and with repelling aggression, when any one was weak enough to contend with him.

At home he strenuously exerted himself in reconciling differences among his nobility, and establishing wholesome regulations respecting precedency, some of which subsist at this day. He had, indeed, formed several great designs, which were almost ripe for execution, when he was suddenly called from a temporal to an eternal state. He had previously the 1557. misery to behold the scythe of death extended over his family, and mowing down, without distinction, both old and young of both sexes. He left only one son, Sebastian III. an infant about three years of age.

A. D.

The regency, during the minority of this child, was committed to the hands of his grandmother, who behaved with great prudence and circumspection; but the Moors, supposing that they might easily dispossess the Portuguese of their African possessions under a female government, took the field with an army of 80,000 men: the queen regent sent, however, such speedy succours, and promised such ample rewards to those who distinguished themselves, that the enemy were obliged to abandon the enterprise. This success for a time supported her authority; but, finding the people generally disaffected to her as a woman and a Castilian, she voluntarily surrendered her power into the hands of cardinal Don Henry, the young king's uncle. By him Don Alexius de Meneses was appointed governor, and Gonsales de Gomera, with two other priests, preceptors to Sebastian. These inculcated principles which totally destroyed the hopes which it was their duty to have realized.

His governor was continually impressing on his tender mind, that courage was the chief virtue of a king, and that danger was to be despised where glory was the object in view. The priests, on the other hand, instead of instructing him in true religion, only inspired him with an abhorrence of heretics and infidels; and, in consequence of this preposterous plan of instruction, he became rash, inconsiderate, and obstinate, a bigot, and a fanatic; all which odious qualities united, eventually involved both himself and his kingdom in ruin.

No sooner was he emancipated from the trammels of education, than he was inflamed with a desire of giving proofs of his intrepidity, and of his implacable hatred to Mahometanism. It was this fatal enthusiasm which hurried him into an ill-concerted expedition against the Moors on the coast of Africa, notwithstanding the entreaties of his most prudent counsellors, and the remonstrances of several foreign princes, who kindly interested themselves in his welfare.

Sebastian was deaf to the voice of reason and the expostulations of friendship. The queen died of grief on account of her grandson's obstinate impetuosity; and Don Henry, to whose misconduct in his education this madness had been wholly owing, retired in despair to his sce. The nobility, whose talents had been matured by age and experience, declined to attend in council, lest they should seem to sanction by their presence a crisis which they could not avert. His very ambassadors wrote to him in the name of the princes at whose courts they resided, but nothing could dissuade him from

F 3

his

his projected enterprise. The duke of Mascaregnas, who had reaped so many laurels in India, added all the weight of his high character to dutiful entreaties to desist; but, instead of listening to his suggestions, Sebastian, joining derision to insult, called a council of physicians, who, in order to gratify their sovereign's folly, were induced to declare, in consequence of the prudent advice of Mascaregnas, that courage naturally diminished with increase of years, and that it was nothing unusual to see a man who had in the vigour of his age signalized his bravery become timid and irresolute towards the close of his days.

Even the king of Fez himself, against whom Sebastian directed his arms, made representations which displayed rather compassion for a giddy youth, about to throw himself down a precipice, than either fear or policy. As the pretence assumed by the king of Portugal for commencing war was the restoration of Muly Mahomet to the throne of Morocco and Fez, from which he had been driven by his uncle Muley Moluh, the latter wrote to him in respectful terms, and produced incontestable evidence to prove, that his nephew was a most degraded character, a cruel tyrant, and in every respect unworthy the favour or assistance of a good man. The African farther entreated his Catholic majesty, with whom he lived on friendly terms, to second his remonstrances; and, in order to render them more efficacious, he offered to augment the territory round the Portu guese fortresses in Africa with ten thousand acres of land: "Not," added he, with a suit

able

able magnanimity," that I dread the issue of the contest, but because I am anxious to prevent the useless effusion of human blood."

; *

On the 24th of June, in the year 1577, Sebastian set sail from the port of Lisbon with a fleet of fifty ships and five gallies, and transports and tenders, making nearly one thousand sail. He had twelve pieces of cannon, and about fifteen thousand men, composed of natives and various foreign adventurers, who were allured to join his standard by the hopes of plunder and dissipation.

Against this motley groupe, Moluh, an aged warrior, advanced with an army of one hundred thousand men. The experience of the African soon convinced him, on the landing of the Portuguese, from the unskilful manœuvres of their chiefs, that he had little to dread from soldiers, however brave, that were so badly officered. His principal concern was, lest the ebbing tide of life should not allow him time to beat them; for, at this important crisis, he felt the attacks of a mortal fever, and knew his destiny was sealed. When the two armies, however, came in sight of each other, near Alcazarquiver, Moluh, though unable to sit on horseback, gave orders from his litter with the spirit and prudence of a veteran commander; and no sooner were both sides drawn up in battle array, and ready to engage, than he caused himself to be placed on horseback, that he might have an opportunity of observing whe

* Among the rest were seven hundred Italians, commanded by an English exile, named Sir Thomas Stukeley, whose life was a tissue of romantic exploits.

ther

ther his dispositions were duly executed. Satisfied as to this point, he returned to his litter, and gave the signal to engage.

On the first attack, the Portuguese infantry gained some little advantage, on which Moluh, for a moment forgetting his extreme debility, threw himself from his litter, mounted a horse, and was rushing to the charge sword in hand. His guards checked his impetuosity, but this last effort so exhausted the small remains of his strength, that he sunk down in their arms. He was carried back to his litter, and, placing his finger before his mouth, as a signal that he recommended silence, in that attitude he expired.

To keep up the deception in the eyes of the Moorish troops, a renegado, named Hamet Taba, who remained by the litter, occasionally drew the curtains a little aside, as if to receive orders, while Muley Hamet, the brother of the deceased monarch, commanded in his room, and gained a complete victory. The whole Portuguese army, except about fifty men, were either killed or taken prisoners.

The fate of Sebastian is variously related. It seems he was wounded with a bullet in the shoulder, but as the wound was not dangerous, he continued to combat, and had two horses killed under him. The flower of his nobility fell by his side in the action; and respecting himself, we select from the contradictory mass of accounts what appear most probable, or have had most supporters.

The first states, that the Moors surrounded him, deprived him of his sword and his arms, and having secured his person, a quarrel arose among his captors, on which one of their generals,