From thence, ftill on, our daring courfe we hold

Through trackless gulphs, whose billows never roll'd
Around the veffel's pitchy fides before;

Through trackless gulphs, where mountain furges roar,
For many a night, when not a ftar appear'd,
Nor infant moon's dim horns the darkness cheer'd;
For many a dreary night, and cheerless day,

In calms now fetter'd, now the whirlwind's play,
By ardent hope still fired, we forced our dreadful way.
Now fmooth as glafs the shining waters lie,

No cloud flow moving fails the azure fky;
Slack from their height the fails unmoved decline,
The airy ftreamers form the downward line;
No gentle quiver owns the gentle gale,
Nor gentleft swell diftends the ready fail;
Fixt as in ice the flumbering prows remain,
And filence wide extends her folemn reign.
Now to the waves the bursting clouds defcend,
And heaven and sea in meeting tempests blend;
The black-wing'd whirlwinds o'er the ocean fweep,
And from his bottom roars the ftaggering deep.
Driven by the yelling blast's impetuous fway
Staggering we bound, yet onward bound away.
And now escaped the fury of the storm,

New danger threatens in a various form;

Though fresh the breeze the fwelling canvafs fwell'd,

d

A current's headlong fweep our prows withheld:
The rapid force impreft on every keel,

Backward, o'erpower'd, our rolling veffels reel:
When from their fouthern caves the winds, enraged
In horrid conflict with the waves engaged;
Beneath the tempeft groans each loaded maft,
And o'er the rushing tide our bounding navy past.

Now fhined the facred morn, when from the east,
Three kings the holy cradled Babe addrest,
And hail'd him Lord of heaven: that feftive day
We drop our anchors in an opening bay;

The river from the facred day we name,

And ftores, the wandering seaman's right, we claim.
Stores we received; our dearest hope in vain ;
No word they utter'd could our ears retain ;
Nought to reward our fearch for India's found,
By word or fign our ardent wishese crown'd.

Behold,

& A current's beadlong sweep.- It was the force of this rufhing current which retarded the farther difcoveries of Diaz. Gama got over it by the affistance of a tempeft. It runs between Cape weft of Madagascar. It is now easily avoided.

Corrientes, and the fouth

* Nought to reward our search for India's found.The frequent disappoint. ment of the Portuguese, when they expect to hear fome account of India, is judicious imitation of several parts of Virgil; who, in the fame manner, magnifies the diftreffes of the Trojans in their fearch for the fated feat of empire:

O gens

Infelix! cui te exitio fortuna refervat?
Septima poft Trojæ excidium jam vertitur æftas
Cum freta, cum terras omnes, tot inhofpita faxa

Siderague,

Behold, O king, how many a fhore we try'd!
How many a fierce barbarian's rage defy'd!
Yet still in vain for India's fhore we try,

The long-sought shores our anxious search defy.
Beneath new heavens, where not a star we knew,
Through changing climes, where poison'd air we drew;
Wandering new feas, in gulphs unknown, forlorn,
By labour weaken'd, and by famine worn;
Our food corrupted, pregnant with disease,
And peftilence on each expected breeze;
Not even a gleam of hope's delusive ray

To lead us onward through the devious way;
That kind delufion which full oft has cheer'd
The braveft minds, till glad fuccess appear'd;
Worn as we were each night with dreary care,
Each day with danger that increased despair,
Oh! Monarch, judge, what less than Lufian fire
Could ftill the hopeless fcorn of fate inspire!
What lefs, O king, than Lufian faith withstand,
When dire despair and famine gave command
Their chief to murder, and with lawless power
Sweep Afric's feas, and every coaft devour!
What more than men in wild despair still bold!
These more than f men in these my band behold!

Sacred

Sideraque emenfæ ferimur: dum per mare magnum
Italiam fequimur fugientem, et volvimur undis.

Æn. v.

f These more than men.— -It had been extremely impolitic in Gama to mention the mutiny of his followers to the king of Melinda. The boast

of

Sacred to death, by death alone subdued,

These all the rage of fierce despair withstood;
Firm to their faith, though fondest hope no more
Could give the promise of their native shore!

Now the sweet waters of the ftream we leave,
And the falt waves our gliding prows receive;
Here to the left, between the bending shores,
Torn by the winds the whirling billow roars,
And boiling raves against the founding coast,
Whofe mines of gold Sofala's merchants boaft:
Full to the gulph the showery fouth-winds howl,
Aflant against the wind our veffels rowl:

Far from the land, wide o'er the ocean driven,
Our helms refigning to the care of heaven,
By hope and fear's keen paffions toft, we roam,
When our glad eyes beheld the furges foam
Against the beacons of a cultured bay,
Where floops and barges cut the watery way.
The river's opening breast some upward ply'd,
And some came gliding down the sweepy tide.

Quick

of their loyalty befides, has a good effect in the poem, as it elevates the heroes, and gives uniformity to the character of bravery, which the dignity of the Epopoeia required to be ascribed to them. Hiftory relates the matter differently. In standing for the Cape of Good Hope, Gama gave the highest proofs of his resolution, “In illo autem curfu valdé Gamæ virtus enituit.” The fleet seemed now toffed to the clouds, ut modo nubes contingere, and now funk to the lowest whirlpools of the abyfs. The winds were infufferably cold, and to the rage of the tempeft was added the horror of an almost continual darkness. The crew expected every moment to be fwallowed up in the deep. At every interval of the ftorm, they came round Gama, afferting the impoffibility to proceed further, and imploring to return. But this he refolutely refufed. See the Preface.

Quick throbs of transport heaved in every heart
To view the knowledge of the feaman's art ;
For here we hoped our ardent wish to gain,
To hear of India's ftrand, nor hoped in vain.
Though Ethiopia's fable hue they bore

No look of wild surprise the natives wore:
Wide o'er their heads the cotton turban fwell'd,
And cloth of blue the decent loins conceal'd.
Their speech, though rude and diffonant of found,
Their fpeech a mixture of Arabian own'd.
Fernando, fkill'd in all the copious store
Of fair Arabia's fpeech and flowery lore,
In joyful converse heard the pleasing tale,
That o'er these seas full oft the frequent fail,
And lordly veffels, tall as ours, appear'd,
Which to the regions of the morning steer'd,
And back returning to the fouthmost land,
Convey'd the treasures of the Indian strand;
Whose cheerful crews, resembling ours, display
The kindred face and colour of the day.

Elate with joy we raise the glad acclaim,

h

And, River of Good Signs, the port we name:

Then, facred to the angel guide, who led

The young Tobiah to the spousal bed,

-

And

The kindred face.. -Gama and his followers were at feveral ports, on their first arrival in the Eaft, thought to be Moors. See the note, p. 28. vol. į.