That Lufus' heroes in his port fupplied,

And tasted rest, he own'd his dearest pride,
And vow'd that ever while the feas they roam,
The Lufian fleets fhould find a bounteous home,
And ever from the generous fhore receive
Whate'er his port, whate'er his land could give.
Nor lefs his joy the grateful chief declared;
And now to feize the valued hours prepared.
Full to the wind the swelling fails he gave,
And his red prows divide the foamy wave:
Full to the rifing fun the pilot fteers,

And far from shore through middle ocean bears.
The vaulted sky now widens o'er their heads,
Where first the infant morn his radiance fheds.
And now with transport sparkling in his eyes
Keen to behold the Indian mountains rife,
High on the decks each Lufian hero fmiles,
And proudly in his thoughts reviews his toils.
When the stern Dæmon, burning with disdain,
Beheld the fleet triumphant plow the main :

The powers of heaven, and heaven's dread Lord he knew, Refolved in Lisboa glorious to renew

The Roman honours-raging with despair

From high Olympus' brow he cleaves the air,
On earth new hopes of vengeance to devise,

And fue that aid deny'd him in the skies:

Blaf

b

and Melindians was of long continuance. See the Preface.

Whate'er bis land could give.- -The friendship of the Portuguese

Blafpheming heaven, he pierced the dread abode
Of ocean's Lord, and fought the ocean's God.
Deep where the bases of the hills extend,
And earth's huge ribs of rock enormous bend,
Where roaring through the caverns roll the waves
Refponfive as the aërial tempeft raves,

The ocean's Monarch, by the Nereid train,
And watery gods encircled, holds his reign.
Wide o'er the deep, which line could ne'er explore,
Shining with hoary fands of filver ore,
Extends the level, where the palace rears

Its crystal towers, and emulates the spheres;
So ftarry bright the lofty turrets blaze,
And vie in luftre with the diamond's rays.
Adorn'd with pillars and with roofs of gold,
The golden gates their maffy leaves unfold:
Inwrought with pearl the lordly pillars shine;
The fculptured walls confess an hand divine.
Here various colours in confusion loft,
Old Chaos' face and troubled image boaft.

Here rifing from the mafs; diftinct and clear,

Apart the four fair elements appear.

High o'er the rest ascends the blaze of fire,

Nor fed by matter did the rays aspire,

But glow'd ætherial, as the living flame,

Which, ftolen from heaven, inspired the vital frame.

Next, all-embracing air was spread around,

Thin as the light, incapable of wound;

The subtle power the burning fouth pervades,

And penetrates the depth of polar fhades.

Here mother earth, with mountains crown'd, is feen,
Her trees in bloffom, and her lawns in green;
The lowing beeves adorn the clover vales,
The fleecy dams befpread the floping dales;
Here land from land the filver ftreams divide;
The sportive fishes through the crystal tide,
Bedropt with gold their fhining fides display:
And here old Ocean rolls his billows gray;
Beneath the moon's pale orb his current flows,
And round the earth his giant arms he throws.
Another scene difplay'd the dread alarms

Of war in heaven, and mighty Jove in arms:
Here Titan's race their fwelling nerves diftend
Like knotted oaks, and from their bases rend
And tower the mountains to the thundering sky,
While round their heads the forky lightnings fly:
Beneath huge Ætna vanquish'd Typhon lies,

And vomits smoke and fire against the darken'd skies.
Here feems the pictured wall poffefs'd of life;

Two gods contending in the noble strife,

The choiceft boon to human kind to give,

Their toils to lighten, or their wants relieve:

While

© Their wants relieve.According to fable, Neptune and Minerva difputed the honour of giving a name to the city of Athens. They agreed to determine the contest by a display of their wisdom and power, in conferring the most beneficial gift on mankind. Neptune ftruck the earth with his trident and produced the horfe, whose bounding motions are emblematical

of

While Pallas here appears to waive her & hand,
The peaceful olive's filver boughs expand:
Here, while the ocean's god indignant frown'd,
And raised his trident from the wounded ground,
As yet intangled in the earth appears

The warrior horfe, his ample cheft he rears,
His wide red noftrils fmoke, his eye-balls glare,

And his fore-hoofs, high pawing, fmite the air.

Though e wide and various o'er the sculptured stone The feats of gods, and god-like heroes fhone,

On

of the agitation of the sea. Minerva commanded the olive tree, the symbol of peace and of riches, to fpring forth. The victory was adjudged to the goddess, from whom the city was named Athens. As the Egyptians and Mexicans wrote their history in hieroglyphics, the taste of the ancient Grecians cloathed almost every occurrence in mythological allegory. The founders of Athens, it is most probable, difputed whether their new city fhould be named from the fertility of the foil or from the marine fituation of Attica. The former opinion prevailed, and the town received its name in honour of the goddess of the olive tree.

As Neptune ftruck the ftruck the earth with her

While Pallas here appears to waive her hand.earth with his trident, Minerva, fays the fable, lance. That she waved her hand while the olive boughs fpread, is a fine poetical attitude, and varies the picture from that of Neptune, which follows it.

e Though wide and various o'er the fculptured ftone. -The defcription of palaces is a favourite topic feveral times touched upon by the two great masters of epic poetry, in which they have been happily imitated by their three greatest difciples among the moderns, Camoëns, Taffo, and Milton. The defcription of the palace of Neptune has great merit. Nothing can be more in place than the picture of chaos and the four elements. The war of the gods, and the conteft of Neptune and Minerva are touched with the true boldness of poetical colouring. But perhaps it deferves cenfure thus to point out what every reader of taste muft perceive. To fhew to the mere English reader that the Portuguese poet is, in his manner, truly claffical, is the intention of many of these notes.

On speed the vengeful dæmon views no more:
Forward he rushes through the golden door,
Where Ocean's king, en clofed with nymphs divine,
In regal state receives the king of wine:
O Neptune inftant as he came, he cries,
Here let my presence wake no cold surprise,
A friend I come, your friendship to implore
Against the fates unjust, and fortune's power;
Beneath whose shafts the great celeftials bow,
Yet ere
wish to know,
The watery gods in awful fenate call,

I more, if more you

For all should hear the wrong that touches all.
Neptune alarm'd, with inftant fpeed commands
From every shore to call the watery bands:
Triton, who boafts his high Neptunean race,
Sprung from the god by Salace's embrace,
Attendant on his fire the trumpet founds,

Or through the yielding waves, his herald, bounds;
Huge is his bulk deform'd, and dark his hue;
His bushy beard and hairs that never knew
The smoothing comb, of fea-weed rank and long,
Around his breast and shoulders dangling hung,
And on the matted locks black muscles clung;
A f shell of purple on his head he bore,
Around his loins no tangling garb he wore,

A fhell of purple on his head he bore-In the Fortuguefe,
Na cabeça por gorra tinka pofta,
Huma mui grande cafca de lagofta.

}

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