No More Learning

[377] Hop.

[378] It had been extremely impolitic in GAMA to mention the mutiny of
his followers to the King of Melinda. The boast of their loyalty,
besides, 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
epopea required to be ascribed to them. History relates the matter
differently. In standing for the Cape of Good Hope, GAMA gave the
highest proofs of his resolution. The fleet seemed now tossed to the
clouds, _ut modo nubes contingere_, and now sunk to the lowest
whirlpools of the abyss. The winds were insufferably cold, and, to the
rage of the tempest was added the horror of an almost continual
darkness. The crew expected every moment to be swallowed up in the deep.
At every interval of the storm, they came round GAMA, asserting the
impossibility to proceed further, and imploring him to return. This he
resolutely refused. A conspiracy against his life was formed, but was
discovered by his brother. He guarded against it with the greatest
courage and prudence; put all the pilots in chains, and he himself, with
some others, took the management of the helms. At last, after having
many days withstood the tempest, and a perfidious conspiracy, _invicto
animo_, with an unconquered mind, a favourable change of weather revived
the spirits of the fleet, and allowed them to double the Cape of Good
Hope. --_Extr. from_ Osorius's Historia.
[379] GAMA and his followers were, from the darkness of the Portuguese
complexion, thought to be Moors. When GAMA arrived in the East, a
considerable commerce was carried on between the Indies and the Red Sea
by the Moorish traders, by whom the gold mines of Sofala, and the riches
of East Africa were enjoyed. The traffic was brought by land to Cairo,
from whence Europe was supplied by the Venetian and Antwerpian
merchants.

[380] "O nome lhe ficou dos Bons-Signais. "

[381] Raphael. See Tobit, ch. v. and xii. --_Ed. _

[382] It was the custom of the Portuguese navigators to erect crosses on
the shores of new-discovered countries. GAMA carried materials for
pillars of stone with him, and erected six crosses during his
expedition. They bore the name and arms of the king of Portugal, and
were intended as proofs of the title which accrues from first discovery.

[383] This poetical description of the scurvy is by no means
exaggerated. It is what sometimes really happens in the course of a long
voyage.

[384] King of Ithaca.

[385] AEneas.