A
Gibraltar
in the South Seas is
only wanting.
only wanting.
Camoes - Lusiades
And hence
the name of Indies was given to that and the neighbouring islands.
Though America and the Moluccas were now found to be at a great
distance, the genius of Magalhaens still suggested the possibility of a
western passage. And accordingly, possessed of his great design, and
neglected with contempt at home, he offered his service to the court of
Spain, and was accepted. With five ships and 250 men he sailed from
Spain in September, 1519, and after many difficulties, occasioned by
mutiny and the extreme cold, he entered the great Pacific Ocean or South
Seas by those straits which bear his Spanish name Magellan. From these
straits, in the 52-1/2 degree of southern latitude, he traversed that
great ocean, till in the 10th degree of north latitude he landed on the
island of Subo or Marten. The king of this country was then at war with
a neighbouring prince, and Magalhaens, on condition of his conversion to
Christianity, became his auxiliary. In two battles the Spaniards were
victorious, but in the third, Magalhaens, together with one Martinho, a
judicial astrologer, whom he usually consulted, was unfortunately
killed. Chagrined with the disappointment of promised victory, the new
baptised king of Subo made peace with his enemies, and having invited to
an entertainment the Spaniards on shore, he treacherously poisoned them
all. The wretched remains of the fleet arrived at the Portuguese
settlements in the isles of Banda and Ternate, where they were received,
says Faria, as friends, and not as intruding strangers; a proof that the
boundary treaty was esteemed sufficiently sacred. Several of the
adventurers were sent to India, and from thence to Spain, in Portuguese
ships, one ship only being in a condition to return to Europe by the
Cape of Good Hope. This vessel, named the _Victoria_, however, had the
honour to be the first which ever surrounded the globe; an honour by
some ignorantly attributed to the ship of Sir Francis Drake. Thus
unhappily ended, says Osorius, the expedition of Magalhaens. But the
good bishop was mistaken, for a few years after he wrote, and somewhat
upwards of fifty after the return of the _Victoria_, Philip II. of Spain
availed himself of the discoveries of Magalhaens. And the navigation of
the South Seas between Spanish America and the Asian Archipelago, at
this day forms the basis of the power of Spain: a basis, however, which
is at the mercy of Great Britain, while her ministers are wise enough to
preserve her great naval superiority.
A Gibraltar in the South Seas is
only wanting. But when this is mentioned, who can withhold his eyes from
the isthmus of Darien--the rendezvous appointed by nature for the fleets
which may one day give law to the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans: a
settlement which to-day might have owned subjection to Great Britain, if
justice and honour had always presided in the cabinet of William the
Third?
[675] _A land of giants. _--The Patagonians. Various are the fables of
navigators concerning these people. The Spaniards who went with
Magalhaens affirmed they were about ten feet in height, since which
voyage they have risen and fallen in their stature, according to the
different humours of our sea wits.
[676] _The goddess spake. _--We are now come to the conclusion of the
fiction of the island of Venus, a fiction which is divided into three
principal parts. In each of these the poetical merit is obvious, nor
need we fear to assert, that the happiness of our author, in uniting all
these parts together in one great episode, would have excited the
admiration of Longinus. The heroes of the Lusiad receive their reward in
the Island of Love. They are led to the palace of Thetis, where, during
a divine feast, they hear the glorious victories and conquests of the
heroes who are to succeed them in their Indian expedition, sung by a
siren; and the face of the globe itself, described by the goddess,
discovers the universe, and particularly the extent of the eastern
world, now given to Europe by the success of GAMA. Neither in grandeur,
nor in happiness of completion, may the AEneid or Odyssey be mentioned in
comparison. The Iliad alone, in epic conduet (as already observed) bears
a strong resemblance. But however great in other views of poetical
merit, the games at the funeral of Patroclus, and the redemption of the
body of Hector, considered as the interesting conclusion of a great
whole, can never in propriety and grandeur be brought into competition
with the admirable episode which concludes the poem on the discovery of
India.
Soon after the appearance of the Lusiad, the language of Spain was also
enriched with an heroic poem, the author of which has often imitated the
Portuguese poet, particularly in the fiction of the globe of the world,
which is shown to GAMA. In the _Araucana_, a globe, surrounded with a
radiant sphere, is also miraculously supported in the air; and on this
an enchanter shows to the Spaniards the extent of their dominions in the
new world.
the name of Indies was given to that and the neighbouring islands.
Though America and the Moluccas were now found to be at a great
distance, the genius of Magalhaens still suggested the possibility of a
western passage. And accordingly, possessed of his great design, and
neglected with contempt at home, he offered his service to the court of
Spain, and was accepted. With five ships and 250 men he sailed from
Spain in September, 1519, and after many difficulties, occasioned by
mutiny and the extreme cold, he entered the great Pacific Ocean or South
Seas by those straits which bear his Spanish name Magellan. From these
straits, in the 52-1/2 degree of southern latitude, he traversed that
great ocean, till in the 10th degree of north latitude he landed on the
island of Subo or Marten. The king of this country was then at war with
a neighbouring prince, and Magalhaens, on condition of his conversion to
Christianity, became his auxiliary. In two battles the Spaniards were
victorious, but in the third, Magalhaens, together with one Martinho, a
judicial astrologer, whom he usually consulted, was unfortunately
killed. Chagrined with the disappointment of promised victory, the new
baptised king of Subo made peace with his enemies, and having invited to
an entertainment the Spaniards on shore, he treacherously poisoned them
all. The wretched remains of the fleet arrived at the Portuguese
settlements in the isles of Banda and Ternate, where they were received,
says Faria, as friends, and not as intruding strangers; a proof that the
boundary treaty was esteemed sufficiently sacred. Several of the
adventurers were sent to India, and from thence to Spain, in Portuguese
ships, one ship only being in a condition to return to Europe by the
Cape of Good Hope. This vessel, named the _Victoria_, however, had the
honour to be the first which ever surrounded the globe; an honour by
some ignorantly attributed to the ship of Sir Francis Drake. Thus
unhappily ended, says Osorius, the expedition of Magalhaens. But the
good bishop was mistaken, for a few years after he wrote, and somewhat
upwards of fifty after the return of the _Victoria_, Philip II. of Spain
availed himself of the discoveries of Magalhaens. And the navigation of
the South Seas between Spanish America and the Asian Archipelago, at
this day forms the basis of the power of Spain: a basis, however, which
is at the mercy of Great Britain, while her ministers are wise enough to
preserve her great naval superiority.
A Gibraltar in the South Seas is
only wanting. But when this is mentioned, who can withhold his eyes from
the isthmus of Darien--the rendezvous appointed by nature for the fleets
which may one day give law to the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans: a
settlement which to-day might have owned subjection to Great Britain, if
justice and honour had always presided in the cabinet of William the
Third?
[675] _A land of giants. _--The Patagonians. Various are the fables of
navigators concerning these people. The Spaniards who went with
Magalhaens affirmed they were about ten feet in height, since which
voyage they have risen and fallen in their stature, according to the
different humours of our sea wits.
[676] _The goddess spake. _--We are now come to the conclusion of the
fiction of the island of Venus, a fiction which is divided into three
principal parts. In each of these the poetical merit is obvious, nor
need we fear to assert, that the happiness of our author, in uniting all
these parts together in one great episode, would have excited the
admiration of Longinus. The heroes of the Lusiad receive their reward in
the Island of Love. They are led to the palace of Thetis, where, during
a divine feast, they hear the glorious victories and conquests of the
heroes who are to succeed them in their Indian expedition, sung by a
siren; and the face of the globe itself, described by the goddess,
discovers the universe, and particularly the extent of the eastern
world, now given to Europe by the success of GAMA. Neither in grandeur,
nor in happiness of completion, may the AEneid or Odyssey be mentioned in
comparison. The Iliad alone, in epic conduet (as already observed) bears
a strong resemblance. But however great in other views of poetical
merit, the games at the funeral of Patroclus, and the redemption of the
body of Hector, considered as the interesting conclusion of a great
whole, can never in propriety and grandeur be brought into competition
with the admirable episode which concludes the poem on the discovery of
India.
Soon after the appearance of the Lusiad, the language of Spain was also
enriched with an heroic poem, the author of which has often imitated the
Portuguese poet, particularly in the fiction of the globe of the world,
which is shown to GAMA. In the _Araucana_, a globe, surrounded with a
radiant sphere, is also miraculously supported in the air; and on this
an enchanter shows to the Spaniards the extent of their dominions in the
new world.
