Het verboden rijk

The narrative proper begins with a semi-historical account of Luís de Camões, the 16th-century Portuguese poet who wrote the epic poem Os Lusíadas.

Pilar, the daughter of governor Farria by a Chinese woman, flees a forced marriage and is thought to take refuge in a Dominican friary.

[3] After torture, which he endures by taking narcotics, Camões is allowed to return to writing but in his poetry reveals Pilar's hiding place.

Later, his ship is attacked near Hong Kong by pirates and the crew abducted and taken deep into China, where he finds clothes containing gold coins— here, Camões and the Irishman merge.

[5] In the final chapter the Irishman, paying for passage to Macao with 16th-century gold coins, finds himself defending the church of old Macau with Dominican friars against an invading army.

The ninth issue of the magazine, September 1932, contained the last section, and by November 1932 Het verboden rijk was for sale in the bookstore (published by Nijgh & Van Ditmar), with minor corrections and one major excision.

[8] In 1985, the contents of a "seaman's chest" full of notes pertaining to the two "Cameron novels", edited by W. Blok and Kees Lekkerkerker, was published by the Nederlands Letterkundig Museum en Documentatiecentrum.

The manuscripts offer insight into the genesis of the novels and presents material related to the never-published third volume: Slauerhoff intended a trilogy.

[9] Forum was the literary magazine founded and edited by Menno ter Braak, Edgar du Perron, and Maurice Roelants.

Martinus Nijhoff, writing for De Gids, recognized the motifs of some of Slauerhoff's "beautiful poems", but thought the novel was careless and confused.