Editing Luís de Camões (section)

===Journey to the East===
[[File:Camões na prisão.jpg|thumb|Camões in Goa prison, in anonymous painting from 1556]]
[[File:Desenne - Camões na gruta de Macau.jpg|thumb|Camões in the cave of Macau, in an engraving by Desenne, 1817]]
He traveled aboard the carrack [[São Bento (carrack)|São Bento]], belonging to the fleet of Fernão Álvares Cabral, which left the [[Tagus]] on March 24, 1553. During the trip he passed through the regions where [[Vasco da Gama]] had sailed, faced a storm in the Cape of Good Hope [[Cabo da Boa Esperança]] where the three other ships in the fleet were lost, and landed in [[Goa]] in 1554. Soon he enlisted in the service of the viceroy D. Afonso de Noronha and fought in the expedition against the king of Chembé (or "da Pimenta").<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ribeiro |first1=Eduardo Alberto Correia |title=Camões nas partes da China |date=2008 |publisher=Revista Labirintos |url=http://www.uefs.br/nep/labirintos/edicoes/01_2008/01_2008.htm}}</ref> In 1555, Noronha's successor D. [[Pedro Mascarenhas]] ordered Manuel de Vasconcelos to fight the [[Moors]] in the [[Red Sea]]. Camões accompanied him, but the squadron did not find the enemy and went to winter in [[Ormuz]], in the Persian Gulf.<ref name="História de Goa: História política">{{cite book |last1=Saldanha |first1=Manoel José Gabriel |title=História de Goa: História política |year=1990 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-0590-9 |pages=100–101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pEbxPhPod9IC&q=cam%C3%B5es&pg=PA101 |language=pt-BR}}</ref>

Probably at this time he had already started writing [[Os Lusíadas]]. When he returned to Goa in 1556, he met D. [[Francisco Barreto]] in the government, and composed for him the "''Auto de Filodemo''", which suggests that Barreto looked upon Camões with favor. The early biographers, however, differ about Camões' relations with that ruler. At the same time, an anonymous satire criticizing the prevalence of immorality and corruption, which was attributed to Camões, also was published. Since satires were condemned by the Ordinances of King Manuel, Camões would have been arrested for that. But it has also been hypothesized that the arrest was actually for debts that Camões had incurred. It is possible that he remained in prison until 1561, and that he may have been convicted of additional offenses before then. At any rate, when D. Francisco Coutinho assumed the governorship of India, Camões was released and came under that man's employ and protection. He was appointed to the position of Superintendent for the Dead and Missing for Macau in 1562, serving ''de facto'' from 1563 until 1564 or 1565. At that time, Macau was a trading post still in formation and almost uninhabited.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ribeiro |first1=Eduardo Alberto Correia |title=Camões nas partes da China |pages=1–5 |date=2008 |publisher=Revista Labirintos |url=http://www.uefs.br/nep/labirintos/edicoes/01_2008/01_2008.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gentil |first1=Georges Le |title=Camões: l'œuvre épique & lyrique |year=1995 |publisher=Editions Chandeigne |isbn=978-2-906462-16-8 |pages=22–25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ApgtGMkV_DEC&q=cam%C3%B5es&pg=PP1 |language=fr}}</ref> Tradition says that there he wrote part of Os Lusíadas in a cave, which later was named after him.<ref name="História de Goa: História política"/>

On the trip back to Goa, he was shipwrecked, as tradition says, near the mouth of the [[Mekong]] River, managing to save only himself and the manuscript of Os Lusíadas, an event that inspired the famous ''redondilha'' "''Sôbolos rios que vão''", considered by António Sérgio the "backbone" of the Camonian lyric, as is repeatedly cited in the critical literature. The trauma of the shipwreck, in the words of Leal de Matos, had the most profound impact on redefining the themes of Os Lusíadas, this being noticeable beginning with [[Canto]] VII, a fact already noted by [[Diogo do Couto]], a friend of the poet who partly accompanied the work as it was being written.

His rescue took months to occur, and there is no record of how it happened, but he was taken to [[Malacca]], where he received a new arrest warrant for misappropriating the assets of the dead that had been entrusted to him. The exact date of his return to Goa is not known, but he may have remained in prison there for some time. Couto says that in the shipwreck [[Dynamene|Dinamene]], a Chinese maiden with whom Camões had fallen in love, died, but Ribeiro and others reject that story.<ref name="Camões nas partes da China">{{cite book |last1=Ribeiro |first1=Eduardo Alberto Correia |title=Camões nas partes da China |pages=11–20 |date=2008 |publisher=Revista Labirintos |url=http://www.uefs.br/nep/labirintos/edicoes/01_2008/01_2008.htm}}</ref> The next viceroy, D. [[Antão de Noronha]], was a longtime friend of Camões, having first met him during his Morocco adventure. Certain biographers claim that he was promised a position at the trading post at Chaul, but he did not take up the position. Severim de Faria said that the final years spent in Goa were occupied with poetry and military activities, where he always showed bravery, readiness and loyalty to the Crown.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gentil |first1=Georges Le |title=Camões: l'œuvre épique & lyrique |year=1995 |publisher=Editions Chandeigne |isbn=978-2-906462-16-8 |pages=26–27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ApgtGMkV_DEC&q=cam%C3%B5es&pg=PP1 |language=fr}}</ref>

It is difficult to determine what his daily life in the East would have been like, beyond what can be extrapolated from his military status. It seems certain that he always lived modestly and may have shared a house with friends, "in one of those collective dwellings where it was customary for people from the homeland to associate", as Ramalho notes. Some of these friends must have been in possession of a certain degree of culture and would have provided illustrious companionship. Ribeiro, Saraiva and Moura admit that he may have encountered, among other figures, [[Fernão Mendes Pinto]], [[Fernão Vaz Dourado]], Fernão Álvares do Oriente, [[Garcia de Orta]] and the aforementioned [[Diogo do Couto]], creating opportunities for debating literary topics and the like. He may also have attended lectures at one of Goa's colleges or religious establishments.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ribeiro |first1=Eduardo Alberto Correia |title=Camões nas partes da China |pages=7 |date=2008 |publisher=Revista Labirintos |url=http://www.uefs.br/nep/labirintos/edicoes/01_2008/01_2008.htm}}</ref> Ribeiro adds that

::"These fellows who lived in Goa, far from their homeland and family, between campaigns against the Turk (which took place in the summer) and many of them having  little to do (in winter), in addition to the aforementioned lectures and constant readings (including many of the classics: Ovid, Horace, Virgil), enjoying the company of women and musical gatherings, living among themselves without regard to social distinctions, their main objective was to have fun as much as possible, even when writing poetry. Thus their predilection for satire, which had a strongly negative social impact and exposed them to imprisonment per the Manueline Ordinances (Title LXXIX), and therefore carried an edge of adventure and risk. An example of this is the "Tournament Satire", a mockery that is mentioned by Faria e Sousa and about which, unlike "Os Disbarates da Índia", there is no scholarly contestation of its Camonian authorship; it may in fact be the reason for one of Camões' arrests."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ribeiro |first1=Eduardo Alberto Correia |title=Camões nas partes da China |pages=8 |date=2008 |publisher=Revista Labirintos |url=http://www.uefs.br/nep/labirintos/edicoes/01_2008/01_2008.htm}}</ref>

At such meetings the participants were both men-at-arms and men of letters, and were in search not only of military success and material fortune, but also of the fame and glory born of culture. This was one of the great aspirations of the [[Humanism]] of that era, and from it may have sprung the idea of creating an [[academy]], reproducing within the limitations of the local context, the model of [[Renaissance]] academies such as the one founded in [[Florence]] by [[Marsilio Ficino]] and his circle, where [[Neoplatonic]] ideals were cultivated.