arts of South America. Of this hero
see further, Lusiad X., in the notes.

[148] Mercury.

[149] Mombas, a seaport town on an island of the same name off the coast
of Zanguebar, East Africa.--_Ed._

[150] Mercury, so called from Cyll{=e}n{=e}, the highest mountain in the
Peloponnesus, where he had a temple, and on which spot he is said to
have been born.--_Ed._

[151] Petasus.

[152] The caduceus, twined with serpents.--_Ed._

[153]

"But first he grasps within his awful hand
The mark of sovereign power, the magic wand:
With this he draws the ghosts from hollow graves,
With this he drives them down the Stygian waves,
With this he seals in sleep the wakeful sight,
And eyes, though closed in death, restores to light."

AENEID, iv. 242. (Dryden's Trans.)

[154] Mercury.

[155] Diomede, a tyrant of Thrace, who fed his horses with human flesh;
a thing, says the grave Castera, almost incredible. Busiris was a king
of Egypt, who sacrificed strangers.

_Quis ... illaudati nescit Busiridis aras?_

VIRG. Geor. iii.

Hercules vanquished both these tyrants, and put them to the same
punishments which their cruelty had inflicted on others. Isocrates
composed an oration in honour of Busiris; a masterly example of Attic
raillery and satire.

[156] _i.e._ the equator.

[157] Hermes is the Greek name for the god Mercury.

[158] Having mentioned the escape of the Moorish pilots, Osorius
proceeds: Rex deinde homines magno cum silentio scaphis et lintribus
submittebat, qui securibus anchoralia nocte praeciderent. Quod nisi
fuisset a nostris singulari Gamae industria vigilatum, et insidiis
scelerati illius regis occursum, nostri in summum vitae discrimen
incidissent.

[159] Mercury.

[160] A city and kingdom of the same name on the east coast of Africa.

[161] Ascension Day.

[162] Jesus Christ.

[163]

_Vimen erat dum stagna subit, processerat undis
Gemma fuit._

CLAUD.

_Sic et coralium, quo primum contigit auras,
Tempore durescit, mollis fuit herba sub undis._

OVID.

[164] There were on board Gama's fleet several persons skilled in the
Oriental languages.--OSOR.

[165] See the Eighth Odyssey, etc.

[166] Castera's note on this place is so characteristic of a Frenchman,
that the reader will perhaps be pleased to see it transcribed. In his
text he says, "_Toi qui occupes si dignement le rang supreme._" "_Le
Poete dit_," says he, in t