SOURCE: “The Lusiads and the Asian Reader,” in English Studies in Canada, Vol. 23, No. 1, March 1997, pp. 1-19.

In this essay, Rajan examines The Lusiads in the context of European exploitation of Asian economies and peoples.

In March 1553 four ships set sail from Lisbon along the route that Vasco da Gama had pioneered for Western commerce. Three were lost on the way. The fourth ship, the Sao Bento, dropped anchor in Goa only to be lost on the way back. Among those disembarking from the Sao Bento was a common soldier, Luis Vaz de Camoens, the author-to-be of The Lusiads.

Goa had been seized by Albuquerque in 1510, an event foretold by Jupiter in The Lusiads, who assures the importunate Venus that Goa will in time be the queen of all the East. Camoens had not arrived to savour the truth of this prophecy, regarding a city that he described...