While Lisbon grew by leaps and bounds the country-side was denuded, and the landowners, to fill the places of the peasants who had become sailors, imported quantities of negro slaves.
Thus not only the Portuguese abroad, but those at home, undeterred by racial antipathy, adulterated their blood with that of the dark peoples.

Add to this that the trade, immensely lucrative as it seemed, was an enormous drain on the population of the little state; and the causes of Portugal's decline, almost as sudden as its rise, are in large part explained.

So rapid was it, indeed, that it was noticed not only by foreign travellers but by the natives.

Camoens, though he dedicated his life to composing an epic in honor of Vasco da Gama, lamented his country's decay in these terms: {445} O pride of empire! O vain covetise Of that vain glory that we men call fame.

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