Soon as on India's strand he shakes his spear,

The burning East shall tremble, chill'd with fear:
Reeking with noble blood Cambalao's stream

Shall blaze impurpled to the evening beam.
Urged on by raging fhame the monarch brings,
Banded with all their powers, his vaffal kings:
Narfinga's rocks their cruel thousands pour,
Bipur's ftern king attends, and thine, Tanore:
To guard proud Calicut's imperial pride

All the wide north fweeps down its peopled tide:
Join'd are the fects that never touch'd before,
By land the pagan, and by fea the Moor.

O'er

mind must feel the effect. But when the circumstance is unknown, nothing but the most lively imagery and finest colouring can prevent it from being tirefome. The Lufiad affords many instances which must be highly pleafing to the Portuguese, but dry to those who are unacquainted with their hiftory. Nor need one hefitate to affert, that were we not acquainted with the Roman history from our childhood, a great part of the Æneid would appear to us intolerably uninteresting. Senfible of this difadvantage which every version of historical poetry must suffer, the translator has not only in the notes added every incident which might elucidate the subject, but has alfo, all along, in the episode in the third and fourth books, in the description of the painted enfigns in the eighth, and in the allusions in the present book, endeavoured to throw every historical incident into that universal language, the picturesque of poetry. The circumstances improper for imagery are haftened over, and those which can best receive it, prefented to the view, When Hector storms the Grecian camp, when Achilles marches to battle, every reader understands and is affected with the bold painting. But when Neftor talks of his exploits at the funereal games of Amarynces, (Iliad. xxiii.) the critics themselves cannot comprehend him, and have vied with each other in inventing explanations.

h

that never touch'd before.To touch, or be touched by, one of an inferior caft, is esteemed among the Gentoos as the greatest pollution.

proas.

O'er land, o'er sea the great Pacheco ftrews
The proftrate fpearmen, and the founder'd
Submifs and filent, palfied with amaze
Proud Malabar th' unnumbered flain furveys:
Yet burns the monarch; to his fhrine he speeds;
Dire howl the priests, the groaning victim bleeds;
The ground they ftamp, and from the dark abodes
With tears and vows they call th' infernal gods.
Enraged with dog-like madnefs to behold
His temples and his towns in flames enroll'd,
Secure of promised victory, again

He fires the war, the lawns are heapt with flain.
With ftern reproach he brands his routed Nayres,
And for the dreadful field himself prepares;
His harness'd thoufands to the fight he leads,
And rides exulting where the combat bleeds:
Amid his pomp his robes are sprinkled o'er,

k

And his proud face dash'd with his menials' gore:

From his high couch he leaps, and speeds to flight
On foot inglorious, in his army's fight.

Hell then he calls, and all the powers of hell,

The fecret poison, and the chanted spell;
Vain as the fpell the poifon'd rage is fhed,

For heaven defends the hero's facred head.

Still

i Proas-or paraos, Indian veffels which lie low on the water, are worked with oars, and carry 100 men and upwards apiece.

And his proud face dash'd with his menials' gore.

See the hiftory in the Preface.

Still fiercer from each wound the tyrant burns,
Still to the field with heavier force returns.
The seventh dread war he kindles: high in air
The hills difhonour'd lift their fhoulders bare;
Their woods roll'd down now ftrew the river's fide,
Now rife in mountain turrets o'er the tide;
Mountains of fire and fpires of bickering flame,
While either bank refounds the proud acclaim,
Come floating down, round Lufus' fleet to pour
Their fulph'rous entrails in a burning fhower.
Oh, vain the hopeLet Rome her boaft refign;
Her palms, Pacheco, never bloom'd like thine:
Nor Tyber's bridge, nor Marathon's red field,
Nor thine, Thermopylæ, fuch deeds beheld;
Nor Fabius' arts fuch rushing storms repell❜d.
Swift as repulfed the famished wolf returns
Fierce to the fold, and, wounded, fiercer burns;
So swift, fo fierce, seven times all India's might
Returns unnumber'd to the dreadful fight;
One hundred fpears, feven times in dreadful ftower,
Strews in the duft all India's raging power.

The

1 Nor Tyber's bridge.- -When Porfenna befieged Rome, Horatius Cocles defended the pass of a bridge till the Romans destroyed it behind him. Having thus faved the pass, heavy armed as he was, he swimmed across the river to his companions. The Roman history, however, at this period, is often mixt with fable. Miltiades obtained a great victory over Darius at Marathon. The stand of Leonidas is well known. The battles of Pacheco were in defence of the fords by which the city of Cochin could only be entered. The numbers he withstood by land and fea, and the victories he obtained, are indeed highly astonishing. See the Preface.

The lofty fong, for paleness o'er her spread,

The nymph suspends, and bows the languid head; Her faultering words are breath'd on plaintive fighs, Ah, Belifarius, injured chief, she cries, Ah, wipe thy tears; in war thy rival see, Injured Pacheco falls defpoil'd like thee; In him, in thee difhonour'd virtue bleeds, And valour weeps to view her fairest deeds, Weeps o'er Pacheco, where, forlorn he lies Low on an alms-houfe bed, and friendless dies. Yet shall the mufes plume his humble bier, And ever o’er him pour th' immortal tear; Though by the king, alone to thee unjust, Thy head, great chief, was humbled in the duft, Loud fhall the muse indignant found thy praise, "Thou gav'ft thy monarch's throne its proudest blaze.” While round the world the fun's bright car fhall ride, So bright shall shine thy name's illustrious pride; Thy monarch's glory, as the moon's pale beam, Eclipfed by thine, shall shed a fickly gleam. Such meed attends when foothing flattery sways, And blinded ftate its facred trust betrays!

Again the nymph exalts her brow, again Her fwelling voice refounds the lofty strain : Almeyda comes, the kingly name he bears, Deputed royalty his ftandard rears:

m Low on an alms-house bed.- -See the history in the Preface.

In

In all the generous rage of youthful fire,
The warlike fon attends the warlike fire.

Quiloa's blood ftain'd tyrant now shall feel
The righteous vengeance of the Lufian fteel.
Another prince, by Lifboa's throne beloved,
Shall blefs the land, for faithful deeds approved.
Mombaze shall now her treason's meed behold,
When curling flames her proudest domes enfold:
Involved in fmoak, loud crashing, low fhall fall
The mounded temple and the castled wall.
O'er India's feas the young Almeyda pours,
Scorching the wither'd air, his iron fhowers;
Torn masts and rudders, hulks and canvas riven,
Month after month before his prows are driven.
But heaven's dread will, where clouds of darkness rest,
That awful will, which knows alone the best,
Now blunts his fpear: Cambaya's squadrons joined
With Egypt's fleets, in pagan rage combined,
Engrasp him round; red boils the staggering flood,
Purpled with volleying flames and hot with blood:
Whirl'd by the cannon's rage, in shivers torn
His thigh, far scatter'd o'er the wave, is borne.
Bound to the maft the godlike hero a stands,
Waives his proud fword and cheers his woeful bands.

Though

n Bound to the maft the godlike bero ftands. The English history affords an inftance of fimilar resolution in Admiral Bembo, who was supported in a wooden frame, and continued the engagement after his legs and thighs were fhivered in fplinters. Contrary to the advice of his officers the young Almeyda

Bb 3