"The sparkling story of two early modern Portuguese travellers and their competing views of the world. (...) To show how different minds reacted to the challenge of a new world opening up, Wilson-Lee presents us with two contrasting accounts. The first is from Damião de Góis, a minor Portuguese functionary who travelled the world in an official capacity, curious and alert, ready to be amazed at what he found and confident enough to allow new ideas about everything from personal salvation to talking monkeys to work upon him. (...) Against this expansive vision Wilson-Lee sets the work of Luís de Camões, Portugal’s greatest poet. Of particular interest here is The Lusiads, his epic account of Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese heroes who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope opening a new route to India. The title itself clangs with nationalist pomp, being derived from the ancient Roman name for Portugal, Lusitania. In addition, De Camões transforms Da Gama and his crew into Jason and the Argonauts, semi-divine heroes questing east in search of miraculous treasures. Despite his impeccable humanist credentials, the Iberian Shakespeare’s narrative is one of triumphalist place-naming, land-staking and colonial bluster"