"'Shrewd
prodigal!
Camoes - Lusiades
17-19.
[286] This speech in the original has been much admired by foreign
critics, as a model of military eloquence. The critic, it is hoped, will
perceive that the translator has endeavoured to support the character of
the speaker.
[287] This was the famous P. Corn. Scipio Africanus. The fact, somewhat
differently related by Livy, is this. After the defeat at Cannae, a
considerable body of Romans fled to Canusium, and appointed Scipio and
Ap. Claudius their commanders. While they remained there, it was told
Scipio, that some of his chief officers, at the head of whom was
Caecilius Metellus, were taking measures to transport themselves out of
Italy. He went immediately to their assembly; and drawing his sword,
said, _I swear that I will not desert the Commonwealth of Rome, nor
suffer any other citizen to do it. The same oath I require of you,
Caecilius, and of all present; whoever refuses, let him know that this
sword is drawn against him. _ The historian adds, that they were as
terrified by this, as if they had beheld the face of their conqueror,
Hannibal. They all swore, and submitted themselves to Scipio. --Vid.
Livy, bk. 22. c. 53.
[288] Sestos was a city of Thrace, on the Dardanelles, opposite
Abydos. --_Ed. _
[289] The Guadiana, one of the two great rivers of Spain. --_Ed. _
[290] The Douro.
[291] Homer and Virgil have, with great art, gradually heightened the
fury of every battle, till the last efforts of their genius were
lavished in describing the superior prowess of the hero in the decisive
engagement. Camoens, in like manner, has bestowed his utmost attention
on this his principal battle. The circumstances preparatory to the
engagement are happily imagined, and solemnly conducted, and the fury of
the combat is supported with a poetical heat, and a variety of imagery,
which, one need not hesitate to affirm, would do honour to an ancient
classic author.
[292] _And his own brothers shake the hostile lance. _--The just
indignation with which Camoens treats the kindred of the brave Nunio
Alvaro de Pereyra, is condemned by the French translator. "The
Pereyras," says he, "deserve no stain on their memory for joining the
King of Castile, whose title to the crown of Portugal was infinitely
more just and solid than that of Don John. " Castera, however, is grossly
mistaken. Don Alonzo Enriquez, the first King of Portugal, was elected
by the people, who had recovered their liberties at the glorious battle
of Ourique. At the election the constitution of the kingdom was settled
in eighteen short statutes, wherein it is expressly provided, that none
but a Portuguese can be king of Portugal; that if an infanta marry a
foreign prince, he shall not, in her right, become King of Portugal, and
a new election of a king, in case of the failure of the male line, is,
by these statutes, supposed legal. By the treaty of marriage between the
King of Castile and Donna Beatrix, the heiress of Fernando of Portugal,
it was agreed, that only their children should succeed to the Portuguese
crown; and that, in case the throne became vacant ere such children were
born, the Queen-dowager, Leonora, should govern with the title of
Regent. Thus, neither by the original constitution, nor by the treaty of
marriage, could the King of Castile succeed to the throne of Portugal.
And any pretence he might found on the marriage contract was already
forfeited; for he caused himself and his queen to be proclaimed, added
Portugal to his titles, coined Portuguese money with his bust, deposed
the queen regent, and afterwards sent her prisoner to Castile. The
lawful heir, Don Juan, the son of Inez de Castro, was kept in prison by
his rival, the King of Castile; and, as before observed, a new election
was, by the original statutes, supposed legal in cases of emergency.
These facts, added to the consideration of the tyranny of the King of
Castile, and the great services which Don John had rendered his country,
fully vindicate the indignation of Camoens against the traitorous
Pereyras.
[293] Near Pharsalus was fought the decisive battle between Caesar and
Pompey, B. C. 48. --_Ed. _
[294] Ceuta, a small Spanish possession on the Mediterranean coast of
Morocco. --_Ed. _
[295] Tetuan, a city of Morocco. --_Ed. _
[296] _Through the fierce Brigians. _--The Castilians, so called from one
of their ancient kings, named Brix, or Brigus, whom the monkish writers
call the grandson of Noah.
[297] These lines are not in the common editions of Camoens. They
consist of three stanzas in the Portuguese, and are said to have been
left out by the author himself in his second edition. The translator,
however, as they breathe the true spirit of Virgil, was willing to
preserve them with this acknowledgment.
[298] Massylia, a province in Numidia, greatly infested with lions,
particularly that part of it called _Os sete montes irmaos_, the seven
brother mountains.
[299] _And many a gasping warrior sigh'd his last. _--This, which is
almost literal from--
_Muitos lancarao o ultimo suspiro,--_
and the preceding circumstance of Don John's brandishing his lance four
times--
_E sopesando a lanca quatro vezes,_
are poetical, and in the spirit of Homer. Besides Maldonat, Castera has,
in this battle, introduced several other names which have no place in
Camoens. Carrillo, Robledo, John of Lorca, Salazar of Seville were
killed, he tells us: And, "Velasques and Sanches, natives of Toledo,
Galbes, surnamed the 'Soldier without Fear,' Montanches, Oropesa, and
Mondonedo, all six of proved valour, fell by the hand of young Antony,
who brought to the fight either more address, or better fortune than
these. " Not a word of this is in the Portuguese.
[300] _Their swords seem dipp'd in fire. _--This is as literal as the
idiom of the two languages would allow. Dryden has a thought like that
of this couplet, but which is not in his original:--
"Their bucklers clash; thick blows descend from high,
And flakes of fire from their hard helmets fly. "
DRYD. Virg. AEn. xii.
[301] Grand master of the order of St. James, named Don Pedro Nunio. He
was not killed, however, in this battle, which was fought on the plains
of Aljubarota, but in that of Valverda, which immediately followed. The
reader may, perhaps, be surprised to find that every soldier mentioned
in these notes is a Don, a _Lord_. The following piece of history will
account for the number of the Portuguese nobles. Don Alonzo Enriquez,
Count of Portugal, was saluted king by his army at the battle of
Ourique; in return, his majesty dignified every man in his army with the
rank of nobility. --Vide the 9th of the Statutes of Lamego.
[302] Cerberus.
[303] The Spaniards.
[304] This tyrant, whose unjust pretensions to the crown of Portugal
laid his own, and that, kingdom in blood, was on his final defeat
overwhelmed with all the frenzy of grief. In the night after the
decisive battle of Aljubarota, he fled upwards of thirty miles upon a
mule. Don Laurence, archbishop of Braga, in a letter written in old
Portuguese to Don John, abbot of Alcobaza, gives this account of his
behaviour: "The constable has informed me that he saw the King of
Castile at Santaren, who behaved as a madman, cursing his existence, and
tearing the hairs of his beard. And, in good faith, my good friend, it
is better that he should do so to himself than to us; the man who thus
plucks his own beard, would be much better pleased to do so to others. "
The writer of this letter, though a prelate, fought at the battle of
Aljubarota, where he received on the face a large wound from a sabre.
[305] _The festive days by heroes old ordain'd. _--As a certain proof of
the victory, it was required, by the honour of these ages, that the
victor should encamp three days on the field of battle. By this
knight-errantry the advantages which ought to have been pursued were
frequently lost. Don John, however, though he complied with the reigning
ideas of honour, sent Don Nunio, with a proper army, to reap the fruits
of his victory.
[306] John of Portugal, about a year after the battle of Aljubarota,
married Philippa, eldest daughter of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster,
son of Edward III. who assisted the king, his son-in-law, in an
irruption into Castile, and, at the end of the campaign, promised to
return with more numerous forces for the next. But this was prevented by
the marriage of his youngest daughter, Catalina, with Don Henry, eldest
son of the King of Castile. The King of Portugal on this entered
Galicia, and reduced the cities of Tui and Salvaterra. A truce followed.
While the tyrant of Castile meditated a new war, he was killed by a fall
from his horse, and, leaving no issue by his queen, Beatrix (the King of
Portugal's daughter), all pretension to that crown ceased. The truce was
now prolonged for fifteen years, and, though not strictly kept, yet, at
last the influence of the English queen, Catalina, prevailed, and a long
peace, happy for both kingdoms, ensued.
[307] The Pillars of Hercules, or Straits of Gibraltar. --_Ed. _
[308] The character of this great prince claims a place in these notes,
as it affords a comment on the enthusiasm of Camoens, who has made him
the hero of his episode. His birth, excellent education, and masterly
conduct when regent, have already been mentioned. The same justice,
prudence, and heroism always accompanied him when king. He had the art
to join the most winning affability with all the manly dignity of the
sovereign. To those who were his friends, when a private man, he was
particularly attentive. His nobility dined at his table, he frequently
made visits to them, and introduced among them the taste for, and the
love of, letters. As he felt the advantages of education, he took the
utmost care of that of his children. He had many sons, and he himself
often instructed them in solid and useful knowledge, and was amply
repaid. He lived to see them men, men of parts and of action, whose only
emulation was to show affection to his person, and to support his
administration by their great abilities. One of his sons, Don Henry,
duke of Viseo, was that great prince whose ardent passion for maritime
affairs gave birth to all the modern improvements in navigation. The
clergy, who had disturbed almost every other reign, were so convinced of
the wisdom of his, that they confessed he ought to be supported out of
the treasures of the church, and granted him the church plate to be
coined. When the pope ordered a rigorous inquiry to be made into his
having brought ecclesiastics before lay tribunals, the clergy had the
singular honesty to desert what was styled the church immunities, and to
own that justice had been impartially administered. He died in the
seventy-sixth year of his age, and in the forty-eighth of his reign. His
affection to his queen, Philippa, made him fond of the English, whose
friendship he cultivated, and by whom he was frequently assisted.
[309] Camoens, in this instance, has raised the character of one brother
at the other's expense, to give his poem an air of solemnity. The siege
of Tangier was proposed. The king's brothers differed in their opinions:
that of Don Fernand, though a knight-errant adventure, was approved of
by the young nobility. The infants, Henry and Fernand, at the head of
7000 men, laid siege to Tangier, and were surrounded by a numerous army
of Moors, some writers say six hundred thousand. On condition that the
Portuguese army should be allowed to return home, the infants promised
to surrender Ceuta. The Moors gladly accepted of the terms, but demanded
one of the infants as a hostage. Fernand offered himself, and was left.
The king was willing to comply with the terms to relieve his brother,
but the court considered the value of Ceuta, and would not consent. The
pope also interposed his authority, that Ceuta should be kept as a check
on the infidels, and proposed to raise a crusade for the delivery of
Fernand. In the meanwhile large offers were made for his liberty. These
were rejected by the Moors, who would accept of nothing but Ceuta, to
whose vast importance they were no strangers. When negotiations failed,
King Edward assembled a large army to effect his brother's release, but,
just as he was setting out, he was seized with the plague, and died,
leaving orders with his queen to deliver up Ceuta for the release of his
brother. This, however, was never performed. Don Fernand remained with
the Moors till his death. The magnanimity of his behaviour gained him
their esteem and admiration, nor is there good proof that he received
any very rigorous treatment; the contrary is rather to be inferred from
the romantic notions of military honour which then prevailed among the
Moors. Don Fernand is to this day esteemed as a saint and martyr in
Portugal, and his memory is commemorated on the fifth of June. King
Edward reigned only five years and a month. He was the most eloquent man
in his dominions, spoke and wrote Latin elegantly, was author of several
books, one on horsemanship, in which art he excelled. He was brave in
the field, active in business, and rendered his country infinite service
by reducing the laws to a regular code. He was knight of the Order of
the Garter, which honour was conferred upon him by his cousin, Henry V.
of England. In one instance he gave great offence to the superstitious
populace. He despised the advice of a Jew astrologer, who entreated him
to delay his coronation because the stars that day were unfavourable. To
this the misfortune of Tangier was ascribed, and the people were always
on the alarm, as if some terrible disaster were impending over them.
[310] The Moors.
[311] When Henry IV. of Castile died, he declared that the infanta
Joanna, was his heiress, in preference to his sister, Donna Isabella,
married to Don Ferdinand, son to the King of Arragon. In hopes to attain
the kingdom of Castile, Don Alonzo, king of Portugal, obtained a
dispensation from the pope to marry his niece, Donna Joanna. After a
bloody war, the ambitious views of Alonzo and his courtiers were
defeated.
[312] The Pyrenees which separate France from Spain. --_Ed. _
[313] The Prince of Portugal.
[314] Julius Caesar.
[315] Naples.
[316] Parthenope was one of the Syrens. Enraged because she could not
allure Ulysses, she threw herself into the sea. Her corpse was thrown
ashore, and buried where Naples now stands.
[317] The coast of Alexandria.
[318] Among the Christians of Abyssinia.
[319] Sandy, the French sable and. --_Ed. _
[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. 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.
[286] This speech in the original has been much admired by foreign
critics, as a model of military eloquence. The critic, it is hoped, will
perceive that the translator has endeavoured to support the character of
the speaker.
[287] This was the famous P. Corn. Scipio Africanus. The fact, somewhat
differently related by Livy, is this. After the defeat at Cannae, a
considerable body of Romans fled to Canusium, and appointed Scipio and
Ap. Claudius their commanders. While they remained there, it was told
Scipio, that some of his chief officers, at the head of whom was
Caecilius Metellus, were taking measures to transport themselves out of
Italy. He went immediately to their assembly; and drawing his sword,
said, _I swear that I will not desert the Commonwealth of Rome, nor
suffer any other citizen to do it. The same oath I require of you,
Caecilius, and of all present; whoever refuses, let him know that this
sword is drawn against him. _ The historian adds, that they were as
terrified by this, as if they had beheld the face of their conqueror,
Hannibal. They all swore, and submitted themselves to Scipio. --Vid.
Livy, bk. 22. c. 53.
[288] Sestos was a city of Thrace, on the Dardanelles, opposite
Abydos. --_Ed. _
[289] The Guadiana, one of the two great rivers of Spain. --_Ed. _
[290] The Douro.
[291] Homer and Virgil have, with great art, gradually heightened the
fury of every battle, till the last efforts of their genius were
lavished in describing the superior prowess of the hero in the decisive
engagement. Camoens, in like manner, has bestowed his utmost attention
on this his principal battle. The circumstances preparatory to the
engagement are happily imagined, and solemnly conducted, and the fury of
the combat is supported with a poetical heat, and a variety of imagery,
which, one need not hesitate to affirm, would do honour to an ancient
classic author.
[292] _And his own brothers shake the hostile lance. _--The just
indignation with which Camoens treats the kindred of the brave Nunio
Alvaro de Pereyra, is condemned by the French translator. "The
Pereyras," says he, "deserve no stain on their memory for joining the
King of Castile, whose title to the crown of Portugal was infinitely
more just and solid than that of Don John. " Castera, however, is grossly
mistaken. Don Alonzo Enriquez, the first King of Portugal, was elected
by the people, who had recovered their liberties at the glorious battle
of Ourique. At the election the constitution of the kingdom was settled
in eighteen short statutes, wherein it is expressly provided, that none
but a Portuguese can be king of Portugal; that if an infanta marry a
foreign prince, he shall not, in her right, become King of Portugal, and
a new election of a king, in case of the failure of the male line, is,
by these statutes, supposed legal. By the treaty of marriage between the
King of Castile and Donna Beatrix, the heiress of Fernando of Portugal,
it was agreed, that only their children should succeed to the Portuguese
crown; and that, in case the throne became vacant ere such children were
born, the Queen-dowager, Leonora, should govern with the title of
Regent. Thus, neither by the original constitution, nor by the treaty of
marriage, could the King of Castile succeed to the throne of Portugal.
And any pretence he might found on the marriage contract was already
forfeited; for he caused himself and his queen to be proclaimed, added
Portugal to his titles, coined Portuguese money with his bust, deposed
the queen regent, and afterwards sent her prisoner to Castile. The
lawful heir, Don Juan, the son of Inez de Castro, was kept in prison by
his rival, the King of Castile; and, as before observed, a new election
was, by the original statutes, supposed legal in cases of emergency.
These facts, added to the consideration of the tyranny of the King of
Castile, and the great services which Don John had rendered his country,
fully vindicate the indignation of Camoens against the traitorous
Pereyras.
[293] Near Pharsalus was fought the decisive battle between Caesar and
Pompey, B. C. 48. --_Ed. _
[294] Ceuta, a small Spanish possession on the Mediterranean coast of
Morocco. --_Ed. _
[295] Tetuan, a city of Morocco. --_Ed. _
[296] _Through the fierce Brigians. _--The Castilians, so called from one
of their ancient kings, named Brix, or Brigus, whom the monkish writers
call the grandson of Noah.
[297] These lines are not in the common editions of Camoens. They
consist of three stanzas in the Portuguese, and are said to have been
left out by the author himself in his second edition. The translator,
however, as they breathe the true spirit of Virgil, was willing to
preserve them with this acknowledgment.
[298] Massylia, a province in Numidia, greatly infested with lions,
particularly that part of it called _Os sete montes irmaos_, the seven
brother mountains.
[299] _And many a gasping warrior sigh'd his last. _--This, which is
almost literal from--
_Muitos lancarao o ultimo suspiro,--_
and the preceding circumstance of Don John's brandishing his lance four
times--
_E sopesando a lanca quatro vezes,_
are poetical, and in the spirit of Homer. Besides Maldonat, Castera has,
in this battle, introduced several other names which have no place in
Camoens. Carrillo, Robledo, John of Lorca, Salazar of Seville were
killed, he tells us: And, "Velasques and Sanches, natives of Toledo,
Galbes, surnamed the 'Soldier without Fear,' Montanches, Oropesa, and
Mondonedo, all six of proved valour, fell by the hand of young Antony,
who brought to the fight either more address, or better fortune than
these. " Not a word of this is in the Portuguese.
[300] _Their swords seem dipp'd in fire. _--This is as literal as the
idiom of the two languages would allow. Dryden has a thought like that
of this couplet, but which is not in his original:--
"Their bucklers clash; thick blows descend from high,
And flakes of fire from their hard helmets fly. "
DRYD. Virg. AEn. xii.
[301] Grand master of the order of St. James, named Don Pedro Nunio. He
was not killed, however, in this battle, which was fought on the plains
of Aljubarota, but in that of Valverda, which immediately followed. The
reader may, perhaps, be surprised to find that every soldier mentioned
in these notes is a Don, a _Lord_. The following piece of history will
account for the number of the Portuguese nobles. Don Alonzo Enriquez,
Count of Portugal, was saluted king by his army at the battle of
Ourique; in return, his majesty dignified every man in his army with the
rank of nobility. --Vide the 9th of the Statutes of Lamego.
[302] Cerberus.
[303] The Spaniards.
[304] This tyrant, whose unjust pretensions to the crown of Portugal
laid his own, and that, kingdom in blood, was on his final defeat
overwhelmed with all the frenzy of grief. In the night after the
decisive battle of Aljubarota, he fled upwards of thirty miles upon a
mule. Don Laurence, archbishop of Braga, in a letter written in old
Portuguese to Don John, abbot of Alcobaza, gives this account of his
behaviour: "The constable has informed me that he saw the King of
Castile at Santaren, who behaved as a madman, cursing his existence, and
tearing the hairs of his beard. And, in good faith, my good friend, it
is better that he should do so to himself than to us; the man who thus
plucks his own beard, would be much better pleased to do so to others. "
The writer of this letter, though a prelate, fought at the battle of
Aljubarota, where he received on the face a large wound from a sabre.
[305] _The festive days by heroes old ordain'd. _--As a certain proof of
the victory, it was required, by the honour of these ages, that the
victor should encamp three days on the field of battle. By this
knight-errantry the advantages which ought to have been pursued were
frequently lost. Don John, however, though he complied with the reigning
ideas of honour, sent Don Nunio, with a proper army, to reap the fruits
of his victory.
[306] John of Portugal, about a year after the battle of Aljubarota,
married Philippa, eldest daughter of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster,
son of Edward III. who assisted the king, his son-in-law, in an
irruption into Castile, and, at the end of the campaign, promised to
return with more numerous forces for the next. But this was prevented by
the marriage of his youngest daughter, Catalina, with Don Henry, eldest
son of the King of Castile. The King of Portugal on this entered
Galicia, and reduced the cities of Tui and Salvaterra. A truce followed.
While the tyrant of Castile meditated a new war, he was killed by a fall
from his horse, and, leaving no issue by his queen, Beatrix (the King of
Portugal's daughter), all pretension to that crown ceased. The truce was
now prolonged for fifteen years, and, though not strictly kept, yet, at
last the influence of the English queen, Catalina, prevailed, and a long
peace, happy for both kingdoms, ensued.
[307] The Pillars of Hercules, or Straits of Gibraltar. --_Ed. _
[308] The character of this great prince claims a place in these notes,
as it affords a comment on the enthusiasm of Camoens, who has made him
the hero of his episode. His birth, excellent education, and masterly
conduct when regent, have already been mentioned. The same justice,
prudence, and heroism always accompanied him when king. He had the art
to join the most winning affability with all the manly dignity of the
sovereign. To those who were his friends, when a private man, he was
particularly attentive. His nobility dined at his table, he frequently
made visits to them, and introduced among them the taste for, and the
love of, letters. As he felt the advantages of education, he took the
utmost care of that of his children. He had many sons, and he himself
often instructed them in solid and useful knowledge, and was amply
repaid. He lived to see them men, men of parts and of action, whose only
emulation was to show affection to his person, and to support his
administration by their great abilities. One of his sons, Don Henry,
duke of Viseo, was that great prince whose ardent passion for maritime
affairs gave birth to all the modern improvements in navigation. The
clergy, who had disturbed almost every other reign, were so convinced of
the wisdom of his, that they confessed he ought to be supported out of
the treasures of the church, and granted him the church plate to be
coined. When the pope ordered a rigorous inquiry to be made into his
having brought ecclesiastics before lay tribunals, the clergy had the
singular honesty to desert what was styled the church immunities, and to
own that justice had been impartially administered. He died in the
seventy-sixth year of his age, and in the forty-eighth of his reign. His
affection to his queen, Philippa, made him fond of the English, whose
friendship he cultivated, and by whom he was frequently assisted.
[309] Camoens, in this instance, has raised the character of one brother
at the other's expense, to give his poem an air of solemnity. The siege
of Tangier was proposed. The king's brothers differed in their opinions:
that of Don Fernand, though a knight-errant adventure, was approved of
by the young nobility. The infants, Henry and Fernand, at the head of
7000 men, laid siege to Tangier, and were surrounded by a numerous army
of Moors, some writers say six hundred thousand. On condition that the
Portuguese army should be allowed to return home, the infants promised
to surrender Ceuta. The Moors gladly accepted of the terms, but demanded
one of the infants as a hostage. Fernand offered himself, and was left.
The king was willing to comply with the terms to relieve his brother,
but the court considered the value of Ceuta, and would not consent. The
pope also interposed his authority, that Ceuta should be kept as a check
on the infidels, and proposed to raise a crusade for the delivery of
Fernand. In the meanwhile large offers were made for his liberty. These
were rejected by the Moors, who would accept of nothing but Ceuta, to
whose vast importance they were no strangers. When negotiations failed,
King Edward assembled a large army to effect his brother's release, but,
just as he was setting out, he was seized with the plague, and died,
leaving orders with his queen to deliver up Ceuta for the release of his
brother. This, however, was never performed. Don Fernand remained with
the Moors till his death. The magnanimity of his behaviour gained him
their esteem and admiration, nor is there good proof that he received
any very rigorous treatment; the contrary is rather to be inferred from
the romantic notions of military honour which then prevailed among the
Moors. Don Fernand is to this day esteemed as a saint and martyr in
Portugal, and his memory is commemorated on the fifth of June. King
Edward reigned only five years and a month. He was the most eloquent man
in his dominions, spoke and wrote Latin elegantly, was author of several
books, one on horsemanship, in which art he excelled. He was brave in
the field, active in business, and rendered his country infinite service
by reducing the laws to a regular code. He was knight of the Order of
the Garter, which honour was conferred upon him by his cousin, Henry V.
of England. In one instance he gave great offence to the superstitious
populace. He despised the advice of a Jew astrologer, who entreated him
to delay his coronation because the stars that day were unfavourable. To
this the misfortune of Tangier was ascribed, and the people were always
on the alarm, as if some terrible disaster were impending over them.
[310] The Moors.
[311] When Henry IV. of Castile died, he declared that the infanta
Joanna, was his heiress, in preference to his sister, Donna Isabella,
married to Don Ferdinand, son to the King of Arragon. In hopes to attain
the kingdom of Castile, Don Alonzo, king of Portugal, obtained a
dispensation from the pope to marry his niece, Donna Joanna. After a
bloody war, the ambitious views of Alonzo and his courtiers were
defeated.
[312] The Pyrenees which separate France from Spain. --_Ed. _
[313] The Prince of Portugal.
[314] Julius Caesar.
[315] Naples.
[316] Parthenope was one of the Syrens. Enraged because she could not
allure Ulysses, she threw herself into the sea. Her corpse was thrown
ashore, and buried where Naples now stands.
[317] The coast of Alexandria.
[318] Among the Christians of Abyssinia.
[319] Sandy, the French sable and. --_Ed. _
[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. 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.
