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[554] _Then, furious, rushing to the darken'd bay. _--For the
circumstances of the battle, and the tempest which then happened, see
the Life of GAMA.

[555] _I left my fix'd command my navy's guard. _--See the Life of GAMA.

[556] _Unmindful of my fate on India's shore. _--This most magnanimous
resolution, to sacrifice his own safety or his life for the safe return
of the fleet, is strictly true. --See the Life of GAMA.

[557] _Abrupt--the monarch cries_--"_What yet may save! _"--GAMA'S
declaration, that no message from him to the fleet could alter the
orders he had already left, and his rejection of any further treaty,
have a necessary effect in the conduct of the poem. They hasten the
catastrophe, and give a verisimilitude to the abrupt and full submission
of the zamorim.

[558] _The rollers_--_i. e. _ the capstans. --The capstan is a cylindrical
windlass, worked with bars, which are moved from hole to hole as it
turns round. It is used on board ship to weigh the anchors, raise the
masts, etc.
The versification of this passage in the original affords a
most noble example of imitative harmony:--

"Mas ja nas naos os bons trabalhadores
Volvem o cabrestante, & repartidos
Pello trabalho, huns puxao pella amarra,
Outros quebrao co peito duro a barra. "

STANZA X.


[559]

_Mozaide, whose zealous care
To Gama's eyes reveal'd each treach'rous snare. --_

Had this been mentioned sooner, the interest of the catastrophe of the
poem must have languished. Though he is not a warrior, the unexpected
friend of GAMA bears a much more considerable part in the action of the
Lusiad than the faithful Achates, the friend of the hero, bears in the
business of the AEneid.

[560] _There wast thou call'd to thy celestial home. _--This exclamatory
address to the Moor Monzaida, however it may appear digressive, has a
double propriety. The conversion of the Eastern world is the great
purpose of the expedition of GAMA, and Monzaida is the first fruits of
that conversion. The good characters of the victorious heroes, however
neglected by the great genius of Homer, have a fine effect in making an
epic poem interest us and please. It might have been said, that Monzaida
was a traitor to his friends, who crowned his villainy with apostacy.
Camoens has, therefore, wisely drawn him with other features, worthy of
the friendship of GAMA. Had this been neglected, the hero of the Lusiad
might have shared the fate of the wise Ulysses of the Iliad, against
whom, as Voltaire justly observes, every reader bears a secret ill will.
Nor is the poetical character of Monzaida unsupported by history. He was
not an Arab Moor, so he did not desert his countrymen. These Moors had
determined on the destruction of GAMA; Monzaida admired and esteemed
him, and therefore generously revealed to him his danger. By his
attachment to GAMA he lost all his effects in India, a circumstance
which his prudence and knowledge of affairs must have certainly
foreseen.