69
No sim’lar cunning from such chances led
her consort, captive of the Lusian hand,
which, ne by rig’rous Mavors’ rage had bled,
nor felt what furies Vulcan doth command.
But weakly, master’d by a craven dread,
the feeble forces which the barquelet man’d
resistance offer’d none; which haply shown,
from such resisting greater ills had known.
70
And as the Gama felt him much incline’d
to seek a Guide for India-land long sought,
he thought a Helmsman ’mid the Moors to find,
yet naught to him succeeded as he thought;
none mote give tidings of the lay of Inde,
under what tract of heav’n it might be brought:
But all declare a harbour lies hard by
Melinde, ready Pilots to supply.
71
Her King’s benevolence the Moormen praise,
conditions lib’ral, breast no guile that knew;
magnificent, grandiose and gentle ways
with parts that won respect and honour true.
All this to heart for fact our Captain lays,
since to his vision came such view to show
the dream-sent Cyllenéan; thus he sped
whither the vision and the Moorman led.
72
’Twas the glad season when the God of Day
into Europa’s rav’isher ’gan return;
when warmèd either point his genial ray
and Flora scatter’d Amalthéa’s horn:
The hasty Sun, that girds the heavenly way,
brought round the mem’ry of that blessèd morn,
when He, who ruleth all by Will Divine,
upon Creation stampt His seal and sign:36
73
At such a time the Squadron neared the part,
where first Melindé’s goodly shore was seen,
in awnings drest and prankt with gallant art,
to show that none the Holy Day misween:
Flutter the flags, the streaming Estandart
gleams from afar with gorgeous purple sheen;
tom-toms and timbrels mingle martial jar:
Thus past they forwards with the pomp of war.
74
Men crowd and jostle on Melindé’s strand
hasting to sight the stranger’s glad Armade;
a folk more truthful far, humane, and bland
than any met on shores their course had made.
Now rides the Lusian Fleet anent the land:
Her pond’rous anchors now the depths invade:
Forthwith a captured Moor they send to greet
the King and mani’fest whence had come the Fleet.
75
The King who well that noble lineage knew,
which to the Portingalls such worth imparts,
prizeth their harb’ring at his Hythe, as due
the praise to Braves so prompt in martial arts:
And, with the spirit ever pure and true
that ’nobleth gen’rous souls and gallant hearts,
he prays by proxy all forthwith may deign
to land and use, as best they choose, his reign.
76
Frank offers these, and made in Honour bright,
simple the words, undoubted, unprepar’d,
wherewith the Monarch greets each noble Knight,
who o’er such seas and lands so far hath fared.
And eke he sendeth muttons fleecy white
with many a cramm’d domesticate poulard,
and tropick fruitage which the markets fill:
Yet his good gifts are giv’n with better will.
77
A glad and eager ear our Captain lent
to him who spake his Sovran’s speech benign;
straightway of royal gifts return he sent
stow’d in his Squadron for such fair design:
Purple Escarlat,37 cloth of crimson tint,
the branchy Coral, highly prized and fine,
which in deep Water soft and tender grown,
in Air doth harden to a precious stone.
78
Eke sends he one well known for courtly wit,
who with the King may pact of peace conclude;
and prayeth pardon that he could not quit
his ships at once, and leave the Fleet aflood.
His trusty Truchman38 on the land alit,
and, as before the Monarch’s face he stood,
spake thus in style which only Pallas taught
when praise and prayer firm persuasion wrought:—
79
“O King sublime! to whom Olympus pure
of His high justice gave the gift and boon
to curb and conquer peoples dour and dure,
to win their love, nor less their fear to own;
as safe asylum, haven most secure,
to ev’ry Oriental nation known,
thee have we come to seek, in thee to find
the surest med’icine of the Wanderer’s mind.
80
“No Pyrates we, who fare on ports to prey,
and purse-proud cities that in war be weak;
thieves, who with fire and steel the peoples slay,
their robber-greed on neighbour-goods to wreak:
From haughty Europe to the realms of Day
we sail, and Earth’s remotest verge we seek
of Inde, the great, the rich, for thus ordaineth
the mighty Monarch who our country reigneth.
81
“What brood so harsh as this was ever bred?
what barb’arous custom and what usage ban’d
that can not only men from ports forbid
but grudge the shelter of their desert sand?
What of ill Will hold they our hearts have hid,
that of a folk so few in fear they stand?
That traps for us they spread and ready snares
and work their worst whereby we die unwares?
82
“But Thou, wherein full surely we confide
to find, O King benign! an honest man,
and hope such certain aid to see supplied,
as gave Alcino’us the lost Ithacan,
to this thy Haven sure we stem the tide
with the Divine Interpreter in van:
For as He sendeth us to thee ’tis clear
thy heart must e’en be rare, humane, sincere.
83
“And deem not thou, O King! that dreads to land
our famous Captain thee to serve and see,
for aught he sees of base or underhand,
or aught suspects of false and feign’ed in thee:
But know he acteth by the high command—
a law of all obeyed implicitly—
his King’s own hest, forbidding him t’explore,
and from his Squadron land at port or shore.
84
“And, since of subjects King may thus require,
for of the Head should members heed the sway,
thou, kingly officed, never shalt desire
the liege his lord’s command to disobey;
but the high ben’efits, and those gifts still higher
by thee bestow’d, he prom’iseth to repay
with all that done by him or his can be
long as the rolling rivers seek the Sea.”
85
Thus he; when all conjoint their voices raisèd
while each to each his separate thoughts convey’d,
by the high stomach of the Race amazèd,
who through such seas and skies
