No More Learning

A stately grandeur is preserved, but it is only outward; all is
decayed within, and on the first storm the weak fabric falls to the
dust. Thus rose and thus fell the empire of Rome, and the much wider one
of Portugal. Though the increase of wealth did, indeed, contribute to
that corruption of manners which unnerved the Portuguese, certain it is
the wisdom of legislature might certainly have prevented every evil
which Spain and Portugal have experienced from their acquisitions in the
two Indies. [33] Every evil which they have suffered from their
acquirements arose, as shall be hereafter demonstrated, from their
general ignorance, which rendered them unable to investigate or
apprehend even the first principles of civil and commercial philosophy.
And what other than the total eclipse of their glory could be expected
from a nobility, rude and unlettered as those of Portugal are described
by the author of the Lusiad--a court and nobility who sealed the truth
of all his complaints against them by suffering that great man, the
light of their age, to die in an almshouse! What but the fall of their
state could be expected from barbarians like these! Nor can the annals
of mankind produce one instance of the fall of empire where the
character of the nobles was other than that ascribed to his countrymen
by Camoens.




MICKLE'S SKETCH OF THE HISTORY

OF THE

DISCOVERY OF INDIA.


No lesson can be of greater national importance than the history of the
rise and the fall of a commercial empire. The view of what advantages
were acquired, and of what might have been still added; the means by
which such empire might have been continued, and the errors by which it
was lost, are as particularly conspicuous in the naval and commercial
history of Portugal as if Providence had intended to give a lasting
example to mankind; a chart, where the course of the safe voyage is
pointed out, and where the shelves and rocks, and the seasons of tempest
are discovered and foretold.

The history of Portugal, as a naval and commercial power, begins with
the designs of Prince Henry. But as the enterprises of this great man,
and the completion of his designs are intimately connected with the
state of Portugal, a short view of the progress of the power, and of the
character of that kingdom, will be necessary to elucidate the history of
the revival of commerce, and the subject of the Lusiad.

During the centuries when the effeminated Roman provinces of Europe were
desolated by the irruptions of the northern barbarians, the Saracens
spread the same horrors of brutal conquest over the finest countries of
the eastern world. The northern conquerors of the finer provinces of
Europe embraced the Christian religion as professed by the monks, and,
contented with the luxuries of their new settlements, their military
spirit soon declined. The Saracens, on the other hand, having embraced
the religion of Mohammed, their rage for war received every addition
which can possibly be inspired by religious enthusiasm.
Not only the
spoils of the vanquished, but Paradise itself was to be obtained by
their sabres. Strengthened and inspired by a commission which they
esteemed divine, the rapidity of their conquests far exceeded those of
the Goths and Vandals. The majority of the inhabitants of every country
they subdued embraced their religion and imbibed their principles; thus,
the professors of Mohammedanism became the most formidable combination
ever leagued together against the rest of mankind. Morocco and the
adjacent countries had now received the doctrines of the Koran, and the
arms of the Saracens spread slaughter and desolation from the south of
Spain to Italy, and the islands of the Mediterranean. All the rapine and
carnage committed by the Gothic conquerors were now amply returned on
their less warlike posterity. In Spain, and the province now called
Portugal, the Mohammedans erected powerful kingdoms, and their lust of
conquest threatened destruction to every Christian power. But a romantic
military spirit revived in Europe under the auspices of Charlemagne. The
Mohammedans, during the reign of this sovereign, made a most formidable
irruption into Europe; France in particular felt the weight of their
fury. By the invention of new military honours that monarch drew the
adventurous youth of every Christian power to his standards, which
eventually resulted in the crusades, the beginning of which, in
propriety, should be dated from his reign. Few indeed are the historians
of this period, but enough remains to prove, that though the writers of
the old romance seized upon it, and added the inexhaustible machinery of
magic to the adventures of their heroes, yet the origin of their
fictions was founded on historical facts. [34] Yet, however this period
may thus resemble the fabulous ages of Greece, certain it is, that an
Orlando, a Rinaldo, a Rugero, and other celebrated names in romance,
acquired great honour in the wars which were waged against the
Saracens, the invaders of Europe. In these romantic wars, by which the
power of the Mohammedans was checked, several centuries elapsed, when
Alonzo, King of Castile, apprehensive that the whole force of the
Mohammedans of Spain and Morocco was ready to fall upon him, prudently
imitated the conduct of Charlemagne. He availed himself of the spirit of
chivalry, and demanded leave of Philip I. of France, and other princes,
that volunteers from their dominions might be allowed to distinguish
themselves, under his banners, against the Saracens. His desire was no
sooner known than a brave army of volunteers thronged to his standard,
and Alonzo was victorious. Honours and endowments were liberally
distributed among the champions; and to Henry, a younger son of the Duke
of Burgundy, he gave his daughter, Teresa, in marriage, with the
sovereignty of the countries south of Galicia as a dowry, commissioning
him to extend his dominions by the expulsion of the Moors.