Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/461

 9 th S. I. JUNE 4, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

453

Zephyrus, represented in his temple at Athens as a youth of delicate form with two wings on his shoulders, and his head bestrewn with flowers ; and does not this description explain the choice of the name Zephyrus for a genus of delicately beautiful butterflies? What could be more appropriate 1

There seems no reason to doubt that Zephyrus is the same as the Latin Favonius, the genitabilis aura Favoni of Lucretius, the life-giving west wind. The Greek Ze<vpos is usually given as = Zwr?<dpos, life-bringing, though ^it is sometimes stated to be derived from Zd0o9, tenebrce, since the western regions of the world were always associated with the idea of darkness in the Homeric age. To trace Zephyr through the poets would be a fascinating business, but rather an arduous one. For myself I fail to see that Dyer's use of the word is at all unusual, being quite in accord with its familiar and traditional asso- ciations. JAMES HOOPER.

Norwich.

While the wanton Zephyr sings, And in the vale perfumes his wings.

In these lines Dyer was imitating a passage of Milton, in which there is reference to the wind :

Now gentle gales,

Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils.

Byron in the 'Bride of Abydos ' refers, I think, to the wind in a line exceedingly like the couplet of Dyer :

Where the light wings of Zephyr, opprest with perfume.

E. YARDLEY.

PORTUGUESE BOAT VOYAGE (9 th S. i. 345). The letter of " Caravel," quoted by J. D. W., misspells the Portuguese names and gives a very incorrect account of the feat of Diogo Botelho Pereira. Couto (5 Dec., liv. i. cap. 2) gives a short description thereof, and Gaspar Correa (' Lendas da India,' liv. iii. cap. 69) a much more detailed one, the two narratives differing in many particulars. The hero of the story was a bastard son of Antonio Real, at one time captain of Cochin, and had when quite young become skilled in chartography and pilotage. His only fault was ambition ; and John III. ordered him to remain in India, lest he should, like Magalhaes, offer his ser- vices to Spain. On the cession of Diu to the Portuguese in October, 1535, the idea entered his head of carrying the news to Portugal. How he carried out nis design would occupy too much of your space to relate. Suffice it to say that, having obtained from the governor, Nuno da Cunha, full details of the

fort being erected at Diu, and made a plan and drawing thereof, Diogo Botelho set sail on 8 Nov., 1536, in a foist, which he had secretly built and equipped, with some dozen Portuguese sailors, a number of slaves, and a few native traders, for Melinde, which was his pretended destination. At this port the traders were landed, and the sailors were then informed of the real object of the voyage. No objections were offered by them ; but near the Cape of Good Hope the slaves mutinied, killed one of the Portuguese, and were themselves nearly all slain. After much suffering from want of food, the little party reached Lisbon in May, 1537; and Diogo Botelho set off to Evora, where the king was, to give him the news and ask the royal pardon. On account of the importance of the former, the latter was granted ; and when the Secretary of India, Simao Ferreira, arrived at Lisbon twenty days later, with dispatches from the governor, ne founa that (as he had suspected) he had been forestalled. So far from the foist's being burnt, it was beached at Sacavem, where it lay for many years, " the greater part ^of Europe," says Couto, "coming to see it with wonder." Neither Correa nor Couto mentions the exact size of the foist ; but Faria y Sousa (* Asia Portuguesa,' torn. i. part iv. cap. 6) says that it was "only 22 spans [palmos] long, 12 broad, and 6 deep." These measurements Capt. John Stevens, in his translation of Faria y Sousa, transmutes into English feet, as given in the letter of " Caravel " (who has simply copied wholesale from Stevens).

DONALD FERGUSON. Croydon.

The paragraph quoted by J. D. W. is a summary of an article called ' The Astonish- ing Adventure of James Botello,' in a book called 'Romance Dust from the Historic Placer,' by Wm. Starbuck Mayo, pp. 103-124 ; but the writer does not give trie source of the story. AYEAHR.

HENRY HUNT, M.P. (9 th S. i. 308). CLIO may find all that is required in Hunt's auto- biography ; I read it many years ago, and found it full of interesting matters. A copy may be found in the British Museum or in some old bookshops. It is rare. I never saw but one copy. If my memory does not de- ceive me, Henry Hunt married a Miss Holcombe, of Devizes. H. J. J. TAYLOR.

Gloucester.

CORPUS CHRISTI (9 th S. i. 327). There can, I think, be little doubt that the expression " admitted of Corpus Christi," referred to by