The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to John Rickman, 18 November 1803
“I am manufacturing a piece of Paternoster Row goods, value three
guineas, out of Captain
Burney’s book; and not very easy work, it
being always more difficult to dilate praise than censure: however, by help of
Barros I have been able to collate
accounts with him in the great voyage of Magelhaens (for he ![]()
| Ætat. 29. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 235 |
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has misnamed him), and
so to eke out my pages by additions. About the other worthy, Sir Francis, I have invented a quaint rhyme,
which I shall insert as ancient, and modestly wonder that, as the author has a
genuine love for all quaint things, it should have escaped his researches: ‘Oh Nature, to Old England true, Continue these mistakes; Give us for our Kings such Queens, |
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“. . . . . My History goes on well; I am full sail in
the Asiatic Channel, and have found out some odd things. The Christians of St.
Thomas worshipped the Virgin Mary, which throws back that
superstition to an earlier date than is generally allowed it. The astrolabe,
the quadrant, the compass, were found in the east, quomodo diabolus? Martin Behaim invented the sea astrolabe at Lisbon, by express
direction of Joam II., and behold! within
ten or a dozen years Vasco da Gama finds
it in India.
“They had gunpowder there, espingards, what shall I
call them? and cannon; but the Portuguese owed their success to the great
superiority of their artillery: in fact, the main improvements in sea artillery
were invented by Joam II. himself. But the
great intercourse between India and the old world is most remarkable In the
first voyage of Gama: he met with a moor
of Fez, a moor of Tunis, a Venetian and a Polish Jew. The world was not so
ignorant as has been supposed; individuals possessed knowledge, which ![]()
| 236 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 29. |
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there were no motives for communicating; no sooner was it
known that K. Joam II. would reward people for
intelligence respecting the East, than two of his own Jew subjects came, and
told him they had been there. The commercial spirit of the Moors is truly
astonishing; Dutchmen or East India directors could not be more jealous of
their monopolies. The little kingdoms which Gama found
resemble Homer’s Phæacia. Every city
had its monarch, and he was the great merchant, his brothers were captains of
ships. Spice, spice, was what the Europeans wanted; and for what could they
require it in such quantities and at such a cost? spiced wines go but a little
way in answering this. The Hindoos, too, wanted coral from the
Portuguese—odd fellows! when it grows in their own seas. I believe the
Portuguese conquests to have been the chief cause that barbarised the
Mohammedans; their spreading commerce would else have raised up a commercial
interest, out of which an enlightened policy might have grown. The Koran was a masterpiece of policy, attributing sanctity
to its language. Arabic thus became a sort of freemason’s passport for
every believer,—a bond of fraternity. . . . .
“God bless you!
João de Barros (1496-1570)
Portuguese merchant who chronicled the advance of exploration in
Décadas da Ásia.
Martin Behaim (1459-1507)
German navigator and geographer in the service of John II of Portugal.
James Burney (1750-1821)
The brother of Fanny Burney; he sailed with Captain Cook and wrote about his voyages, and
in later life was a friend of Charles Lamb and other literary people.
Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596)
The first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe (1577-80) in expeditions against the
Spanish, and who participated in the destruction of the Armada (1588).
Vasco da Gama (1460 c.-1524)
Portuguese explorer who opened trade routes in Africa and the Pacific; he is the subject
of Camoens' epic, the
Lusíadas.
Homer (850 BC fl.)
Poet of the
Iliad and
Odyssey.
John II of Portugal (1455-1495)
The son of King Afonso V; he pursued exploration in Africa and the Pacific.
Ferdinand Magellan (1480 c.-1521)
Portuguese explorer whose ships circumnavigated the globe in 1519–1522.
John Rickman (1771-1840)
Educated at Magdalen Hall and Lincoln College, Oxford, he was statistician and clerk to
the House of Commons and an early friend of Charles Lamb and Robert Southey.
