(Such oft of old the hero's fate has been)
Here end thy toils, nor tempt new fates unfeen;
Each land the brave man nobly calls his home:
Or if, bold pirates, o'er the deep you roam,
Skill'd the dread ftorm to brave, O welcome here!
Fearless of death or fhame confefs fincere :
My name shall then thy dread protection be,
My captain thou, unrivall'd on the fea.
Oh now, ye muses, fing what goddess fired
GAMA's proud bofom, and his lips infpired.
Fair ACIDALIA, love's celeftial queen,
The graceful goddess of the fearless mien,
Her graceful freedom on his look bestow'd,
And all collected in his bofom glow'd.
Sovereign, he cries, oft witness'd, well I know
The rageful falfehood of the Moorish foe;
"Melinda and in Calicut they found civilized nations, where the arts "flourished; who wanted nothing; who were poffeffed of all the refine"ments and delicacies on which we value ourselves. The king of Melinda "had the generosity to be contented with the present which Gama made; "but the Zamorim, with a difdainful eye, beheld the gifts which were of❝fered to him. The prefent was thus: four mantles of scarlet, fix hats adorned with feathers, four chaplets of coral beads, twelve Turkey car.
pets, feven drinking cups of brass, a chest of sugar, two barrels of oil, and two of honey." Caftera.
* Fair Acidalia, Love's celeftial queen.-Castera derives Acidalia from aundng, which, he says, implies to act without fear or restraint. Acidalia is one of the names of Venus, in Virgil; derived from Acidalus, a fountain facred to her in Boeotia.
Their fraudful tales, from hatred bred, believed,
Thine ear is poifon'd, and thine eye deceived.
What light, what shade the courtier's mirrour gives,
That light, that shade the guarded king receives.
Me haft thou view'd in colours not mine own,
Yet bold I promise shall my truth be known.
If o'er the feas a lawless peft I roam,
A blood-ftain'd exile from my native home,
How many a fertile fhore and beauteous isle,
Where nature's gifts unclaim'd, unbounded fmile,
Mad have I left, to dare the burning zone,
And all the horrors of the gulphs unknown
That roar beneath the axle of the world,
Where ne'er before was daring fail unfurl'd!
And have I left these beauteous fhores behind,
And have I dared the rage of every wind,
That now breathed fire, and now came wing'd with froft,
Lured by the plunder of an unknown coaft?
Not thus the robber leaves his certain prey
For the gay promise of a nameless day.
Dread and ftupendous, more than death-doom'd man
Might hope to compass, more than wisdom plan,
To thee my toils, to thee my dangers rise :
Ah! Lifboa's kings behold with other eyes.
Where virtue calls, where glory leads the way
No dangers move them, and no toils dismay.
Long have the kings of Lufu's daring race
Refolved the limits of the deep to trace,
Beneath the morn to ride the farthest waves,
And pierce the farthest shore old Ocean laves.
Sprung from the prince, before whose matchless power
The strength of Afric wither'd as a flower
Never to bloom again, great Henry shone,
Each gift of nature and of art his own;
Bold as his fire, by toils on toils untired,
To find the Indian fhore his pride afpired.
Beneath the stars that round the Hydra shine,
And where fam'd Argo hangs the heavenly fign,
Where thirst and fever burn on every gale
The dauntless Henry rear'd the Lufian fail.
Embolden'd by the meed that crown'd his toils,
Beyond the wide-spread shores and numerous ifles,
Where both the tropics pour the burning day,
Succeeding heroes forced th' exploring way:
That race which never view'd the Pleiad's car,
That barbarous race beneath the fouthern ftar,
Their
eyes beheld-Dread roar'd the blast-the wave
Boils to the sky, the meeting whirlwinds rave
O'er the torn heavens; loud on their awe-ftruck ear
Great Nature feem'd to call, Approach not here-
Y Sprung from the prince John I.
At Lisboa's court they told their dread escape,
And from her raging tempefts, named the Cape.
"Thou fouthmoft point," the joyful king exclaim'd,
"Cape of Good Hope, be thou for ever named!
"Onward my fleets shall dare the dreadful way,
"And find the regions of the infant day.".
In vain the dark and ever-howling blast
Proclaimed, This ocean never fhall be past-
Through that dread ocean, and the tempefts' roar,
My king commanded, and my course I bore.
The pillar thus of deathlefs a fame, begun
By other chiefs, beneath the rifing fun
In thy great realm now to the skies I raise,
The deathlefs pillar of my nation's praife.
Through these wild feas no coftly gift I brought;
Thy shore alone and friendly peace I fought.
And yet to thee the nobleft gift I bring
The world can boast, the friendship of my king.
And mark the word, his greatness shall appear
When next my course to India's strand I steer,
z And from ber raging tempefts named the Cape. See the Preface.
The pillar thus of deathless fame, begun
By other chiefs, &c.
Till I now ending what thofe did begin,
The furthest pillar in thy realm advance;
Breaking the element of molten tin,
Through horrid ftorms I lead to thee the dance.
Such proofs I'll bring as never man before
In deeds of ftrife or peaceful friendship bore.
Weigh now my words, my truth demands the light,
For truth fhall ever boast, at last, refistless might.
Boldly the hero spake with brow fevere,
Of fraud alike unconfcious as of fear:
His noble confidence with truth impreft
Sunk deep, unwelcome, in the monarch's breaft;
Nor wanting charms his avarice to gain
Appear'd the commerce of illuftrious Spain.
Yet as the fick man loaths the bitter draught,
Though rich with health he knows the cup comes fraught;
His health without it, felf-deceiv'd, he weighs,
Now haftes to quaff the drug, and now delays;
Reluctant thus as wavering paffion veer'd,
The Indian lord the dauntlefs GAMA heard:
The Moorish threats yet founding in his ear,
He acts with caution, and is led by fear.
With folemn pomp he bids his lords prepare
The friendly banquet, to the regent's care
Commends brave GAMA, and with pomp retires :
The regent's hearths awake the focial fires;
Wide o'er the board the royal feaft is spread,
And fair embroidered fhines DE GAMA's bed.
The regent's palace high o'erlook'd the bay
Where GAMA's black-ribb'd fleet at anchor lay.
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