The legend of the Spectre of the Cape is given by Camoens in full; and it is so characteristic of the age, and, as an episode, is itself so interesting, that we cannot refrain from quoting it entire. Da Gama is supposed to be relating his experience in the first person: "I spoke, when, rising through the darken'd air, Appall'd, we saw a hideous phantom glare. High and enormous o'er the flood he tower'd, And thwart our way with sullen aspect lower'd; An earthly paleness o'er his cheeks was spread, Erect uprose his hairs of wither'd red; Writhing to speak, his sable lips disclose, Sharp and disjoin'd, his gnashing teeths' blue rows; His haggard beard flow'd quivering in the wind; Revenge and horror in his mien combined; His clouded front, by withering lightnings sear'd, The inward anguish of his soul declared. Cold, gliding horrors fill'd each hero's breast; Our bristling hair and tottering knees confess'd Wild dread. The while, with visage ghastly wan, His black lips trembling, thus the fiend began: 'Ye sons of Lusus, who, with eyes profane, Have view'd the secrets of my awful reign, Have pass'd the bounds which jealous nature drew To veil her secret shrine from mortal view; Hear from my lips what direful woes attend, And, bursting soon, shall o'er your race descend: With every bounding keel that dares my rage, Eternal war my rocks and storms shall wage. The next proud fleet that through my drear domain With daring hand shall hoist the streaming vane, That gallant navy, by my whirlwinds toss'd, And raging seas, shall perish on my coast. Then he who first my secret reign descried, A naked corpse, wide floating o'er the tide, Shall drive. Unless my heart's full raptures fail, O Lusus, oft shalt thou thy children wail! Each year thy shipwreck'd sons shalt thou deplore, Each year thy sheeted masts shall strew my shore!'" [Illustration: THE SPECTRE OF THE CAPE.] The cut upon previous page--a copy from an antique original--represents da Gama's ship and the Spectre of the Cape. The table-land of the promontory is seen through the drift of the tempest, towards the east. The ship is broached to, her sails close-furled, with the exception of the foresail, which has broken loose and is flapping wildly in the hurricane. Both the engraving and the description we have quoted from Camoens are strikingly illustrative of those visionary horrors which pervaded the minds of the navigators of the period, and are also characteristic of that peculiar cloud whose sudden envelopment of the Cape is the sure forerunner of a storm. The artist seems to have chosen the moment when the spectre, having uttered his dreadful prophecy, is vanishing into air. [Illustration: PHOSPHORESCENCE.] [Illustration: THE MAN OVERBOARD, AND THE ALBATROSS.] CHAPTER XIX.