Portugal's greatest poet, Luis Vaz de Camões, visited Macau in 1557. There is a tradition that he wrote some of his masterpiece, Os Lusíadas (which commemorates Portugal's explorations), in this garden.

Camões was born to a noble family in Lisbon in 1524. He was an unruly youth and was banished to Santarém where he composed many of his shorter pieces. He enlisted against the Moors and lost an eye in battle.

In 1553 he travelled to Goa and thence to Macau.

On his return to Portugal he was shipwrecked; legend has it that he swam with a copy of Os Lusíadas held above the waves. He died at the age of 56 in 1580.

It was here in Camões Garden and in Tenerife, in 1785-1787, that the famous French explorer, Jean-François de Galaup, Count of La Perouse, took measurements of the variation of the earth's magnetic field.

Reference: Map of Macau, Hong Kong Printing Press, 1949.