I : XIV - XVI First Stop : Lisbon

Partial Map of Europe & First Part of Harold's Voyage

The year 1809 was, shall we say, pretty big for George Gordon Byron. H became 6th Baron Byron on the 13th of March, and then in the summer of the same year, he took off with good friend Cam Hobhouse and went off to sea. 

They travelled together to Falmouth, Cornwall, and got on Princess Elizabeth on the 2nd of July. Then what? You guessed it, on the fifth day, they reached the shores of Lisbon, Portugal. 

It's not certain at this point where had Childe Harold set off, but that could be more of a metaphorical departure from homeland. Plus, I don't see another, more likely harbour within the 5 days' radius that Harold can choose. So let it be that Harold also began his journey in Falmouth, Cornwall, not a bad place to call home. 

This stanza is filled with geographical fun facts of Britannia. Coming out of the English Channel, Harold first had to cut through the Bay of Biscay, or Golfo de Vizcaya in Spanish, a notoriously rough region of water (winds, waves and summer fogs), due to the continental shelf that extends far into the bay, hence "Biscay's sleepless bay".

Then there's the town of Sintra (the spelling Cintra ceased in use) in Grande Lisboa's subregion, although in this stanza Cintra probably means Serra De Sintra, a mountain range in western Portugal, certainly visible as the ship passes the Iberian Peninsular. Tagus river rushes north into the Atlantic ocean as the ship sails south. Tagus is the longest river on the peninsular (645 miles). Ovid sang about his "gold bearing sands", and in Richard Crashaw's Saint Mary Magdalene, or the Weeper, Tagus was also referred to as "golden".

by Ignacy Krasicki

Nowhere in the poem did Byron directly say that Harold and his crew had reached Portugal, yet we can tell from the excitement of those Lusian sailors: they've just gotten home! Lusian, short for Lusitanian, is an old name for Portugese. 

In an environmentalist's point of view, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage also metaphorically suggest the relationship between nature and human destruction. Of course, God also plays a part in here as he takes on revenge on behalf of the paradise squandered by human hands. The disasters mentioned in this stanza mainly include: the earthquake in 1755 which was detrimental to Lisbon, on top of which around the same time, France and Spain both decided that they're gonna invide Portugal. In 1807,  the French took over the country. 

Gaul is a term from Roman-era, suggesting the region where France and Belgium now are. The locusts, are of course, metaphorically the French invaders. The Peninsular War turned the heavenly land of Iberia into hell.  

The Second of May 1808: The Charge of the Mamelukes
by Francisco Goya, 1814

In 1808, there was a drastic turn of event. Portugal got help from her old ally Britain, which in Byron's words, was something really embarrassing, a last resort as well. Indeed, if Gaul's invasion was like cancer, than the British aid would be like chemotherapy - helping, but still another force of destruction.