(The godlike hero here fuppreft the figh, And leave me cheerless finking to the grave! That valued life, the joy, the foul of mine: Of rapt endearments, all expire in vain! D 3 37 All All the dear transports of the warm embrace, Such the lorn parents' and the spouses' woes, The bitter yearnings of the parting tear The melting paffion of such tender pain. Now on the lofty decks prepared we stand, And A reverend figure.By this old man is perfonified the populace of Portugal. The endeavours to discover the East-Indies by the fouthern ocean And thrice his hoary curls he fternly shook, While grief and anger mingled in his look; Then to its height his faultering voice he rear'd, O frantic thirst of honour and of fame, The crowd's blind tribute, a fallacious name; What ocean, for about eighty years had been the favourite topic of complaint; and never was any measure of government more unpopular than the expedition of Gama. Emmanuel's council were almost unanimous against the attempt. Some dreaded the introduction of wealth, and its attendants, luxury and effeminacy; while others affirmed, that no adequate advantages could arise from fo perilous and remote a navigation. Others, with a forefight peculiar to politicians, were alarmed, left the Egyptian fultan, who was powerful in the east, should fignify his displeasure; and others forefaw, that fuccefs would combine all the princes of Christendom in a league for the destruction of Portugal. In short, if glory, intereft, or the propagation of the gospel, were defired, Africa and Ethiopia, they said, afforded both nearer and more advantageous fields. The expreffions of the thousands who crouded the shore when Gama gave his fails to the wind, are thus expreffed by Oforius, from whom the above facts are felected.-A multis tamen interim is fletus atque lamentatio fiebat, ut funus efferre viderentur. Sic enim dicebant: en quo miferos mortales provexit cupiditas et ambitio? Potuitne gravius fupplicium hominibus iftis conftitui, fi in fe fceleftum aliquod facinus admififfent? Est enim illis immenfi maris longitudo peragranda, fluctus immanes difficillima navigatione fuperandi, vitæ difcrimen in locis infinitis obeundum. Non fuit multò tolerabilius, in terra quovis genere mortis abfumi, quàm tam procul à patria marinis fluctibus fepeliri. Hæc et alia multa in hanc fententiam dicebant, cùm omnia multò triftiora fingere præ metu cogerentur.-The tender emotion and fixt resolution of Gama, and the earneft paffion of the multitudes on the fhore, are thus added by the fame venerable historian: Gama tamen quamvis lacrymas fuorum defiderio funderet, rei tamen benè gerendæ fiducia confirmatus, alacriter in navem fauftis omnibus confcendit... Qui in littore confiftebant, non prius abfcedere voluerunt, quàm naves vento fecundo pleniffimis velis ab omnium confpectu remote funt. ..... What ftings, what plagues, what secret scourges curst, What dreadful woes are pour'd on human kind; What ftreams of gore have drench'd the hapless world! Thou dazzling meteor, vain as fleeting air, What new dread horror doft thou now prepare! Treads on thy borders, and the foe demands: A thousand cities own his lordly fway, A thousand various fhores his nod obey. 'Through all these regions, all thefe cities, fcorn'd Is thy religion, and thine altars spurn'd. A foc A foe renown'd in arms the brave require; That high-plumed foe, renown'd for martial fire, Whilft thou wouldst fondly dare the watery maze, On fhores unknown a foe unknown to find. O'er Ethiopia's vaft, and Araby adored! Curst be the man who first on floating wood, Forfook the beach, and braved the treacherous flood! Oh! never, never may the facred Nine, To crown his brows, the hallowed wreath entwine; Nor may his name to future times refound, Curst be the wretch, the fire of heaven who stole, 4I And 1 One boafts to guide the chariot of the morn, &c.—Allucing to the fables of Phaeton and Icarus. |