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Thy worth, great chief, the pale-lipt régent cries,
Thy worth we own; Oh, may thefe woes fuffice!
To thee each proof of India's wealth we fend;
Ambaffadors, of nobleft race, attend
Slow as he faulter'd, GAMA catch'd the word,
On terms I talk not, and no truce afford:
Captives enough fhall reach the Lufian fhore:
Once you deceived me, and I treat no more.
Even now my faithful failors, pale with rage,
Gnaw their blue lips, impatient to engage;
Ranged by their brazen tubes, the thundering band
Watch the first movement of my brother's hand;
E'en now, impatient, o'er the dreadful tire

They waive their eager canes betipt with fire;
Methinks my brother's anguish'd look I fee,
The panting noftril and the trembling knee,
While keen he eyes the fun: On hafty strides,
Hurried along the deck, Coello chides

His cold flow lingering, and impatient cries,
Oh, give the fign, illume the facrifice,

A brother's vengeance for a brother's blood

He spake; and stern the dreadful warrior stood;

So feem'd the terrors of his awful nod,

The monarch trembled as before a god;

The treacherous Moors funk down in faint difmay,
And fpeechless at his feet the council lay:

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Abrupt, with out-stretch'd arms, the monarch & cries,
What yet--but dared not meet the hero's eyes,
What yet may fave ?-Great VASCO stern rejoins,
Swift, undifputing, give th' appointed figns ;
High o'er thy loftieft tower my flag display,
Me and my train fwift to my fleet convey:
Inftant command-behold the fun rides high-
He fpake, and rapture glow'd in every eye;
The Lufian standard o'er the palace flow'd,
Swift o'er the bay the royal barges row'd.
A dreary gloom a sudden whirlwind threw,
Amid the howling blast, enraged, withdrew
The vanquish'd dæmon-Soon in lustre mild,
As April fmiles, the fun aufpicious smiled:
Elate with joy, the shouting thousands trod,
And GAMA to his fleet triumphant rode.

Soft came the eastern gale on balmy wings:
Each joyful failor to his labour springs;
Some o'er the bars their breasts robust recline,
And with firm tugs the rollers from the brine,

Reluctant

ɛ Abrupt—the monarch cries-What yet may fave-Gama's declaration, that no meffage from him to the fleet could alter the orders he had already left, and his rejection of any farther treaty, have a neceffary effect in the conduct of the poem. They hasten the catastrophe, and give a verifimilitude to the abrupt and full fubmiffion of the Zamorim.

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the rollers-The capftones.-The capftone is a cylindrical windlafs, worked with bars, which are moved from hole to hole as it turns

round.

Reluctant dragg'd, the flime-brown'd anchors raise;
Each gliding rope fome nimble hand obeys;

Some bending o'er the yard-arm's length on high
With nimble hands the canvas wings untie,"

The flapping fails their widening folds diftend,

And measured echoing fhouts their fweaty toils attend.
Nor had the captives loft the leader's care,
Some to the fhore the Indian barges bear;
The nobleft few the chief detains to own
His glorious deeds before the Lufian throne,
To own the conquest of the Indian shore;
Nor wanted every proof of India's store:
What fruits in Ceylon's fragrant woods abound,
With woods of cinnamon her hills are crown'd:
Dry'd in its flower the nut of Banda's grove,
The burning pepper and the fable clove;
The clove, whose odour on the breathing gale
Far to the fea Malucco's plains exhale :

All these provided by the faithful Moor,

All these, and India's gems, the navy bore:

The

round. It is used to weigh the anchors, raise mafts, &c. The name roller describes both the machine and its ufe, and it may be`prefumed, is a more poetical word than capftone. The verfification of this paffage in the original affords a most noble example of imitative harmony:

Mas ja nas nuos os bons trabalhadores

Volvem o cabreftante, & repartidos

Pello trabalho, huns puxao pella amarra,

Outros quebrao eo peito duro a barra.

The Moor attends, Mozaide, whofe zealous care

i

To GAMA's eyes unveil'd each treach'rous fnare:
So burn'd his breaft with heaven-illumined flame,
And holy reverence of Meffiah's name.

Oh, favour'd African, by heaven's own light
Call'd from the dreary shades of error's night;
What man may dare his feeming ills arraign,
Or what the grace of heaven's defigns explain!
Far didft thou from thy friends a stranger roam,
There waft thou call'd to thy celeftial home.

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k

To Gama's eyes reveal'd each treach'rous fnare.

With

Had this been mentioned fooner, the intereft of the catastrophe of the poem must have languifhed. Though he is not a warrior, the unexpected friend of Gama bears a much more confiderable part in the action of the Lufiad, than the faithful Achates, the friend of the hero, bears in the business of the Eneid.

k There waft thou call'd to thy celeftial home.- -This exclamatory address to the Moor Monzaida, however it may appear digreffive, has a double propriety. The converfion of the eastern world is the great purpose of the expedition of Gama, and Monzaida is the firft fruits of that converfion. The good characters of the victorious heroes, however neglected by the great genius of Homer, have a fine effect in making an epic poem intereft us and please. It might have been said, that Monzaida was a traitor to his friends, and who crowned his villainy with apoftacy. Camoëns has therefore wifely drawn him with other features, worthy of the friendship of Gama. Had this been neglected, the hero of the Lufiad might have shared the fate of the wife Ulyffes of the Iliad, against whom, as Voltaire justly observes, every reader bears a fecret ill will. Nor is the poetical character of Monzaida unfupported by history. He was not an Arab Moor, fo he did not defert his countrymen. By force thefe Moors had determined on the destruction of Gama: Monzaida admired and esteemed him, and therefore generously revealed to him his danger. By his attachment to Gama he lost all his effects in India, a circumstance which his prudence and knowledge of affairs must have certainly foreseen. By the known dangers he encountered, by the lofs he thus voluntarily fustained, and by his after conftancy, his fincerity is undoubtedly proved.

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With ruftling found now fwell'd the steady fail;
The lofty mafts reclining to the gale

On full spread wings the navy springs away,
And far behind them foams the ocean grey :
Afar the leffening hills of Gata fly,

And mix their dim blue fummits with the fky:
Beneath the wave low finks the spicy shore,
And roaring through the tide each nodding prore
Points to the Cape, great nature's fouthmoft bound,
The Cape of Tempefts, now of Hope renown'd.
Their glorious tale on Lifboa's fhore to tell
Inspires each bofom with a rapt'rous swell;
Now through their breasts the chilly tremors glide,

To dare once more the dangers dearly try'd

Soon to the winds are these cold fears refign'd,

And all their country rushes on the mind;

How sweet to view their native land, how sweet
The father, brother, and the bride to greet!
While listening round the hoary parent's board
The wondering kindred glow at every word;

How fweet to tell what woes, what toils they bore,
The tribes and wonders of each various fhore!
These thoughts, the traveller's loved reward, employ,
And fwell each bofom with unutter'd 1 joy.

The

We are now

1 The joy of the fleet on the homeward departure from India. come to that part of the Lufiad, which, in the conduct of the poem, is parallel to the great catastrophe of the Iliad, when on the death of Hector, Achilles thus addreffes the Grecian army,

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