"The Lusiad."

Vasco de Gama is the chief hero of "The Lusiad;" but the poem presents a grouping of all the great people and events in the history of Portugal,--ancient Lusitania.

"The Lusiad" is one of the noblest monuments ever raised to the national glory of any people.

Camoens, the author, resolved to do for Portugal what Homer had done for Greece.

The poem was written in the sixteenth century, which has been called the heroic age of Portugal, and was the result of the general impetus, literary as well as commercial, which pervaded Europe after the many maritime discoveries.

The rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco de Gama is the main feature of the poem; but one of the most interesting episodes is the crowning, after death, of Inez de Castro as Queen of Portugal.

Greek mythology forms the machinery, as it were, of this epic; and it is named "The Lusiad" after the mythological Lusius, who is said to have visited Portugal, and founded Lisbon.

Luiz de Camoens, the author of "The Lusiad," was born in on near Lisbon some time between 1517 and 1524, and died there in 1579. His career commenced brilliantly, but was blighted by his fruitless love for Catharina de Atayde, a lady of the court; for which love he was banished by royal edict to Santarem. The lady died of a broken heart, and Camoens never married.

It was during his banishment that he wrote "The Lusiad." He was recalled in 1561, but on the way back lost all his property except the poem. After many wanderings and other misfortunes, he reached Lisbon in 1569, and dedicated "The Lusiad" to King Sebastian, who bestowed upon him a small pension.

This pension was taken away after the king's death; and Camoens was reduced to such poverty, that a faithful Indian servant begged in the streets of Lisbon for the support of the great epic poet of Portugal. He died in the hospital at Lisbon in 1579; and sixteen years afterwards, when it was proposed to erect a splendid monument to his memory, there was some difficulty in finding even his burial-place.

"The Lusiad" has been translated into the Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, German, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Danish languages, and six times into English.