. At one of these parties, Mark Antony, having procured divers to put fishes upon his hooks while under the water, he very gallantly boasted to his mistress of his great dexterity in angling. Cleopatra perceived his art, and as gallantly outwitted him. Some other divers received her orders, and in a little while Mark Antony's line brought up a fried fish in place of a live one, to the vast entertainment of the queen, and all the convivial company. Octavius was at this time on his march to decide who should be master of the world.

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