Laved by the Red Sea gulph Socotra's bowers
There boast the tardy aloes' cluster'd flowers.
On Afric's ftrand, foredoom'd to Lufian fway,
Behold these ifles, and rocks of dufky grey;
From cells unknown here bounteous ocean pours
The fragrant amber on the fandy shores.

h

And lo, the Ifland of the Moon 1 displays
Her vernal lawns, and numerous peaceful bays;
The halcyons hovering o'er the bays are seen,
And lowing herds adorn the vales of green.

Thus from the Cape where fail was ne'er unfurl'd
Till thine aufpicious fought the Eastern World,
To utmost wave where first the morning star
Sheds the pale luftre of her filver car,

Thine eyes have view'd the empires and the ifles,

The world immense that crowns thy glorious toils.

That world where every boon is shower'd from heaven, Now to the weft, by thee, great chief, is i given.

And

was made by the god Buddow, when he afcended to heaven, after having, for the falvation of mankind, appeared on the earth. His priests beg charity for the fake of Buddow, whose worship they perform among groves of the Bogahah-tree, under which, when on earth, they fay, he ufually fat and taught.

h And lo, the Island of the Moon-Madagascar is thus named by the

natives.

i Now to the weft, by thee, great chief, is given.- -The fublimity of this eulogy on the expedition of the Lufiad has been already obferved. What follows is a natural completion of the whole; and, the digreffive exclamation at the end excepted, is exactly fimilar (fee the Preface) to the manner in which Homer has concluded the Iliad.

And still, Oh bleft, thy peerless honours grow,
New opening views the fmiling fates bestow.
With alter'd face the moving globe behold;
There ruddy evening sheds her beams of gold,
While now on Afric's bosom faintly die
The last pale glimpses of the twilight sky,
Bright o'er the wide Atlantic rides the morn,
And dawning rays another world adorn;
To fartheft north that world enormous bends,
And cold beneath the southern pole-star ends.
Near either pole the barbarous hunter drest

k

In skins of bears explores the frozen waste:
Where smiles the genial fun with kinder rays,
Proud cities tower, and gold-roofed temples blaze.
This golden empire, by the heaven's decree,
Is due, Cafteel, O favour'd power, to thee!
Even now Columbus o'er the hoary tide
Pursues the evening fun, his navy's guide.
Yet fhall the kindred Lufian fhare the reign,
What time this world fhall own the yoke of Spain.
The firft bold hero who to India's fhores

Through vanquish'd waves thy open'd path explores,

Driven

k Near either pole.- We are now prefented with a beautiful view of the American world. Columbus difcovered the Weft Indies before, but not the Continent till 1498, the year after Gama failed from Lisbon.

1 The first bold bero- -Cabral, the first after Gama who failed to India, was driven by tempeft to the Brazils; a proof that more ancient voyagers might have met with the fame fate. It is one of the finest countries in the New World, and still remains fubject to the crown of Portugal.

Driven by the winds of heaven from Afric's ftrand
Shall fix the Holy Cross on yon fair land :
That mighty realm for purple wood renown'd,
Shall stretch the Lufian empire's western bound.
Fired by thy fame, and with his king in ire,
To match thy deeds fhall Magalhaens TM aspire:

In

To match thy deeds fhall Magalhaens afpire.—Camoëns, though he boasts of the actions of Magalhaens as an honour to Portugal, yet condemns his defection from his country, and calls him

O Magalbaens, no feito com verdade

Portuguez, porèm naó na lealdade.

"In deeds truly a Portuguese, but not in loyalty." And others have bestowed upon him the name of traytor, but perhaps undefervedly, Justice to the name of this great man requires an examination of the charge. Ere he entered into the fervice of the king of Spain, by a folemn act he unnaturalized himself. Oforius is very fevere against this unavailing rite, and argues that no injury which a prince may poffibly give, can authorize a subject to act the part of a traytor against his native country. This is certainly true, but it is not strictly applicable to the cafe of Magalhaens. Many eminent services performed in Africa and India encouraged him to aspire to the rank of Fidalgo, or Gentleman of the King's Household, an honour which, though of little emolument, was esteemed as the reward of distinguished merit, and therefore highly valued. But for this, Magalhaens petitioned in vain. He found, fays Faria, that the malicious accufations of fome men had more weight with his fovereign than all his fervices. After this unworthy repulfe, what patronage at the court of Lifbon could he hope? And though no injury can vindicate the man who draws his fword against his native country, yet no moral duty requires that he who has some important difcovery in meditation should stifle his defign, if uncountenanced by his native prince. It has been alledged, that he embroiled his country in disputes with Spain. But neither is this strictly applicable to the neglected Magalhaens. The courts of Spain and Portugal had folemnly settled the limits within which they were to make discoveries and fettlements, and within thefe did Magalhaens and the court of Spain propofe that his difcoveries fhould terminate. And allowing that his calculations might mislead

him

In all but loyalty, of Lufian soul,

No fear, no danger fhall his toils controul.

Along these regions from the, burning zone
To deepest fouth he dares the courfe unknown.
While to the kingdoms of the rifing day,

To rival thee he holds the western way,

A land

him beyond the bounds prescribed to the Spaniards, still his apology is clear, for it would have been injurious to each court, had he supposed that the faith of the boundary treaty would be trampled upon by cither power. If it is said that he aggrandifed the enemies of his country, the Spaniards, and introduced them to a dangerous rivalship with the Portuguese fettlements, let the fentence of Faria on this fubject be remembered, "let princes beware," fays he, "how by neglect or injuftice they force into desperate actions the

men who have merited rewards." As to rivalfhip, the cafe of Mr. Law, a North Briton, is appofite. This gentleman wrote an excellent treatise on the improvement of the trade and fisheries of his native country, but his proposals were totally neglected by the commiffioners, whofe office and duty it was to have patronised him. Was Law, therefore, to fit down in obfcurity on a barren field, to stifte his genius, left a foreign power, who might one day be at war with Great Britain, should be aggrandifed by his efforts in commercial policy? No, furely. Deprived of the power of raifing himself at home, Mr. Law went to France, where he became the founder of the Miffiffippi and other important schemes of commerce; yet Law was never branded with the name of traytor. The reafon is obvious. The government of Great Britain was careless of what they loft in Mr. Law, but the Portuguefe perceived their lofs in Magalhaens, and their anger was vented in reproaches.

In the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries, the spirit of discovery broke forth in its greatest vigour. The east and the west had been vifited by Gama and Columbus; and the bold idea of failing to the east by the west was revived by Magalhaens. Revived, for misled by Strabo and Pliny, who place India near the west of Spain, Columbus expected to find that country in a few weeks of weftward voyage. Though America and the Molucos were now found to be at a great diftance from each other, the genius of Magalhaens ftill fuggefted the poffibility of a western paffage. And accordingly, poffeffed of his great defign, and neglected with contempt

A land of giants fhall his eyes behold,

Of camel strength, furpaffing human mould :

And

at home, he offered his fervice to the court of Spain, and was accepted. With five ships and 250 men he failed from Spain in September 1519, and after many difficulties, occafioned by mutiny and the extreme cold, he entered the great Pacific Ocean or South Seas by thofe ftraits which bear his Spanish name Magellan. From these straits, in the 52 degree of fouthern latitude, he traverfed that great ocean, till in the 10th degree of north latitude he landed on the island of Subo or Marten. The king of this country was then at war with a neighbouring prince, and Magalhaens, on condition of his converfion to Christianity, became his auxiliary. In two battles the Spaniards were victorious; but in the third, Magalhaens, together with one Martinho, a judicial aftrologer, whom he usually confulted, was unfortunately killed. Chagrined with the disappointment of promised 'victory, the new baptized king of Subo made peace with his enemies, and having invited to an entertainment the Spaniards who were on fhore, he treacherously poisoned them all. The wretched remains of the fleet arrived at the Portuguese settlements in the isles of Banda and Ternate, where they were received, fays Faria, as friends, and not as intruding strangers; a proof that the boundary treaty was esteemed fufficiently facred. Several of the adventurers were fent to India, and from thence to Spain, in Portuguefe † ships, one ship only being in a condition to return to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope. This veffel, named the Vitoria, however, had the honour to be the first ship which ever furrounded the globe. Thus unhappily ended, fays Oforius, the expedition of Magalhaens. But the good bishop was mistaken, for a few years after he wrote, and fomewhat upwards of fifty after the return of the Vitoria, Philip II. of Spain availed himself of the difcoveries of Magalhaens. And the navigation of the South Seas between Spanish America and the Afian Archipelago, at this day forms the bafis of the power of Spain.

A land of giants-The Patagonians. Various are the fables of navigators concerning thefe people. The few of Magalhaens' crew who returned, affirmed they were about ten feet in height, fince which voyage they have rifen and fallen in their ftature, according to the different humours of our fea wits.

Vid. Far. fub ann. 1519.

Vid. Ofor. lib. xi.