The King Weighs Gama's Word
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A tento estava o Rei na segurança Com que provava o Gama o que dizia; Concebe dele certa confiança, Crédito firme em quanto proferia. Pondera das palavras a abastança, Julga na autoridade grão valia, Começa de julgar por enganados Os Catuais corruptos, mal julgados.
The King was attentive to the assurance with which Gama proved what he said; from him he conceives a sure confidence, a firm credit in all that he uttered. He weighs the abundance of the words, judges great worth in his authority, and begins to judge the corrupt Catuals — those ill-judged men — to be the deceived ones.
In Calicut the Samorin (the Rei) listens as Gama defends himself. Won over, the King begins to trust the captain and to distrust instead the corrupt Catuais who had slandered him.
The King of Calicut, who had heard Gama slandered, now watches him defend himself and is won over. The stanza tracks the exact moment trust forms: the calm assurance behind Gama's proofs breeds confidence, the plenty of his words breeds credit, and the King ends by reversing his suspicion — the corrupt Catuais, not the captain, are the liars.
Notice how much of the stanza is built from verbs of judging: provava, Julga, julgar, julgados. Camões stages persuasion as a courtroom, and the deciding evidence is not fact but bearing — the King "judges great worth in his authority," crediting how Gama carries himself as much as what he says. Historically the Zamorin was being turned against the Portuguese by Muslim merchants working through these local officials; here, briefly, the current runs the other way.
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