The Governor's Snares
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Embarcação que o leve às naus lhe pede; Mas o mau Regedor, que novos laços Lhe maquinava, nada lhe concede, Interpondo tardanças e embaraços. Com ele parte ao cais, por que o arrede Longe quanto puder dos régios paços, Onde, sem que seu Rei tenha notícia, Faça o que lhe ensinar sua malícia.
He asks the governor for a boat to carry him back to his ships; but the evil Regedor, who was plotting new snares for him, grants him nothing, interposing delays and hindrances. He sets off with him toward the quay, so as to draw him as far as he can from the royal palace, where — without his King's knowing — he may do whatever his malice teaches him.
Ashore at Calicut, Gama asks only for a boat back to his fleet, but the local governor, bribed to be hostile, stalls him and leads him away from the king's court to set his trap.
Gama, ashore at Calicut, asks only for a boat to return to his fleet. The Regedor — the local governor, already turned against the Portuguese — refuses, and the stanza names his method plainly: delays, entanglements, and a walk to the quay that is really a way of pulling Gama away from the palace and the king.
The quiet hinge is "sem que seu Rei tenha notícia": the scheme works only while the king stays ignorant. Camões frames the threat not as open force but as administration — obstruction, distance, and secrecy. Behind it lies the friction of the 1498 landing, where the Zamorin's officials, pressed by resident traders who feared the newcomers, kept Gama at arm's length from the court.
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