“Safe through the deep, where every yawning wave
Still to the sailor’s eye displays his grave;
Thro’ howling tempests, and thro’ gulfs untried,
O mighty God! be thou our watchful guide.”
While kneeling thus, before the sacred shrine,
In holy faith’s most solemn rite we join;
Our peace with Heav’n the bread of peace confirms,
And meek contrition ev’ry bosom warms:
Sudden, the lights extinguish’d, all around
Dread silence reigns, and midnight-gloom profound;
A sacred horror pants on every breath,
And each firm breast devotes itself to death,
An offer’d sacrifice, sworn to obey
My nod, and follow where I lead the way.
Now, prostrate round the hallow’d shrine we lie,328*
Till rosy morn bespreads the eastern sky;
Then, breathing fix’d resolves, my daring mates
March to the ships, while pour’d from Lisbon’s gates,
Thousands on thousands crowding, press along,
A woful, weeping, melancholy throng.
A thousand white-rob’d priests our steps attend,
And prayers, and holy vows to Heav’n ascend;
A scene so solemn, and the tender woe
Of parting friends, constrain’d my tears to flow.
To weigh our anchors from our native shore —
To dare new oceans never dar’d before —
Perhaps to see my native coast no more —
}
Forgive, O king, if as a man I feel,
I bear no bosom of obdurate steel. ——
(The godlike hero here suppress’d the sigh,
And wip’d the tear-drop from his manly eye;
Then, thus resuming) — All the peopled shore
An awful, silent look of anguish wore;
Affection, friendship, all the kindred ties
Of spouse and parent languish’d in their eyes:
As men they never should again behold,
Self-offer’d victims to destruction sold,
On us they fix’d the eager look of woe,
While tears o’er ev’ry cheek began to flow;
When thus aloud, “Alas! my son, my son,”
A hoary sire exclaims, “oh! whither run,
My heart’s sole joy, my trembling age’s stay,
To yield thy limbs the dread sea-monster’s prey!
To seek thy burial in the raging wave,
And leave me cheerless sinking to the grave!
Was it for this I watch’d thy tender years,
And bore each fever of a father’s fears!
Alas, my boy!” — His voice is heard no more,
The female shriek resounds along the shore:
With hair dishevell’d, through the yielding crowd
A lovely bride springs on, and screams aloud;
“Oh! where, my husband, where to seas unknown,
Where wouldst thou fly, me and my love disown!
And wilt thou, cruel, to the deep consign
That valued life, the joy, the soul of mine!
And must our loves, and all the kindred train
Of rapt endearments, all expire in vain!
All the dear transports of the warm embrace,
When mutual love inspir’d each raptur’d face!
Must all, alas! be scatter’d in the wind,
Nor thou bestow one ling’ring look behind!”
Such, the ‘lorn parents’ and the spouses’ woes,
Such, o’er the strand the voice of wailing rose;
From breast to breast the soft contagion crept,
Moved by the woful sound the children wept;
The mountain-echoes catch the big swoll’n sighs,
And, through the dales, prolong the matron’s cries;
The yellow sands with tears are silver’d o’er,
Our fate the mountains and the beach deplore.
Yet, firm we march, nor turn one glance aside
On hoary parent, or on lovely bride.
Though glory fir’d our hearts, too well we knew
What soft affection, and what love could do.
The last embrace the bravest worst can bear:
The bitter yearnings of the parting tear
Sullen we shun, unable to sustain
The melting passion of such tender pain.
Now, on the lofty decks, prepar’d, we stand,
When, tow’ring o’er the crowd that veil’d the strand,
A reverend figure329* fix’d each wond’ring eye,
And, beck’ning thrice, he wav’d his hand on high,
And thrice his hoary curls he sternly shook,
While grief and anger mingled in his look;
Then, to its height his falt’ring voice he rear’d,
And through the fleet these awful words were heard:330*
“O frantic thirst of honour and of fame,
The crowd’s blind tribute, a fallacious name;
What stings, what plagues, what secret scourges curs’d,
Torment those bosoms where thy pride is nurs’d!
What dangers threaten, and what deaths destroy
The hapless youth, whom thy vain gleams decoy!
By thee, dire tyrant of the noble mind,
What dreadful woes are pour’d on human kind:
Kingdoms and empires in confusion hurl’d,
What streams of gore have drench’d the hapless world!
Thou dazzling meteor, vain as fleeting air,
What new-dread horror dost thou now prepare!
High sounds thy voice of India’s pearly shore,
Of endless triumphs and of countless store:
Of other worlds so tower’d thy swelling boast,
Thy golden dreams when Paradise was lost,
When thy big promise steep’d the world in gore,
And simple innocence was known no more.
And say, has fame so dear, so dazzling charms?
Must brutal fierceness, and the trade of arms,
Conquest, and laurels dipp’d in blood, be priz’d,
While life is scorn’d, and all its joys despis’d?
And say, does zeal for holy faith inspire
To spread its mandates, thy avow’d desire?
Behold the Hagarene331* in armour stands,
Treads on thy borders, and the foe demands:
A thousand cities own his lordly sway,
A thousand various shores his nod obey.
Through all these regions, all these cities, scorn’d
Is thy religion, and thine altars spurn’d.
A foe renown’d in arms the brave require;
That high-plum’d foe, renown’d for martial fire,
Before thy gates his shining spear displays,
Whilst thou wouldst fondly dare the wat’ry maze,
Enfeebled leave thy native land behind,
On shores unknown a foe unknown to find.
Oh! madness of ambition! thus to dare
Dangers so fruitless, so remote a war!
That Fame’s vain flattery may thy name adorn,
And thy proud titles on her flag be borne:
Thee, lord of Persia, thee, of India lord,
O’er Ethiopia’s vast, and Araby ador’d!
“Curs’d be the man who first on floating wood,
Forsook the beach, and braved the treach’rous flood!
Oh! never, never may the sacred Nine,332*
To crown his brows, the hallow’d wreath entwine;
Nor may his name to future times resound;
Oblivion be his meed, and hell profound!
Curs’d be the wretch, the fire of heaven who stole,
And with ambition first debauch’d the soul!
What woes, Prometheus,333* walk the frighten’d earth!
To what dread slaughter has thy pride giv’n birth!
On proud Ambition’s
pleasing gales upborne,
One boasts to guide the chariot of the morn;
And one on treach’rous pinions soaring high,334*
O’er ocean’s waves dar’d sail the liquid sky:
Dash’d from their height they mourn’d their blighted aim;
One gives a river, one a sea the name!
Alas! the poor reward of that gay meteor, fame!
Yet, such the fury of the mortal race,
Though fame’s fair promise ends in foul disgrace,
Though conquest still the victor’s hope betrays,
The prize a shadow, or a rainbow-blaze,
Yet, still through fire and raging seas they run
To catch the gilded shade, and sink undone!”
END OF THE FOURTH BOOK.
BOOK V.
THE ARGUMENT.
Departure of the expedition under the command of Vasco de Gama (A.D. 1497). Mountains of Portugal, Cintra, Morocco. Madeira; the burning shores of the Desert of Zanhagan; passage of the Tropic; cold waters of the dark river Senegal. San Jago; pass the rocky coasts of Sierra Leone, the island of St. Thomas, the kingdom of Congo, watered by the great river Zaire. They cross the line and behold the magnificent constellation of the Southern Cross, not visible in the northern hemisphere. After a voyage of five months, with continued storms, they arrive in the latitude of the Cape. Apparition of Adamastor, the giant of the Cape of Storms. His prophecy. The King of Melinda confirms, by the tradition of his people, the weird story of the Cape-giant told him by Gama. Narrative of the voyage continued; arrival of the expedition at the Port of Good Promise; pass by the ports of Mozambique and Mombas, and arrive at Melinda.
WHILE on the beach the hoary father stood,
And spoke the murmurs of the multitude,
We spread the canvas to the rising gales,
The gentle winds distend the snowy sails.
As from our dear-lov’d native shore we fly
Our votive shouts, redoubled, rend the sky;
“Success, success!” far echoes o’er the tide,
While our broad hulks the foamy waves divide.
From Leo335* now, the lordly star of day,
Intensely blazing, shot his fiercest ray;
When, slowly gliding from our wishful eyes,
The Lusian mountains mingled with the skies;
Tago’s lov’d stream, and Cintra’s336* mountains cold
Dim fading now, we now no more behold;
And, still with yearning hearts our eyes explore,
Till one dim speck of land appears no more.
Our native soil now far behind, we ply
The lonely dreary waste of seas, and boundless sky
Through the wild deep our vent’rous navy bore,
Where but our Henry plough’d the wave before;337*
The verdant islands, first by him descried,
We pass’d; and, now in prospect op’ning wide,
Far to the left, increasing on the view,
Rose Mauritania’s338* hills of paly blue:
Far to the right the restless ocean roar’d,
Whose bounding surges never keel explor’d:
If bounding shore (as reason deems) divide
The vast Atlantic from the Indian tide.339*
Nam’d from her woods,340* with fragrant bowers adorn’d,
From fair Madeira’s purple coast we turn’d:340*
Cyprus and Paphos’ vales the smiling loves
Might leave with joy for fair Madeira’s groves;
A shore so flow’ry, and so sweet an air,
Venus might build her dearest temple there.
Onward we pass Massilia’s barren strand,
A waste of wither’d grass and burning sand;
Where his thin herds the meagre native leads,
Where not a riv’let laves the doleful meads;
Nor herds, nor fruitage deck the woodland maze;
O’er the wild waste the stupid ostrich strays,
In devious search to pick her scanty meal,
Whose fierce digestion gnaws the temper’d steel.
From the green verge, where Tigitania ends,
To Ethiopia’s line the dreary wild extends.
Now, past the limit, which his course divides,341*
When to the north the sun’s bright chariot rides,
We leave the winding bays and swarthy shores,
Where Senegal’s black wave impetuous roars;
A flood, whose course a thousand tribes surveys,
The tribes who blacken’d in the fiery blaze
When Phaëton, devious from the solar height,
Gave Afric’s sons the sable hue of night.
And now, from far the Libyan cape is seen,
Now by my mandate named the Cape of Green;342*
Where, midst the billows of the ocean, smiles
A flow’ry sister-train, the happy isles,343*
Our onward prows the murm’ring surges lave;
And now, our vessels plough the gentle wave,
Where the blue islands, named of Hesper old,
Their fruitful bosoms to the deep unfold.
Here, changeful Nature shows her various face,
And frolics o’er the slopes with wildest grace:
Here, our bold fleet their pond’rous anchors threw,
The sickly cherish, and our stores renew.
From him, the warlike guardian pow’r of Spain,
Whose spear’s dread lightning o’er th’ embattled plain
Has oft o’erwhelm’d the Moors in dire dismay,
And fix’d the fortune of the doubtful day;
From him we name our station of repair,
And Jago’s name that isle shall ever bear.
The northern winds now curl’d the black’ning main,
Our sails unfurl’d, we plough the tide again:
Round Afric’s coast our winding course we steer,
Where, bending to the east, the shores appear.
Here Jalofo344* its wide extent displays,
And vast Mandinga shows its num’rous bays;
Whose mountains’ sides, though parch’d and barren, hold,
In copious store, the seeds of beamy gold.345*
The Gambia here his serpent-journey takes,
And, thro’ the lawns, a thousand windings makes;
A thousand swarthy tribes his current laves
Ere mix his waters with th’ Atlantic waves.
The Gorgades we pass’d, that hated shore,346*
Fam’d for its terrors by the bards of yore;
Where but one eye by Phorcus’ daughters shar’d,
The ‘lorn beholders into marble star’d;
Three dreadful sisters! down whose temples roll’d
Their hair of snakes in many a hissing fold,
And, scatt’ring horror o’er the dreary strand,
With swarms of vipers sow’d the burning sand.
Still to the south our pointed keels we guide,
And, thro’ the austral gulf, still onward ride:
Her palmy forests mingling with the skies,
Leona’s347* rugg’d steep behind us flies;
The Cape of Palms348* that jutting land we name,
Already conscious of our nation’s349* fame.
Where the vex’d waves against our bulwarks roar,
And Lusian towers o’erlook the bending shore:
Our sails wide swelling to the constant blast,
Now, by the isle from Thomas nam’d we pass’d;
And Congo’s spacious realm before us rose,
Where copious Layra’s limpid billow flows;
A flood by ancient hero never seen,
Where many a temple o’er the banks of green,350*
Rear’d by the Lusian heroes, through the night
Of pagan darkness, pours the mental light.
O’er the wild waves, as southward thus we stray,
Our port unknown, unknown the wat’ry way,
; Each night we see, impress’d with solemn awe,
Our guiding stars, and native skies withdraw,
In the wide void we lose their cheering beams,
Lower and lower still the pole-star gleams.
Till past the limit, where the car of day
Roll’d o’er our heads, and pour’d the downward ray:
We now disprove the faith of ancient lore;
Boötes shining car appears no more.
For here we saw Calisto’s351* star retire
Beneath the waves, unaw’d by Juno’s ire.
Here, while the sun his polar journeys takes,
His visit doubled, double season makes;
Stern winter twice deforms the changeful year,
And twice the spring’s gay flowers their honours rear.
Now, pressing onward, past the burning zone,
Beneath another heaven and stars unknown,
Unknown to heroes and to sages old,
With southward prows our pathless course we hold:
Here, gloomy night assumes a darker reign,
And fewer stars emblaze the heavenly plain;
Fewer than those that gild the northern pole,
And o’er our seas their glitt’ring chariots roll:
While nightly thus, the lonely seas we brave,
Another pole-star352* rises o’er the wave:
Full to the south a shining cross353* appears,
Our heaving breasts the blissful omen cheers:
Seven radiant stars compose the hallow’d sign
That rose still higher o’er the wavy brine.
Beneath this southern axle of the world
Never, with daring search, was flag unfurl’d;
Nor pilot knows if bounding shores are plac’d,
Or, if one dreary sea o’erflow the lonely waste.
While thus our keels still onward boldly stray’d,
Now toss’d by tempests, now by calms delay’d,
To tell the terrors of the deep untried,
What toils we suffer’d, and what storms defied;
What rattling deluges the black clouds pour’d,
What dreary weeks of solid darkness lower’d;
What mountain-surges mountain-surges lash’d,
What sudden hurricanes the canvas dash’d;
What bursting lightnings, with incessant flare,
Kindled, in one wide flame, the burning air;
What roaring thunders bellow’d o’er our head,
And seem’d to shake the reeling ocean’s bed:
To tell each horror on the deep reveal’d,
Would ask an iron throat with tenfold vigour steel’d:354*
Those dreadful wonders of the deep I saw,
Which fill the sailor’s breast with sacred awe;
And which the sages, of their learning vain,
Luis de Camoes Collected Poetical Works Page 103