100
“ ‘Neighbours thee not the hateful Ishmaelite,
with whom abundant strife shalt ever hold?
Follows he not th’ Arabian’s law unright,
an thou wouldst fight to fill of Christ the fold?
A thousand cities, regions infinite,
are they not his, an cov’etest earth and gold?
Is he not strong in warfare, high in name,
if Honour be, not greed of gain, thine aim?
101
“ ‘Dost leave the foeman breeding at thy gate
who wendest foreign far-off fone to seek;
whereby this antique realm lies desolate;
whose strength, o’erstretchèd, waxeth ruinous weak?
Seekest thou dark and dubious chance of fate,
who hearest Fame with honey’d accents speak,
lauding thy lot, and hailing thee seignior
of Inde, Perse, Arab and Aethiopia-shore?
102
“ ‘Oh, curst the Mortal, who the first was found
teaching the tree to wear the flowing sheet!
worthy th’ eternal pains of the Profound,
if just that justest law I hold and greet.
Ne’er may man’s judgment lofty and renown’d,
nor genius rare, nor harp sonorous sweet,
requite such gift with mem’ory, honour, fame;
perish thy glory, perish e’en thy name!
103
“ ‘Iápetus’ daring Son from Heaven brought
the fire he added human breast to bless;
fire, that inflamed to wars a world distraught,
with death and eke disgrace: (ah, sad distress!)
How better far for us and ours hadst wrought
Prometheus! and with loss of life the less;
had thy famed Statue never felt the fire
of great designs that ’gender great desire!
104
“ ‘Ne’er had the Stripling, miserably brave,
’tempted his Sire’s high car, nor empty Air
the mighty Mason and his boy, who gave
names which the Sea-gulf and the River bear.
No fierce emprize and fell, by land and wave,
through fire, steel, water, wind, frost, heat, to fare,
wherein the human race loves not to range.
Sorrowful sort! condition strangest strange!’
Canto V
Vasco da Gama pursueth the recital of his voyage, and describeth to the King of Melinde his departure from Lisbon; the divers lands whereat they touched, and the peoples whom they saw as far as the Cape of Good Hope: The chance of Fernam Velloso: The tale of the giant Adamastor: Continuation of the voyage to Melinde, where the discourse endeth; peace and true friendship being established between the Gama and that King.
The famèd Gama tells the forceful King (1–30)
His long-drawn voyage, and uncertain road;
What couthless nations in hot Africk spring,
And, eke, Fernam Velloso’s hardihood: (31–36)
How Adamastor, Giant menacing (37–60)
They saw, who claimed to be of Terra’s brood;
And other things that happened till was found (61–end)
Haven of rest, with comfort safe and sound.
1
“Such words that agèd Sire of honoured mien
still was exclaiming, as we spread the wing
to catch the sea-breath gentle and serene,
and from the well-known Port went sorrowing:
After the manner of far-faring men,
when loosed the sail we garred the welkin ring
crying ‘Boon Voyage!’ whereupon the breeze
made every trunk glide off with ’customed ease.
2
“ ’Twas in the season when th’ Eternal Light
entered the Beast that workt Nemaea’s woe;108
and rolled our Earth, consumed by Time’s long flight,
in her sixth epoch, feeble, cold and slow:
Now, in the wonted way, had met her sight
the suns that fourteen hundred courses show,
with seven and ninety more, wherein she ran,
as o’er the seas th’ Armada’s course began.
3
“Slow, ever slower, banisht from our eyne,
vanisht our native hills astern remaining:
Remained dear Tagus, and the breezy line
of Cintran peaks, long, long, our gaze detaining:
Remainèd eke in that dear country mine
our hearts with pangs of mem’ory ever paining:
Till, when all veilèd sank in darkling air,
naught but the welkin and the wave was there.
4
“Thus fared we opening those wastes of tide,
no generation openèd before;
sighting new islands and new airs we hied,
which gen’erous Henry had the heart t’ explore:
Past Mauritanian hills and homes we plied,
the realm Antaeus ruled in times of yore,
leaving to larboard; on our dexter hand
lay nothing surer than suspected land.109
5
“Hard by the great Madeiran Isle we past,
whose wealth of woodland won her chryssome name;
where first our people did their fortunes cast,
for name more famous than for classick fame:
But not the least, although ’twas found the last,
the smiles of Venus shall this Island claim:
Nay, an ’twere hers, scant cause it had to fear a
Cnidos or Cyprus, Paphos or Cythéra.
6
“We left Massylia’s seaboard, sterile waste,
where Azenéguan110 herds their cattle feed;
a folk that never soft sweet waters taste,
nor doth the meadow-math suffice their need;
a land no luscious fruit’ery ever graced,
where birds spoil iron in their maws of greed,
a soil where nought save horrid Want abounds,
parting the Berber’s from the Blackmoor’s grounds.
7
“We past the limit where, his southing done,
Sol guides his chariot t’oward his northern goal;
where lie the Races whence Clyméné’s son
the clear bright colour of the daylight stole;
Here laving strangest peoples loves to run
black Sanagá in tropick summer cool;
where th’ Arsenarium Cape its name hath lost,
yclept Cape Verd by us that keep the coast.
8
“Now past Canaria’s archipelago—
‘Fortunate Isles’ of olden mariners these—
the waves that play around the Maids we plow
of agèd Hesper, hight Hesperides:111
Lands ever new, whose wonders greater grow
upon the sight, uprose our eyne to please:
Then with a prosp’rous wind we took the port,
to take provision of the wonted sort.
9
“Now at his Island was the harbour tane,
that warrior Sanct ‘Iago’s name did take;
a Saint who often holp the sons of Spain
brave slaught’ering of the Moorish man to make.
Hence while a favouring Boreas fanned the Main,
once more we sped to cut the vasty lake
of briny Ocean, while beneath the wave
settled the shore that sweet refreshment gave.
10
“Compast our courses thence the greater part
of Africk, eastward left her continent:
The province Joloff which, disposed athwart,
departs in tribes the Negro ’habitant;
mighty Mandinga-land by whose good art
the rich
