[111] The italics
indicate
that there is nothing in the original
corresponding to these lines.
corresponding to these lines.
Camoes - Lusiades
vii.
[107] To be identified with the Sun, in the opinion of later
mythologists; but not so in Homer, with whom Helios (the Sun) is himself
a deity. --_Ed. _
[108]
_Thus, when to gain his beauteous charmer's smile,
The youthful lover dares the bloody toil. _
This simile is taken from a favourite exercise in Spain, where it is
usual to see young gentlemen of the best families entering the lists to
fight with a bull, adorned with ribbons, and armed with a javelin or
kind of cutlass, which the Spaniards call _Machete_.
[109]
------------_e maldizia
O velho inerte, e a m? y, que o filho cria. _
Thus translated by Fanshaw--
------------_curst their ill luck,
Th' old Devil and the Dam that gave them suck. _
[110]
_Flints, clods, and javelins hurling as they fly,
As rage, &c. --
Jamque faces et saxa volant, furor arma ministrat. _
VIRG. AEn. i.
The Spanish commentator on this place relates a very extraordinary
instance of the _furor arma ministrans_. A Portuguese soldier at the
siege of Diu in the Indies, being surrounded by the enemy, and having no
ball to charge his musket, pulled out one of his teeth, and with it
supplied the place of a bullet.
[111] The italics indicate that there is nothing in the original
corresponding to these lines. --_Ed. _
[112] See Virgil's AEneid, bk. ii. --_Ed. _
[113] Quiloa is an island, with a town of the same name, on the east
coast of Africa. --_Ed. _
[114] _But heavenly Love's fair queen. _--When GAMA arrived in the East,
the Moors were the only people who engrossed the trade of those parts.
Jealous of such formidable rivals as the Portuguese, they employed every
artifice to accomplish the destruction of GAMA'S fleet. As the Moors
were acquainted with these seas and spoke the Arabic language, GAMA was
obliged to employ them both as pilots and interpreters. The circumstance
now mentioned by Camoens is an historical fact. "The Moorish pilot,"
says De Barros, "intended to conduct the Portuguese into Quiloa, telling
them that place was inhabited by Christians; but a sudden storm arising,
drove the fleet from that shore, where death or slavery would have been
the certain fate of GAMA and his companions. The villainy of the pilot
was afterwards discovered. As GAMA was endeavouring to enter the port of
Mombaz his ship struck on a sand-bank, and finding their purpose of
bringing him into the harbour defeated, two of the Moorish pilots leaped
into the sea and swam ashore. Alarmed at this tacit acknowledgment of
guilt, GAMA ordered two other Moorish pilots who remained on board to be
examined by whipping, who, after some time, made a full confession of
their intended villainy.
[107] To be identified with the Sun, in the opinion of later
mythologists; but not so in Homer, with whom Helios (the Sun) is himself
a deity. --_Ed. _
[108]
_Thus, when to gain his beauteous charmer's smile,
The youthful lover dares the bloody toil. _
This simile is taken from a favourite exercise in Spain, where it is
usual to see young gentlemen of the best families entering the lists to
fight with a bull, adorned with ribbons, and armed with a javelin or
kind of cutlass, which the Spaniards call _Machete_.
[109]
------------_e maldizia
O velho inerte, e a m? y, que o filho cria. _
Thus translated by Fanshaw--
------------_curst their ill luck,
Th' old Devil and the Dam that gave them suck. _
[110]
_Flints, clods, and javelins hurling as they fly,
As rage, &c. --
Jamque faces et saxa volant, furor arma ministrat. _
VIRG. AEn. i.
The Spanish commentator on this place relates a very extraordinary
instance of the _furor arma ministrans_. A Portuguese soldier at the
siege of Diu in the Indies, being surrounded by the enemy, and having no
ball to charge his musket, pulled out one of his teeth, and with it
supplied the place of a bullet.
[111] The italics indicate that there is nothing in the original
corresponding to these lines. --_Ed. _
[112] See Virgil's AEneid, bk. ii. --_Ed. _
[113] Quiloa is an island, with a town of the same name, on the east
coast of Africa. --_Ed. _
[114] _But heavenly Love's fair queen. _--When GAMA arrived in the East,
the Moors were the only people who engrossed the trade of those parts.
Jealous of such formidable rivals as the Portuguese, they employed every
artifice to accomplish the destruction of GAMA'S fleet. As the Moors
were acquainted with these seas and spoke the Arabic language, GAMA was
obliged to employ them both as pilots and interpreters. The circumstance
now mentioned by Camoens is an historical fact. "The Moorish pilot,"
says De Barros, "intended to conduct the Portuguese into Quiloa, telling
them that place was inhabited by Christians; but a sudden storm arising,
drove the fleet from that shore, where death or slavery would have been
the certain fate of GAMA and his companions. The villainy of the pilot
was afterwards discovered. As GAMA was endeavouring to enter the port of
Mombaz his ship struck on a sand-bank, and finding their purpose of
bringing him into the harbour defeated, two of the Moorish pilots leaped
into the sea and swam ashore. Alarmed at this tacit acknowledgment of
guilt, GAMA ordered two other Moorish pilots who remained on board to be
examined by whipping, who, after some time, made a full confession of
their intended villainy.
