"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 of the Northern hemisphere. The voyage was rapid and fortunate; for in twenty-three days they arrived off the Malabar coast, and, after a day or two of southing, discovered the lofty hills which overhang the city of Calicut. Da Gama amply rewarded the pilot, released the malefactors from their fetters, and summoned the crew to prayer. The anchor was then thrown, and a feast was spread in honor of the day. The route by sea had been discovered from the Tagus to the Ganges: da Gama had laid out the way from Belem to Golconda. [Illustration: CALICUT IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.] [Illustration: WRECK OF THE SAN RAFAEL.] CHAPTER XX.