for this purpose, of Vasco de Gama, who, in the fifth book, commences the recital of his own voyage and discoveries. CHAPTER XXXVIII. SEQUEL OF THE LUSIAD. ARRIVED, as we now are, at a period when every sea is traversed in every direction, and for every purpose; and when the phenomena of nature, observed throughout the different regions of the earth, are no longer a source of mystery and alarm, we look back upon the voyage of Vasco de Gama to the Indies, one of the boldest and most perilous enterprises achieved by the courage of man, with far less admiration than it formerly excited. The age preceding that of the great Emmanuel, though devoted almost wholly to maritime discoveries, had not yet prepared the minds of men for an undertaking of such magnitude and extent. For a long period Cape Non, situated at the extremity of the empire of Morocco, had · been considered as the limits of European navigation; and all the honours awarded by the Infant Don Henry, with the additional hopes of plunder, on a coast purposely abandoned to the cupidity of adventurers, were necessary to induce the Portuguese to approach the borders of the great desert. Cape Bojador soon presented a new barrier, and excited new fears. Twelve years of fruitless attempts passed away before they summoned resolution to double this Cape, and to proceed farther in the same track. Having explored scarcely sixty leagues of the coast, there yet remained more than two thousand to be traversed before they could attain the Cape of Good Hope. Each step that marked their progress along the line of coast, towards the discovery of Senegal, of Guinea, and of Congo, presented them with new phenomena, with fresh apprehensions, and not unfrequently with fresh perils. Successive navigators, however, gradually advanced along the African shores, whose extent far surpassed every thing known in European navigation, without discovering any traces of civilization or commerce, or entering into any alliances which might enable them, at such a distance from their country, to supply their exhausted magazines, to recruit their strength, and to repair the various disasters of the sea and climate. But at length, in 1486, the vessel of Bartolomeo Diaz was carried by a violent storm beyond the Cape of Good Hope, which he passed without observation. He then remarked that the coast, instead of preserving its direction invariably towards the south, appeared at length to take a northern course; but with exhausted provisions and companions dispirited and fatigued, he was compelled to abandon to some more fortunate successor the results of a discovery, from which he was aware what great advantages might arise. Such was the degree of information already acquired by the Portuguese relating to the navigation of these seas, when King Emmanuel made choice of Gama to attempt a passage to the Indies by the same route. There still remained a tract of two thousand leagues to be discovered before arriving at the coast of Malabar; an extent of territory as great as that which it had required the whole of the preceding century to explore. The Portuguese were likewise uncertain, whether the distance might not be twice the extent here stated; a consideration to which we must add their inexperience of the winds and seasons most favourable for the navigation. Nor were they without their fears, that, on reaching a country which presented so many difficulties, they might have to encounter new and powerful enemies, equal to themselves in point of civilization and the arts of war, ready to overpower them on their arrival. The whole fleet destined for such an enterprise consisted only of three small vessels of war and a transport, of which the united crews did not exceed more than one hundred and forty-eight hands fit for service. They were commanded by Vasco de Gama, by Paul de Gama, his brother, and by Nicholas Coelho; and set sail from the port of Belem, or Bethleem, about a league distant from Lisbon, on the eighth of July, 1497. The description of the sailing of this little fleet is given in the following terms by Vasco de Gama, in his narration to the King of Melinda : Where foaming on the shore the tide appears, Dim o'er the sea the evening shades descend, There, while the tapers o'er the altar blaze, Our prayers and earnest vows to heaven we raise. "Safe through the deep, where every yawning wave "Through howling tempests, and through gulfs untried, While kneeling thus before the sacred shrine In holy faith's most solemn rite we join, Our peace with heaven the bread of peace confirms, And each firm breast devotes itself to death, My nod, and follow where I lead the way. A thousand white-robed priests our steps attend, Of parting friends, constrain'd my tears to flow. I bear no bosom of obdurate steel- * Canto iv. str. 96, 91. And must our loves, and all the kindred train Such the lorn parents' and the spouses' woes, Though glory fired our hearts, too well we knew The melting passion of such tender pain. Now on the lofty decks prepared we stand, What dreadful woes are pour'd on human kind; What streams of gore have drench'd the hapless world! What new dread horror dost thou now prepare! Conquest, and laurels dipp'd in blood, be prized, That fame's vain flattery may thy name adorn, Thee, lord of Persia, thee, of India lord, O'er Ethiopia vast, and Araby adored! Whilst the old man was thus speaking, the vessels had already set sail : From Leo now, the lordly star of day, When slowly gliding from our wishful eyes, The Lusian mountains mingled with the skies: Tago's loved stream, and Cintra's mountains cold Dim fading now, we now no more behold; And still with yearning hearts our eyes explore, Our native soil now far behind, we ply The lonely dreary waste of seas and boundless sky.* Vasco de Gama next proceeds to relate his voyage along the western coast of Africa. He describes Madeira, the first island peopled by the Portuguese, the burning shores of the Zanhagan desert, the passage of the Tropic, and the cold waters of the dark Senegal. They touch for refreshments at San Jago, where they renew their provisions, pass the rocky precipices of Sierra Leone, the island on which they bestowed the name of St. Thomas, and the kingdom of Congo, watered by the great river Zahir, and already converted to the Christian faith; till at length, having crossed the line, they behold a new pole rising above the horizon, but less richly studded! with the constellations of heaven. Gama enumerates the *Canto v. str. 3. |