. The character appears at the embarkation of the first expedition to India (1497), giving warnings about the odyssey that was about to happen.
The Old Man's speech
This episode begins at the outset of the voyage of Vasco da Gama across unknown oceans. An old man (the Old Man of Restelo) goes down to confront the occupants of the ships, and argues that the reckless navigators, driven by greed for fame, glory and riches, are courting disaster for themselves and the Portuguese people.[2][3]
This is the argument of the Old Man of Restelo against the voyage that Vasco da Gama and his crew were about to undertake:
94
"But now an agèd Sire of reverend mien,
upon the foreshore thronged by the crowd,
with eyne fast fixt upon our forms was seen,
and discontented thrice his brow he bow'd:
His deep toned accents raising somewhat keen,
that we from shipboard hear him speak aloud,
with lore by long experience only grown,
thus from his time-taught breast he made his moan —
It remains uncertain to what degree Camões was in sympathy with the old man's view. There seems to be a contradiction between the writing of a large epic on maritime expeditions, in which there was a clear enthusiasm for the undertaking, and, on the other hand, the fear and pessimism that emerges in this speech and certain other passages in the work.[6][7]
Modern references
Subsequent allusions in Portuguese to the Old Man of Restelo have tended to portray him in a negative light – as a "doubting Thomas", not as a "Cassandra" who expresses apposite cautions.[2] For example, in a speech in 2013, the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said that Brazil would not have been discovered (by Europeans) if "the Old Man of Restelo had prevailed at that time, on that beach, there on the Tagus in Lisbon."[8]