Their fairest offspring from their bosoms torn,
(A dreadful tribute !)1 loud imploring mourn.
Alas, in vain! their offspring captive led,
In Hagar's sons' unhallow'd temples bred,
To rapine train'd, arise a brutal host,

2

The Christian terror, and the Turkish boast.

Yet sleep, ye powers of Europe, careless sleep, To you in vain your eastern brethren weep; Yet, not in vain their woe-wrung tears shall sue, Though small the Lusian realms, her legions few, The guardian oft by Heav'n ordain'd before, The Lusian race shall guard Messiah's lore. When Heav'n decreed to crush the Moorish foe Heav'n gave the Lusian spear to strike the blow. When Heav'n's own laws o'er Afric's shores were heard, The sacred shrines the Lusian heroes rear'd; Nor shall their zeal in Asia's bounds expire, Asia, subdu'd, shall fume with hallow'd fire. When the red sun the Lusian shore forsakes, And on the lap of deepest west * awakes, O'er the wild plains, beneath unincens'd skies The sun shall view the Lusian altars rise. And, could new worlds by human step be trod, Those worlds should tremble at the Lusian nod."

8

1 Their fairest offspring from their bosoms torn,
(A dreadful tribute !)—

By this barbarous policy the tyranny of the Ottomans was long sustained. The troops of the Turkish infantry and cavalry, known by the name of Janissaries and Spahis, were thus supported. "The sons of Christians-and those the most completely furnished by naturewere taken in their childhood from their parents by a levy made every five years, or oftener, as occasion required."-SANDYS.

2 Mohammedans.

3 O'er Afric's shores

The sacred shrines the Lusian heroes rear'd.

See the note on book v. p. 137.

Of deepest west.-Alludes to the discovery and conquest of the Brazils by the Portuguese.

The poet, having brought his heroes to the shore of India, indulges himself with a review of the state of the western and eastern worlds; the latter of which is now, by the labour of his heroes,

And now, their ensigns blazing o'er the tide,
On India's shore the Lusian heroes ride.
High to the fleecy clouds resplendent far
Appear the regal towers of Malabar,
Imperial Calicut,' the lordly seat

Of the first monarch of the Indian state.
Right to the port the valiant GAMA bends,
With joyful shouts, a fleet of boats attends:
Joyful, their nets they leave and finny prey,
And, crowding round the Lusians, point the way.
A herald now, by Vasco's high command
Sent to the monarch, treads the Indian strand;
The sacred staff he bears, in gold he shines,
And tells his office by majestic signs.
As, to and fro, recumbent to the gale,
The harvest waves along the yellow dale,

rendered accessible to the former. The purpose of his poem is also strictly kept in view. The west and the east he considers as two great empires; the one of the true religion, the other of a false. The professors of the true, disunited and destroying one another; the professors of the false one, all combined to extirpate the other. He upbraids the professors of the true religion for their vices, particularly for their disunion, and for deserting the interests of holy faith. His countrymen, however, he boasts, have been its defenders and planters, and, without the assistance of their brother powers, will plant it in Asia.

"The Crusaders," according to Voltaire, "were a band of vagabond thieves, who had agreed to ramble from the heart of Europe in order to desolate a country they had no right to, and massacre, in cold blood, a venerable prince, more than fourscore years old, and his whole people, against whom they had no pretence of complaint."

To prove that the Crusades were neither so unjustifiable, so impolitic, nor so unhappy in their consequences as superficial readers of history are accustomed to regard them, would not be difficult.

Upon the whole, it will be found that the Portuguese poet talks of the political reasons of a Crusade with an accuracy in the philosophy of history as superior to that of Voltaire, as the poetical merit of the Lusiad surpasses that of the Henriade. And the critic in poetry must allow, that, to suppose the discovery of GAMA the completion of all the endeavours to overthrow the great enemies of the true religion, gives a dignity to the poem, and an importance to the hero, similar to that which Voltaire, on the same supposition, allows to the subject of the Jerusalem of Tasso.

Calicut is the name of a famous sea-port town in the province of Malabar.

So, round the herald press the wond'ring throng,
Recumbent waving as they pour along,

And much his manly port and strange attire,
And much his fair and ruddy hue admire :

When, speeding through the crowd, with eager haste,
And honest smiles, a son of Afric press'd:
Enrapt with joy the wond'ring herald hears
Castilia's manly tongue salute his ears.1

"What friendly angel from thy Tago's shore
Has led thee hither?" cries the joyful Moor.
Then, hand in hand (the pledge of faith) conjoin'd-
"Oh joy beyond the dream of hope to find,

To hear a kindred voice," the Lusian cried,

66

Beyond unmeasur'd gulfs and seas untried;
Untried, before our daring keels explor'd

Our fearless way! O Heav'n, what tempests roar'd,
While, round the vast of Afric's southmost land,
Our eastward bowsprits sought the Indian strand !”
Amaz'd, o'erpower'd, the friendly stranger stood-
"A path now open'd through the boundless flood!
The hope of ages, and the dread despair,

Accomplish'd now, and conquer'd!"-Stiff his hair
Rose thrilling, while his lab'ring thoughts pursued
The dreadful course by GAMA's fate subdued.
Homeward, with gen'rous warmth o'erflow'd, he leads
The Lusian guest, and swift the feast succeeds;
The purple grape, and golden fruitage smile;
And each choice viand of the Indian soil
Heap'd o'er the board, the master's zeal declare;
The social feast the guest and master share:

1 The herald hears

Castilia's manly tongue salute his ears.

This is according to the truth of history. While the messenger sent ashore by GAMA was borne here and there, and carried off his feet by the throng, who understood not a word of his language, he was accosted in Spanish by a Moorish merchant, a native of Tunis, who, according to Osorius, had been the chief person with whom King Ferdinand had formerly contracted for military stores. He proved himself an honest agent, and of infinite service to GAMA; he returned to Portugal, where, according to Faria, he died in the Christian communion. He was named Monzaida.

The sacred pledge of eastern faith 1 approv❜d,
By wrath unalter'd, and by wrong unmov'd.
Now, to the fleet the joyful herald bends,
With earnest pace the Heav'n-sent friend attends :
Now, down the river's sweepy stream they glide,
And now, their pinnace cuts the briny tide:
The Moor, with transport sparkling in his eyes,
The well-known make of GAMA's navy spies,
The bending bowsprit, and the mast so tall,
The sides black, frowning as a castle wall,
The high-tower'd stern, the lordly nodding prore,
And the broad standard slowly waving o'er

2

The anchor's moony fangs. The skiff he leaves,
Brave GAMA's deck his bounding step receives;
And, "Hail!" he cries: in transport GAMA sprung,
And round his neck with friendly welcome hung;
Enrapt, so distant o'er the dreadful main,
To hear the music of the tongue of Spain.
And now, beneath a painted shade of state,
Beside the admiral, the stranger sat.
Of India's clime, the natives, and the laws,
What monarch sways them, what religion awes
Why from the tombs devoted to his sires
The son so far? the valiant chief inquires.
In act to speak the stranger waves his hand,
The joyful crew in silent wonder stand,
Each gently pressing on, with greedy ear,
As erst the bending forests stoop'd to hear

The sacred pledge of eastern faith.-To eat together was, and still is, in the east looked upon as the inviolable pledge of protection. As a Persian nobleman was one day walking in his garden, a wretch in the utmost terror prostrated himself before him, and implored to be protected from the rage of a multitude who were in pursuit of him, to take his life. The nobleman took a peach, eat part of it, and gave the rest to the fugitive, assuring him of safety. As they approached the house, they met a crowd who carried the murdered corpse of the nobleman's beloved son. The incensed populace demanded the murderer, who stood beside him, to be delivered to their fury. The father, though overwhelmed with grief and anger, replied, "We have eaten together, and I will not betray him." He protected the murderer of his son from the fury of his domestics and neighbours, and in the night facilitated his escape.

2 i.e. crescent-shaped.-Ed.

In Rhodope,' when Orpheus' heavenly strain,
Deplor'd his lost Eurydice in vain;

While, with a mien that gen'rous friendship won
From ev'ry heart, the stranger thus began :-

"Your glorious deeds, ye Lusians, well I know,
To neighb'ring earth the vital air I owe;
Yet-though my faith the Koran's lore revere;
So taught my sires; my birth at proud Tangier,
A hostile clime to Lisbon's awful name

I glow, enraptur'd, o'er the Lusian fame;
Proud though your nation's warlike glories shine,
These proudest honours yield, O chief, to thine;
Beneath thy dread achievements low they fall,
And India's shore, discover'd, crowns them all.
Won by your fame, by fond affection sway'd,
A friend I come, and offer friendship's aid.
As, on my lips Castilia's language glows,
So, from my tongue the speech of India flows:
Mozaide my name, in India's court belov'd,
For honest deeds (but time shall speak) approv'd.
When India's monarch greets his court again,
(For now the banquet on the tented plain :
And sylvan chase his careless hours employ),a
When India's mighty lord, with wond'ring joy,
Shall hail you welcome on his spacious shore
Through oceans never plough'd by keel before,
Myself shall glad interpreter attend,

Mine ev'ry office of the faithful friend.
Ah! but a stream, the labour of the oar,
Divides my birthplace from your native shore;
On shores unknown, in distant worlds, how sweet
The kindred tongue, the kindred face, to greet!

In Rhodope.-The beautiful fable of the descent of Orpheus to hell, for the recovery of his beloved wife, Eurydice, will be found in Virgil's Georgics, bk. iv., lines 460-80.-Ed.

2 (For now the banquet on the tented plain,

And sylvan chase his careless hours employ).—

The great Mogul, and other eastern sovereigns, attended by their courtiers, spend annually some months of the finest season in encampments in the field, in hunting parties, and military amusements.