Originally published in Hood's Magazine (Henry Hurst) vol.6 #2 (Aug 1846).
[A Grotto is shewn at Macáo, wherein, tradition reports, Camoens spent a great part of the time, during which he was employed on the completion of his poem: accounts of it may be seen in the works of the authors, who have recorded the proceedings of the two earlier embassies sent from England to China.]
"The above wood-cut forms part of a sketch of this celebrated retreat, which is preserved in Sir William Ouseley's oriental Collections. It is accompanied, in that publication, with a description of the place, by the late Eyles Irwin, Esq., who introduces the subject by an eulogy on the poet, and whose account was written in 1793. As this account refers to an incident in the life of Camoens peculiarly interesting, and conveys, at the same time that it affords a description of the grotto, the sentiments of this author on the misfortunes of the poet, no apology is deemed necessary to the reader for introducing it into these memoirs.
"'The sketch will recall to the feeling mind, the chequered lot of genius, whose sublimity could not preserve it from the shafts of malice, and whose degradation was only wanting, to complete its triumph over a persecuting world! In this secluded spot, Camoens found that peace which the Court and the Camp had, alike, denied him; and, to a Pagan nation, he was indebted for that security which he courted in vain among the Christians of the East! At once the boast and reproach of his country, he extended her renown on the confines of the Pacific Ocean, and the poem (the Lusiad) which he produced in this retreat, might make us cry out with the sympathetic Bard—
"'Yet sacred be the alien spot,
Where, by a senseless world forgot,
The poet charmed this distant shore
With Epic tones unheard before,
And, in a desert, doomed to shame,
Rear'd his pyramid of fame!'"
"The Grotto of Camoens is pleasantly situated on the western shores of the promontory of Macáo, and faces the harbour, which divides it on that side from the main land. This promontory is a narrow neck of land, whose stony and barren surface is only rendered habitable by the sea breezes that blow from three quarters of the compass, and somewhat temper the natural heat of the climate. Of trees or verdure there is but a small proportion; and to the pleasure grounds, in which the Grotto has been enclosed, that proportion seems chiefly to have been allotted. To the taste and enthusiasm of Mr. William Fitzhugh, one of the Company's former Super cargoes at Canton, the Poet is indebted for the preservation of this memorial of his labours; and the Public, for the opportunity of paying their tribute at his shrine. A few acres have here been laid out to as much advantage as a singular diversity of ground, and a romantic site, within so narrow a compass would admit. The land bordering the sea, consists of strata of stone, thrown here and there into a kind of Cromlech, whose skeleton state, from which the equinoxial rains have washed the soil, evidently denotes them to be the productions of nature. In the centre of the area, a more considerable eminence appears, on which the principal Cromlech stands, bearing on its shoulders a temple in the Chinese taste, that crowns the Grotto of Camoens. This latter is merely an excavation in the rock beneath, where a profile of the bard has been scratched on the wall, of no further merit than to remind us of the genius of the place. Nothing can be more beautiful or extensive than the view from this spot. To the East and North it is, indeed, sheltered by the ridge that intersects the promontory; but, to the South, the city of Macáo, with its steeples and castles, fills the eyes, which, glancing to the west, meets a prospect diversified with verdant isles, and a line of woody and cultivated coast, bounded by the majestic Montagna, whose pyramidical form, and dark aspect, add no small charm to the scenery of nature. From the moving objects in the harbour, the spectator turns to the plantations below him, where the curious productions of the East so adorn this picturesque retirement, as to have rendered it the choice of His Excellency Earl Macartney, during his short abode at Macáo."
Adamson's Life of Camoens.