(_From the Portrait in “Portugal Illustrated,” 1829._)] Luis de Camoes, commonly called in English Camoens, was the son of a captain in the Portuguese navy, who had more than once experienced the perils of the voyage to India, and he was born at Lisbon in either 1524 or 1525. His family was noble, but by no means among the first rank of the Portuguese nobility in wealth or importance. He was educated at the University of Coimbra, before it had been revivified by the energy and learning of Govea and his friends, and there acquired a profound knowledge of the Latin poets, and of the symbolism and the legends of the Greek and Latin mythology. He seems to have left the university, which he ever dearly loved, before the arrival of Diogo de Tieve, and the foundation of what may be called the national-classicist school of poetry by Ferreira, and went to Lisbon to obtain employment. His poetical powers soon became manifest, and he had become somewhat of a favourite, when he fell in love with a great lady of the Court, said to be the Donna Catherine de Athaide, lady of honour to the queen. The lady’s friends were indignant at the poet’s suit, and at their request he was exiled to the little town of Ceuta, on the coast of Morocco, where he lost his right eye in a skirmish with the Moors. Wearied of this life he volunteered for India, the goal of every gallant Portuguese gentleman, and after serving a term in prison for a street brawl in Lisbon, he set sail for the East in 1553. In Asia, Camoens remained for more than sixteen years, and it was there that he gathered the local knowledge which gives truth and charm to many passages of his immortal poem. In 1554 he served in the Red Sea and at the capture of Muscat under Dom Fernando de Menezes, and soon after his return to Goa he was ordered to take up a lucrative appointment at Macao, in 1556. Here he remained for two years, and the chief glory of the little island off Canton is the cave where he is supposed to have worked on his epic, and which is still known as the “Grotto of Camoens.” From Macao he was recalled in 1558, when in spite of his poverty he was thrown into gaol at Goa for peculation, and he was not released until the arrival of an old court acquaintance, Dom Constantino de Braganza, as Viceroy of India. With this prince, he served at the capture of Daman, and he distinguished himself in various engagements under the next governor-general, the Count of Redondo. In 1568 Camoens determined to return to Portugal with his great poem for his only fortune, but on his way, disaster again overtook him, and in 1569 he was thrown into an African prison for debt, by Pedro Barreto, Governor of Mozambique. From this cruel confinement, he was released by some old friends on their way from India, who paid the debt, and in 1570 he once more found himself in Lisbon. His reception in his native land was not encouraging; he was not received at Court; he had made no money in India, and had only shown a