This discovery greatly encouraged GAMA and his
men, who now interpreted the sudden storm which had driven them from
Quiloa as a miraculous interposition of Divine Providence in their
favour.
men, who now interpreted the sudden storm which had driven them from
Quiloa as a miraculous interposition of Divine Providence in their
favour.
Camoes - Lusiades
--_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.
This discovery greatly encouraged GAMA and his
men, who now interpreted the sudden storm which had driven them from
Quiloa as a miraculous interposition of Divine Providence in their
favour.
[115] _i. e. _ Mohammed. --_Ed. _
[116] After GAMA had been driven from Quiloa by a sudden storm, the
assurances of the Mozambique pilot, that the city was chiefly inhabited
by Christians, strongly inclined him to enter the harbour of Mombas.
[117] "There were," says Osorius, "ten men in the fleet under sentence
of death, whose lives had been spared on condition that, wherever they
might be landed, they should explore the country and make themselves
acquainted with the manners and laws of the people. "
During the reign of Emmanuel, and his predecessor John II. , few
criminals were executed in Portugal. These great and political princes
employed the lives which were forfeited to the public in the most
dangerous undertakings of public utility. In their foreign expeditions
the condemned criminals were sent upon the most hazardous undertakings.
If death was their fate, it was the punishment they had merited: if
successful in what was required, their crimes were expiated; and often
they rendered their country the greatest atonement for their guilt which
men in their circumstances could possibly make. What multitudes every
year, in the prime of their life, end their days in Great Britain by the
hands of the executioner! That the legislature _might_ devise means to
make the greatest part of these lives useful to society is a fact, which
surely cannot be disputed; though, perhaps, the remedy of an evil so
shocking to humanity may be at some distance.
[118] Semele was the mother of Bacchus, but, as he was prematurely born,
Jupiter, his father, sewed him up in his thigh until he came to
maturity. --_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.
This discovery greatly encouraged GAMA and his
men, who now interpreted the sudden storm which had driven them from
Quiloa as a miraculous interposition of Divine Providence in their
favour.
[115] _i. e. _ Mohammed. --_Ed. _
[116] After GAMA had been driven from Quiloa by a sudden storm, the
assurances of the Mozambique pilot, that the city was chiefly inhabited
by Christians, strongly inclined him to enter the harbour of Mombas.
[117] "There were," says Osorius, "ten men in the fleet under sentence
of death, whose lives had been spared on condition that, wherever they
might be landed, they should explore the country and make themselves
acquainted with the manners and laws of the people. "
During the reign of Emmanuel, and his predecessor John II. , few
criminals were executed in Portugal. These great and political princes
employed the lives which were forfeited to the public in the most
dangerous undertakings of public utility. In their foreign expeditions
the condemned criminals were sent upon the most hazardous undertakings.
If death was their fate, it was the punishment they had merited: if
successful in what was required, their crimes were expiated; and often
they rendered their country the greatest atonement for their guilt which
men in their circumstances could possibly make. What multitudes every
year, in the prime of their life, end their days in Great Britain by the
hands of the executioner! That the legislature _might_ devise means to
make the greatest part of these lives useful to society is a fact, which
surely cannot be disputed; though, perhaps, the remedy of an evil so
shocking to humanity may be at some distance.
[118] Semele was the mother of Bacchus, but, as he was prematurely born,
Jupiter, his father, sewed him up in his thigh until he came to
maturity. --_Ed.
