THE SEA ROUTE TO THE GANGES. 



207 



"With that ennobling worth whose fond employ 

 Befriends the brave, the monarch owns his joy ; 

 Entreats the leader and his weary band 

 To taste the dews of sweet repose on land, 

 And all the riches of his cultured fields 

 Obedient to the nod of Gama yields. 

 'What from the blustering winds and lengthening tide 

 Your ships have sufFer'd, here shall be supplied ; 

 Arms and provisions I myself will send, 

 And, great of skill, a pilot shall attend.' 

 So spoke the king ; and now, with purpled ray, 

 Beneath the shining wave the god of day 

 Retiring, left the evening shades to spread, 

 When to the fleet the joyful herald sped. 

 To find such friends each breast with rapture glows : 

 The feast is kindled, and the goblet flows ; 

 The trembling comet's irritating rays 

 Bound to the skies, and trail a sparkling blaze ; 

 The vaulting bombs awake their sleeping fire, 

 And, like the Cyclops' bolt, to heaven aspire; 

 The trump and fife's shrill clarion far around 

 The glorious music of the night resound. 

 Nor less their joy Melinda's sons display: 

 The sulphur bursts in many an ardent ray, 

 And to the heavens ascends in whizzing gyres, 

 Whilst Ocean flames with artificial fires." 



During the interview which followed, the king remarked 

 that he had never seen any men who pleased him so much as 

 the Portuguese, — a compliment which da Gama acknowledged by 

 setting at liberty the sixteen Moors of the captured pinnace. 

 The king sent the promised pilot on his return ; he proved to 

 be as deeply skilled in the art of navigation as any of the pilots 

 of Europe. He was acquainted with the astrolabe, compass, 

 and quadrant. The fleet set sail from Melinda on the 24th of 

 April. As they had now gone far enough towards the north, 

 and as India lay nearly east, they bade farewell to the coast, of 

 which they had hardly lost sight since leaving Lisbon, and struck 

 into the open sea, or rather a wide gulf of the Indian Ocean, 

 seven hundred and fifty leagues across. A few days after, 

 having crossed the line, the crew were delighted to behold again 

 the stars and constellations the Northern hemisphere. The 



