Though winds and feas their wonted aid deny,
To yield he knows not, but he knows to die:
Another thunder tears his manly breast:

Oh fly, blest spirit, to thy heavenly reft-
Hark, rolling on the groaning ftorm I hear,
Refiftless vengeance thundering on the rear!
I see the transports of the furious fire,

As o'er the mangled corfe his eyes flash fire.
Swift to the fight, with ftern, though weeping eyes,
Fixt rage fierce burning in his breast, he flies;
Fierce as the bull that fees his rival rove

Free with the heifers through the mounded grove,
On oak or beech his madning fury pours;
So pours Almeyda's fage on Dabul's towers.
His vanes wide waiving o'er the Indian sky,
Before his prows the fleets of India o fly :

On

Almeyda refused to bear off, though almost certain to be overpowered, and though both wind and tide were critically against him. His father had sharply upbraided him for a former retreat, where victory was thought impoffible. He now fell the victim of his father's ideas of military glory. See the Preface.

the fleets of India fly. After having cleared the Indian feas, the viceroy Almeyda attacked the combined fleets of Egypt, Cambaya, and the Zamorim, in the entrance and harbour of Diu, or Dio, The fleet of the Zamorim almost immediately fled. That of Melique Yaz, Lord of Diu, fuffered much; but the greatest flaughter fell upon the Egyptians and Turks, commanded by Mir-Hocem, who had defeated and killed the young Almeyda. Of 800 Mamulucks or Turks, who fought under Mir-Hocem, only 22, fays Oforius, furvived this engagement. Melique Yaz, fays Faria y Soufa, was born in slavery, and defcended of the Chriftians of Roxia. The road to preferment is often a dirty one; but Melique's was much less fo

than

On Egypt's chief his mortars' dreadful tire

Shall vomit all the rage of prifon'd fire:

Heads, limbs, and trunks shall choak the struggling tide, Till every furge with reeking crimson dyed,

Around the young Almeyda's haplefs urn

His conqueror's naked ghosts shall howl and mourn.
As meteors flashing through the darken'd air

I fee the victors' whirling faulchions glare;
Dark rolls the fulph'rous smoke o'er Dio's fkies,
And fhrieks of death and shouts of conqueft rife,
In one wide tumult blended: The rough roar
Shakes the brown tents on Ganges' trembling fhore;
The waves of Indus from the banks recoil;
And matrons howling on the ftrand of Nile,
By the pale moon their abfent fons deplore-
Long shall they wail; their fons return no more.

Ah, ftrike the notes of woe, the Syren cries,
A dreary vision swims before my eyes.
To Tago's fhore triumphant as he bends,
Low in the duft the hero's glory ends;

Though

than that of many other favourites of fortune. As the king of Cambaya was one day riding in state, an unlucky kite dunged upon his royal head. His majesty in great wrath fwore he would give all he was worth to have the offender killed. Melique, who was an experienced archer, immediately dispatched an arrow, which brought the audacious hawk to the ground. For the merit of this eminent fervice he was made Lord of Diu, or Dio, a confiderable city, the strongest and most important fortrefs at that time in all India. See Faria, L. 2. c. 2.

Though bended bough, nor thundering engines hail,

Nor Egypt's fword, nor India's fpear prevail,

Fall fhall the P chief before a naked foe,

Rough clubs and rude hurl'd ftones fhall strike the blow;

The Cape of Tempests shall his tomb supply,

And in the defert fands his bones shall lie,

No boastful trophy o'er his ashes rear'd:

Such heaven's dread will, and be that will rever'd!

But lo, refplendant shines another star,
Loud fhe refounds, in all the blaze of war!
Great 9 Cunia guards Melinda's friendly fhore,
And dyes her feas with Oja's hoftile gore;
Lamo and Brava's towers his
Green Madagascar's flowery dales fhall fwell
His echoed fame, till ocean's fouthmost bound
On ifles and fhores unknown his name refound.

vengeance

tell:

Another blaze, behold, of fire and arms!
Great Albuquerk awakes the dread alarms :
O'er Ormuz' walls his thundering flames he pours,
While heaven, the hero's guide, indignant' showers

Their

p Fall fhall the chief.q Great Cunia.·

the Preface.

-See the note on page 66. vol. ii.
-Tristan de Cunha, or d'Acugna. See the hiftory in

-See the note on r Heaven indignant showers their arrows backward. page 63. vol. i. Some writers relate, that when Albuquerque befieged

Ormuz, a violent wind drove the arrows of the enemy backward upon their

Their arrows backward on the Persian foe,

Tearing the breasts and arms that twang'd the bow.
Mountains of falt and fragrant gums in vain

Were spent untainted to embalm the flain.

Such heaps fhall ftrew the feas and faithless strand

Of Gerum, Mazcate, and Calayat's land,
Till faithlefs Ormuz own the Lufian fway,
And Barem's pearls her yearly fafety pay.

What glorious palms on Goa's ifle I see,'
Their bloffoms spread, great Albuquerk, for thee!
Through caftled walls the hero breaks his way,
And opens with his fword the dread array

Of Moors and pagans; through their depth he rides,
Through fpears and showering fire the battle guides.
As bulls enraged, or lions fmear'd with gore,

His bands fweep wide o'er Goa's purpled fhore.
Nor eastward far though fair Malacca lie,

t

Her groves embosom'd in the morning sky;

Though

own ranks. Oforius fays, that many of the dead Perfians and Moors were found to have died by arrows. But as that weapon was not used by the Portuguese, he conjectures, that in their defpair of victory many of the enemy had thus killed themselves, rather than furvive the defeat.

-This important place was made

• What glorious palms on Goa's ifle I fee. an archbishoprick, the capital of the Portuguese empire in the East, and the feat of their viceroys. It is advantageously fituated for these purposes on the coaft of Decan. It ftill remains in the poffeffion of the Portuguese.

Malacca.The conqueft of this place was one of the greatest actions of Albuquerque. It became the chief port of the eastern part of Portuguese

O'er land, o'er sea the great Pacheco ftrews
The proftrate spearmen, and the founder'd 1 proas.
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 stamp, and from the dark abodes
With tears and vows they call th' infernal gods.
Enraged with dog-like madness 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 stern 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,
And his proud face dafh'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 history in the Preface.