Lisbon, the capital of a rickety global empire, the first global city, home to the first start-ups in European exploration before the big shots  – England, Spain and France – moved in. John Masefield’s poem “cargoes”. A ship “dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores”, another with cargo of ivory, apes, peacocks, sandalwood, cedarwood and sweet white wine, when colonialism was in its infancy. In the Age of Discovery,  we remember these cargoes with layers of gold, shipped from the slave mines, come with side orders of agate, amethyst and yellow jade, were more likely to be slaves than peacocks or sweet wine. The footsteps of the early Portuguese voyages, decades before Columbus who discovered America, were marked with dates – Cape Verde 1444, Guinea 1460, the Congo 1483, Cabo da Boa Esperanc, or the   Cape of Good Hope 1488, then Goa to India, Macau in China, East Timor in Indonesia, and across the Atlantic Porto Seguro in Brazil in 1500.

The Rio Tejo ( the Tagus) looked similar to the edge of the world, emitting away into oceans of light.  The Portuguese sailed from  river mouth of Belem  and turned left to change history, across South America, heralded a disastrous upheaval.

Initially Lisbon was unconsidered capital of an insignificant nation but as the millennium turned, European travellers realised that on their doorstep was one of the world’s most cobbled streets and labyrinthine lanes, with Mediterranean climate, delicious food with even custard tarts, glorious Atlantic beaches and compelling music as Lisbon became the throes of gentrification attracting big investment, opportunities and escalating property prices.  As the last of the remnants of the empire including Angola, Mozambique, Sao Tome, and Principe were struggling with postcolonial depression. The leftists were in power, Lisbon was impoverished, palaces were no longer the thing, as the family sold up and moved away.

Portugal’s history on triumph and glory was almost forgotten as the discoveries are a great deal in Lisbon, burdened with guilt of coming to terms with their own colonial histories as images of sturdy little ships like a touchstone of the city’s life on pavement mosaics outside Rossio station, on the walls of public housing displaying the 16^th century Os Lusiadas, the Lusiads written by Luis de Camoes, celebrates the voyages as it weaves myths of Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the sea route to the Indies.

The arrival of Portuguese in the port of Nagasaki in 1543, moored with golden clouds in a festive atmosphere with wild-horse races and stately elephants.