From:	VAX::LOU          "Lou Burnard" 10-JAN-1989 14:53:22.09
To:	ARCHIVE
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Subj:	fanshawe's lusiad book 1

From:	CBS%UK.AC.BANGOR.COMPLAB.VAXA::V002 10-JAN-1989 14:52:01.02
To:	lou
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Via: UK.AC.BANGOR.VAXA; Tue, 10 Jan 89  14:51 GMT
Date:		10-JAN-1989 14:48:54 GMT
From:		V002@UK.AC.BANGOR.COMPLAB.VAXA
To:		lou@UK.AC.OX.VAX

Arms, and the men above the vulgar file,
Who from the Western Lusitanian shore
Past even beyond the Trapobanian Isle,
Through seas which never ship has sailed before;
Who (brave in action, patient in long toil,
Beyond what strength of human nature bore)
'Mongst nations, under other stars, acquired.
A modern sceptre which to heaven aspired.

Likewise those Kings of glorious memory,
Who sowed and propagated where they passed
The faith with the new empire (making dry
The breasts of Asia, and laying waste
Black Afric's vicious glebe) and those who by
Their deeds at home left not their names defaced,
My song shall spread where ever there are men,
If wit and art will so much guide my pen.

Cease man of Troy, and cease thou sage of Greece,
To boast the navigations great ye made;
Let the high fame of Alexander cease,
And Trajan's banners in the east displayed:
For to a man recorded in this piece
Neptune his trident yielded, Mars his blade.
Cease all, whose actions ancient bards expressed:
A brighter valour rises in the west.

And you (my Tagus's nymphs) since ye did raise
My wit to a more than ordinary flame;
If I in low, yet tuneful verse, the praise
Of your sweet river always did proclaim:
Inspire me now with high and thundering lays;
Give me them clear and flowing like his stream:
That to your waters Phoebus may ordain
They do not envy those of Hippocrene.

Give me a mighty fury, nor rude reed's
Or rustic bag-pipes' sound, but such as war's
Loud instrument (the noble trumpet) breeds,
Which fires the breast, and stirs the blood to jars.
Give me a poem equal to the deeds
Of your brave servitors (rivals of Mars)
That I may sing them through the universe,
If, whom that held not, can be held in verse:

And you, a present pawn to Portugal
Of the old Lusitanian Liberty;
Nor the less certain hope to extend the pale,
One day, of narrow Christianity:
New terror of the moorish arsenal:
The foretold wonder of our century:
Given to the world by God, the world to win,
To give to God much of the world again.

You, fair and tender blossom of that tree
Beloved by him, who died on one for man,
More than whatever western majesty
Is styled most Christian, or Caesarian.
Behold it in your shield! Where you may see
Orique's Battle, which Alphonso wan,
In which Christ gave for arms, for you to emboss,
The same which He himself bore on the cross;

You (powerful king) whose empire vast the sun
Visits the first as soon as he is born,
And eyes it when his race is half-way run,
And leaves it loath when his tired steeds adjourn.
You, who we look should clap a yoke upon
The brutish Ishmaelite, become your scorn;
On the eastern Turk, and gentile who still lies
Sucking the stream which watered Paradise.

That majesty which in this brow appears
(This tender one) suspend for a small time,
Already such, as in your perfect years
When Fame's immortal temple you shall climb.
Those milder eyes, with which you banish fears,
Bend to the ground: on which, by numerous rhyme,
You'll see in me a passion overgrown,
To make the Portugal achievements known.

You'll see a strange love to my native soil,
Not moved with vile but high immortal meed:
For, to be counted is a meed not vile
The trumpet of the nest where I was bred.
By that, their names drawn great, and laid in oil
You'll see, of whom you are the sovereign head:
And judge, which is the greater honour then
To be the king of the world, or of such men.

Hear me, I say, for not for actions vain,
Fantastic, fabulous, shall you behold
Yours praised, though foreign muses (to obtain
Name to themselves) have even feigned names extolled.
Your subjects' true acts are so great, they stain
And credit all the lies of others told;
Stain Rhodomont, that puff Rogero too,
And mad Orlando, though their deeds were true.

For these, I give you a fierce Nunnio
Who, king and country propped, almost alone.
An Egas, a Don Fuas, whose worths to show
I wish my voice could reach great Homer's tone.
For the twelve peers, I other twelve bestow
That passed to England, and Magrizzo one.
The illustrious Gama in the rear I name,
Who robbed the wandering Trojan of his fame.

Then (if to match with Charles the Great of France,
Or one you seek to rival Caesar's name)
The first Alphonso see, who with his lance
Eclipses whatsoever outlandish fame!
And him, who by successful valiance
Rescued, and snatched his realm from civil flame!
The second John, unconquered by the sword!
The fourth and fifth Alphonsos, and the third!

Nor shall my verses in oblivion leave
Those chiefs, who, in the kingdoms of the morn,
Their name in arms unto the stars did heave,
By whom your ever-conquering flag was borne:
Matchless Pacheco: two Almeidas brave,
Whom weeping Tagus will for ever mourn:
Terrible Albuquerque: Castro bold:
And more, whom death had not the power to hold.

And whilst I these do sing, and are not you,
Great king (for I aspire not to that height)
Take you your kingdom's reins your hand into,
And furnish matter for a loftier flight,
Whilst your new worth may meet a vein as new.
Your numerous fleets, and armies' ponderous weight,
Let the world groan with, and their terror seize
The Afric lands, and oriental seas.

On you with fixed eyes looks the cold moor,
In whom he reads his ruin prophecied:
The barbarous gentile (viewing you) is sure
You'll yoke his neck, and bows it to be tied.
The silver Thetys offers you in dower
All her blue realm, and doth the same provide.
Took with your face (where love is mixed with awe)
She seeks to buy you for her son-in-law.

In you, out of their blissful bowers above
Your grandsires' souls (both famous in their way,
The one in golden peace, which angels love,
The other in bloody war) themselves survey.
In you they hope their glories shall improve,
Their virtues be recoined with less alloy:
And wide they sit, to keep for you a room
In heaven's eternal temple against you come.

But now, because your time creeps slowly on
To rule your people, who much wish it so;
Play with the new attempt of  a bold man,
That up with you this infant must may grow;
And you shall spy ploughing the ocean
Your argonauts, that they may also know
You see them tossed upon the angry brine:
And use your self to be invoked betime.

They now went sailing in the ocean vast,
Parting the snarling waves with crooked bills:
The whispering Zephyr breathed a gentle blast,
Which stealingly the spreading canvas fills:
With a white foam the seas were overcast,
The dancing vessels cutting with their keels
The waters of the consecrated deep,
Where Protheus's flocks their rendezvouses keep,

When in the heaven of heavens deities,
That have of human thing the government,
Convene in glorious council, to advise
On future matters of the orient.
Treading in clusters the diaphane skies
Through the milky way their course they bent,
Assembled at the thunderer's command
By him that bears the caduceian wand.

They leave the patronage of the seven spheres
Which by the highest power to them was given:
The highest power, who with an eye-brow steers
The earth, the raging ocean, and the heaven.
There, in a moment, every one appears;
Those, where Bootes's wain is slowly driven,
Those, who inhabit south, and where the sun
Is born, and where his golden race is done.

With an austere and high majestic grace
Upon a crystal throne, with stars imbossed,
Sublime the father sat (worthy that place)
By whom the bolts, dire Vulcan forged, are tossed.
An odiferous air blew from his face,
Able to breathe new life in a pale ghost:
A sceptre in his hand, and his head crowned
With one stone brighter than a diamond.

On glittering chairs (embroidered richly over
With infinite of pearls and finest gold)
The other deities were placed lower,
As reason and the herald order would:
The seniors first, to honour them the more,
And after them those who were not so old:
When thus the most high Jove the silence break,
With such a voice as made Olympus shake.

"Eternal dwellers in the tower divine,
"And empyrean hall with starred vault;
"If the much virtue of the valiant line,
"Of Lusus be not worn out of your thought;
"You needs must know what the great fates design
"To crown the former wonders those have wrought,
"That they shall darken with their evening glory
"The Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman story.

"Yourselves were witnesses, with what a poor
"And naked army it was given to them
"To take from the well-fixed, and numerous moor
"All that sweet Tagus waters with his stream.
"Then against the stout Castilian warrior
"Heaven still beheld them with a favouring beam:
"And still in fine with glory and renown
"The hanging trophies did their churches crown.

"I speak not (Gods) of that more ancient name
"Which with the Queen of Nations they did get
"When (led by Viriatus) so great fame
"They won, while they and hostile Rome were met.
"I pass their other clash with that proud dame
"(Which 'tis impossible you should forget)
"When a bandito did their truncheon bear,
"Who feigned himself inspired by a tame deer:

"See now, how trusting to uncertain waves
"In a frail bark, through ways untrod before
"(Fearless of horrid Boreas, and the braves
"Of the fierce southern wind) they throw at more!
"How (having yoked before that sea which laves
Afric's north-side, and yoked her southern shore)
"They bend their purpose and their forces turn
"To win the cradle of the budding morn.

"To them is promised by eternal fate
"(Whose high decrees no power can ere revoke)
"To be perpetual porters of that gate
"Through which the sun first guides his silver spoke.
"They've spent at sea the bitter winter's date;
"The men are harassed, and with travail broke.
"'Tis now high time (as it appears to me)
"To show them that new land where they would be.

"And therefore, since they have (as you have seen)
"So many dangers in this voyage passed;
"Tossed through so many seas and climates been:
"Of so sharp adverse winds felt many a blast;
"I purpose now they shall as friends be in
"The Afric land refreshed with some repast;
"And, having victualled there their wearied fleet,
"Proceed in their long course as it is meet.

Thus Jove: when in their course of parliament
The gods replied in order as they sat,
And to and from by way of argument
Upon the matter calmly did debate.
Then father Bacchus stiffly did dissent
From what great Jove proposed; as knowing, that
His fame in the east must suffer an eclipse
Should there arrive the Lusitanian ships.

He of the fates had understood, from Spain
How that a warlike people was to come
Through the middle of the ocean,
Which all the Indian coast should overcome,
And which, with modern victories, should stain
All old ones, whether foreign, or their own.
It grieved him sore, those actions should be drowned
Which still in Nysa made his name resound.

He looks on India as his old acquest,
From whom nor time, nor deeds by others done,
Had robbed the style of conqueror of the east,
By all that taste the streams of Helicon.
But now he fears that glory's near its west,
In the black waters of oblivion
To set, should their desired port obtain
The valiant portingales that ploughed the main.

Fair Venus holds up the contrary theme
Affected to the Lusitanian nations,
For the much likeness she observed in them
To her old Rome,  for which she had such passion,
In their great hearts, in the propitious  beam
Of their to-Afric-fatal constellation,
And in the charming music of their tongue,
Which she thinks Latin with small dross among.

These things did Cytherea move: but more
Because from fate of truth she heard it said
That all those lands her altars should adore
Where this victorious people should be spread.
So one, to keep what was his own before,
The other, to gain new honours to her head,
Contest and stickle for their several ends,
And both are backed and favoured by their friends.

As when the fierce south wind, and fiercer north,
Have got into the thickest of a wood,
Breaking the boughs to force a passage forth
Through matted shades, impetuous and wood;
The air, that yells; and all the mountain roareth,
The leaves are scattered, and the strong rocks moved:
Such was the tumult which amongst the gods
Was raised then in the supreme abodes.

But Mars, who with more cordialness did take
Than any of the rest, the goddess's part;
Whether it were for old affection-sake
Or for this valiant people's own desert
(His look confessed him vexed before he spake)
Amongst the gods upon his feet did start.
His heavy target, at his shoulder hung,
(Displeased, and dreadful) he behind him flung.

Lifting a little up his helmet-sight
('Twas adamant) with confidence enough,
To give his vote himself he placed right
Before the throne of Jove, armed, valiant, tough:
And (giving with the butt end of his pike
A great thump on the floor of purest stuff)
The heavens did tremble, and Apollo's light
It went, and came, like colour in a fright.

And thus he said; "O sire, whose will (whatever)
"All which thou hast created must obey:
"If these, who seek another hemisphere,
"Thou wouldst not have to perish in the way,
"Whose deeds and valour once thou heldst so dear,
"And didst of old ordain what they essay:
"Then hear no more (since thou art a judge upright)
"Reasons, from one who sees by a false light.

"For if sound reason did not plainly show
"Itself here vanquished by excess of fear,
"'Twere properer Bacchus should his pains bestow
"For Lusus's race, who was his minion dear.
"But let this spleen of his at present go:
"'Tis an ill stomach rising at good cheer:
"And envy never found the way in fine
"To do man right, or what the gods design.

"And thou (the father of great constancy)
"From the determination thou hast took
"Recoil not. It is imbecility
"When once a thing's begun, then back to look.
"But since in speed the winged Mercury
"Outstrips the winds, a shaft, the swiftest brook:
"Let him now show them to some country, where
"They may refresh, and news of India hear.

The powerful father having said the same,
Gave with a nod the sovereign assent
To that which Mars said here with greater flame,
And over all his holy nectar sprent.
Straight throught the milky way, by which they came,
The gods to their respective stations went,
Making a low obeisance to the throne
As they pased by in order one by one.

Whilst this in the high court is passing now
And beautiful of heaven omnipotent;
The warlike people the salt ocean plough
Leaving the south, and face the orient,
'Twixt Madagascar's isle, where all things flow,
And Ethiopia's barren continent.
'Twas in that month, when Sol the fishes fries
To which feared Brontes turned two deities.

So pleasantly they went before a wind
As those that now had got the heaven to friend.
Serene the air was, and the weather kind:
No cloud, nor ought that danger might portend.
The promontory Prassus left behind,
Which ancient Ethiopia doth defend,
Neptune disclosed new isles which he did play
About, and with his billows danced the hay.

Vasco de Gama (a most valinat guide,
Born and picked out for that great enterprise,
Of a high soul, and strongly fortified,
Who fortune to him by his boldness ties)
Stands off, to leave this land upon one side,
Thinking, that uninhabited it lies;
And on his course determines to proceed:
But otherwise the matter did succeed.

For straight, out of that isle which seemed most near
Unto the continent, behold a number 
Of little boats in company appear,
Which (clapping all wings on) the long sea sunder!
The men are rapt with joy, and with the mere
Excess of it, can only look, and wonder.
What nation's this? (within themselves they say)
What rites? what laws? what king do they obey?

Their coming, thus: in boats, with fins; nor flat,
But apt to over-set (as being pinched and long)
And then they swim like rats. The sails, of mat
Made of palm-leaves, wove curiously and strong.
The men's complexion, the self-same with that
He gave the  earth's burnt parts (from heaven flung,)
Who was more brave, than wise; that this is true
The Po doth know, and Lampetusa rue.

The clothes, they came in, were a cotton plaid
With divers colours stripped, and white the ground;
Which some cast quaintly under one arm, had;
Others, about their middles straightly bound;
All else from the waist up remained unclad:
Their weapons, skeans, and crooked falchions: round
Turbans upon their heads; and, as they rowed,
Resounded timbrels in an antic mode.

Waving their hands and kerchiefs, these made sign
To those of Lusitania to stay:
But the swift prows already did incline
To come to anchor in the island's bay.
Land-men, and sea-men in this work all join,
As all their labours should have end that day.
They haul the ropes; strike, strike, they crew resounds:
The salt sea (stricken with the anchor) bounds.
 
They were not anchored, when the uncouth folk
Already by the cordage did ascend.
Their jovial contenances welcome spoke,
To whom the lordly chief did (courteous) bend.
Bids straight the boards be spread, the bottles smoke,
With that rich juice which is the poet's friend.
Ours pour it into bowls, and all they fill
The burnt by Phaeton will not spare to swill.

They ask (an still the cheery bowl goes round)
In the Arabic language, "Whence the fleet?
"Who, and of whence, the men; and whither bound,
"And through what seas it came where now they see it?
Hereto the valiant Lusitanians found
Such answers as were proper, and discreet:
"We are the Portugheses of the west,
"We go to seek the countries of the east.

"All the great ocean have we sailed, and crossed,
"To the Antarctic from the Arctic strand
"Gone all the round of Afric's spacious coast;
"We have felt many a clime, seen many a land.
"We serve a potent king, who hath engrossed 
"His people's loves so, that, at his command,
"With cheerful faces, not vast seas alone,
"But we would pass the lake of Acheron.

"And 'tis by that command we travel now
"To seek the eastern land which Indus laves:
"By that this distant ocean sea we plough,
"Where none but monsters sailed the horrid waves.
"But now 'tis reason, we should likewise know
"(If truth have found a harbour in your caves)
"Who you are? what this land in which you dwell?
"Or, if of India you can tidings tell?

"We are (one of the isle replying said)
"Strangers unto this people, law, and place;
"The natives being such, as heaven hath made
"Without the light of reason, or of grace.
"We have a law of truth, which was conveyed
"To us from that new light of Abraham's race,
"Who holds the world now in subjection due,
"By father, gentile; and, by mother, jew.

"This little isle (a barren healthless nook)
"Of all these parts is the most noted scale
"For such as at Quiloa's traffic look,
"Or to Mombassa, and Sofala, sail.
"Which makes us here some inconvenience brook,
"To gather, for a mortal life, and frail:
"And (to inform you in one word of all)
"This little isle men Mozambique call.

"And now (since you come seeking through long toil
"Indian Hydaspes, and the spicy strand)
"You shall have such a pilot from this isle,
"As through the waves the way doth understand.
"'Twere also good, you here reposed a while,
"And took in fresh provisions from the land;
"And that our governor did come aboard,
"To see what else may need for him to afford.

This the barbarian, and retreated then
Into his boats with all his company,
Departing from the captain, and his men,
With demonstrations of due courtesy.
Meantime Apollo in the sea did pen
The golden day, and down to sleep doth lie.
Leaving his sister so much torch to burn
As may suffice the world till he return.

With unexpected joy their hearts on float,
Blithely they pass the night in the tired fleet;
To think that in a country so remote
The news so long desired they should  meet.
Within themselves they ruminate, and not 
The men's odd fashion, and admire to see it,
Or how a people of their damned way
Could take such root, and bear so vast a sway.

The silver moon's reverberated ray
Trembled upon the crystal element;
Like flowers in a great mead, at middle May,
The stars were in the azure firmament.
The furious winds all hushed and sleeping lay
In drowsy Hyperborean caves dark-pent;
Yet those of the armada do not sleep,
But in their turns accustomed watches keep.

And when Aurora left her spicy bed,
Shaking her dewy locks the earth upon;
And drawing, with a lily hand, the red
Transparent curtains of the waking sun,
To work go all; over the decks to spred
The shadowing sails, and all their streamers don,
To entertain with feasting and with joy
(Advancing in his barge) the isle's vice-roy.

Merrily sailing he advanced, to see
The Lusitanian frigates in the road,
With fresh provisions from the land: for he
Still hopes, they are of that inhuman brood,
Which, from their mountains near the Caspian Sea,
The fruitful lands of Asian overflowed;
And, by permission of the power divine,
Usurped the empire of great Constantine.

The captain, with a mien benevolent,
Receives the moor, and all his company.
Things of great price he doth to him present,
For such occasions carried purposely:
Gives him preserves, and gives him of that quaint
Unusual liquor which gives jollity.
The moor receives it all in courteous part,
But what he eats and drinks most glads his heart.

The nimble Lusitanian mariners
Upon the shrouds in admiration hung,
To see a mode so different from theirs,
And barbarous gibberish of that broken tongue.
No less confused the subtle moor appears,
Eying their colour, habit, and ships strong.
Then, asking all things; this amongst the rest
If happily they came from Turkey, pressed.

Moreover, to behold desireth he
The books of their religion, law, and faith:
To see, if with his own the same agree
Or that of Christ (as he suspects) he saith.
And (that he all may note, and all may see)
He prays the captain, show him what he hath
Of arms, which by his nation used are
When with the enemies they go to war.

To whom the valiant captain made reply
By one well versed in that bastard tongue;
"Illustrious lord, I shall to thee descry
"Myself, my faith, and the arms I bring along.
"Neither of Turkish blood nor creed, am I;
"Nor of a country that delights in wrong.
"In fair and warlike Europe I was born,
"I seek the famous kingdoms of the morn.

"We worship him, who is by every nature,
"(Invisible, and visible) obeyed,
"Him, who the hemispheres, and every creature,
"(Insensible, and sensible) hath made:
"Who gave us his, and took on him our feature:
"Whom to a shameful death his own betrayed:
"And who from heaven to earth came down in fine,
"That man, by him from earth to heaven might climb.

"Of this God-man sublime, and infinite,
"The books which thou desirest I have not brought,
"For that in books we need not bring that writ,
"Which (written in our hearts) we have by rote.
"For the arms, whereof thou hast desired to get
"A sight, with all my heart I do allow it,
"To see them as a friend; for well I know
"Thou never wilt wish to see them as a foe.

This having said, the ready officers
He doth command to show the magazine.
Out come the backs, and breasts, glittering and terse;
Fine mails, safe coats, with quilted plates between;
Bucklers, where various imagery appears;
Ball, lead, and iron; muskets of steel sheen;
Strong bows, and quivers with barbed arrows wedged;
Sharp partisans; and halberds double edged.

The mortar-pieces come; and with them came
(Confounding where they light) granadoes dire;
Yet would he not permit the sons of flame
Unto the dreadful cannon to give fire.
For valiant spirits (which are still the same
With generous) to boast their utmost ire,
To few, and timid souls, cannot endure.
"To be a lion among sheep, 'tis poor.

But now the moor from what he heard and viewed,
(All which he did observe attentively)
Conceived within his breast a certain feud,
A root of envy, and malignity;
Yet no such thing his outward gestures showed:
But, with a smiling hollow courtesy,
He with himself resolves to treat them fair,
Till he his purpose may by deeds declare.

Pilots the captain at his hands doth pray,
His ships as far as India to guide:
Assuring him they shall with ample pay
For all their pains therein be satisfied.
The moor consents; but still the poison lay
Close, where it was, envenoming his side:
For, had he power of blasting with his breath,
Instead of pilots, he would give him death.

So great the hate was, and so great the spite,
Which to the strangers suddenly he took;
Knowing they follow that unerring light,
The son of David holds out in his book.
"O the deep secrets of that infinite
"Into the which no mortal eye can look!
"That they, whom thou to be thy friends hast chose
"Should never be without perfidious foes.

The treacherous moor, when he his fill had seen,
Departeth from the frigates with his crew
(As false in heart, as flattering in his mien)
And feigned regards on all the sea-men threw.
Through the short traverse of the humid green
The boats had quickly cut, when, welcomed to
The shore, and met by an obsequious train,
To his known house they wait him back again.

The famous Theban, from the aetherial hall
(He, in his thigh, whom Jove his father bore)
Seeing this meeting with the Portingale
Is an abomination to the moor;
Hath in his brain a stratagem, which shall
(He hopes) destroy him quite upon that score.
Now whilst this plot is forging in his head,
Unto himself these angry words he said;

"Is it already then by fate ordained,
"That so great victories, and so renowned,
"Shall by the men of Portugal be gained
"On warlike people, and on Indian ground?
"And I (son of the highest, unprofaned
"With carnal mixture, and in whom are found
"Such rare endowments) must I suffer fate
"To a mere man my honours to translate? 

"Unto the son of Philip it is true
"Such power the gods did in those parts afford,
"'Twas one with him, to see, and to subdue,
"And Mars himself did homage to his sword.
"But can it be endured, that so few
"Fate such stupendous puissance should accord,
"That that of Macedon, of Rome and mine,
"The Lusitanian glory should out-shine?

"It must not, nor it shall not. For before
"This swabber shall arrive the wished land,
"I'll spin him such a web on yonder shore,
"That he shall never see the eastern strand.
"I'll down to earth, and spur the enraged moor:
"The iron cools that suffered is to stand.
"And who so means a business sure to make,
"He by the foretop must occasion take. 

Thus saying (vexed, and little less than mad)
Upon the Afric shore he did descend,
Where, in a human shape and visage clad,
To neighbouring Prassus he his course doth bend.
The shape he took on him (thereby his bad
And false design the better to commend)
Was of a moor in Mozambique known,
Old, wise, and with the governor all one.

And (entering to his patron when he spied
The fittest season to infuse his guile)
He tells him: "These, who in the harbour ride,
"Are men that live by robbery and spoil:
"That fame, from nations ranged on the sea side,
"With hue and cry pursued them to their isle
"Of whom these vagabonds a booty made
"When they had anchored with pretence of trade. 

"Moreover I would have thee know (quoth he)
"These bloody Christians (as I understand)
"With flames and piracies have filled the sea,
"As well as with their robberies the land;
"And that they have it in design, how we
"May be reduced too to their proud command:
"How they may rob us of our goods, and lives,
"And take for slaves our children, and our wives.

"And this I know, tomorrow by day-break
"To come on shore for water they intend,
"Armed, with their captain: can men plainer speak?
"They mischief mean, to fear it, who pretend.
"Thou, armed with thine, the same advantage take;
"Them in close ambush quietly attend:
"Who, think to catch thee at unawares,
"Will come with ease into thy snares.

"And, should it so fall out, that by this feat
"They should not wholly be destroyed, and slain;
"Another plot (the which will give thee great
"Content, I'm sure) I have within this brain.
"Send them a pilot, skilled so in deceit,
"And how to lay an undiscerned train,
"That he may lead them blinded, where they may
"Be killed, wrecked, severed, or quite lose their way.

This said by him, who played so well the moor
Whom years and fraud made wise to obviate harms;
Thanking him much for his advice mature,
About his neck the zeque throws his arms.
And from that instant bids his bands be sure
To be all ready for the morn's alarms.
That so, when land the Lusitanian should,
He may convert their water into blood.

Farther (to effect that other false device)
A moorish pilot he did ready get,
Subtle, dissembling, and in mischief wise,
To whom so great a trust he might commit.
Him, through such seas, where such and such a coast lies,
He bids to guide the Lusitanian fleet,
That, should the danger in one place be past,
It may be sure to perish at the last.

Now visited the Apollinean ray
The Nabathean mountains with a smile,
When Gama and his men themseelves array
To go and fetch fresh water from the isle.
Placed with good order in the boats are they,
As he had known of the intended guile;
And in a sort he did so: "For the wise
"Have a divining soul that never lies.

Moreover for the pilot he had sent
To land before, in need whereof he stood;
To which the sound of warlike instrument
Was all the answer he had understood.
For this, as likewise, to be confident
Of a false nation being never good,
He went as well provided as he could
With no more people than three boats could hold.

But the keen moors (pickering on the strand
To keep them from the fountain's thirsted draught,
With buckler one on arm, and dart in hand,
Another with bent bow, and poisoned shaft)
Stay for the valiant Portingales to land,
In secret ambush others hid with craft:
And send (to make them think the business sure)
A small forlorn, as falconers throw their lure.

On the white beaches the black warriors prance,
Waving and vapouring all the level over;
And with heaved target, and with threatened lance,
Dare the bold Portingales to come on shore.
The noble people have not patience
To see the dogs grin at them any more:
But spring in covey, with such equal haste
One could not say which landed first, or last.

So a brisk lover in the bloody place
(His beauteous mistress by in a balcon)
Seeks out the bull, and (planted face to face)
Curvets, runs, whistles, waves, and tolls him on;
But the stern brute, even in a moment's space
(His horned brow lowed to the earth) doth run
Bellowing about like mad; and (his eyes shut)
Dismounts, strikes, kills, and tramples underfoot.

Lo, from the ships the flames out of the hard
And furious cannon rolled, to heaven rise!
The bullets murder, whom the sound but scared:
The hissing air, struck, bandies back the noise.
The moors' hearts melt in them, they are so feared;
And the same passion chills their blood to ice.
Now he, that lay in hidden ambush, flies:
And he, that ventured the encounter, dies. 

The Lusitanian people rest not here:
But, following their success, destroy and slay.
The wall-less town, and timber houses there,
They waste with fire, and flat with cannon lay.
His sally now the moor repents full dear,
For which he thought a cheaper price to pay.
Now he blasphemes the war, curses ill luck,
The old devil, and the dam that gave him suck.

The flying moors their javelins backward threw
Faintly, through fear, and haste of their retreat.
The flint, the stake, the stone in folio flew.
"Anger makes all things weapons, when 'tis heat.
Now, to the victor leaving the isle too,
Unto the continent they frighted get.
The sea's small arm, that doth their isle embrace,
They cut and traverse in a little space.

Some leap with their best goods into the boats;
Some with their natural oars swim to the shore;
This sinks into the crooked waves, then floats;
That puffs the sea out, he new drank before.
The showered bullets from the cannon throats
The brutish people's brittle vessels tore.
Thus did the Portingales in fine chastise
The falsehood of malicious enemies.

To the armada victors they return
With the rich spoils and booty of the war.
Water they may have now to serve their turn
At their own time without control, or bar.
The moors (fresh smarting with their losses) burn
With greater malice than before by far:
And, seeing so much unrevenged shame,
Set their whole rest upon the after-game.

The governor of that infamous land
To sue for peace (as if repenting) sent.
Nor do the Lusitanians understand
That, under show of peace, worse war is meant:
For the desired pilot (underhand
Instructed in his treacherous intent)
In token of the peace which he did crave
He sends to be their pilot to the grave.

The captain (who already understood
'Twas time to go his discontinued way,
And that the weather and the wind are good
To carry him for wished India)
Receives the pilot with a cheerful mood:
And the envoy, who did his answer stay,
Dispatched in haste (his mind is in the sky)
To the large wind lets all the canvas fly.

Departed in this wise, the azure waters
Of Amphitrite cuts the warlike fleet,
Attended by a troop of Nereus's daughters
(Sweet friends, and no less constant, than they are sweet)
The captain (thoughtless of those devilish matters
Which in his brain the subtle moor doth knit)
Touching all India, and coasts they passed, 
Informs himself by him from first to last.

But the moor well instructed in deceit
(To whom his lesson spiteful Bacchus gave)
Prepares for him, ere he to India get,
New ills, either of thraldom, or of grave.
Giving account of Indian harbours yet,
He shows him all that ever he did crave;
That (judging truth what he in that confessed)
The valiant people may not doubt the rest.

And then he tells him (with the same intent
With which false Synon witched the men of Troy)
There is an isle, not far from where they went,
Which ancient Christians from all times enjoy.
The captain (who to all he told him lent
Attentive ear) at this so sprang with joy,
That he conjured him with a golden spell
To guide him speedy where those Christians dwell.

This very thing the treacherous moor designed
Which the deluded Christian doth entreat,
Those, who possessed this isle, being the blind
Disciples of the filthy Mahomet.
Here death, and certain ruin, he shall find
(As he believes) for far more strong and great,
Than Mozambique, is this isle; by name
Quiloa: frequent in the mouth of fame.

To it the joyful fleet he did incline.
But she, whose altars in Cythera steam,
(Seeing him go astray from his right line,
To meet a death of which he doth not dream)
Permits not those in so remote a clime
To perish, whom she doth so much esteem:
And puts them, with contrary winds, besides
The place to which the traitorous pilot guides.

Then the base moor, when he did plainly find
He could not work the villainy he meant;
Spawning another mischief in his mind,
And always constant to his black intent;
Tells him, that, since the waves are so unkind
To put them by the port to which they bent,
There lies another island hard before,
Where mixed live the Christian, and the moor.

Likewise in this the shameless villain lied
(As his instructions were in fine to do)
For not a Christian soul did there reside
But all of Mahomet's detested crew.
The captain (who in all believed his guide)
Made a short tack to bring his ships thereto:
But (his protecting angel saying, nay)
Passed not the bar, and anchors in the bay.

This isle lay to the continent so  near
That a small channel only ran between:
In from thereof a city did appear
Upon the margent of the ocean green:
Fair and majestical the buildings were,
At a far distance plainly to be seen:
Ruled by an aged king. Mombassa, all
The isle; the town too they Mombassa call.

And near the same the captain being come
Is much rejoiced: there looking to behold
People, that had received their Christendom,
As the false pilot promised him he should.
When lo, boats coming from the king, with some
Provisions to the ships! For he was told
Of such a fleet by Bacchus long before
Taking the figure of another moor.

Such the provisions were, as friends send friends,
But there is poison hidden in the bait.
Of enemies their thoughts are and their ends,
As will be too much manifested straight.
"O the perpetual danger which attends
"The lot of mortals! O uncertain state!
"That, where our trust seems to be anchored sure,
"We are not safe, although we are secure.

"By sea; how many storms, how many harms,
"Death in how many several fashions dressed!
"By land; how many frauds, how many alarms,
"Under how many wants sunk, and oppressed!
"Where may a frail man hide him? in what arms
"May a short life enjoy a little rest?
"Where sea, and land, where guile, the sword, and dearth,
"Will not all arm 'gainst the least worm of the earth?