After returning to his home town, he taught French at a college run by his father.

At this period Romanticism was the dominant trend in Portuguese literature, led by several major writers including Camilo Castelo Branco and António Augusto Soares de Passos, who influenced Ortigão.

As a supporter of romanticism, Ortigão became involved in a struggle against them and even fought a duel with Antero de Quental.

It was at this period that he wrote The Mystery of the Sintra Road and created the satirical journal As Farpas, both in collaboration with Eça de Queiroz.

In 1874 he produced a Portuguese translation of the English satirical novel Ginx's Baby by Edward Jenkins.