Generous as to thy friends thy fails refign,
My will commands it, and the power is mine:
In vain thy art, in vain thy might withstands,
Thy fails, and rudders too, my will demands:
Such be the teft, thy boasted truth to try,
Each other test despised, I fixt deny.
And has my regent fued two days in vain!
In vain my mandate, and the captive chain!
Yet not in vain, proud chief, ourself shall fue
From thee the honour to my friendship due :
Ere force compel thee, let the grace be thine,
Our grace permits it, freely to refign,
Freely to trust our friendship, ere too late
Our injured honour fix thy dreadful fate.
While thus he fpake his changeful look declared,
In his proud breast what starting paffions warr'd.
No feature moved on GAMA's face was feen,
Stern he replies, with bold yet anxious mien,
In me my fovereign represented fec,
His state is wounded, and he speaks in me:
Unawed by threats, by dangers uncontroul'd,
The laws of nations bid my tongue be bold.
No more thy justice holds the righteous scale,
The arts of falfhood and the Moors prevail;
a Thy fails, and rudders too, my will demands-According to history. See the Preface.
I fee the doom my favour'd foes decree,
Yet, though in chains I ftand, my fleet is free.
The bitter taunts of fcorn the brave difdain
Few be my words, your arts, your threats are vain.
My fovereign's fleet I yield not to your
Safe fhall my fleet to Lifboa's ftrand convey
The glorious tale of all the toils I bore,
Afric furrounded, and the Indian shore
Discovered-Thefe I pledged my life to gain;
These to my country fhall my life maintain.
One wish alone my earnest heart defires,
The fole impaffion'd hope my breast respires ;
-My finish'd labours may my fovereign hear!
Befides that wish, nor hope I know, nor fear.
And lo, the victim of your rage I ftand,
And bare my bofom to the murderer's hand.
With lofty mien he fpake. In ftern disdain, My threats, the monarch cries, were never vain : Swift give the fign-Swift as he spake, appear'd The dancing ftreamer o'er the palace rear'd ;
My fovereign's fleet I yield not to your fway.The circumftance of Gama's refufing to put his fleet into the power of the Zamorim, is thus rendered by Fanshaw;
The Malabar protests that he shall rot
In prison, if he send not for the ships.
He conftant, (and with noble anger hot)
His haughty menace weighs not at two chips.
Instant another ensign distant rose,
Where, jutting through the flood, the mountain throws
A ridge enormous, and on either fide
Defends the harbours from the furious tide.
Proud on his couch th' indignant monarch sate,
And awful filence fill'd the room of ftate.
With fecret joy the Moors, exulting, glow'd,
And bent their eyes where GAMA's navy rode;
Then, proudly heaved with panting hope, explore
The wood-crown'd upland of the bending fhore,
Soon o'er the palms a mast's tall pendant flows,
Bright to the fun the purple radiance glows;
In martial pomp, far ftreaming to the fkies,
Vanes after vanes in fwift fucceffion rife,
And through the opening foreft-boughs of green
The fails' white luftre moving on is feen;
When sudden rushing by the point of land
The bowfprits nod, and wide the fails expand;
Full pouring on the fight, in warlike pride,
Extending ftill the rifing fquadrons ride:
O'er every deck, beneath the morning rays,
Like melted gold the brazen fpear-points blaze;
Each prore furrounded with an hundred oars,
Old Ocean boils around the crowded prores :
And five times now in number GAMA's might,
Proudly their boastful shouts provoke the fight;
Far round the shore the echoing peal rebounds,
Behind the hill an answering shout resounds:
Still by the point new-spreading fails appear,
Till feven times GAMA's fleet concludes the rear.
Again the fhout triumphant shakes the bay ;
Form'd as a crefcent, wedg'd in firm array,
Their fleet's wide horns the Lufian ships enclafp,
Prepared to crush them in their iron grasp.
Shouts echo fhouts with ftern difdainful eyes
The Indian king to manly GAMA cries,
Not one of thine on Lisboa's fhore fhall tell
The glorious tale, how bold thy heroes fell.
With alter'd vifage, for his eyes flash'd fire,
God fent me here, and God's avengeful ire
Shall blast thy perfidy, great VASCO cried,
And humble in the duft thy withered pride.
A prophet's glow inspired his panting breast;
Indignant fmiles the monarch's fcorn confeft.
Again deep filence fills the room of state,
And the proud Moors, fecure, exulting wait:
And now enclasping GAMA's in a ring,
Their fleet sweeps on-loud whizzing from the ftring
The black-wing'd arrows float along the sky,
And rifing clouds the falling clouds supply.
The lofty crowding spears that bristling stood
Wide o'er the galleys as an upright wood,
Bend fudden, levell'd for the closing fight;
The points wide-waiving shed a gleamy light.
Elate with joy the king his aspect rears,
And valiant GAMA, thrill'd with transport, hears
His drums' bold rattling raife the battle found;
Echo deep-toned hoarse vibrates far around;
The fhivering trumpets tear the shrill-voiced air,
Quivering the gale, the flashing lightnings flare,
The fmoke rolls wide, and fudden bursts the roar,
The lifted waves fall trembling, deep the shore
Groans; quick and quicker blaze embraces blaze
In flashing arms; louder the thunders raise
Their roaring, rolling o'er the bended skies
The burst inceffant; awe-ftruck echo dies
Faultering and deafen'd; from the brazen throats,
Cloud after cloud, inroll'd in darkness, floats,
Curling their fulph'rous folds of fiery blue,
Till their huge volumes take the fleecy hue,
And rowl wide o'er the fky; wide as the fight
Can measure heaven, flow rowls the cloudy white:
Beneath, the fmoky blackness spreads afar
Its hovering wings, and veils the dreadful war
Deep in its horrid breaft; the fierce red glare
Chequering the rifted darkness, fires the air,
Each moment loft and kindled, while around,
The mingling thunders fwell the lengthen'd found.
When piercing fudden through the dreadful roar
The yelling fhrieks of thoufands ftrike the fhore:
Prefaging horror through the monarch's breast
Crept cold; and gloomy e'er the distant cast,
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