The king's defiant speech and base accusation Gama detained prisoner in the kotwâl's house The king visits the house of the kotwâl Addresses Gama, detained as a prisoner there On what conditions he may be allowed to return to his fleet ... ... The king orders the signal to be given ... 253, 254 251 The drums and trumpets of the fleet call to action Destruction of the Moorish vessels by the cannon of the ships ... ... Peace restored. Presents of Indian productions Return of the fleet to Portugal with the hostages Venus raises the Island of Love in the sea, to afford the sailors a resting-place. She summons the Nereids, and informs them of her intentions. Seeks her son, Cupid She pauses to reflect on the ill-requited bravery of Pacheco PAGE 305 305 310, 311 Foretells the needless cruelty of Albuquerque, who puts to 312-318 The nymph Tethys leads them to the summit of a rugged hill, 319 320 THE LUSIAD.' BOOK I. ARGUMENT. Statement of the subject. Invocation to the muses of the Tagus. Herald calls an assembly of the gods. Jupiter foretells the future conquests of the Portuguese. Bacchus, apprehensive that the Portuguese may eclipse the glory acquired by himself in the conquest of India, declares against them. Venus, who sees in the Portuguese her ancient Romans, promises to aid their enterprise. Mars induces Jupiter to support them, and Mercury is sent to direct their course. Gama, commander of the expedition, lands at Mozambique and Mombas. Opposition of the Moors, instigated by Bacchus. They grant Gama a pilot who designs treacherously to take them to Quiloa to ensure the destruction of the whole expedition. ARMS and the Heroes, who from Lisbon's shore, Beyond where Ceylon lifts her spicy breast, The Lusiad; in the original, Os Lusiadas, The Lusiads, from the Latin name (Lusitania) of Portugal, derived from Lusus or Lysas, the companion of Bacchus in his travels, who settled a colony in Lusitania. See Plin. 1. iii. c. 1. Thro' seas where sail was never spread before.-M. Duperron de Castera, who has given a French prose translation, or rather paraphrase, of the Lusiad, has a long note on this passage, which, he tells us, must not be understood literally. Our author, he says, could not be ignorant that the African and Indian Oceans had been navigated before the times of the Portuguese. The Phoenicians, whose fleets passed the straits of Gibraltar, made frequent voyages in these seas, though they carefully concealed the course of their navigation that B With prowess more than human forc'd their way What wars they wag'd, what seas, what dangers pass'd, 3 Let Fame with wonder name the Greek 3 no more, 5 Nor Eastern conquests Ammon's pride proclaim; Than e'er adorn'd the song of ancient days, And whose dread sword the fate of empire sway'd. other nations might not become partakers of their lucrative traffic.See the Periplus of Hanno, in Cory's Ancient Fragments.-Ed. 1 And all my country's wars. He interweaves artfully the history of Portugal.-VOLTAIRE. 2 To Holy Faith unnumber'd altars rear'd.-In no period of history does human nature appear with more shocking, more diabolical features than in the wars of Cortez, and the Spanish conquerors of South America. Zeal for the Christian religion was esteemed, at the time of the Portuguese grandeur, as the most cardinal virtue, and to propagate Christianity and extirpate Mohammedanism were the most certain proofs of that zeal. In all their expeditions this was professedly a principal motive of the Lusitanian monarchs, and Camoëns understood the nature of epic poetry too well to omit it. 3 Ulysses, who is the subject of the Odyssey. The voyage of Æneas, described in the Æneid of Virgil. 5 Alexander the Great, who claimed to be the son of Jupiter Ammon. Vasco de Gama is, ir a great measure, though not exclusively, the hero of the Lusiad. And you, fair nymphs of Tagus, parent stream, And thou,1 O born the pledge of happier days, 1 King Sebastian, who came to the throne in his minority. Though the warm imagination of Camoëns anticipated the praises of the future hero, the young monarch, like Virgil's Pollio, had not the happiness to fulfil the prophecy. His endowments and enterprising genius promised, indeed, a glorious reign. Ambitious of military laurels, he led a powerful army into Africa, on purpose to replace Muley Hamet on the throne of Morocco, from which he had been deposed by Muley Molucco. On the 4th of August, 1578, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, he gave battle to the usurper on the plains of Alcazar. This was that memorable engagement, to which the Moorish Emperor, extremely weakened by sickness, was carried in his litter. By the impetuosity of the attack, the first line of the Moorish infantry was broken, and the second disordered. Muley Molucco on this mounted his horse, drew his sabre, and would have put himself at the head of his troops, but was prevented by his attendants. His emotion of mind was so great that he fell from his horse, and one of his guards having caught him in his arms, conveyed him to his litter, where, putting his finger on his lips to enjoin them silence, he immediately expired. Hamet Taba stood by the curtains of the carriage, opened them from time to time, and gave out orders as if he had received them from the Emperor. Victory declared for the Moors, and the defeat of the Portuguese was so total, that not above fifty of their whole army escaped. Hieron de Mendoça and Sebastian de Mesa relate, that Don Sebastian, after having two horses killed under him, was surrounded and taken; but the party who had secured him, quarrelling among themselves whose prisoner he was, a Moorish officer rode up and struck the king a blow over the right eye, which brought him to the ground; when, despairing of ransom, the others killed him. About twenty years after this fatal defeat there appeared a stranger |