x lens, my left a No. 14." His assiduous application to his
studies now brought about an illness, and, having returned to Bombay, he
obtained two years' leave of absence to the salubrious Neilgherries.

Chapter IV. 20th February 1847-1849. Under the Spell of Camoens

Bibliography:

1. Grammar of the Jataki Dialect, 1849. 2. Remarks on Dr. Dorn's
Chrestomathy of the Afghan Tongue, 1849. 3. Reports on Sind addressed to
the Bombay Government. 4. Grammar of the Mooltanee Language.

15. Goa and Camoens.

He left Goa on 20th February 1847, taking as usual a pattymar, his mind
vibrant with thoughts of his great hero, the "Portingall" Camoens, with
whose noble epic all Western India, from Narsinga and Diu to Calicut
is intimately associated. Passages from Camoens were frequently in his
mouth, and in bitterest moments, in the times of profoundest defection,
he could always find relief in the pages of him whom he reverently calls
"my master." Later in life he could see a parallel between the thorny
and chequered career of Camoens and his own. Each spent his early
manhood on the West Coast of India [74], each did his country an
incalculable service: Camoens by enriching Portugal with The Lusiads,
Burton by his travels and by presenting to England vast stores of
Oriental lore. Each received insult and ill-treatment, Camoens by
imprisonment at Goa, Burton by the recall from Damascus. There was also
a temperamental likeness between the two men. The passion for travel,
the love of poetry and adventure, the daring, the patriotism of Camoens
all find their counterpart in his most painstaking English translator.
Arrived at Panjim, Burton obtained lodgings and then set out by
moonlight in a canoe for old Goa. The ruins of churches and monasteries
fascinated him, but he grieved to find the once populous and opulent
capital of Portuguese India absolutely a city of the dead. The
historicity of the tale of Julnar the Sea Born and her son King Badr
[75] seemed established, Queen Lab and her forbidding escort might have
appeared at any moment. On all sides were bowing walls and tenantless
houses. Poisonous plants covered the site of the Viceregal Palace, and
monster bats hung by their heels at the corners of tombs. Thoughts of
Camoens continued to impinge on his mind, and in imagination he saw his
hero dungeoned and laid in iron writing his Lusiads. A visit to the tomb
of St. Francis Xavier also deeply moved him. To pathos s