, which gave name to India.

[325] Vasco de Gama, who is, in a certain sense, the hero of the Lusiad,
was born in 1469, at Sines, a fishing town on the Atlantic, midway
between Lisbon and Cape St. Vincent, where, in a small church on a
cliff, built by the great navigator after his appointment as Viceroy of
India, is an inscription to his memory.--_Ed._

[326] Hercules.

[327] _Orac'lous Argo._--According to the fable, the vessel of the
Argonauts spoke and prophesied. See _The Argonautics_ of Apollonius
Rhodius.--_Ed._

[328] This fact is according to history: Aberat Olysippone prope littus
quatuor passuum millia templum sane religiosum et sanctum ab Henrico in
honorem Sanctissimae Virginis edificatum.... In id Gama pridie illius
diei, quo erat navem conscensurus, se recepit, ut noctem cum religiosis
hominibus qui in aedibus templo conjunctis habitabant, in precibus et
votis consumeret. Sequenti die cum multi non illius tantum gratia, sed
aliorum etiam, qui illi comites erant, convenissent, fuit ab omnibus in
scaphis deductus. Neque solum homines religiosi, sed reliqui omnes voce
maxima cum lacrymis a Deo precabantur, ut bene et prospere illa tam
periculosa navigatio omnibus eveniret, et universi re bene gesta,
incolumes in patriam redirent.

[329] By this old man is personified the populace of Portugal. The
endeavours to discover the East Indies by the Southern Ocean, for about
eighty years had been the favourite topic of complaint, and never was
any measure of government more unpopular than the expedition of GAMA.
Emmanuel's council were almost unanimous against the attempt. Some
dreaded the introduction of wealth, and its attendants, luxury and
effeminacy; while others affirmed, that no adequate advantages could
arise from so perilous and remote a navigation. The expressions of the
thousands who crowded the shore when GAMA gave his sails to the wind,
are thus expressed by Osorius: "A multis tamen interim is fletus atque
lamentatio fiebat, un funus efferre viderentur. Sic enim dicebant: En
quo miseros mortales provexit cupiditas et ambitio? Potuitne gravius
supplicium hominibus istis constitui, si in se scelestum aliquod facinus
admisissent? Est enim illis immensi maris longitudo peragranda, fluctus
immanes difficillima navigatione superandi, vitae discrimen in locis
infinitis obeundum. Non fuit multo tolerabilius, in terra quovis genere
mortis absumi, quam tam procul a patria marinis fluctibus sepeliri. Haec
et