LISBON REJOICES. 337 



to be of enormous weight ; and in his hand the Captain- 

 General held a letter which was written with a pen of 

 iron on a golden leaf, and which addressed the king of 

 Portugal and Guinea in these words : " Vasco da Gama, 

 a gentleman of thy house, came to my country, of whose 

 coming I was glad. In my country there is plenty 

 of cinnamon, cloves, pepper, and precious stones. 

 The things which I am desirous to have out of thy 

 country are silver, gold, coral, and scarlet." 



That night all the houses in Lisbon were illumi- 

 nated ; the gutters ran with wine ; the skies, for miles 

 round, were reddened with the light of bonfires. 

 The king's men brought ten pounds of spices to each 

 sailor's wife, to give away to her gossips. The sailors 

 themselves were surrounded by crowds, who sat silent 

 and open-mouthed, listening to the tales of the great 

 waters and the marvellous lands where they had been. 



They told of the wonders of the Guinea coast, and 

 of the men near the Cape, who rode on oxen and 

 played sweet music on the flute ; and of the birds 

 which looked like geese, and brayed like donkeys, and 

 did not know how to fly, but put up their wings like 

 sails, and scudded along before the wind. They told 

 how as they sailed on towards the south, the north star 

 sank and sank, and grew fainter and fainter, until at 

 last it disappeared ; and they entered a new world, and 

 sailed beneath strange skies ; and how, when they had 

 doubled the Cape, they again saw sails on the horizon, 

 and the north star again rose to view. They told of 

 the cities on the Eastern shore, and of their voyage 

 across the Indian ocean, and of that joyful morning 

 when, through the grey mists of early dawn, they dis- 

 cerned the hills of Calicut. 



And then they sank their voices, and their eyes 



Y 



