The King Sends His Welcome
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O Rei, que já sabia da nobreza Que tanto os Portugueses engrandece, Tomarem o seu porto tanto preza, Quanto a gente fortíssima merece: E com verdadeiro ânimo e pureza, Que os peitos generosos enobrece, Lhe manda rogar muito que saíssem, Para que de seus reinos se servissem.
The King, who already knew of the nobility that so exalts the Portuguese, prizes their taking of his port as much as so mighty a people deserves; and with the true spirit and purity that ennobles generous hearts, he sends to beg them earnestly to come ashore, so that they might make free use of his realms.
At Melinde, the friendly king — already aware of Portuguese renown — formally invites Gama's men to come ashore and make free use of his kingdom.
This is the moment of welcome. The king of Melinde has heard the Portuguese renown, and the whole stanza is his gracious answer: he values their arrival exactly as much as such a people deserves, and formally invites them to disembark and treat his kingdom as their own.
What a first reader misses is how much the courtesy is structured as an exchange of worth. "Prezar" (to prize) and "merecer" (to deserve) sit on facing lines, weighing the honor of the visit against the stature of the guests, and the offer to "serve themselves" from his realms is the language of a host granting the freedom of his house. After the hostility Gama met at Mombasa and Mozambique, Camões stages Melinde as the courteous mirror-image — the good king who reads nobility correctly.
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