seen coursing down the middle to the sea; and the sound and sight of which, in such a climate, is particularly grateful,

The houses are commonly low, not often exceeding one story in height, and have generally an agreeable look of whiteness and neatness in the exterior. Those belonging to the fidalgos, or to the richer merchants, are large and handsome; our own, indeed, is magnificent; few, if any in London, can compare with it, but it is by far the finest in the island. The families live universally on the first floor; that below being commonly occupied by offices, or sometimes by shops or stores, which are altogether separate from the rest of the building; behind, they have mostly patches of garden, over the walls of which you may get occasional glimpses of the orange and lemon, or palm, or banana, all flourishing with peculiar luxuriance in the shelter of this sunny hollow.

There is no public edifice of any consequence. The governor resides in the castle; a large, irregular, half-modernized mass of gothic building*, situated close on the beach. The churches and convents seem to present nothing remarkable. Oppoite the cathedral is a public walk of plane-trees, agreeable enough, but apparently little used; for

See "Views in the Madeiras," vignette.

the habits of the people here, of the women particularly, do not lead them to this kind of recreation or exhibition.

As yet, however, we have seen little of the place, except from the balconies of our windows; which, in the indolence which such a climate encourages, we can amuse ourselves for an hour in leaning over. There is, to be sure, no great stir in the streets, but almost every thing we see is new; in particular the costumes of the peasants; the men in loose linen femoralia, short jackets, and a small conical cap, carelessly thrown on the top of the head; the women with a similar cap, very short petticoats, and a kind of circular cloth tippet or pelerine, which is passed over the shoulders and tied behind. This attire is sufficiently picturesque, but it is confined to the peasantry; that of the town's people is wholly English, and in the case of the women, the · cut as well as the material, of their cotton gowns is so precisely that which we had left at home, as to produce a sense of incongruity when contrasted with the strikingly foreign cast of their physiognomy. Some of the lower order of females wear men's beaver hats-always, with that class at least, a great disfigurement, and which here strikes with the worse effect, as superseding the light and graceful carapuche of the peasantry. Ladies of a higher class are seldom seen in the street; now and then

10

VESSELS FROM EUROPE.

one passes by in her palanquin, but the curtains of the litter are so closed as to admit of no view of the tenant within. Sometimes it is otherwise, when the lady is en grande parure, on a visit of form, and then perhaps the exhibition is a little too violent.

When tired of the balcony we can betake ourselves to a loftier look-out. All the principal houses of Funchal have at the top a kind of gazabo or belvedere, of more or less elevation above the rest of the building, which they call torrinhas or turrets, and as the city is built on a rapid ascent from the shore, these lanterns always command a view of the harbour. Our turret is by much the loftiest of any in the place, and from it we enjoy a splendid panorama of the whole city, with the sea on one side and the mountains on the other *.

* A great object of resort to these turrets is to look out for vessels. The arrival of ships from Europe seems to be the chief topic of speculation and inquiry in Madeira. There are no daily journals, and the usually imperturbable serenity of the atmosphere precludes the subject which forms the other ordinary resource of English conversation. The first thing which is done in the morning is to mount the turret to see if any vessel had arrived in the offing in the course of the night. It is curious what a degree of accuracy in the distinguishing of ships at a distance is acquired by this habit of watching them. Every merchant's house has private signals, which are hoisted by the vessels respectively consigned to them; the destination, and even the name of which, is thus commonly known before they reach the bay.

RIDE ΤΟ THE

MOUNTAINS BURROQUEROS - RAVINES -THE

MOUNT CHURCH-THE MOUNT VILLA-BATHING-TREATY WITH BRAZIL-TE DEUM-THEATRE.

Dec. 30.-On descending this morning to the entrance court of the house we found it crowded with an assemblage of poneys and their attendants, some twenty of them at least; who, upon our appearance, became most clamorous in their simultaneous recommendation of the merits of their respective animals. These poneys are the ordinary means of conveyance in the island; which, as I have said, from its mountainous nature, is impracticable for wheel carriages; and, we may add, for pedestrians too, who are not gifted with the legs and lungs of the native mountaineers. After much ado we selected our montures, and set out, attended each by his burroquero or poney-boy, a race of hardy, active, intelligent young fellows, who find no difficulty in keeping up with their charge on foot in the longest and most arduous expeditions, with no other assistance than an occasional hold by the tail of their poney, while galloping up a steep ascent.

We turned towards the mountains by the side of one of the ribeiros, or mountain streams, that intersect the city. They tell me that the insignificant rivulet that now dashes along, almost hidden by the rocky masses that strew the bottom of the hollow, was upon the occasion of a flood that took place some twenty years since, so swollen, that it swept away a great part of the houses on its banks, though these are situated at a considerable elevation above its ordinary level—and among the rest a church*, the ruins of which still remain to attest the potential force and fury of the little brook that brawls beneath them.

These streams would seem more considerable, but as they approach the city, a considerable portion of the water is divided by the levadas, or water-courses, which intersect the country in every direction, and are employed to irrigate vineyards and gardens, to turn mills, and supply those little channels which I have mentioned as contributing

* Nossa Senhora da Calhao-the oldest, if we may believe Barros, in the island. This deluge is a remarkable æra in the recent history of Madeira, and it is as well to be aware of it at first, for you hear people talking of events that took place before the flood, in a manner that rather embarrasses one's notion of chronology.-N. B. The ruins of the Calhao church stand on the bank of the Roxinha river; that by which we ascended on this occasion to the mountains, is the Ribeiro de Santa Luzia.