Sixteen years after his departure from Lisbon, Camoëns returned to his
native city, bringing nothing save his completed epic, which, owing to
the pestilence then raging in Europe, could be published only in 1572.
Even then the Lusiad attracted little attention, and won for him only
a small royal pension, which, however, the next king rescinded. Thus,
poor Camoëns, being sixty-two years old, died in an almshouse, having
been partly supported since his return by a Javanese servant, who
begged for his master in the streets of Lisbon.

Camoëns' poem Os Lusiades, or the Lusitanians (i.e., Portuguese),
comprises ten books, containing 1102 stanzas in heroic iambics, and is
replete with mythological allusions. Its outline is as follows:

_Book I._ After invoking the muses and making a ceremonious address to
King Sebastian, the poet describes how Jupiter, having assembled the
gods on Mount Olympus, directs their glances upon Vasco da Gama's
ships plying the waves of an unknown sea, and announces to them that
the Portuguese, who have already made such notable maritime
discoveries, are about to achieve the conquest of India.

Bacchus, who has long been master of this land, thereupon wrathfully
vows Portugal shall not rob him of his domain, while Venus and Mars
implore Jupiter to favor the Lusitanians, whom they consider
descendants of the Romans. The king of the gods is so ready to grant
this prayer, that he immediately despatches Mercury to guide the
voyagers safely to Madagascar. Here the Portuguese, mistaken for Moors
on account of their swarthy complexions, are at first made welcome.
But when the islanders discover the strangers are Christians, they
determine to annihilate them if possible. So, instigated by one of
their priests,--Bacchus in disguise,--the islanders attack the