f his line, on the 10th of June
1580. A Carmelite, Frei Jose Indio, attended him in his last moments and
received the only recognition Camoens could give, his copy of the
_Lusiads_. He wrote afterwards: "What more grievous thing than to see so
great a genius thus unfortunate. I saw him die in a hospital in Lisbon,
without a sheet to cover him, after having triumphed in the East Indies
and sailed 5000 leagues by sea." The house of Vimioso supplied the
winding-sheet, and Camoens was buried with other victims of the plague
in a common grave in the cemetery of Santa Anna. Years later D. Goncalo
Coutinho erected in the church of that invocation an _in memoriam_ slab
of marble with an inscription, and subsequently epitaphs were added by
other admirers, but the earthquake of 1755 damaged the building, and all
traces of these last acts of homage to genius have disappeared. The
third centenary of the poet's death was made the occasion of a national
apotheosis, and on the 8th of June 1880 some remains, piously believed
to be his, were borne with those of Vasco da Gama to the national
pantheon, the Jeronymos at Belem.

The masterpiece of Camoens, the _Lusiads_, is the _epos_ of discovery.
It is written in hendecasyllabic _ottava rima_, and is divided into ten
cantos containing in all 1102 stanzas. Its argument is briefly as
follows. After an exordium proposing the subject, invoking the Tagus
muses and addressing King Sebastian, Vasco da Gama's ships are shown
sailing up the East African coast on their way to India. At a council of
the gods the fate of the fleet is discussed, and Bacchus promises to
thwart the voyage, while Venus and Mars favour the navigators. They
arrive at Mozambique, where the governor endeavours to destroy them by
stratagem, and, this failing, Bacchus tries other plots against them at
Quiloa and Mombasa which are foiled by Venus. In answer to her appeal,
Jupiter foretells the glorious feats of the Portuguese in the East, and
sends Mercury to direct the voyagers to Melinde, where they are
hospitably received and get a pilot to guide them to India. The local
ruler visits the fleet and asks Gama about his country and its history,
and in response the latter gives an account of the origin of the kingdom
of Portugal, its kings and principal achievements, ending with the
incidents of the voyage out. This recital occupies cantos 3, 4 and 5,
and includes some of the most admired and most powerful episodes in the
poem,