_--Don
Francisco
de Almeyda.
Camoes - Lusiades
What excellent divers are the Trojans!
_
Virgil, the most judicious of all poets, descends even to burlesque,
where the commander of a galley tumbles the pilot into the sea:--
----_Segnemque Menoeten
In mare praecipitem puppi deturbat ab alta.
At gravis ut sundo vix tandem redditus imo est
Jam senior, madidaque fluens in veste Menoetes,
Summa petit scopuli siccaque in rupe resedit.
Illum et labentem Teucri, et risere natantem;
Et salsos rident revomentem pectore fluctus. _
And, though the character of the speakers, the ingenious defence which
has been offered for Milton, may, in some measure, vindicate the
raillery which he puts into the mouths of Satan and Belial, the lowness
of it, when compared with that of Camoens, must still be acknowledged.
Talking of the execution of the diabolical artillery among the good
angels, they, says Satan--
"Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell
As they would dance, yet for a dance they seem'd
Somewhat extravagant and wild, perhaps
For joy of offer'd peace. ----
To whom thus Belial, in like gamesome mood.
Leader, the terms we sent were terms of weight,
Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home,
Such as we might perceive amus'd them all,
And stumbled many----
----this gift they have beside,
They show us when our foes walk not upright. "
[361] The translator in reply to the critics will venture the assertion,
that the fiction of the apparition of the Cape of Tempests, in sublimity
and awful grandeur of imagination, stands unsurpassed in human
composition.
[362] _The next proud fleet. _--On the return of GAMA to Portugal, a
fleet of thirteen sail, under the command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, was
sent out on the second voyage to India, where the admiral with only six
ships arrived. The rest were mostly destroyed by a terrible tempest at
the Cape of Good Hope, which lasted twenty days. "The daytime," says
Faria, "was so dark that the sailors could scarcely see each other, or
hear what was said for the horrid noise of the winds. " Among those who
perished was the celebrated Bartholomew Diaz, who was the first modern
discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, which he named the Cape of
Tempests.
[363] _Behold a hero come.
_--Don Francisco de Almeyda. He was the first
Portuguese viceroy of India, in which country he obtained several great
victories over the Mohammedans and pagans. He was the first who
conquered Quiloa and Mombas, or Mombaz. On his return to Portugal he put
into the bay of Saldanha, near the Cape of Good Hope, to take in water
and provisions. The rudeness of one of his servants produced a quarrel
with the Caffres, or Hottentots. His attendants, much against his will,
forced him to march against the blacks. "Ah, whither," he exclaimed,
"will you carry the infirm man of sixty years? " After plundering a
miserable village, on the return to their ships they were attacked by a
superior number of Caffres, who fought with such fury in rescue of their
children, whom the Portuguese had seized, that the viceroy and fifty of
his attendants were slain.
[364] The crescent, the symbol of Mohammedanism. --_Ed. _
[365] This poetical description of the miserable catastrophe of Don
Emmanuel de Souza, and his beautiful spouse, Leonora de Sa, is by no
means exaggerated. He was several years governor of Diu in India, where
he amassed immense wealth. On his return to his native country, the ship
in which was his lady, all his riches, and five hundred men, his sailors
and domestics, was dashed to pieces on the rocks at the Cape of Good
Hope. Don Emmanuel, his lady, and three children, with four hundred of
the crew escaped, having only saved a few arms and provisions. As they
marched through the wild uncultivated deserts, some died of famine, of
thirst, and fatigue; others, who wandered from the main body in search
of water, were murdered by the savages, or destroyed by the wild beasts.
They arrived, at last, at a village inhabited by African banditti.
Virgil, the most judicious of all poets, descends even to burlesque,
where the commander of a galley tumbles the pilot into the sea:--
----_Segnemque Menoeten
In mare praecipitem puppi deturbat ab alta.
At gravis ut sundo vix tandem redditus imo est
Jam senior, madidaque fluens in veste Menoetes,
Summa petit scopuli siccaque in rupe resedit.
Illum et labentem Teucri, et risere natantem;
Et salsos rident revomentem pectore fluctus. _
And, though the character of the speakers, the ingenious defence which
has been offered for Milton, may, in some measure, vindicate the
raillery which he puts into the mouths of Satan and Belial, the lowness
of it, when compared with that of Camoens, must still be acknowledged.
Talking of the execution of the diabolical artillery among the good
angels, they, says Satan--
"Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell
As they would dance, yet for a dance they seem'd
Somewhat extravagant and wild, perhaps
For joy of offer'd peace. ----
To whom thus Belial, in like gamesome mood.
Leader, the terms we sent were terms of weight,
Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home,
Such as we might perceive amus'd them all,
And stumbled many----
----this gift they have beside,
They show us when our foes walk not upright. "
[361] The translator in reply to the critics will venture the assertion,
that the fiction of the apparition of the Cape of Tempests, in sublimity
and awful grandeur of imagination, stands unsurpassed in human
composition.
[362] _The next proud fleet. _--On the return of GAMA to Portugal, a
fleet of thirteen sail, under the command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, was
sent out on the second voyage to India, where the admiral with only six
ships arrived. The rest were mostly destroyed by a terrible tempest at
the Cape of Good Hope, which lasted twenty days. "The daytime," says
Faria, "was so dark that the sailors could scarcely see each other, or
hear what was said for the horrid noise of the winds. " Among those who
perished was the celebrated Bartholomew Diaz, who was the first modern
discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, which he named the Cape of
Tempests.
[363] _Behold a hero come.
_--Don Francisco de Almeyda. He was the first
Portuguese viceroy of India, in which country he obtained several great
victories over the Mohammedans and pagans. He was the first who
conquered Quiloa and Mombas, or Mombaz. On his return to Portugal he put
into the bay of Saldanha, near the Cape of Good Hope, to take in water
and provisions. The rudeness of one of his servants produced a quarrel
with the Caffres, or Hottentots. His attendants, much against his will,
forced him to march against the blacks. "Ah, whither," he exclaimed,
"will you carry the infirm man of sixty years? " After plundering a
miserable village, on the return to their ships they were attacked by a
superior number of Caffres, who fought with such fury in rescue of their
children, whom the Portuguese had seized, that the viceroy and fifty of
his attendants were slain.
[364] The crescent, the symbol of Mohammedanism. --_Ed. _
[365] This poetical description of the miserable catastrophe of Don
Emmanuel de Souza, and his beautiful spouse, Leonora de Sa, is by no
means exaggerated. He was several years governor of Diu in India, where
he amassed immense wealth. On his return to his native country, the ship
in which was his lady, all his riches, and five hundred men, his sailors
and domestics, was dashed to pieces on the rocks at the Cape of Good
Hope. Don Emmanuel, his lady, and three children, with four hundred of
the crew escaped, having only saved a few arms and provisions. As they
marched through the wild uncultivated deserts, some died of famine, of
thirst, and fatigue; others, who wandered from the main body in search
of water, were murdered by the savages, or destroyed by the wild beasts.
They arrived, at last, at a village inhabited by African banditti.
