been sung by
Camoens, whose poem recalls to our minds the charms of the Odyssey, and
the magnificence of the AEneid.--MONTESQUIEU, Spirit of Laws, bk. xxi. c.
21.

[370] Virgil.

[371] A small island, named _Santa Cruz_ by Bartholomew Diaz, who
discovered it. According to Faria y Sousa, he went twenty-five leagues
further, to the river Del Infante, which, till passed by GAMA, was the
utmost extent of the Portuguese discoveries.

[372] It was the force of this rushing current which retarded the
further discoveries of Diaz. GAMA got over it by the assistance of a
tempest. The seasons when these seas are safely navigable, are now
perfectly known.

[373] The wise men of the East, or magi, whom the Roman Catholic writers
will have to have been kings.--_Ed._

[374] The Epiphany.--_Ed._

[375] Dos Reis, _i.e._, of the kings.--_Ed._

[376] The frequent disappointments of the Portuguese, when they expect
to hear some account of India, is a judicious imitation of several parts
of Virgil; who, in the same manner, magnifies the distresses of the
Trojans in their search for the fated seat of Empire:--

----_O gens
Infelix! cui to exitio fortuna reservat?
Septima post Trojae excidium jam vertitur aestas;
Cum freta, cum terras omnes, tot inhospita saxa
Sideraque emensae ferimur: dum per mare magnum
Italiam sequimur fugientem, et volvimur undis._ AEN. v. 625.

[377] Hop.

[378] It had been extremely impolitic in GAMA to mention the mutiny of
his followers to the King of Melinda. The boast of their loyalty,
besides, has a good effect in the poem, as it elevates the heroes, and
gives uniformity to the character of bravery, which the dignity of the
epopea required to be ascribed to them. History relates the matter
differently. In standing for the Cape of Good Hope, GAMA gave the
highest proofs of his resolution. The fleet seemed now tossed to the
clouds, _ut modo nubes contingere_, and now sunk to the lowest
whirlpools of the abyss. The winds were insufferably cold, and, to the
rage of the tempest was added the horror of an almost continual
darkness. The crew expected every moment to be swallowed up in the deep.
At every interval of the storm, they came round GAMA, asserting the
impossibility to proceed further, and imploring him to return. This he
resolutely refused. A conspiracy against his life was formed, but was
discovered by his brother. He guarded against it with the greatest
courage