May 19, 189S] 



NATURE 



69 



I 



Not with the novel viands exquisite ; 

 Not with the languid wanton promenade ; 

 Not with the pleasures varied infinite, 

 Which generous souls effeminate, degrade ; 

 Not with the never conquer'd appetite, 

 By fortune pamper'd as by fortune made. 

 But by the doughty arm and sword that chase 

 Honour which man may proudly hail his own ; 

 In weary vigil, in the steely case, 

 'Mid wrothsome winds and bitter billows thrown, 

 Suffering the frigid rigours in th' embrace 

 Of South, and regions lorn and lere, and lone, 

 Swallowing the tainted rations scanty dole. 

 Salted with toil of body, moil of soul. 

 Thus honour'd hardness shall the heart prevail, 

 To scoff at honours, and vile gold disdain. 

 Whoso shall rule his life by reasons light. 

 Which feeble passion ne'er hath power to hide, 

 Shall rise (as rise he ought) to honour true. 

 Maugre his will that ne'er hath stooped to sue." 



And thus was the Portuguese empire in India founded by two 

 of Portugal's noblest sons, Vasco and Paulo da Gama. Time 

 will not allow us to linger with them on the coast of Malabar. 

 < )n March 20, 1499, they cleared the Cape, and returned to 

 Lisbon on Septeujber 18. But Paulo da Gama had died at 

 Terceira, in the Azores. Equal to Vasco in heroism and con- 

 stancy, Paulo excelled him in the more Christian virtues, and 

 was, as I have already said, the guardian spirit of the voyage. 

 When Vasco is remembered, Paulo da Gama should never be 

 forgotten. They are equal in merit, and both equally deserve 

 to have their memories honoured by their country, and by the 

 civilised world. 



True to the spirit of perseverance and energy which had led 

 the Portuguese to this crowning success, a large fleet was 

 despatched to India in the year after the return of Vasco da 

 Gama, and in each succeeding year. Vasco da Gama com- 

 manded the fourth voyage in 1502, and on his return he was 

 created Count ot Vidigueira. Then followed the brilliant 

 achievements of Alfonso d'Albuquerque, who occupied Goa, 

 ' »rmuz, and Malacca, and established Portuguese power in India 

 11 a solid foundation. It was to last unchallenged for eighty 

 .ears, when the disaster of El Kasr-el Kebir brought on what 

 the Portuguese called the sixty-years captivity. 



For twenty years Vasco da Gama was unemployed, living at 

 a house in Evora, the walls of which were painted with figures 

 ■f Indian animals and plants, and hence the street in which it 

 ■')od is still called " Rua das Casas Pintadas." Here he 

 jrought up a family of six sons ; but in 1524 he was called from 

 his retirement to rule over Portuguese India. He went out 

 with a large fleet, surrounded by all the pomp and circumstance 

 of a viceroy, and he died at Cochin, on the scene of his dis- 

 coveries, on Christmas Day 1524, aged 55. 



Vasco da Gama is described as a man of middle stature, 

 rather stout, and of a florid complexion. The portrait, which 

 belonged to Count Lavradio, is given by Lord Stanley of 

 Alderley, in his translation of the account of Da Gama's 

 voyages in the " Lendas da India," of Correa. It is a copy 

 of the portrait in the Museu das Bellas Artes at Lisbon, a 

 photograph from which is given in Ravenstein's " Roteiro." 

 It represents a handsome man, aged about fifty, witti a white 

 beard and severe expression, wearing a furred robe, and the 

 cross of the order of Christ hanging from a chain round his 

 neck. His crest was a girthed doe trippant, or. Anns — chequy 

 of fifteen, or and gules ; two bars argent ; over all an escutcheon- 

 With the qtiitias of Portugal. 



Luis Camoens, the great epic poet, is said to have been born 

 in the year that Da Gama died ; and Lord Stanley says, I think 

 truly, that the name Vasco da Gama has left in history is due 

 largely to the great genius of Camoens " The discovery of 

 India," says Schlegel, " the greatest event of modern times, 

 could only be worthily celebrated by one who had himself 

 passed a portion of his life in those regions. A warrior could 

 only thus have written." 



" At the proudest moment of that brief but glorious period of 

 Portugal's greatness, one great national song broke forth, like 

 the dying note of the fabled swan, a dirge for the departing 

 hero-nation. The remembrance of her departed glory is en- 

 shrined in this immortal work, created by the divine genivis of 

 her national poet to immortalise her fame. The exquisite 

 bloom and grace of the diction of Camoens are unparalleled 

 among modern writers." ' 



The most learned and accomplished English traveller of 

 modern times, the late Sir Richard Burton, devoted twenty 

 1 Schlegel. 



NO. 1490, VOL. 58] 



years of his life to the study and translation of the " Lusiads of 

 Camoens." He declared that he felt a glow of pleasure at 

 having undertaken it — at having lived so long in contact with 

 so noble a spirit as that of his master. He also took pride in 

 the ambition of familiarising his fellow-countrymen with a 

 workman and a work not readily to be rivalled in the region ot 

 literature. No single publication extant gives so full and 

 general a portrait of Camoens, his life and his work, as that of 

 Sir Richard Burton, and his translation is undoubtedly the 

 most faithful and the best in our language. The Hakluyt 

 Society, of which I have the honour to be President, has also 

 laboured to make the achievement of Vasco da Gama better 

 known in this country, In 1869 ^^e brought out the " Lendas" 

 by Caspar Correa, translated and edited by Lord Stanley of 

 Alderley ; and this year, with a view to celebrating the present 

 commemoration, we have published the "Roteiro" of the first 

 voyage, which has been ably translated and edited by Mr. 

 Ravenstein. 



After the sixty years of captivity came to an end, Portugal 

 rose like a phoenix from its ashes. The old alliance with 

 England was renewed. It was commenced when the founder 

 of the house of Avis, the great King Joao of Good Memory 

 married that English princess, who bore him five noble sons, 

 including Prince Henry the Navigator. Since 1640, the year of 

 liberation, English and Portuguese have fought side by side on 

 many a battle-field for freedom, we have formed alliances, and 

 now our royal houses are nearly related. There are many 

 reasons why England should feel warm sympathy for Portugal 

 in the commemoration of the mighty deeds of her sons. The 

 nation of heroic memories has a glorious history to be proud of ; 

 and by the commemoration of the discovery of India by Vasco 

 da Gama, we hope that those memories will impress themselves 

 even more strongly than ever on the minds of her sons, leading 

 them on to an honourable and prosperous future. We wish 

 health and happiness to his faithful Majesty, and success and 

 prosperity to our old and tried ally, the noble Portuguese 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — A proposal to establish a final honour school of 

 agricultural science, the examination in which was to be partly 

 of a practical character, with the condition that the candidates 

 must have obtained honours or passed the preliminary exam- 

 inations in natural science, was rejected by Congregation on 

 Tuesday. 



Cambridge. — Mr. H. Yule Oldham, of King's College, has 

 been appointed Reader in Geography for five years from Mid- 

 summer 1898. Mr. A. C. Seward, of St. John's College, has 

 been reappointed University Lecturer in Botany. 



The grace for the recognition as a public hostel of St. Edmund's 

 House, established as a place of general education for candidates 

 for the Roman Catholic priesthood, has been rejected by 471 

 votes to 218. 



Mrs. Elizabeth H. Bates, of Port Chester, N.Y., has 

 lei't, by her will, property valued at 135,000 dollars to the 

 University of Michigan. 



A COURSE of six lectures on electric traction, by Prof. 

 Schwartz and Dr. D. K. Morris, was commenced on Tuesday 

 evening at the South-West London Polytechnic, Manresa Road, 

 Chelsea, and will be continued on succeeding Tuesdays. 



The Town Council of the county borough of West Ham 

 have made the following appointments on the teaching staff" of 

 the new Municipal Technical Institute : Head of the Chemical 

 department, Dr. Harold A. Auden, of the Owens College, 

 Manchester ; Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, Mr. John 

 Duncan, of University College, Nottingham. 



The fifth annual report of the Technical Education Board, 

 presented to the London County Council on Tue.sday, is a 

 document of fifty foolscap pages. It includes a general account 

 of the work of the Board, showing the lines on which the work 

 has been organised, and giving a survey of the provision for 

 technical education which now exists in the metrojwlis. Several 

 maps are appended at the end of the report, which give a general 

 idea of the character, and locality of the various institutions in 



