[630] _In shining frost the
Northern
Chariot rides.
Camoes - Lusiades
But when
Nestor talks of his exploits at the funeral games of Amarynces (Iliad
xxiii. ) the critics themselves cannot comprehend him, and have vied with
each other in inventing explanations.
[596] _Proas_, or paraos, Indian vessels which lie low on the water, are
worked with oars, and carry 100 men and upwards apiece.
[597]
_His robes are sprinkled o'er,
And his proud face dash'd, with his menials' gore. --_
See the history in the Preface.
[598] _Round Lusus' fleet to pour their sulph'rous entrails. _--How
Pacheco avoided this formidable danger, see the history in the preface.
[599] _Nor Tiber's bridge. _--When Porsenna besieged Rome, Horatius
Cocles defended the pass of a bridge till the Romans destroyed it behind
him. Having thus saved the pass, heavy armed as he was, he swam across
the Tiber to his companions. Roman history, however, at this period, is
often mixed with fable. Miltiades obtained a great victory over Darius
at Marathon. The stand made by Leonidas at Thermopyl? is well known. The
battles of Pacheco were in defence of the fords by which alone the city
of Cochin could be entered. The numbers he withstood by land and sea,
and the victories he obtained, are much more astonishing than the
defence of Thermopylae.
[600] _Bound to the mast the godlike hero stands. _--English history
affords an instance of similar resolution in Admiral Bembo, who was
supported in a wooden frame, and continued the engagement after his legs
and thighs were shivered in splinters. Contrary to the advice of his
officers, the young Almeyda refused to bear off, though almost certain
to be overpowered, and though both wind and tide were against him. His
father had sharply upbraided him for a former retreat, where victory was
thought impossible. He now fell the victim of his father's ideas of
military glory.
[601] _The fleets of India fly. _--After having cleared the Indian seas,
the viceroy, Almeyda, attacked the combined fleets of Egypt, Cambaya,
and the zamorim, in the entrance and harbour of Diu, or Dio. The fleet
of the zamorim almost immediately fled. That of Melique Yaz, Lord of
Diu, suffered much; but the greatest slaughter fell upon the Egyptians
and Turks, commanded by Mir-Hocem, who had defeated and killed the young
Almeyda. Of 800 Mamelukes, or Turks, who fought under Mir-Hocem, only
22, says Osorius, survived this engagement. Melique Yaz, says Faria y
Sousa, was born in slavery, and descended of the Christians of Roxia.
The road to preferment is often a dirty one; but Melique's was much less
so than that of many. As the King of Cambaya was one day riding in
state, an unlucky kite dunged upon his royal head. His majesty in great
wrath swore he would give all he was worth to have the offender killed.
Melique, who was an expert archer, immediately despatched an arrow,
which brought the audacious hawk to the ground. For the merit of this
eminent service he was made Lord of Diu, or Dio, a considerable city,
the strongest and the most important fortress at that time in all
India. --See Faria, 1. 2, c. 2.
[602] _Great Cunia. _--Tristan da Cunha, or d'Acugna.
[603] _Heav'n indignant showers their arrows backward. _--Some writers
related that, when Albuquerque besieged Ormuz, a violent wind drove the
arrows of the enemy backward upon their own ranks. Osorius says, that
many of the dead Persians and Moors were found to have died by arrows.
But as that weapon was not used by the Portuguese he conjectures that,
in their despair of victory, many of the enemy had thus killed
themselves, rather than survive the defeat.
[604] _Muscat. _
[605] Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf.
[606] _What glorious palms on Goa's isle I see. _--This important place
was made an archbishopric, the capital of the Portuguese empire in the
east, and the seat of their viceroys; for which purposes it is
advantageously situated on the coast of Dekhan. It still remains in the
possession of the Portuguese.
[607] _Malacca. _--The conquest of this place was one of the greatest
actions of Albuquerque. It became the chief port of the eastern part of
Portuguese India, and second only to Goa. Besides a great many pieces of
ordnance which were carried away by the Moors who escaped, 3000 large
cannon remained the prize of the victors. When Albuquerque was on the
way to Malacca, he attacked a large ship; but, just as his men were
going to board her, she suddenly appeared all in flames, which obliged
the Portuguese to bear off. Three days afterwards the same vessel sent a
boat to Albuquerque, offering an alliance, which was accepted. The
flames, says Osorius, were only artificial, and did not the least
damage. Another wonderful adventure immediately happened. The admiral
soon after sent his long-boats to attack a ship commanded by one Nehoada
Beeguea. The enemy made an obstinate resistance. Nehoada himself was
pierced with several mortal wounds, but lost not one drop of blood till
a bracelet was taken off his arm, when immediately the blood gushed out.
According to Osorius, this was said to be occasioned by the virtue of a
stone in the bracelet, taken out of an animal called Cabrisia, which,
when worn on the body, could prevent the effusion of blood from the most
grievous wounds.
[608] _Yet art thou stain'd. _--A detail of all the grant actions of
Albuquerque would have been tedious and unpoetical. Camoens has chosen
the most brilliant, and has happily suppressed the rest by a display of
indignation. The French translator has the following note on this
passage: "Behold another instance of our author's prejudice! The action
which he condemns had nothing in it blameable: but, as he was of a most
amorous constitution, he thought every fault which could plead an amour
in its excuse ought to be pardoned; but true heroes, such as
Albuquerque, follow other maxims. This great man had in his palace a
beautiful Indian slave. He viewed her with the eyes of a father, and the
care of her education was his pleasure. A Portuguese soldier, named Ruy
Diaz, had the boldness to enter the general's apartment, where he
succeeded so well with the girl that he obtained his desire. When
Albuquerque heard of it, he immediately ordered him to the gallows. "
Camoens, however, was no such undistinguishing libertine as this would
represent him. In a few pages we find him praising the continence of Don
Henry de Meneses, whose victory over his passions he calls the highest
excellence of youth. Nor does it appear by what authority the Frenchman
assures us of the chaste paternal affection which Albuquerque bore to
this Indian girl. It was the great aim of Albuquerque to establish
colonies in India, and, for that purpose, he encouraged his soldiers to
marry with the natives. The most sightly girls were selected, and
educated in the religion and household arts of Portugal, and portioned
at the expense of the general. These he called his daughters, and with
great pleasure he used to attend their weddings, several couples being
usually joined together at one time. At one of these nuptials, says
Faria, the festivity having continued late, and the brides being mixed
together, several of the bridegrooms committed a blunder. The mistakes
of the night, however, as they were all equal in point of honour, were
mutually forgiven in the morning, and each man took his proper wife whom
he had received at the altar. This delicate anecdote of Albuquerque's
sons and daughters is as bad a commentary on the note of Castera as it
is on the severity which the commander showed to poor Diaz. Nor does
Camoens stand alone in the condemnation of the general. The historian
agrees with the poet. Mentioning the death of D. Antonio Noronha, "This
gentleman," says Faria, "used to moderate the violent temper of his
uncle, Albuquerque, which soon after showed itself in rigid severity. He
ordered a soldier to be hanged for an amour with one of the slaves whom
he called daughters, and whom he used to give in marriage. When some of
his officers asked him what authority he had to take the poor man's
life, he drew his sword, told them that was his commission, and
instantly broke them. " To marry his soldiers with the natives was the
plan of Albuquerque: his severity, therefore, seems unaccountable,
unless we admit the 'perhaps' of Camoens, _ou de cioso_, perhaps it was
jealousy. --But, whatever incensed the general, the execution of the
soldier was contrary to the laws of every nation;{*} and the honest
indignation of Camoens against one of the greatest of his countrymen,
one who was the grand architect of the Portuguese empire in the East,
affords a noble instance of that manly freedom of sentiment which knows
no right by which king or peer may do injustice to the meanest subject.
Nor can we omit the observation, that the above note of Castera is of a
piece with the French devotion we have already seen him pay to the name
of king, a devotion which breathes the true spirit of the blessed advice
given by Father Paul to the republic of Venice: "When a nobleman commits
an offence against a subject," says the Jesuit, "let every means be
tried to justify him. But, if a subject has offended a nobleman, let him
be punished with the utmost severity. "
{*} Osorius relates the affair of Diaz with some other circumstances;
but with no difference that affects this assertion.
[609] _Not Ammon. _--Campaspe, the most beautiful concubine of Alexander
the Great, was given by that monarch to Apelles, whom he perceived in
love with her. Araspas had strict charge of the fair captive, Panthea.
His attempt on her virtue was forgiven by Cyrus.
[610] _And Flandria's earldom on the knight bestow'd. _--"Baldwin,
surnamed Iron-arm, Grand Forester of Flanders, being in love with
Judith, the daughter of Charles the Bald, and widow of Ethelwolf, king
of England, obtained his desire by force. Charles, though at first he
highly resented, afterwards pardoned his crime, and consented to his
marriage with the princess. "--CASTERA.
* * * * *
This digression in the song of the nymph bears, in manner, a striking
resemblance to the histories which often, even in the heat of battle,
the heroes of Homer relate to each other. That these little episodes
have their beauty and propriety in an epic poem will strongly appear
from a view of M. de la Motte's translation of the Iliad into French
verse. The four and twenty books of Homer he has contracted into twelve,
and these contain no more lines than about four books of the original. A
thousand embellishments which the warm poetical feelings of Homer
suggested to him are thus thrown out by the Frenchman. But what is the
consequence of this improvement? The work of La Motte is unread, even by
his own countrymen, and despised by every foreigner who has the least
relish for poetry and Homer.
[611] _And midnight horror shakes Medina's shrine. _--Medina, the city
where Mohammed is buried. About six years after GAMA'S discovery of
India, the Sultan of Egypt sent Maurus, the abbot of the monks at
Jerusalem, who inhabit Mount Sion, on an embassy to Pope Julius II. The
sultan, with severe threats to the Christians of the East in case of
refusal, entreated the Pope to desire Emmanuel, king of Portugal, to
send no more fleets to the Indian seas. The Pope sent Maurus to
Emmanuel, who returned a very spirited answer to his holiness, assuring
him that no threats, no dangers, could make him alter his resolutions,
and lamenting that it had not yet been in his power to fulfil his
purpose of demolishing the sepulchre and erasing the memorials of
Mohammed from the earth. This, he says was the first purpose of sending
his fleets to India. It is with great art that Camoens so often reminds
us of the grand design of the expedition of his heroes to subvert
Mohammedanism, and found a Christian empire in the East. But the dignity
which this gives to his poem has already been observed in the preface.
[612] _Where Sheba's sapient queen the sceptre bore. _--The Abyssinians
contend that their country is the Sheba mentioned in the Scripture, and
that the queen who visited Solomon bore a son to that monarch, from whom
their royal family, to the present time, is descended.
[613] _Snatch'd from thy golden throne. _--GAMA only reigned three months
viceroy of India. During his second voyage, the third which the
Portuguese made to India, he gave the zamorim some considerable defeats
by sea, besides his victories over the Moors. These, however, are
judiciously omitted by Camoens, as the less striking part of his
character.
The French translator is highly pleased with the prediction of GAMA'S
death, delivered to himself at the feast. "The siren," says he,
"persuaded that GAMA is a hero exempt from weakness, does not hesitate
to mention the end of his life. GAMA listens without any mark of
emotion; the feast and the song continue. If I am not deceived, this is
truly great. "
[614] _Victorious Henry. _--Don Henry de Menezes. He was only
twenty-eight when appointed to the government of India. He died in his
thirtieth year, a noble example of the most disinterested heroism.
[615] _Great Mascarine. _--Pedro de Mascarenhas. The injustice done to
this brave officer, and the usurpation of his government by Lopez Vaz de
Sampayo, afford one of the most interesting periods of the history of
the Portuguese in India.
[616] _Great Nunio. _--Nunio de Cunha, one of the most worthy of the
Portuguese governors.
[617] _Awed by his fame. _--That brave, generous spirit, which prompted
Camoens to condemn the great Albuquerque for injustice to a common
soldier, has here deserted him. In place of poetical compliment, on the
terrors of his name, Noronha deserved infamy. The siege of Dio, it is
true, was raised on the report of his approach, but that report was the
stratagem of Coje Zofar, one of the general officers of the assailants.
The delays of Noronha were as highly blamable as his treatment of his
predecessor, the excellent Nunio, was unworthy of a gentleman.
[618] _A son of thine, O Gama. _--Stephen de Gama.
[619] _A vet'ran, fam'd on Brazil's shore. _--Martin Alonzo de Souza. He
was celebrated for clearing the coast of Brazil of several pirates, who
were formidable to that infant colony.
[620] _O'er blood-stain'd ground. _--This is as near the original as
elegance will allow--_de sangue cheyo_--which Fanshaw has thus punned:--
"With no little loss,
Sending him home again by _Weeping-Cross_"--
a place near Banbury in Oxfordshire.
[621] Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of India. --_Ed. _
[622] _The Rumien fierce, who boasts the name of Rome. _--When the
victories of the Portuguese began to overspread the East, several Indian
princes, by the counsels of the Moors, applied for assistance to the
Sultan of Egypt, and the Grand Signior. The troops of these Mohammedan
princes were in the highest reputation for bravery, and though, composed
of many different nations, were known among the orientals by one common
name. Ignorance delights in the marvellous. The history of ancient Rome
made the same figure among the easterns, as that of the fabulous, or
heroic, ages does with us, with this difference, it was better believed.
The Turks of Roumania pretended to be the descendants of the Roman
conquerors, and the Indians gave them and their auxiliaries the name of
Rum? s, or Romans. In the same manner, the fame of Godfrey in the East
conferred the name of Franks on all the western Christians, who, on
their part, gave the name of Moors to all the Mohammedans of the East.
[623] _No hope, bold Mascarene. _--The commander of Diu, or Dio, during
this siege, one of the most memorable in the Portuguese history.
[624] _Fierce Hydal-Kan. _--The title of the lords or princes of Decan,
who in their wars with the Portuguese have sometimes brought 400,000 men
into the field. The prince here mentioned, after many revolts, was at
last finally subdued by Don John de Castro, the fourth viceroy of India,
with whose reign our poet judiciously ends the prophetic song.
Albuquerque laid the plan, and Castro completed the system of the
Portuguese empire in the East. It is with propriety, therefore, that the
prophecy given to GAMA is here summed up. Nor is the discretion of
Camoens in this instance inferior to his judgment. He is now within a
few years of his own times, when he himself was upon the scene in India.
But whatever he had said of his contemporaries would have been liable to
misconstruction, and every sentence would have been branded with the
epithets of flattery or malice. A little poet would have been happy in
such an opportunity to resent his wrongs. But the silent contempt of
Camoens does him true honour.
In this historical song, as already hinted, the translator has been
attentive, as much as he could, to throw it into these universal
languages, the picturesque and characteristic. To convey the sublimest
instruction to princes, is, according to Aristotle, the peculiar
province of the epic muse. The striking points of view in which the
different characters of the governors of India are here placed, are in
the most happy conformity to this ingenious canon of the Stagyrite.
[625]
_In whirling circles now they fell, now rose,
Yet never rose nor fell. --_
The motions of the heavenly bodies, in every system, bear at all times
the same uniform relation to each other; these expressions, therefore,
are strictly just. The first relates to the appearance, the second to
the reality. Thus, while to us the sun appears to go down, to more
western inhabitants of the globe he appears to rise, and while he rises
to us, he is going down to the more eastern; the difference being
entirely relative to the various parts of the earth. And in this the
expressions of our poet are equally applicable to the Ptolemaic and
Copernican systems. The ancient hypothesis which made our earth the
centre of the universe, is the system adopted by Camoens, a happiness,
in the opinion of the translator, to the English Lusiad. The new system
is so well known, that a poetical description of it would have been no
novelty to the English reader. The other has not only that advantage in
its favour: but this description is perhaps the finest and fullest that
ever was given of it in poetry, that of Lucretius, l. v. being chiefly
argumentative, and therefore less picturesque.
Our author studied at the university of Coimbra, where the ancient
system and other doctrines of the Aristotelians then, and long
afterward, prevailed.
[626] _He holds His loftiest state. _--Called by the old philosophers and
school divines the sensorium of the Deity.
[627] _These spheres behold. _--According to the Peripatetics, the
universe consisted of eleven spheres inclosed within each other; as
Fanshaw has familiarly expressed it by a simile which he has lent our
author. The first of these spheres, he says--
"Doth (_as in a nest
Of boxes_) all the other orbs comprise. "
In their accounts of this first-mentioned, but eleventh, sphere, which
they called the Empyrean, or heaven of the blest, the disciples of
Aristotle, and the Arab Moors, gave loose to all the warmth of
imagination. And several of the Christian fathers applied to it the
descriptions of heaven which are found in the Holy Scripture.
[628] _Hence motion darts its force. _--This is the tenth sphere, the
_Primum Mobile_ of the ancient system. To account for the appearances of
the heavens, the Peripatetics ascribed a double motion to it. While its
influence drew the other orbs from east to west, they supposed it had a
motion of its own from west to east. To effect this, the ponderous
weight and interposition of the ninth sphere, or crystalline heaven, was
necessary. The ancient astronomers observed that the stars shifted their
places. This they called the motion of the crystalline heaven, expressed
by our poet at the rate of one pace during two hundred solar years. The
famous Arab astronomer, Abulhasan, in his Meadows of Gold, calculates
the revolution of this sphere to consist of 49,000 of our years. But
modern discoveries have not only corrected the calculation,{*} but have
also ascertained the reason of the apparent motion of the fixed stars.
The earth is not a perfect sphere; the quantity of matter is greater at
the equator; hence the earth turns on her axis in a rocking motion,
revolving round the axis of the ecliptic, which is called the procession
of the equinoxes, and makes the stars seem to shift their places at
about the rate of a degree in 72 years; according to which all the stars
seem to perform one revolution in the space of 25,920 years, after which
they return exactly to the same situation as at the beginning of this
period. However imperfect in their calculations, the Chaldean
astronomers perceived that the motions of the heavens composed one great
revolution. This they called the _annus magnus_, which those who did not
understand them mistook for a restoration of all things to their first
originals.
{*} However deficient the astronomy of Abulhasan may be, it is nothing
to the calculation of his prophet Mohammed, who tells his disciples,
that the stars were each about the bigness of a house, and hung from the
sky on chains of gold.
[629] _And binds the starry sphere. _--This was called the firmament, or
eighth heaven. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Venus, Mercury, and Diana,
were the planets which gave name to, and whose orbits composed, the
other spheres or heavens.
[630] _In shining frost the Northern Chariot rides. _--Commonly called
Charles' Wain. Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia,
and of Cassiope. Cassiope boasted that she and her daughter were more
beautiful than Juno and the Nereids. Andromeda, to appease the goddess,
was, at her father's command, chained to a rock to be devoured by a sea
monster, but was saved by Perseus, who obtained of Jupiter that all the
family should be placed among the stars. Orion was a hunter, who, for an
attempt on Diana, was stung to death by a serpent. The star of his name
portends tempests. The Dogs; fable gives this honour to those of
different hunters. The faithful dog of Erigone, however, that died mad
with grief for the death of his mistress, has the best title to preside
over the dog-days. The Swan; whose form Jupiter borrowed to enjoy Leda.
The Hare, when pursued by Orion, was saved by Mercury, and placed in
heaven, to signify that Mercury presides over melancholy dispositions.
The Lyre, with which Orpheus charmed Pluto. The Dragon which guarded the
golden apples of the Hesperides, and the ship Argo complete the number
of the constellations mentioned by Camoens. If our author has blended
the appearances of heaven with those of the painted artificial sphere,
it is in the manner of the classics. Ovid, in particular, thus describes
the heavens, in the second book of his Metamorphoses.
[631] _Such are their laws impress'd by God's dread will. _--Though a
modern narrative of gallant adventures by no means requires the
supposition of a particular Providence, that supposition, however, is
absolutely necessary to the grandeur of an epic poem. The great examples
of Homer and Virgil prove it; and Camoens understood and felt its force.
While his fleet combat all the horrors of unploughed oceans, we do not
view his heroes as idle wanderers; the care of heaven gives their voyage
the greatest importance. When GAMA falls on his knees and spreads his
hands to heaven on the discovery of India, we are presented with a
figure infinitely more noble than that of the most successful conqueror
who is supposed to act under the influence of fatalism or chance. The
human mind is conscious of its own weakness. It expects an elevation in
poetry, and demands a degree of importance superior to the caprices of
unmeaning accident. The poetical reader cannot admire the hero who is
subject to such blind fortuity. He appears to us with an abject,
uninteresting littleness. Our poetical ideas of permanent greatness
demand a GAMA, a hero whose enterprises and whose person interest the
care of Heaven and the happiness of his people. Nor must this
supposition be confined merely to the machinery. The reason why it
pleases, also requires, that the supposition should be uniform
throughout the whole poem. Virgil, by dismissing Eneas through the ivory
gate of Elysium, has hinted that all his pictures of a future state were
merely dreams, and has thus destroyed the highest merit of the
compliment to his patron Augustus. But Camoens has certainly been more
happy. A fair opportunity offered itself to indulge the opinions of
Lucretius and the Academic Grove; but Camoens, in ascribing the
government of the universe to the will of God, has not only preserved
the philosophy of his poem perfectly uniform, but has also shown that
the Peripatetic system is, in this instance, exactly conformable to the
Newtonian.
Though the Author of nature has placed man in a state of moral agency,
and made his happiness and misery to depend upon it, and though every
page of human history is stained with the tears of injured innocence and
the triumphs of guilt, with miseries which must affect a moral, or
thinking being, yet we have been told, that God perceiveth it not, and
that what mortals call moral evil vanishes from before His more perfect
sight. Thus the appeal of injured innocence, and the tear of bleeding
virtue fall unregarded, unworthy of the attention of the Deity. {*} Yet,
with what raptures do these philosophers behold the infinite wisdom and
care of Beelzebub, their god of flies, in the admirable and various
provision he has made for the preservation of the eggs of vermin, and
the generation of maggots. {**}
Much more might be said in proof that our poet's philosophy does not
altogether deserve ridicule. And those who allow a general, but deny a
particular providence, will, it is hoped, excuse Camoens, on the
consideration, that if we estimate a general moral providence by analogy
of that providence which presides over vegetable and animal nature, a
more particular one cannot possibly be wanted. If a particular
providence, however, is still denied, another consideration obtrudes
itself; if one pang of a moral agent is unregarded, one tear of injured
innocence left to fall unpitied by the Deity, if _Ludit in humanis
Divina potentia rebus_, the consequence is, that the human conception
can form an idea of a much better God. And it may modestly be presumed
we may hazard the laugh of the wisest philosopher, and without scruple
assert, that it is impossible that a created mind should conceive an
idea of perfection superior to that which is possessed by the Creator
and Author of existence.
{*} Perhaps, like Lucretius, some philosophers think this would be too
much trouble to the Deity. But the idea of trouble to the Divine Nature,
is much the same as another argument of the same philosopher, who having
asserted, that before the creation the gods could not know what seed
would produce, from thence wisely concludes that the world was made by
chance.
{**} Ray, in his Wisdom of God in the Creation (though he did not deny a
Providence), has carried this extravagance to the highest pitch. "To
give life," says he, "is the intention of the creation; and how
wonderful does the goodness of God appear in this, that the death and
putrefaction of one animal is the life of thousands. " So, the misery of
a family on the death of a parent is nothing, for ten thousand maggots
are made happy by it. --O Philosophy, when wilt thou forget the dreams of
thy slumbers in Bedlam!
[632] _Here Christian Europe. --Ves Europa Christian. _--As Europe is
already described in the third Lusiad, this short account of it has as
great propriety, as the manner of it contains dignity.
[633] _Afric behold. _--This just and strongly picturesque description of
Africa is finely contrasted with the character of Europe. It contains
also a masterly compliment to the expedition of GAMA, which is all along
represented as the harbinger and diffuser of the blessings of
civilization.
[634] _Gonsalo's zeal shall glow. _--Gonsalo de Sylveyra, a Portuguese
Jesuit, in 1555, sailed from Lisbon on a mission to Monomotapa. His
labours were at first successful; but ere he effected any regular
establishment he was murdered by the barbarians. --CASTERA.
[635] _Great Naya, too. _--Don Pedro de Naya. . . . In 1505 he erected a
fort in the kingdom of Sofala, which is subject to Monomotapa. Six
thousand Moors and Caffres laid siege to this garrison, which he
defended with only thirty-five men. After having several times suffered
by unexpected sallies, the barbarians fled, exclaiming to their king
that he had led them to fight against God. --CASTERA.
[636] _In Abyssinia Heav'n's own altars blaze. _--Christianity was
planted here in the first century, but mixed with many Jewish rites
unused by other Christians of the East. This appears to give some
countenance to the pretensions of their emperors, who claim their
descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and at least reminds us of
Acts viii. 27, where we are told, that the treasurer of the Queen of
Ethiopia came to worship at Jerusalem. Numerous monasteries, we are
told, are in this country. But the clergy are very ignorant, and the
laity gross barbarians. Much has been said of the hill Amara--
"Where Abyssin kings their issue guard . . .
. . . by some suppos'd,
True Paradise, under the Ethiop line
By Nilus head, inclos'd with shining rock,
A whole day's journey high"--MILTON;
and where, according to Urreta (a Spanish Jesuit), is the library
founded by the Queen of Sheba, and enriched with all those writings of
which we have either possession or only the names. The works of Noah,
and the lectures on the mathematics which Abraham read in the plains of
Mamre, are here. And so many are the volumes, that 200 monks are
employed as librarians. It is needless to add, that Father Urreta is a
second Sir John Mandevylle.
[637] _Thy son, brave Gama. _--When Don Stephen de Gama was governor of
India, the Christian Emperor and Empress-mother of Ethiopia solicited
the assistance of the Portuguese against the usurpations of the pagan
King of Zeyla. Don Stephen sent his brother, Don Christoval with 500
men. The prodigies of their valour astonished the Ethiopians. But after
having twice defeated the tyrant, and reduced his great army to the last
extremity, Don Christoval, urged too far by the impetuosity of his
youthful valour, was taken prisoner. He was brought before the usurper,
and put to death in the most cruel manner. Waxed threads were twisted
with his beard and afterwards set on fire. He was then dipped in boiling
wax, and at last beheaded by the hand of the tyrant. The Portuguese
esteem him a martyr, and say that his torments and death were inflicted
because he would not renounce the faith. --See Faria y Sousa.
[638] Infidel, pagan.
[639] _Before the virgin-martyr's tomb. _--He must be a dull reader
indeed who cannot perceive and relish the amazing variety which prevails
in our poet. In the historical narrative of wars, where it is most
necessary, yet from the sameness of the subject, most difficult, to
attain, our author always attains it with the most graceful ease. In the
description of countries he not only follows the manner of Homer and
Virgil, not only distinguishes each region by its most striking
characteristic, but also diversifies his geography with other incidents
introduced by the mention of the place. St. Catherine, virgin and
martyr, according to Romish histories, was buried on Mount Sinai, and a
chapel was erected over her grave. It is now the Monastery of St.
Catherine. --_Ed. _
[640] The crescent, the sign of Turkish supremacy. --_Ed. _
[641] _De Branco's sword. _--Don Pedro de Castel-Branco. He obtained a
great victory, near Ormuz, over the combined fleets of the Moors, Turks,
and Persians.
[642] _There Barem's isle. _--The island of Bahrein is situated in the
Persian Gulf. It is celebrated for the plenty, variety, and fineness of
its diamonds.
[643] _Her warrior sons disdain the arms of fire. _--This was the
character of the Persians when GAMA arrived in the East. Yet, though
they thought it dishonourable to use the musket, they esteemed it no
disgrace to rush from a thicket on an unarmed foe. This reminds one of
the spirit of the old romance. Orlando having taken the first invented
cannon from the King of Friza, throws it into the sea with the most
heroic execrations. Yet the heroes of chivalry think it no disgrace to
take every advantage afforded by invulnerable hides and enchanted
armour.
[644]
_There Gerum's isle the hoary ruin wears
Where Time has trod. --_
Presuming on the ruins which are found on this island, the natives
pretend that the Armuzia of Pliny and Strabo was here situated. But this
is a mistake, for that city stood on the continent. The Moors, however,
have built a city in this isle, which they call by the ancient name.
[645] _He who first shall crown thy labours, Gama. _--Pedro de Cabral, of
whom see the preface.
[646] Ceylon.
[647] _Some Macon's orgies. _--Macon, a name of Mecca, the birthplace of
Mohammed.
[648] _The tomb where Thomas sleeps. _--There is (to talk in the Indian
style) _a caste_ of gentlemen, whose hearts are all impartiality and
candour to every religion, except one, the most moral which ever the
world heard of. A tale of a Brahmin, or a priest of Jupiter, would to
them appear worthy of poetry. But to introduce an apostle---- Common
sense, however, will prevail; and the episode of St. Thomas will appear
to the true critic equal in dignity and propriety.
To renew and complete the labours of the apostle, the messenger of
Heaven, is the great design of the hero of the poem, and of the future
missions, in consequence of the discoveries which are the subject of it.
The Christians of St. Thomas, found in Malabar on the arrival of GAMA,
we have already mentioned. The Jesuit missionaries have given most
pompous accounts of the Christian antiquities of India and China. When
the Portuguese arrived in India, the head of the Malabar Christians,
named Jacob, styled himself Metropolitan of India and China. And a
Syriac breviary{*} of the Indian Christians offers praise to God for
sending St. Thomas to India and China. In 1625, in digging for a
foundation near Sigansu, metropolis of the province of Xensi, was found
a stone with a cross on it, full of Chinese, and some Syriac characters,
containing the names of bishops, and an account of the Christian
religion, "that it was brought from Judea; that having been weakened, it
was renewed under the reign of the great Tam" (cir. A. D. 630). But the
Christians, say the Jesuits, siding with the Tartars, cir. A. D. 1200,
were extirpated by the Chinese. In 1543, Fernand Pinto, observing some
ruins near Peking, was told by the people, that 200 years before, a holy
man who worshipped Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, lived there; and
being murdered, was thrown into a river, but his body would not sink;
and soon after the city was destroyed by an earthquake. The same Jesuit
found people at Caminam who knew the doctrines of Christianity, which
they said were preached to their fathers, by John, the disciple of
Thomas. In 1635, some heathens, by night passing through a village in
the province of Fokien, saw some stones which emitted light, under which
were found the figure of crosses. From China, St. Thomas returned to
Meliapore in Malabar, at a time when a prodigious beam of timber floated
on the sea near the coast. The king endeavoured to bring it ashore, but
all the force of men and elephants was in vain. St. Thomas desired leave
to build a church with it, and immediately dragged it to shore with a
single thread. A church was built, and the king baptized. This enraged
the Brahmins, the chief of whom killed his own son, and accused Thomas
of the murder. But the saint, by restoring the youth to life, discovered
the wickedness of his enemies. He was afterwards killed by a lance while
kneeling at the altar; after, according to tradition, he had built 3300
stately churches, many of which were rebuilt, cir. 800, by an Armenian
named Thomas Cananeus. In 1533, the body of the apostle, with the head
of the lance beside him, was found in his church by D. Duarte de
Meneses; and in 1558 was, by D. Constantine de Braganza, removed to Goa.
To these accounts, selected from Faria y Sousa, let two from Osorius be
added. When Martin Alonzo de Souza was viceroy, some brazen tables were
brought to him, inscribed with unusual characters, which were explained
by a learned Jew, and imported that St. Thomas had built a church at
Meliapore. And by an account sent to Cardinal Henrico, by the Bishop of
Cochin, in 1562, when the Portuguese repaired the ancient chapel of St.
Thomas,{**} there was found a stone cross with several characters on it,
which the best antiquarians could not interpret, till at last a Brahmin
translated it, "That in the reign of Sagam, Thomas was sent by the Son
of God, whose disciple he was, to teach the law of heaven in India; that
he built a church, and was killed by a Brahmin at the altar. "
{*} The existence of this breviary is a certain fact. These Christians
had the Scripture also in the Syriac language.
{**} This was a very ancient building, in the very first style of
Christian churches. The Portuguese have now disfigured it with their
repairs and new buildings.
A view of Portuguese Asia, which must include the labours of the
Jesuits, forms a necessary part in the comment on the Lusiad: this note,
therefore, and some obvious reflections upon it, are in place. It is as
easy to bury an inscription and find it again, as it is to invent a
silly tale; but, though suspicion of fraud on the one hand, and silly
absurdity on the other, lead us to despise the authority of the Jesuits,
yet one fact remains indisputable. Christianity had been much better
known in the East, several centuries before, than it was at the arrival
of GAMA. Where the name was unknown, and where the Jesuits were
unconcerned, crosses were found. The long existence of the Christians of
St. Thomas in the midst of a vast pagan empire, proves that the learned
of that kingdom must have some knowledge of their doctrines. And these
facts give countenance to some material conjectures concerning the
religion of the Brahmins.
[649] _When now the chief who wore the triple thread. _--Of this, thus
Osorius: "_Terna fila ab humero dextero in latus finistrum gerunt, ut
designent trinam in natura divina rationem. _--They (the Brahmins) wear
three threads, which reach from the right shoulder to the left side, as
significant of the trinal distinction in the Divine Nature. " That some
sects of the Brahmins wear a symbolical tessera of three threads is
acknowledged on all hands; but, from whatever the custom arose, it is
not to be supposed that the Brahmins, who have thousands of ridiculous
contradictory legends, should agree in their accounts or explanations of
it. They have various accounts of a Divine Person having assumed human
nature. And the god Brahma, as observed by Cudworth, is generally
mentioned as united in the government of the universe with two others,
sometimes of different names. They have also images with three heads
rising out of one body, which they say represent the Divine Nature. {*}
But are there any traces of these opinions in the accounts which the
Greek and Roman writers have given us of the Brahmins? And will the wise
pay any credit to the authority of those books which the public never
saw, and which, by the obligation of their keepers, they are never to
see; and some of which, by the confession of their keepers, since the
appearance of Mohammed, have been rejected? The Platonic idea of a
trinity of divine attributes was well known to the ancients, yet perhaps
the Athanasian controversy offers a fairer field to the conjecturist.
That controversy for several ages engrossed the conversation of the
East. All the subtilty of the Greeks was called forth, and no
speculative contest was ever more universally or warmly disputed; so
warmly, that it is a certain fact that Mohammed, by inserting into his
Koran some declarations in favour of the Arians, gained innumerable
proselytes to his new religion. Abyssinia, Egypt, Syria, Persia, and
Armenia were perplexed with this unhappy dispute, and from the earliest
times these countries have had a commercial intercourse with India. The
number, blasphemy, and absurdity of the Jewish legends of the Talmud and
Targums, bear a striking resemblance to the holy legends of the
Brahmins. The Jews also assert the great antiquity of their Talmudical
legends. Adam, Enoch, and Noah are named among their authors; but we
know their date; Jerusalem, ere their birth, was destroyed by Titus. We
also know, that the accounts which the Greek writers give of the
Brahmins fall infinitely short of those extravagances which are
confessed even by their modern admirers. And Mohammedanism does not
differ from Christianity, more than the account which even these
gentlemen give, does from that of Porphyry. That laborious philosopher,
though possessed of all the knowledge of his age, though he mentions
their metempsychosis and penances, has not a word of any of their idols,
or the legends of Brahma or his brothers. On the contrary, he represents
their worship as extremely pure and simple. Strabo's account of them is
similar. And Eusebius has assured us they worshipped no images. {**} Yet,
on the arrival of the modern Europeans in India, innumerable were their
idols; and all the superstition of ancient Egypt, in the adoration of
animals and vegetables, seemed more than revived by the Brahmins. Who
that considers this striking alteration in their features, can withhold
his contempt when he is told of the religious care with which these
philosophers have these four thousand years preserved their sacred
rites.
{*} To these undoubted facts the author will not add the authority of a
Xavier, who tells us, that he prevailed upon a Brahmin to explain to him
some part of their hidden religion; when to his surprise, the Indian, in
a low voice, repeated the Ten Commandments.
{**} . . .
Nestor talks of his exploits at the funeral games of Amarynces (Iliad
xxiii. ) the critics themselves cannot comprehend him, and have vied with
each other in inventing explanations.
[596] _Proas_, or paraos, Indian vessels which lie low on the water, are
worked with oars, and carry 100 men and upwards apiece.
[597]
_His robes are sprinkled o'er,
And his proud face dash'd, with his menials' gore. --_
See the history in the Preface.
[598] _Round Lusus' fleet to pour their sulph'rous entrails. _--How
Pacheco avoided this formidable danger, see the history in the preface.
[599] _Nor Tiber's bridge. _--When Porsenna besieged Rome, Horatius
Cocles defended the pass of a bridge till the Romans destroyed it behind
him. Having thus saved the pass, heavy armed as he was, he swam across
the Tiber to his companions. Roman history, however, at this period, is
often mixed with fable. Miltiades obtained a great victory over Darius
at Marathon. The stand made by Leonidas at Thermopyl? is well known. The
battles of Pacheco were in defence of the fords by which alone the city
of Cochin could be entered. The numbers he withstood by land and sea,
and the victories he obtained, are much more astonishing than the
defence of Thermopylae.
[600] _Bound to the mast the godlike hero stands. _--English history
affords an instance of similar resolution in Admiral Bembo, who was
supported in a wooden frame, and continued the engagement after his legs
and thighs were shivered in splinters. Contrary to the advice of his
officers, the young Almeyda refused to bear off, though almost certain
to be overpowered, and though both wind and tide were against him. His
father had sharply upbraided him for a former retreat, where victory was
thought impossible. He now fell the victim of his father's ideas of
military glory.
[601] _The fleets of India fly. _--After having cleared the Indian seas,
the viceroy, Almeyda, attacked the combined fleets of Egypt, Cambaya,
and the zamorim, in the entrance and harbour of Diu, or Dio. The fleet
of the zamorim almost immediately fled. That of Melique Yaz, Lord of
Diu, suffered much; but the greatest slaughter fell upon the Egyptians
and Turks, commanded by Mir-Hocem, who had defeated and killed the young
Almeyda. Of 800 Mamelukes, or Turks, who fought under Mir-Hocem, only
22, says Osorius, survived this engagement. Melique Yaz, says Faria y
Sousa, was born in slavery, and descended of the Christians of Roxia.
The road to preferment is often a dirty one; but Melique's was much less
so than that of many. As the King of Cambaya was one day riding in
state, an unlucky kite dunged upon his royal head. His majesty in great
wrath swore he would give all he was worth to have the offender killed.
Melique, who was an expert archer, immediately despatched an arrow,
which brought the audacious hawk to the ground. For the merit of this
eminent service he was made Lord of Diu, or Dio, a considerable city,
the strongest and the most important fortress at that time in all
India. --See Faria, 1. 2, c. 2.
[602] _Great Cunia. _--Tristan da Cunha, or d'Acugna.
[603] _Heav'n indignant showers their arrows backward. _--Some writers
related that, when Albuquerque besieged Ormuz, a violent wind drove the
arrows of the enemy backward upon their own ranks. Osorius says, that
many of the dead Persians and Moors were found to have died by arrows.
But as that weapon was not used by the Portuguese he conjectures that,
in their despair of victory, many of the enemy had thus killed
themselves, rather than survive the defeat.
[604] _Muscat. _
[605] Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf.
[606] _What glorious palms on Goa's isle I see. _--This important place
was made an archbishopric, the capital of the Portuguese empire in the
east, and the seat of their viceroys; for which purposes it is
advantageously situated on the coast of Dekhan. It still remains in the
possession of the Portuguese.
[607] _Malacca. _--The conquest of this place was one of the greatest
actions of Albuquerque. It became the chief port of the eastern part of
Portuguese India, and second only to Goa. Besides a great many pieces of
ordnance which were carried away by the Moors who escaped, 3000 large
cannon remained the prize of the victors. When Albuquerque was on the
way to Malacca, he attacked a large ship; but, just as his men were
going to board her, she suddenly appeared all in flames, which obliged
the Portuguese to bear off. Three days afterwards the same vessel sent a
boat to Albuquerque, offering an alliance, which was accepted. The
flames, says Osorius, were only artificial, and did not the least
damage. Another wonderful adventure immediately happened. The admiral
soon after sent his long-boats to attack a ship commanded by one Nehoada
Beeguea. The enemy made an obstinate resistance. Nehoada himself was
pierced with several mortal wounds, but lost not one drop of blood till
a bracelet was taken off his arm, when immediately the blood gushed out.
According to Osorius, this was said to be occasioned by the virtue of a
stone in the bracelet, taken out of an animal called Cabrisia, which,
when worn on the body, could prevent the effusion of blood from the most
grievous wounds.
[608] _Yet art thou stain'd. _--A detail of all the grant actions of
Albuquerque would have been tedious and unpoetical. Camoens has chosen
the most brilliant, and has happily suppressed the rest by a display of
indignation. The French translator has the following note on this
passage: "Behold another instance of our author's prejudice! The action
which he condemns had nothing in it blameable: but, as he was of a most
amorous constitution, he thought every fault which could plead an amour
in its excuse ought to be pardoned; but true heroes, such as
Albuquerque, follow other maxims. This great man had in his palace a
beautiful Indian slave. He viewed her with the eyes of a father, and the
care of her education was his pleasure. A Portuguese soldier, named Ruy
Diaz, had the boldness to enter the general's apartment, where he
succeeded so well with the girl that he obtained his desire. When
Albuquerque heard of it, he immediately ordered him to the gallows. "
Camoens, however, was no such undistinguishing libertine as this would
represent him. In a few pages we find him praising the continence of Don
Henry de Meneses, whose victory over his passions he calls the highest
excellence of youth. Nor does it appear by what authority the Frenchman
assures us of the chaste paternal affection which Albuquerque bore to
this Indian girl. It was the great aim of Albuquerque to establish
colonies in India, and, for that purpose, he encouraged his soldiers to
marry with the natives. The most sightly girls were selected, and
educated in the religion and household arts of Portugal, and portioned
at the expense of the general. These he called his daughters, and with
great pleasure he used to attend their weddings, several couples being
usually joined together at one time. At one of these nuptials, says
Faria, the festivity having continued late, and the brides being mixed
together, several of the bridegrooms committed a blunder. The mistakes
of the night, however, as they were all equal in point of honour, were
mutually forgiven in the morning, and each man took his proper wife whom
he had received at the altar. This delicate anecdote of Albuquerque's
sons and daughters is as bad a commentary on the note of Castera as it
is on the severity which the commander showed to poor Diaz. Nor does
Camoens stand alone in the condemnation of the general. The historian
agrees with the poet. Mentioning the death of D. Antonio Noronha, "This
gentleman," says Faria, "used to moderate the violent temper of his
uncle, Albuquerque, which soon after showed itself in rigid severity. He
ordered a soldier to be hanged for an amour with one of the slaves whom
he called daughters, and whom he used to give in marriage. When some of
his officers asked him what authority he had to take the poor man's
life, he drew his sword, told them that was his commission, and
instantly broke them. " To marry his soldiers with the natives was the
plan of Albuquerque: his severity, therefore, seems unaccountable,
unless we admit the 'perhaps' of Camoens, _ou de cioso_, perhaps it was
jealousy. --But, whatever incensed the general, the execution of the
soldier was contrary to the laws of every nation;{*} and the honest
indignation of Camoens against one of the greatest of his countrymen,
one who was the grand architect of the Portuguese empire in the East,
affords a noble instance of that manly freedom of sentiment which knows
no right by which king or peer may do injustice to the meanest subject.
Nor can we omit the observation, that the above note of Castera is of a
piece with the French devotion we have already seen him pay to the name
of king, a devotion which breathes the true spirit of the blessed advice
given by Father Paul to the republic of Venice: "When a nobleman commits
an offence against a subject," says the Jesuit, "let every means be
tried to justify him. But, if a subject has offended a nobleman, let him
be punished with the utmost severity. "
{*} Osorius relates the affair of Diaz with some other circumstances;
but with no difference that affects this assertion.
[609] _Not Ammon. _--Campaspe, the most beautiful concubine of Alexander
the Great, was given by that monarch to Apelles, whom he perceived in
love with her. Araspas had strict charge of the fair captive, Panthea.
His attempt on her virtue was forgiven by Cyrus.
[610] _And Flandria's earldom on the knight bestow'd. _--"Baldwin,
surnamed Iron-arm, Grand Forester of Flanders, being in love with
Judith, the daughter of Charles the Bald, and widow of Ethelwolf, king
of England, obtained his desire by force. Charles, though at first he
highly resented, afterwards pardoned his crime, and consented to his
marriage with the princess. "--CASTERA.
* * * * *
This digression in the song of the nymph bears, in manner, a striking
resemblance to the histories which often, even in the heat of battle,
the heroes of Homer relate to each other. That these little episodes
have their beauty and propriety in an epic poem will strongly appear
from a view of M. de la Motte's translation of the Iliad into French
verse. The four and twenty books of Homer he has contracted into twelve,
and these contain no more lines than about four books of the original. A
thousand embellishments which the warm poetical feelings of Homer
suggested to him are thus thrown out by the Frenchman. But what is the
consequence of this improvement? The work of La Motte is unread, even by
his own countrymen, and despised by every foreigner who has the least
relish for poetry and Homer.
[611] _And midnight horror shakes Medina's shrine. _--Medina, the city
where Mohammed is buried. About six years after GAMA'S discovery of
India, the Sultan of Egypt sent Maurus, the abbot of the monks at
Jerusalem, who inhabit Mount Sion, on an embassy to Pope Julius II. The
sultan, with severe threats to the Christians of the East in case of
refusal, entreated the Pope to desire Emmanuel, king of Portugal, to
send no more fleets to the Indian seas. The Pope sent Maurus to
Emmanuel, who returned a very spirited answer to his holiness, assuring
him that no threats, no dangers, could make him alter his resolutions,
and lamenting that it had not yet been in his power to fulfil his
purpose of demolishing the sepulchre and erasing the memorials of
Mohammed from the earth. This, he says was the first purpose of sending
his fleets to India. It is with great art that Camoens so often reminds
us of the grand design of the expedition of his heroes to subvert
Mohammedanism, and found a Christian empire in the East. But the dignity
which this gives to his poem has already been observed in the preface.
[612] _Where Sheba's sapient queen the sceptre bore. _--The Abyssinians
contend that their country is the Sheba mentioned in the Scripture, and
that the queen who visited Solomon bore a son to that monarch, from whom
their royal family, to the present time, is descended.
[613] _Snatch'd from thy golden throne. _--GAMA only reigned three months
viceroy of India. During his second voyage, the third which the
Portuguese made to India, he gave the zamorim some considerable defeats
by sea, besides his victories over the Moors. These, however, are
judiciously omitted by Camoens, as the less striking part of his
character.
The French translator is highly pleased with the prediction of GAMA'S
death, delivered to himself at the feast. "The siren," says he,
"persuaded that GAMA is a hero exempt from weakness, does not hesitate
to mention the end of his life. GAMA listens without any mark of
emotion; the feast and the song continue. If I am not deceived, this is
truly great. "
[614] _Victorious Henry. _--Don Henry de Menezes. He was only
twenty-eight when appointed to the government of India. He died in his
thirtieth year, a noble example of the most disinterested heroism.
[615] _Great Mascarine. _--Pedro de Mascarenhas. The injustice done to
this brave officer, and the usurpation of his government by Lopez Vaz de
Sampayo, afford one of the most interesting periods of the history of
the Portuguese in India.
[616] _Great Nunio. _--Nunio de Cunha, one of the most worthy of the
Portuguese governors.
[617] _Awed by his fame. _--That brave, generous spirit, which prompted
Camoens to condemn the great Albuquerque for injustice to a common
soldier, has here deserted him. In place of poetical compliment, on the
terrors of his name, Noronha deserved infamy. The siege of Dio, it is
true, was raised on the report of his approach, but that report was the
stratagem of Coje Zofar, one of the general officers of the assailants.
The delays of Noronha were as highly blamable as his treatment of his
predecessor, the excellent Nunio, was unworthy of a gentleman.
[618] _A son of thine, O Gama. _--Stephen de Gama.
[619] _A vet'ran, fam'd on Brazil's shore. _--Martin Alonzo de Souza. He
was celebrated for clearing the coast of Brazil of several pirates, who
were formidable to that infant colony.
[620] _O'er blood-stain'd ground. _--This is as near the original as
elegance will allow--_de sangue cheyo_--which Fanshaw has thus punned:--
"With no little loss,
Sending him home again by _Weeping-Cross_"--
a place near Banbury in Oxfordshire.
[621] Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of India. --_Ed. _
[622] _The Rumien fierce, who boasts the name of Rome. _--When the
victories of the Portuguese began to overspread the East, several Indian
princes, by the counsels of the Moors, applied for assistance to the
Sultan of Egypt, and the Grand Signior. The troops of these Mohammedan
princes were in the highest reputation for bravery, and though, composed
of many different nations, were known among the orientals by one common
name. Ignorance delights in the marvellous. The history of ancient Rome
made the same figure among the easterns, as that of the fabulous, or
heroic, ages does with us, with this difference, it was better believed.
The Turks of Roumania pretended to be the descendants of the Roman
conquerors, and the Indians gave them and their auxiliaries the name of
Rum? s, or Romans. In the same manner, the fame of Godfrey in the East
conferred the name of Franks on all the western Christians, who, on
their part, gave the name of Moors to all the Mohammedans of the East.
[623] _No hope, bold Mascarene. _--The commander of Diu, or Dio, during
this siege, one of the most memorable in the Portuguese history.
[624] _Fierce Hydal-Kan. _--The title of the lords or princes of Decan,
who in their wars with the Portuguese have sometimes brought 400,000 men
into the field. The prince here mentioned, after many revolts, was at
last finally subdued by Don John de Castro, the fourth viceroy of India,
with whose reign our poet judiciously ends the prophetic song.
Albuquerque laid the plan, and Castro completed the system of the
Portuguese empire in the East. It is with propriety, therefore, that the
prophecy given to GAMA is here summed up. Nor is the discretion of
Camoens in this instance inferior to his judgment. He is now within a
few years of his own times, when he himself was upon the scene in India.
But whatever he had said of his contemporaries would have been liable to
misconstruction, and every sentence would have been branded with the
epithets of flattery or malice. A little poet would have been happy in
such an opportunity to resent his wrongs. But the silent contempt of
Camoens does him true honour.
In this historical song, as already hinted, the translator has been
attentive, as much as he could, to throw it into these universal
languages, the picturesque and characteristic. To convey the sublimest
instruction to princes, is, according to Aristotle, the peculiar
province of the epic muse. The striking points of view in which the
different characters of the governors of India are here placed, are in
the most happy conformity to this ingenious canon of the Stagyrite.
[625]
_In whirling circles now they fell, now rose,
Yet never rose nor fell. --_
The motions of the heavenly bodies, in every system, bear at all times
the same uniform relation to each other; these expressions, therefore,
are strictly just. The first relates to the appearance, the second to
the reality. Thus, while to us the sun appears to go down, to more
western inhabitants of the globe he appears to rise, and while he rises
to us, he is going down to the more eastern; the difference being
entirely relative to the various parts of the earth. And in this the
expressions of our poet are equally applicable to the Ptolemaic and
Copernican systems. The ancient hypothesis which made our earth the
centre of the universe, is the system adopted by Camoens, a happiness,
in the opinion of the translator, to the English Lusiad. The new system
is so well known, that a poetical description of it would have been no
novelty to the English reader. The other has not only that advantage in
its favour: but this description is perhaps the finest and fullest that
ever was given of it in poetry, that of Lucretius, l. v. being chiefly
argumentative, and therefore less picturesque.
Our author studied at the university of Coimbra, where the ancient
system and other doctrines of the Aristotelians then, and long
afterward, prevailed.
[626] _He holds His loftiest state. _--Called by the old philosophers and
school divines the sensorium of the Deity.
[627] _These spheres behold. _--According to the Peripatetics, the
universe consisted of eleven spheres inclosed within each other; as
Fanshaw has familiarly expressed it by a simile which he has lent our
author. The first of these spheres, he says--
"Doth (_as in a nest
Of boxes_) all the other orbs comprise. "
In their accounts of this first-mentioned, but eleventh, sphere, which
they called the Empyrean, or heaven of the blest, the disciples of
Aristotle, and the Arab Moors, gave loose to all the warmth of
imagination. And several of the Christian fathers applied to it the
descriptions of heaven which are found in the Holy Scripture.
[628] _Hence motion darts its force. _--This is the tenth sphere, the
_Primum Mobile_ of the ancient system. To account for the appearances of
the heavens, the Peripatetics ascribed a double motion to it. While its
influence drew the other orbs from east to west, they supposed it had a
motion of its own from west to east. To effect this, the ponderous
weight and interposition of the ninth sphere, or crystalline heaven, was
necessary. The ancient astronomers observed that the stars shifted their
places. This they called the motion of the crystalline heaven, expressed
by our poet at the rate of one pace during two hundred solar years. The
famous Arab astronomer, Abulhasan, in his Meadows of Gold, calculates
the revolution of this sphere to consist of 49,000 of our years. But
modern discoveries have not only corrected the calculation,{*} but have
also ascertained the reason of the apparent motion of the fixed stars.
The earth is not a perfect sphere; the quantity of matter is greater at
the equator; hence the earth turns on her axis in a rocking motion,
revolving round the axis of the ecliptic, which is called the procession
of the equinoxes, and makes the stars seem to shift their places at
about the rate of a degree in 72 years; according to which all the stars
seem to perform one revolution in the space of 25,920 years, after which
they return exactly to the same situation as at the beginning of this
period. However imperfect in their calculations, the Chaldean
astronomers perceived that the motions of the heavens composed one great
revolution. This they called the _annus magnus_, which those who did not
understand them mistook for a restoration of all things to their first
originals.
{*} However deficient the astronomy of Abulhasan may be, it is nothing
to the calculation of his prophet Mohammed, who tells his disciples,
that the stars were each about the bigness of a house, and hung from the
sky on chains of gold.
[629] _And binds the starry sphere. _--This was called the firmament, or
eighth heaven. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Venus, Mercury, and Diana,
were the planets which gave name to, and whose orbits composed, the
other spheres or heavens.
[630] _In shining frost the Northern Chariot rides. _--Commonly called
Charles' Wain. Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia,
and of Cassiope. Cassiope boasted that she and her daughter were more
beautiful than Juno and the Nereids. Andromeda, to appease the goddess,
was, at her father's command, chained to a rock to be devoured by a sea
monster, but was saved by Perseus, who obtained of Jupiter that all the
family should be placed among the stars. Orion was a hunter, who, for an
attempt on Diana, was stung to death by a serpent. The star of his name
portends tempests. The Dogs; fable gives this honour to those of
different hunters. The faithful dog of Erigone, however, that died mad
with grief for the death of his mistress, has the best title to preside
over the dog-days. The Swan; whose form Jupiter borrowed to enjoy Leda.
The Hare, when pursued by Orion, was saved by Mercury, and placed in
heaven, to signify that Mercury presides over melancholy dispositions.
The Lyre, with which Orpheus charmed Pluto. The Dragon which guarded the
golden apples of the Hesperides, and the ship Argo complete the number
of the constellations mentioned by Camoens. If our author has blended
the appearances of heaven with those of the painted artificial sphere,
it is in the manner of the classics. Ovid, in particular, thus describes
the heavens, in the second book of his Metamorphoses.
[631] _Such are their laws impress'd by God's dread will. _--Though a
modern narrative of gallant adventures by no means requires the
supposition of a particular Providence, that supposition, however, is
absolutely necessary to the grandeur of an epic poem. The great examples
of Homer and Virgil prove it; and Camoens understood and felt its force.
While his fleet combat all the horrors of unploughed oceans, we do not
view his heroes as idle wanderers; the care of heaven gives their voyage
the greatest importance. When GAMA falls on his knees and spreads his
hands to heaven on the discovery of India, we are presented with a
figure infinitely more noble than that of the most successful conqueror
who is supposed to act under the influence of fatalism or chance. The
human mind is conscious of its own weakness. It expects an elevation in
poetry, and demands a degree of importance superior to the caprices of
unmeaning accident. The poetical reader cannot admire the hero who is
subject to such blind fortuity. He appears to us with an abject,
uninteresting littleness. Our poetical ideas of permanent greatness
demand a GAMA, a hero whose enterprises and whose person interest the
care of Heaven and the happiness of his people. Nor must this
supposition be confined merely to the machinery. The reason why it
pleases, also requires, that the supposition should be uniform
throughout the whole poem. Virgil, by dismissing Eneas through the ivory
gate of Elysium, has hinted that all his pictures of a future state were
merely dreams, and has thus destroyed the highest merit of the
compliment to his patron Augustus. But Camoens has certainly been more
happy. A fair opportunity offered itself to indulge the opinions of
Lucretius and the Academic Grove; but Camoens, in ascribing the
government of the universe to the will of God, has not only preserved
the philosophy of his poem perfectly uniform, but has also shown that
the Peripatetic system is, in this instance, exactly conformable to the
Newtonian.
Though the Author of nature has placed man in a state of moral agency,
and made his happiness and misery to depend upon it, and though every
page of human history is stained with the tears of injured innocence and
the triumphs of guilt, with miseries which must affect a moral, or
thinking being, yet we have been told, that God perceiveth it not, and
that what mortals call moral evil vanishes from before His more perfect
sight. Thus the appeal of injured innocence, and the tear of bleeding
virtue fall unregarded, unworthy of the attention of the Deity. {*} Yet,
with what raptures do these philosophers behold the infinite wisdom and
care of Beelzebub, their god of flies, in the admirable and various
provision he has made for the preservation of the eggs of vermin, and
the generation of maggots. {**}
Much more might be said in proof that our poet's philosophy does not
altogether deserve ridicule. And those who allow a general, but deny a
particular providence, will, it is hoped, excuse Camoens, on the
consideration, that if we estimate a general moral providence by analogy
of that providence which presides over vegetable and animal nature, a
more particular one cannot possibly be wanted. If a particular
providence, however, is still denied, another consideration obtrudes
itself; if one pang of a moral agent is unregarded, one tear of injured
innocence left to fall unpitied by the Deity, if _Ludit in humanis
Divina potentia rebus_, the consequence is, that the human conception
can form an idea of a much better God. And it may modestly be presumed
we may hazard the laugh of the wisest philosopher, and without scruple
assert, that it is impossible that a created mind should conceive an
idea of perfection superior to that which is possessed by the Creator
and Author of existence.
{*} Perhaps, like Lucretius, some philosophers think this would be too
much trouble to the Deity. But the idea of trouble to the Divine Nature,
is much the same as another argument of the same philosopher, who having
asserted, that before the creation the gods could not know what seed
would produce, from thence wisely concludes that the world was made by
chance.
{**} Ray, in his Wisdom of God in the Creation (though he did not deny a
Providence), has carried this extravagance to the highest pitch. "To
give life," says he, "is the intention of the creation; and how
wonderful does the goodness of God appear in this, that the death and
putrefaction of one animal is the life of thousands. " So, the misery of
a family on the death of a parent is nothing, for ten thousand maggots
are made happy by it. --O Philosophy, when wilt thou forget the dreams of
thy slumbers in Bedlam!
[632] _Here Christian Europe. --Ves Europa Christian. _--As Europe is
already described in the third Lusiad, this short account of it has as
great propriety, as the manner of it contains dignity.
[633] _Afric behold. _--This just and strongly picturesque description of
Africa is finely contrasted with the character of Europe. It contains
also a masterly compliment to the expedition of GAMA, which is all along
represented as the harbinger and diffuser of the blessings of
civilization.
[634] _Gonsalo's zeal shall glow. _--Gonsalo de Sylveyra, a Portuguese
Jesuit, in 1555, sailed from Lisbon on a mission to Monomotapa. His
labours were at first successful; but ere he effected any regular
establishment he was murdered by the barbarians. --CASTERA.
[635] _Great Naya, too. _--Don Pedro de Naya. . . . In 1505 he erected a
fort in the kingdom of Sofala, which is subject to Monomotapa. Six
thousand Moors and Caffres laid siege to this garrison, which he
defended with only thirty-five men. After having several times suffered
by unexpected sallies, the barbarians fled, exclaiming to their king
that he had led them to fight against God. --CASTERA.
[636] _In Abyssinia Heav'n's own altars blaze. _--Christianity was
planted here in the first century, but mixed with many Jewish rites
unused by other Christians of the East. This appears to give some
countenance to the pretensions of their emperors, who claim their
descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and at least reminds us of
Acts viii. 27, where we are told, that the treasurer of the Queen of
Ethiopia came to worship at Jerusalem. Numerous monasteries, we are
told, are in this country. But the clergy are very ignorant, and the
laity gross barbarians. Much has been said of the hill Amara--
"Where Abyssin kings their issue guard . . .
. . . by some suppos'd,
True Paradise, under the Ethiop line
By Nilus head, inclos'd with shining rock,
A whole day's journey high"--MILTON;
and where, according to Urreta (a Spanish Jesuit), is the library
founded by the Queen of Sheba, and enriched with all those writings of
which we have either possession or only the names. The works of Noah,
and the lectures on the mathematics which Abraham read in the plains of
Mamre, are here. And so many are the volumes, that 200 monks are
employed as librarians. It is needless to add, that Father Urreta is a
second Sir John Mandevylle.
[637] _Thy son, brave Gama. _--When Don Stephen de Gama was governor of
India, the Christian Emperor and Empress-mother of Ethiopia solicited
the assistance of the Portuguese against the usurpations of the pagan
King of Zeyla. Don Stephen sent his brother, Don Christoval with 500
men. The prodigies of their valour astonished the Ethiopians. But after
having twice defeated the tyrant, and reduced his great army to the last
extremity, Don Christoval, urged too far by the impetuosity of his
youthful valour, was taken prisoner. He was brought before the usurper,
and put to death in the most cruel manner. Waxed threads were twisted
with his beard and afterwards set on fire. He was then dipped in boiling
wax, and at last beheaded by the hand of the tyrant. The Portuguese
esteem him a martyr, and say that his torments and death were inflicted
because he would not renounce the faith. --See Faria y Sousa.
[638] Infidel, pagan.
[639] _Before the virgin-martyr's tomb. _--He must be a dull reader
indeed who cannot perceive and relish the amazing variety which prevails
in our poet. In the historical narrative of wars, where it is most
necessary, yet from the sameness of the subject, most difficult, to
attain, our author always attains it with the most graceful ease. In the
description of countries he not only follows the manner of Homer and
Virgil, not only distinguishes each region by its most striking
characteristic, but also diversifies his geography with other incidents
introduced by the mention of the place. St. Catherine, virgin and
martyr, according to Romish histories, was buried on Mount Sinai, and a
chapel was erected over her grave. It is now the Monastery of St.
Catherine. --_Ed. _
[640] The crescent, the sign of Turkish supremacy. --_Ed. _
[641] _De Branco's sword. _--Don Pedro de Castel-Branco. He obtained a
great victory, near Ormuz, over the combined fleets of the Moors, Turks,
and Persians.
[642] _There Barem's isle. _--The island of Bahrein is situated in the
Persian Gulf. It is celebrated for the plenty, variety, and fineness of
its diamonds.
[643] _Her warrior sons disdain the arms of fire. _--This was the
character of the Persians when GAMA arrived in the East. Yet, though
they thought it dishonourable to use the musket, they esteemed it no
disgrace to rush from a thicket on an unarmed foe. This reminds one of
the spirit of the old romance. Orlando having taken the first invented
cannon from the King of Friza, throws it into the sea with the most
heroic execrations. Yet the heroes of chivalry think it no disgrace to
take every advantage afforded by invulnerable hides and enchanted
armour.
[644]
_There Gerum's isle the hoary ruin wears
Where Time has trod. --_
Presuming on the ruins which are found on this island, the natives
pretend that the Armuzia of Pliny and Strabo was here situated. But this
is a mistake, for that city stood on the continent. The Moors, however,
have built a city in this isle, which they call by the ancient name.
[645] _He who first shall crown thy labours, Gama. _--Pedro de Cabral, of
whom see the preface.
[646] Ceylon.
[647] _Some Macon's orgies. _--Macon, a name of Mecca, the birthplace of
Mohammed.
[648] _The tomb where Thomas sleeps. _--There is (to talk in the Indian
style) _a caste_ of gentlemen, whose hearts are all impartiality and
candour to every religion, except one, the most moral which ever the
world heard of. A tale of a Brahmin, or a priest of Jupiter, would to
them appear worthy of poetry. But to introduce an apostle---- Common
sense, however, will prevail; and the episode of St. Thomas will appear
to the true critic equal in dignity and propriety.
To renew and complete the labours of the apostle, the messenger of
Heaven, is the great design of the hero of the poem, and of the future
missions, in consequence of the discoveries which are the subject of it.
The Christians of St. Thomas, found in Malabar on the arrival of GAMA,
we have already mentioned. The Jesuit missionaries have given most
pompous accounts of the Christian antiquities of India and China. When
the Portuguese arrived in India, the head of the Malabar Christians,
named Jacob, styled himself Metropolitan of India and China. And a
Syriac breviary{*} of the Indian Christians offers praise to God for
sending St. Thomas to India and China. In 1625, in digging for a
foundation near Sigansu, metropolis of the province of Xensi, was found
a stone with a cross on it, full of Chinese, and some Syriac characters,
containing the names of bishops, and an account of the Christian
religion, "that it was brought from Judea; that having been weakened, it
was renewed under the reign of the great Tam" (cir. A. D. 630). But the
Christians, say the Jesuits, siding with the Tartars, cir. A. D. 1200,
were extirpated by the Chinese. In 1543, Fernand Pinto, observing some
ruins near Peking, was told by the people, that 200 years before, a holy
man who worshipped Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, lived there; and
being murdered, was thrown into a river, but his body would not sink;
and soon after the city was destroyed by an earthquake. The same Jesuit
found people at Caminam who knew the doctrines of Christianity, which
they said were preached to their fathers, by John, the disciple of
Thomas. In 1635, some heathens, by night passing through a village in
the province of Fokien, saw some stones which emitted light, under which
were found the figure of crosses. From China, St. Thomas returned to
Meliapore in Malabar, at a time when a prodigious beam of timber floated
on the sea near the coast. The king endeavoured to bring it ashore, but
all the force of men and elephants was in vain. St. Thomas desired leave
to build a church with it, and immediately dragged it to shore with a
single thread. A church was built, and the king baptized. This enraged
the Brahmins, the chief of whom killed his own son, and accused Thomas
of the murder. But the saint, by restoring the youth to life, discovered
the wickedness of his enemies. He was afterwards killed by a lance while
kneeling at the altar; after, according to tradition, he had built 3300
stately churches, many of which were rebuilt, cir. 800, by an Armenian
named Thomas Cananeus. In 1533, the body of the apostle, with the head
of the lance beside him, was found in his church by D. Duarte de
Meneses; and in 1558 was, by D. Constantine de Braganza, removed to Goa.
To these accounts, selected from Faria y Sousa, let two from Osorius be
added. When Martin Alonzo de Souza was viceroy, some brazen tables were
brought to him, inscribed with unusual characters, which were explained
by a learned Jew, and imported that St. Thomas had built a church at
Meliapore. And by an account sent to Cardinal Henrico, by the Bishop of
Cochin, in 1562, when the Portuguese repaired the ancient chapel of St.
Thomas,{**} there was found a stone cross with several characters on it,
which the best antiquarians could not interpret, till at last a Brahmin
translated it, "That in the reign of Sagam, Thomas was sent by the Son
of God, whose disciple he was, to teach the law of heaven in India; that
he built a church, and was killed by a Brahmin at the altar. "
{*} The existence of this breviary is a certain fact. These Christians
had the Scripture also in the Syriac language.
{**} This was a very ancient building, in the very first style of
Christian churches. The Portuguese have now disfigured it with their
repairs and new buildings.
A view of Portuguese Asia, which must include the labours of the
Jesuits, forms a necessary part in the comment on the Lusiad: this note,
therefore, and some obvious reflections upon it, are in place. It is as
easy to bury an inscription and find it again, as it is to invent a
silly tale; but, though suspicion of fraud on the one hand, and silly
absurdity on the other, lead us to despise the authority of the Jesuits,
yet one fact remains indisputable. Christianity had been much better
known in the East, several centuries before, than it was at the arrival
of GAMA. Where the name was unknown, and where the Jesuits were
unconcerned, crosses were found. The long existence of the Christians of
St. Thomas in the midst of a vast pagan empire, proves that the learned
of that kingdom must have some knowledge of their doctrines. And these
facts give countenance to some material conjectures concerning the
religion of the Brahmins.
[649] _When now the chief who wore the triple thread. _--Of this, thus
Osorius: "_Terna fila ab humero dextero in latus finistrum gerunt, ut
designent trinam in natura divina rationem. _--They (the Brahmins) wear
three threads, which reach from the right shoulder to the left side, as
significant of the trinal distinction in the Divine Nature. " That some
sects of the Brahmins wear a symbolical tessera of three threads is
acknowledged on all hands; but, from whatever the custom arose, it is
not to be supposed that the Brahmins, who have thousands of ridiculous
contradictory legends, should agree in their accounts or explanations of
it. They have various accounts of a Divine Person having assumed human
nature. And the god Brahma, as observed by Cudworth, is generally
mentioned as united in the government of the universe with two others,
sometimes of different names. They have also images with three heads
rising out of one body, which they say represent the Divine Nature. {*}
But are there any traces of these opinions in the accounts which the
Greek and Roman writers have given us of the Brahmins? And will the wise
pay any credit to the authority of those books which the public never
saw, and which, by the obligation of their keepers, they are never to
see; and some of which, by the confession of their keepers, since the
appearance of Mohammed, have been rejected? The Platonic idea of a
trinity of divine attributes was well known to the ancients, yet perhaps
the Athanasian controversy offers a fairer field to the conjecturist.
That controversy for several ages engrossed the conversation of the
East. All the subtilty of the Greeks was called forth, and no
speculative contest was ever more universally or warmly disputed; so
warmly, that it is a certain fact that Mohammed, by inserting into his
Koran some declarations in favour of the Arians, gained innumerable
proselytes to his new religion. Abyssinia, Egypt, Syria, Persia, and
Armenia were perplexed with this unhappy dispute, and from the earliest
times these countries have had a commercial intercourse with India. The
number, blasphemy, and absurdity of the Jewish legends of the Talmud and
Targums, bear a striking resemblance to the holy legends of the
Brahmins. The Jews also assert the great antiquity of their Talmudical
legends. Adam, Enoch, and Noah are named among their authors; but we
know their date; Jerusalem, ere their birth, was destroyed by Titus. We
also know, that the accounts which the Greek writers give of the
Brahmins fall infinitely short of those extravagances which are
confessed even by their modern admirers. And Mohammedanism does not
differ from Christianity, more than the account which even these
gentlemen give, does from that of Porphyry. That laborious philosopher,
though possessed of all the knowledge of his age, though he mentions
their metempsychosis and penances, has not a word of any of their idols,
or the legends of Brahma or his brothers. On the contrary, he represents
their worship as extremely pure and simple. Strabo's account of them is
similar. And Eusebius has assured us they worshipped no images. {**} Yet,
on the arrival of the modern Europeans in India, innumerable were their
idols; and all the superstition of ancient Egypt, in the adoration of
animals and vegetables, seemed more than revived by the Brahmins. Who
that considers this striking alteration in their features, can withhold
his contempt when he is told of the religious care with which these
philosophers have these four thousand years preserved their sacred
rites.
{*} To these undoubted facts the author will not add the authority of a
Xavier, who tells us, that he prevailed upon a Brahmin to explain to him
some part of their hidden religion; when to his surprise, the Indian, in
a low voice, repeated the Ten Commandments.
{**} . . .
