The
rudeness
of one of his servants produced a quarrel
with the Caffres, or Hottentots.
with the Caffres, or Hottentots.
Camoes - Lusiades
_--According to the fable, the vessel of the
Argonauts spoke and prophesied. See _The Argonautics_ of Apollonius
Rhodius. --_Ed. _
[328] This fact is according to history: Aberat Olysippone prope littus
quatuor passuum millia templum sane religiosum et sanctum ab Henrico in
honorem Sanctissimae Virginis edificatum. . . . In id Gama pridie illius
diei, quo erat navem conscensurus, se recepit, ut noctem cum religiosis
hominibus qui in aedibus templo conjunctis habitabant, in precibus et
votis consumeret. Sequenti die cum multi non illius tantum gratia, sed
aliorum etiam, qui illi comites erant, convenissent, fuit ab omnibus in
scaphis deductus. Neque solum homines religiosi, sed reliqui omnes voce
maxima cum lacrymis a Deo precabantur, ut bene et prospere illa tam
periculosa navigatio omnibus eveniret, et universi re bene 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 of GAMA.
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 when GAMA gave 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, vitae discrimen in locis
infinitis obeundum. Non fuit multo tolerabilius, in terra quovis genere
mortis absumi, quam tam procul a patria marinis fluctibus sepeliri. Haec
et alia multa in hanc sententiam dicebant, cum omnia multo tristiora
fingere prae metu cogerentur. " The tender emotion and fixed resolution of
GAMA, 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 bene gerendae fiducia confirmatus,
alacriter in navem faustis ominibus conscendit. . . . Qui in littore
consistebant, non prius abscedere voluerunt, quam naves vento secundo
plenissimis velis ab omnium conspectu remotae sunt. "
[330] More literally rendered by Capt. R. Burton:--
"----He spoke
From a full heart, and skill'd in worldly lore,
In deep, slow tones this solemn warning, fraught
With wisdom, by long-suffering only taught:
'O passion of dominion! O fond lust
Of that poor vanity which men call fame!
O treach'rous appetite, whose highest gust
Is vulgar breath that taketh honour's name!
O fell ambition, terrible but just
Art 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 dearth
Of 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 AEgean which, from his
misfortune, was called the _Icarian 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 of GAMA sailed from the Tagus in 1497.
[340] Called by the ancients _Insulae Purpurariae_. Now Madeira, and Porto
Santo. The former was so named by Juan Gonzales, and Tristan Vaz, from
the Spanish word _madera_, wood. These discoverers wens sent out by the
great Don Henry.
[341] The Tropic of Cancer. --_Ed. _
[342] Called by Ptolemy _Caput Assinarium_, now Cape Verde.
[343] The Canaries, called by the ancients _Insulae Fortunatae_.
[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, or _Rio
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 insulae
narrantur, Gorgonum quondam domus, bidui navigatione distantes a
continente, ut tradit Xenophon Lampsacenus. Penetravit in eas Hanno
Poenorum imperator, prodiditque hirta foeminarum 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 of _Alonzo_. 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 from_ Faria 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, when GAMA approached the austral pole, the northern, of
consequence, disappeared under the waves.
[352] The Southern Cross.
[353] The constellation of the southern pole was called _The Cross_ by
the Portuguese sailors, from the appearance of that figure formed by
seven stars. In the southern hemisphere, as Camoens observes, the nights
are darker than in the northern, the skies being adorned with much fewer
stars.
[354]
_Non, mihi si linguae centum sunt, oraque
centum, Ferrea vox, omnes scelerum comprendere formas. _--AEN. 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, or _the sons of Jupiter_. The Athenians called them
? ? ? ? ? ? ? , _Saviours_.
[356] In this book, particularly in the description of Massilia, the
Gorgades, the fires called Castor and Pollux, and the water-spout,
Camoens has happily imitated the manner of Lucan. It is probable that
Camoens, 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, belluae 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 from_ Castera. Vid. Barros, Dec. 1. lib. iv. c.
2.
[358] Arabic, one of the most copious and wide-spoken of
languages. --_Ed. _
[359] Camoens, in describing the adventure of Fernando Veloso, 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 accompanied GAMA
were skilled in the various African languages, not one of the natives
could understand them. A commerce, however, was commenced by signs and
gestures. GAMA behaved 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. Coello'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, while GAMA and
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_, and GAMA received 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 from_
Faria 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 Camoens, 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 Menoeten
In mare praecipitem puppi deturbat ab alta.
At gravis ut sundo vix tandem redditus imo est
Jam senior, madidaque fluens in veste Menoetes,
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 Camoens, 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 fell
As they would dance, yet for a dance they seem'd
Somewhat extravagant and wild, perhaps
For 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 of GAMA to 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 Sa, 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
from_ Castera.
[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
Camoens 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
Camoens, whose poem recalls to our minds the charms of the Odyssey, and
the magnificence of the AEneid. --MONTESQUIEU, Spirit of Laws, bk. xxi. c.
21.
[370] Virgil.
[371] A small island, named _Santa Cruz_ by Bartholomew Diaz, who
discovered it. According to Faria y Sousa, he went twenty-five leagues
further, to the river Del Infante, which, till passed by GAMA, was the
utmost extent of the Portuguese discoveries.
[372] It was the force of this rushing current which retarded the
further discoveries of Diaz. GAMA got 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 gens
Infelix! cui to exitio fortuna reservat?
Septima post Trojae excidium jam vertitur aestas;
Cum freta, cum terras omnes, tot inhospita saxa
Sideraque emensae ferimur: dum per mare magnum
Italiam sequimur fugientem, et volvimur undis. _ AEN. v. 625.
[377] Hop.
[378] It had been extremely impolitic in GAMA to 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, GAMA gave 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 round GAMA, 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. from_ Osorius's Historia.
[379] GAMA and his followers were, from the darkness of the Portuguese
complexion, thought to be Moors. When GAMA arrived 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. GAMA carried 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] AEneas.
[386] Homer.
[387] Virgil.
[388] The Muses.
[389] Homer's Odyssey, bk. x. 460.
[390] See the Odyssey, bk. ix.
[391] See AEn. 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 ground
We 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 note _in loco_.
[393] _In skins confin'd the blust'ring winds control. _--The gift of
AEolus 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 gales }
He 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 AEneid.
[395] See the sixth AEneid, 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.
[402] The friendship of the Portuguese and Melindians was of long
continuance. Alvaro Cabral, the second admiral who made the voyage to
India, in an engagement with the Moors off the coast of Sofala, took two
ships richly freighted from the mines of that country. On finding that
Xeques Fonteyma, the commander, was uncle to the King of Melinda, he
restored the valuable prize, and treated him with the utmost courtesy.
Their good offices were reciprocal. By the information of the King of
Melinda, Cabral escaped the treachery of the King of Calicut. The Kings
of Mombaz and Quiloa, irritated at the alliance with Portugal, made
several depredations on the subjects of Melinda, who in return were
effectually revenged by their European allies.
[403] A giant.
[404] _Two gods contending. _--According to the fable, Neptune and
Minerva disputed the honour of giving a name to the city of Athens. They
agreed to determine the contest by a display of their wisdom and power,
in conferring the most beneficial gift on mankind. Neptune struck the
earth with his trident and produced the horse, whose bounding motions
are emblematical of the agitation of the sea. Pallas commanded the
olive-tree, the symbol of peace, and of riches, to spring forth. The
victory was adjudged to the goddess, from whom the city was named
Athens. The taste of the ancient Grecians clothed almost every
occurrence in mythological allegory. The founders of Athens, it is most
probable, disputed whether their new city should be named from the
fertility of the soil or from the marine situation of Attica. The former
opinion prevailed, and the town received its name in honour of the
goddess of the olive-tree--_Ath? n? _.
[405] _While Pallas here appears to wave her hand. _--As Neptune struck
the earth with his trident, Minerva, says the fable, struck the earth
with her lance. That she waved her hand while the olive boughs spread,
is a fine poetical attitude, and varies the picture from that of
Neptune, which follows.
[406] _Though wide, and various, o'er the sculptur'd stone. _--The
description of palaces is a favourite topic several times touched upon
by the two great masters of epic poetry, in which they have been happily
imitated by their three greatest disciples among the moderns, Camoens,
Tasso, and Milton. The description of the palace of Neptune has great
merit. Nothing can be more in place than the picture of chaos and the
four elements. The war of the gods, and the contest of Neptune and
Minerva are touched with the true boldness of poetical colouring. To
show to the English reader that the Portuguese poet is, in his manner,
truly classical, is the intention of many of these notes.
[407] Bacchus.
[408] The description of Triton, who, as Fanshaw says--
"Was a great nasty clown,"
is in the style of the classics. His parentage is differently related.
Hesiod makes him the son of Neptune and Amphitrite. By Triton, in the
physical sense of the fable, is meant the noise, and by Salace, the
mother by some ascribed to him, the salt of the ocean. The origin of the
fable of Triton, it is probable, was founded on the appearance of a sea
animal, which, according to some ancient naturalists, in the upward
parts resembles the human figure. Pausanias relates a wonderful story of
a monstrously large one, which often came ashore on the meadows of
Boeotia. Over his head was a kind of finny cartilage, which, at a
distance, appeared like hair; the body covered with brown scales; the
nose and ears like the human; the mouth of a dreadful width, jagged with
the teeth of a panther; the eyes of a greenish hue; the hands divided
into fingers, the nails of which were crooked, and of a shelly
substance. This monster, whose extremities ended in a tail like a
dolphin's, devoured both men and beasts as they chanced in his way. The
citizens of Tanagra, at last, contrived his destruction. They set a
large vessel full of wine on the sea shore. Triton got drunk with it,
and fell into a profound sleep, in which condition the Tanagrians
beheaded him, and afterwards, with great propriety, hung up his body in
the temple of Bacchus; where, says Pausanias, it continued a long time.
[409] _A shell of purple on his head he bore. _--In the Portuguese--
_Na cabeca por gorra tinha posta
Huma mui grande casco de lagosta. _
Thus rendered by Fanshaw--
"He had (for a montera[413]) on his crown
The shell of a red lobster overgrown. "
[410] Neptune.
[411] _And changeful Proteus, whose prophetic mind. _--The fullest and
best account of the fable of Proteus is in the fourth Odyssey.
[412] Thetis.
[413] Montera, the Spanish word for a huntsman's cap.
[414] _She who the rage of Athamas to shun. _--Ino, the daughter of
Cadmus and Hermione, and second spouse of Athamas, king of Thebes. The
fables of her fate are various. That which Camoens follows is the most
common. Athamas, seized with madness, imagined that his spouse was a
lioness, and her two sons young lions. In this frenzy he slew Learchus,
and drove the mother and her other son, Melicertus, into the sea. The
corpse of the mother was thrown ashore on Megara and that of the son at
Corinth. They were afterwards deified, the one as a sea goddess, the
other as the god of harbours.
[415] _And Glaucus lost to joy. _--A fisherman, says the fable, who, on
eating a certain herb, was turned into a sea god. Circe was enamoured of
him, and in revenge of her slighted love, poisoned the fountain where
his mistress usually bathed. By the force of the enchantment the
favoured Scylla was changed into a hideous monster, whose loins were
surrounded with the ever-barking heads of dogs and wolves. Scylla, on
this, threw herself into the sea, and was metamorphosed into the rock
which bears her name. The rock Scylla at a distance appears like the
statue of a woman. The furious dashing of the waves in the cavities,
which are level with the water, resembles the barking of wolves and
dogs.
[416] Thyoneus, a name of Bacchus.
[417] _High from the roof the living amber glows. --_
"From the arched roof,
Pendent by subtle magic, many a row
Of starry lamps, and blazing cressets, fed
With naptha and asphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky. "
MILTON.
Argonauts spoke and prophesied. See _The Argonautics_ of Apollonius
Rhodius. --_Ed. _
[328] This fact is according to history: Aberat Olysippone prope littus
quatuor passuum millia templum sane religiosum et sanctum ab Henrico in
honorem Sanctissimae Virginis edificatum. . . . In id Gama pridie illius
diei, quo erat navem conscensurus, se recepit, ut noctem cum religiosis
hominibus qui in aedibus templo conjunctis habitabant, in precibus et
votis consumeret. Sequenti die cum multi non illius tantum gratia, sed
aliorum etiam, qui illi comites erant, convenissent, fuit ab omnibus in
scaphis deductus. Neque solum homines religiosi, sed reliqui omnes voce
maxima cum lacrymis a Deo precabantur, ut bene et prospere illa tam
periculosa navigatio omnibus eveniret, et universi re bene 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 of GAMA.
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 when GAMA gave 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, vitae discrimen in locis
infinitis obeundum. Non fuit multo tolerabilius, in terra quovis genere
mortis absumi, quam tam procul a patria marinis fluctibus sepeliri. Haec
et alia multa in hanc sententiam dicebant, cum omnia multo tristiora
fingere prae metu cogerentur. " The tender emotion and fixed resolution of
GAMA, 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 bene gerendae fiducia confirmatus,
alacriter in navem faustis ominibus conscendit. . . . Qui in littore
consistebant, non prius abscedere voluerunt, quam naves vento secundo
plenissimis velis ab omnium conspectu remotae sunt. "
[330] More literally rendered by Capt. R. Burton:--
"----He spoke
From a full heart, and skill'd in worldly lore,
In deep, slow tones this solemn warning, fraught
With wisdom, by long-suffering only taught:
'O passion of dominion! O fond lust
Of that poor vanity which men call fame!
O treach'rous appetite, whose highest gust
Is vulgar breath that taketh honour's name!
O fell ambition, terrible but just
Art 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 dearth
Of 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 AEgean which, from his
misfortune, was called the _Icarian 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 of GAMA sailed from the Tagus in 1497.
[340] Called by the ancients _Insulae Purpurariae_. Now Madeira, and Porto
Santo. The former was so named by Juan Gonzales, and Tristan Vaz, from
the Spanish word _madera_, wood. These discoverers wens sent out by the
great Don Henry.
[341] The Tropic of Cancer. --_Ed. _
[342] Called by Ptolemy _Caput Assinarium_, now Cape Verde.
[343] The Canaries, called by the ancients _Insulae Fortunatae_.
[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, or _Rio
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 insulae
narrantur, Gorgonum quondam domus, bidui navigatione distantes a
continente, ut tradit Xenophon Lampsacenus. Penetravit in eas Hanno
Poenorum imperator, prodiditque hirta foeminarum 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 of _Alonzo_. 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 from_ Faria 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, when GAMA approached the austral pole, the northern, of
consequence, disappeared under the waves.
[352] The Southern Cross.
[353] The constellation of the southern pole was called _The Cross_ by
the Portuguese sailors, from the appearance of that figure formed by
seven stars. In the southern hemisphere, as Camoens observes, the nights
are darker than in the northern, the skies being adorned with much fewer
stars.
[354]
_Non, mihi si linguae centum sunt, oraque
centum, Ferrea vox, omnes scelerum comprendere formas. _--AEN. 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, or _the sons of Jupiter_. The Athenians called them
? ? ? ? ? ? ? , _Saviours_.
[356] In this book, particularly in the description of Massilia, the
Gorgades, the fires called Castor and Pollux, and the water-spout,
Camoens has happily imitated the manner of Lucan. It is probable that
Camoens, 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, belluae 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 from_ Castera. Vid. Barros, Dec. 1. lib. iv. c.
2.
[358] Arabic, one of the most copious and wide-spoken of
languages. --_Ed. _
[359] Camoens, in describing the adventure of Fernando Veloso, 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 accompanied GAMA
were skilled in the various African languages, not one of the natives
could understand them. A commerce, however, was commenced by signs and
gestures. GAMA behaved 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. Coello'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, while GAMA and
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_, and GAMA received 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 from_
Faria 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 Camoens, 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 Menoeten
In mare praecipitem puppi deturbat ab alta.
At gravis ut sundo vix tandem redditus imo est
Jam senior, madidaque fluens in veste Menoetes,
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 Camoens, 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 fell
As they would dance, yet for a dance they seem'd
Somewhat extravagant and wild, perhaps
For 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 of GAMA to 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 Sa, 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
from_ Castera.
[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
Camoens 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
Camoens, whose poem recalls to our minds the charms of the Odyssey, and
the magnificence of the AEneid. --MONTESQUIEU, Spirit of Laws, bk. xxi. c.
21.
[370] Virgil.
[371] A small island, named _Santa Cruz_ by Bartholomew Diaz, who
discovered it. According to Faria y Sousa, he went twenty-five leagues
further, to the river Del Infante, which, till passed by GAMA, was the
utmost extent of the Portuguese discoveries.
[372] It was the force of this rushing current which retarded the
further discoveries of Diaz. GAMA got 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 gens
Infelix! cui to exitio fortuna reservat?
Septima post Trojae excidium jam vertitur aestas;
Cum freta, cum terras omnes, tot inhospita saxa
Sideraque emensae ferimur: dum per mare magnum
Italiam sequimur fugientem, et volvimur undis. _ AEN. v. 625.
[377] Hop.
[378] It had been extremely impolitic in GAMA to 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, GAMA gave 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 round GAMA, 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. from_ Osorius's Historia.
[379] GAMA and his followers were, from the darkness of the Portuguese
complexion, thought to be Moors. When GAMA arrived 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. GAMA carried 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] AEneas.
[386] Homer.
[387] Virgil.
[388] The Muses.
[389] Homer's Odyssey, bk. x. 460.
[390] See the Odyssey, bk. ix.
[391] See AEn. 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 ground
We 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 note _in loco_.
[393] _In skins confin'd the blust'ring winds control. _--The gift of
AEolus 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 gales }
He 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 AEneid.
[395] See the sixth AEneid, 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.
[402] The friendship of the Portuguese and Melindians was of long
continuance. Alvaro Cabral, the second admiral who made the voyage to
India, in an engagement with the Moors off the coast of Sofala, took two
ships richly freighted from the mines of that country. On finding that
Xeques Fonteyma, the commander, was uncle to the King of Melinda, he
restored the valuable prize, and treated him with the utmost courtesy.
Their good offices were reciprocal. By the information of the King of
Melinda, Cabral escaped the treachery of the King of Calicut. The Kings
of Mombaz and Quiloa, irritated at the alliance with Portugal, made
several depredations on the subjects of Melinda, who in return were
effectually revenged by their European allies.
[403] A giant.
[404] _Two gods contending. _--According to the fable, Neptune and
Minerva disputed the honour of giving a name to the city of Athens. They
agreed to determine the contest by a display of their wisdom and power,
in conferring the most beneficial gift on mankind. Neptune struck the
earth with his trident and produced the horse, whose bounding motions
are emblematical of the agitation of the sea. Pallas commanded the
olive-tree, the symbol of peace, and of riches, to spring forth. The
victory was adjudged to the goddess, from whom the city was named
Athens. The taste of the ancient Grecians clothed almost every
occurrence in mythological allegory. The founders of Athens, it is most
probable, disputed whether their new city should be named from the
fertility of the soil or from the marine situation of Attica. The former
opinion prevailed, and the town received its name in honour of the
goddess of the olive-tree--_Ath? n? _.
[405] _While Pallas here appears to wave her hand. _--As Neptune struck
the earth with his trident, Minerva, says the fable, struck the earth
with her lance. That she waved her hand while the olive boughs spread,
is a fine poetical attitude, and varies the picture from that of
Neptune, which follows.
[406] _Though wide, and various, o'er the sculptur'd stone. _--The
description of palaces is a favourite topic several times touched upon
by the two great masters of epic poetry, in which they have been happily
imitated by their three greatest disciples among the moderns, Camoens,
Tasso, and Milton. The description of the palace of Neptune has great
merit. Nothing can be more in place than the picture of chaos and the
four elements. The war of the gods, and the contest of Neptune and
Minerva are touched with the true boldness of poetical colouring. To
show to the English reader that the Portuguese poet is, in his manner,
truly classical, is the intention of many of these notes.
[407] Bacchus.
[408] The description of Triton, who, as Fanshaw says--
"Was a great nasty clown,"
is in the style of the classics. His parentage is differently related.
Hesiod makes him the son of Neptune and Amphitrite. By Triton, in the
physical sense of the fable, is meant the noise, and by Salace, the
mother by some ascribed to him, the salt of the ocean. The origin of the
fable of Triton, it is probable, was founded on the appearance of a sea
animal, which, according to some ancient naturalists, in the upward
parts resembles the human figure. Pausanias relates a wonderful story of
a monstrously large one, which often came ashore on the meadows of
Boeotia. Over his head was a kind of finny cartilage, which, at a
distance, appeared like hair; the body covered with brown scales; the
nose and ears like the human; the mouth of a dreadful width, jagged with
the teeth of a panther; the eyes of a greenish hue; the hands divided
into fingers, the nails of which were crooked, and of a shelly
substance. This monster, whose extremities ended in a tail like a
dolphin's, devoured both men and beasts as they chanced in his way. The
citizens of Tanagra, at last, contrived his destruction. They set a
large vessel full of wine on the sea shore. Triton got drunk with it,
and fell into a profound sleep, in which condition the Tanagrians
beheaded him, and afterwards, with great propriety, hung up his body in
the temple of Bacchus; where, says Pausanias, it continued a long time.
[409] _A shell of purple on his head he bore. _--In the Portuguese--
_Na cabeca por gorra tinha posta
Huma mui grande casco de lagosta. _
Thus rendered by Fanshaw--
"He had (for a montera[413]) on his crown
The shell of a red lobster overgrown. "
[410] Neptune.
[411] _And changeful Proteus, whose prophetic mind. _--The fullest and
best account of the fable of Proteus is in the fourth Odyssey.
[412] Thetis.
[413] Montera, the Spanish word for a huntsman's cap.
[414] _She who the rage of Athamas to shun. _--Ino, the daughter of
Cadmus and Hermione, and second spouse of Athamas, king of Thebes. The
fables of her fate are various. That which Camoens follows is the most
common. Athamas, seized with madness, imagined that his spouse was a
lioness, and her two sons young lions. In this frenzy he slew Learchus,
and drove the mother and her other son, Melicertus, into the sea. The
corpse of the mother was thrown ashore on Megara and that of the son at
Corinth. They were afterwards deified, the one as a sea goddess, the
other as the god of harbours.
[415] _And Glaucus lost to joy. _--A fisherman, says the fable, who, on
eating a certain herb, was turned into a sea god. Circe was enamoured of
him, and in revenge of her slighted love, poisoned the fountain where
his mistress usually bathed. By the force of the enchantment the
favoured Scylla was changed into a hideous monster, whose loins were
surrounded with the ever-barking heads of dogs and wolves. Scylla, on
this, threw herself into the sea, and was metamorphosed into the rock
which bears her name. The rock Scylla at a distance appears like the
statue of a woman. The furious dashing of the waves in the cavities,
which are level with the water, resembles the barking of wolves and
dogs.
[416] Thyoneus, a name of Bacchus.
[417] _High from the roof the living amber glows. --_
"From the arched roof,
Pendent by subtle magic, many a row
Of starry lamps, and blazing cressets, fed
With naptha and asphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky. "
MILTON.
