The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-29

|. The giant Adamastor was frightful
apparition which appeared to the great
Navigator Vasco da Cana 400 years ago.
according to the story related in that
magnificent epic of Camoens which We
leaf the "Lusiad.'' The Columbian cele-
hrations of a few years since and the
| events of the present time in Africa give
la new interest to the subject. Moreover,
theSsplendid qualities of this great classic
| deserve the attention Of all lovers of lit
erature; for if ever a poem of modern
times deserved to rank with the ''Iliad"
| of Homer and the "Aeneid' of Vergil,
this immortal creation of the Portuguese
poet must claim that honor.
Scarcely second to the achievement OF
Columbus in discovering America was
that of Da Cana, who doubled the
Cape of Good Hope in 1893, and thus open
ed up to the world a waterway to the
rich lands of India-the goal of Euro
pean ambition. Portugal fairly rivaled
Spain in the glory of her enterprise and
in the wealth which flowed from it.
The capital city of Lisbon possessed,
| moreover, a pride of antiquity scarcely
paralIeled in Western Europe. While
London claimed to have been founded by
the Trojan followers of Brut, the great
grandson of Aeneas, and to be about as
old as Rome, Lisbon averred that her
foundations were laid by Ulysses himself
and his friend LuSus, and that her name
had been at first Ulysspolis, which she
had borne In honor of her founder.
I iHF6sIr hundred years ago both Spain and
+ Portugal were filled with delight over
4hehS recent achievements, and were in
toxicated with the glories of conquests
opened out before them. Great bards
arose among them, inspired to write
great poems.
| LUZ de Camoens, of Portugal, was
| the greatest poet of his time, and the
! one best fitted to immortalize in verse
T e@grand expedition of Da Cana. Moth
| ing approaching his epic in sublimity
| .or@sin beauty has ever been written Of
| the career of Columbus. Camoens was a
| native of old Lisbon (born in 1920, and
| a student at the University of Coimbra
4 His father was, lost in a shipwreck off
the coast Of Goa, in Southern Asia.
| The young student fell madly in love
1 with a girl whose beauty infamed even
] the king. The lovers We're cruelty part
ed. She pinned away and died. He lived
] a. bachelor for thirty years. apparently
4 trying to throw his life away in mad
! enterprises, and died, a beggar, in 1879.
| When in Punishment at Macao Ca Chi
nese port belonging to Portugal, and
living, like a beast, in a cave, he produced
/ the 'Lusiad," - which has been the de-
light of the cultured in every generation
4 since his time, and which has been rem
dered with more or less success into most
! Of The modern languages of Europe
rs
The giant Adamastor described in the
/ fifth Canto, is by, far the best known
/ feature of his story of Da Gamas expedi-
4 lion. The apparitien formed in air Ike
d hideous cloud. It spoke in an audible
fsYoiEe with horrifying effect. What il
+ said to the explorers was terrifying in
It's Import Whence the poet derived his
! sidea of the scene is not known. No one
who is familiar with the folklore Of sail
1 prs fegarding the cape will suppose for
81 moment that it was a pure invention
+ f Gamoens. Who invented the tales OF
| the Flying Dutchman?7 Did they not
''just grow out of the superstitions OF
| the sailors and out of the vague sea 1or-
tents which they beheld?
Il Young CamoenS youth was filled with
stories of the supernatural on the ocean.
Doubtless he only gave finished form and
expression to one of the many legends of
his time in describing the horrible
wrath, and adorned the tale with en-
| Refreshments borrowed from cassie
mythology.
l. The most remarkable fact of the whole
matter of Adamastor is that it has been
accepted by many as prophecy.
When critics began to study it in detail
they We're reminded of the visions r~cord-
ed by Daniel and Ezekiel in Holy Writ,
and they assumed that the future of In
;dia was set forth in the utterance of
this horrible phantom, and that the giant
himself was symbol of some vast his
toric power or influence. Adamastor, in
his brief recital Of his own story, classes
himself with Enceladus and the other
Titanides. He declares that he was smlt-
ten. with the beauty of the sea-nymph,
Thetis; that, knowing she could not but
be repealed at his formidable appearance,
he Welcomed hint from Doris that he
might seize her by brute force; that
Thetfs half dared him to do So and that
+ when he drew her lovely form to him
she turned into a barren mountain,
{ while he likewise had henceforth only
a bleak headland for his bodily form.
THERE'S in this little suggestion OF the
| sIoTeley' of the Rhine and of the sirens
ogold But where is the prophecy? Some
have seized upon the description of Ada.
masters face as a type of Mahomet's.
| and have declared that Adamastor
stands for the Mohammedan power in
{ India. 1t is surprising how generally
this Interpretation has been received by
the fhoughtless. Time and space would
fail me to point cut its anachronisms and
its pHerility. Others have seemed to see
I in Adamastor the power of the British
| empire, developed, of course, since the
| time Of Camoens. Why may we not ap-
ply It to the situation in Africa at this
very moment? Let Adamastor be the
British power in Africa dor the apparI,
| ton had no connection whatever with
! India4 Thetis is then, the Boer republic.
! The Boer race was as 'sea-born'' as
] Thetis herself, for Holland was literally
! raised from the ocean bed. Has not this
l Adamastor looked with longing eyes
| upon the Transyaal? Did he not mani.
| fest desire to take her by force? Did
she not half dare him to it? Did he TOT
/ reach out his strong arms for her? And
| has she not turned into dreary waste