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Therese got quite excited, and swearing that she would never let the box out of her hands again, she went up to her son and kissed him several times. While this was going on I watched the Abbe Gama, and I could see that he was making internal comments of his own on this affecting scene. The worthy abbe went away towards the evening, telling me that he would expect me to breakfast next morning.

To pursue our story. At Turin I lodged in a private house with the Abbe Gama, who had been expecting me. In spite of the good abbe's sermon on economy, I took the whole of the first floor, and a fine suite it was. We discussed diplomatic topics, and he assured me that I should be accredited in May, and that he would give me instructions as to the part I was to play.

It was a great grief to him that Englishmen had not the monopoly of geographical discoveries, and were, in fact, rather behind other nations in that field. Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America, was a Genoese; Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese, discovered India; another Portuguese, Fernando de Andrada, China; and a third, Magellan, the Terra del Fuego.

This field had been left vacant, yielding me my opportunity; and concurrently therewith, untouched from the point of view proposed by me, there lay the whole magnificent series of events constituting maritime history since the days of Raleigh and Bacon, after the voyages of Columbus and De Gama gave the impetus to over-sea activities, colonies, and commerce, which distinguishes the past three hundred years.

Five or six days after Betty had left I chanced to meet the Abby Gama, who had aged a good deal, but was still as gay and active as ever. After we had told each other our adventures he informed me that, as all the differences between the Holy See and the Court of Naples had been adjusted, he was going back to Rome.

At length, satisfied with having transformed this heretofore rich and populous city into a heap of ruins, and considering his vengeance satiated, and that the lesson so taught would be profitable, Gama set sail for Cochin, leaving behind him Vincent Sodrez, with several ships, to continue the blockade.

Seeing that they were approaching Portugal, the pilots who had mutinied became very uneasy, until Vasco da Gama told them that they were forgiven, but that he should take them bound into the presence of the King. Even the stoutest hearted, however, might have doubted whether they should ever reach the land, for the ships were so leaky that it was necessary to keep the pumps constantly at work.

The Mussulmen placed obstacles in the way of the sale of the merchandise by depreciating its value; Gama sent his agent Diaz to the Zamorin to complain of the perfidy of the Moors and of the bad treatment to which he had been subjected, requesting at the same time permission to move his place of sale to Calicut, where he hoped that the goods would be more easily disposed of.

The poem is far from being deficient in that human interest which Shelley said that it was as vain to ask from HIM, as to seek to buy a leg of mutton at a gin-shop. The characters, the protagonists, with Cyril, Melissa, Lady Blanche, the child Aglaia, King Gama, the other king, Arac, and the hero's mother beautifully studied from the mother of the poet are all sufficiently human.

It is true that Lopez Suarez, when governor of India, had navigated the Red Sea, as far as Judda, the haven of Mecca, in lat. 23° N. 150 leagues from the straits of Babelmandel; but Gama penetrated to the very northern extremity of the gulph . In the same year, Diego de Almagro killed the Marquis Francis Pizarro, and his brother Francis Martinez de Alcantara, in the city of Lima, or de los Reyes, and usurped the government of Peru.