Camoens Grotto at Macao. 395 



his spirit roused amid this wonderful tropical beauty to fresh 

 sublime efforts, — " Things unattempted yet in prose or 

 rhyme!" In an ill-contrived niche in the substructure of 

 the grotto is a bust, in terra-cotta, of the great poet, with 

 the inscription, ''Louis de Camoens, born 1524, died 1579." 

 On the broad marble pedestal whereon stands this bust, 

 which savours but little of artistic taste, various verses from 

 the Lusiad have been engraved with an iron stylus.* 

 Formerly this grotto must have had a much more agreeable 

 appearance, but the present proprietor tliought to beautify 

 it by making an addition to it, which has resulted in its 

 having almost entirely lost its original cliaracter. From one 

 point within the grotto, called the observatory, and tradition- 

 ally used as such by Camoens, there is a beautiful peep over 

 the inner harbour, with its throng of busy human ants. 

 Quite close to this singular abode for a poet, is the meeting- 

 house of an evangelical Christian community, numbering 

 about 200 souls, with a cemetery attaclied, which, with its 

 handsome stone monuments and beautifully laid-out gardens, 

 constitutes one of the most interesting places of outdoor re- 

 sort in the colony. 



The most extensive and important edifice in the settlement 

 of Macao, founded in 1563 by the Portuguese, on a peninsula 

 of the same name, about five square miles in extent, is the 

 Pagoda of Makok and its different temples, situate on the 



• In front, Canto X. v. 25; XII. vv. 79—80. On the back, Canto YI. vv. Do, 

 131, and Canto VIII. v. 42. 



