MOUNT CHURCH

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so much to the freshness and cleanliness of the streets of Funchal.

Some of the waste spaces at the bottom of these ribeiros are occupied by beds of yams, as they here call a kind of arum, the root of which is the favourite food of the peasantry; it thrives best under water. Higher up the banks rise into cliffs, the sides of which, however, wherever the nature of the surface will admit, have been painfully terraced out with little patches of vineyard and orchard. This is near the town-above, the ravine preserves unimpaired its native character of rudeness and ravage.

I am very happy in my guide—having spent the last spring here, B. is perfectly at home in the country, of which he seems to know every lane and dingle. He is moreover a very quick observer, and an ardent naturalist; thereby particularly well calculated to assist with that kind of information in which I am myself the most unhappily deficient.

We turned from the ribeiro up a steep lane leading towards the Mount Church. To a stranger the road would seem really impracticable; our poneys, however, trod it with the most perfect ease and safety.

The rapidity too with which they ascend these

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OUR LADY OF THE MOUNTAIN.

mountain steeps is admirable. They soon brought us through a wood of firs to the Mount Villa-an extensive quinta, apparently higher in situation than any other in the neighbourhood, and which must command a magnificent prospect.

From hence we kept along the side of the hill, through a lane sheltered by the most luxuriant hedges of geranium and fuchsia, in the full glow of their flowers: cross a romantic little dell, down the steep of which rushes a lively little mountain stream, making two or three very pretty falls in its way, and shaded by chesnuts, now leafless.

Close above this is the church of Nossa Senhora do Monte. Neither within or without does it present any thing particularly worthy of remark. Of course, Our Lady' herself is enshrined over the high altar in all that gorgeousness of jewelled head and spangled petticoat, which, to a Catholic imagination, would seem to form the proper ideal of female beatitude.

Every body knows the sorts of multiplication which the Catholics make of their hierarchy, by the various kinds and degrees of virtue which they respectively attach to different images of the-same saint. So that Our Lady of Guadaloupe, for instance, is a power of quite other efficacy than Our Lady of Atocha or of Montserrat.—By the way,

TREATY WITH BRAZIL.

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if this do not imply idolatry in any sense in which the word is intelligible, one knows not what can. Thus it is with Nossa Senhora do Monte; whether in facility of propitiation, or urgency of intercession, she is held far to overtop all the other NossaSenhoras of the island, and her good will of course is cultivated with proportionate assiduity.

The situation of the church is very high-1900 feet, I believe, above the level of the sea. From the terrace in front you command a magnificent view of the city and harbour, and far over the Atlantic beyond.

Returning, we diverged from our road to explore a wild glen a little to the east of the church. The ground here is covered with myrtle, much as our English commons are with furze or juniper. I do not know that the advantage, in point of beauty, is much in favour of the myrtle, as it is apt in its growth to degenerate into what we call scrubbiness. You do not meet with it so plentifully lower down, though it be a plant that is known to love the shore. Apparently the climate there is too warm for it.

Jan. 3.-For the last two or three days we have been annoyed by a constant firing of cannon and jangling of bells, in celebration of the news of the treaty which Sir Charles Stuart has brought about

between Portugal and Brazil; the great result of which seems to be-for its provisions as published are not over intelligible-that poor King John is to be declared Emperor of Brazil, in consideration of his renouncing all right or exercise of power or dominion in or over the said empire. The Portuguese themselves seem much alive to the ridicule of making a consummation of this kind the subject of public rejoicing; and certainly it would have been better to let the matter, like any other of a similarly awkward nature, pass off quietly. But after all there can be no doubt, in the present state of relation between the two countries, that this or any termination of the differences between them, is a matter of real congratulation to both.

There was a grand Te Deum in the cathedral in honour of, or rather, în gratitude for the pacification. The music was good-the aisles were crowded by numbers kneeling, chiefly women, and of all classes; but remarkably few that we should call good-looking. They never cover their heads in church; the better sort wear a kind of black lace veil over their hair, in the manner, I believe, of the Spanish mantilla.

This cathedral is an old Gothic structure, ugly enough on the outside, and containing nothing very imposing in its interior. Such as it is, they

tell me that in point of size, architecture, and decoration, it is the best church in the island, which may dispense with my saying any thing more about them.

At night to the play. The house itself is really very respectable. The performance was wretched, even beyond expectation. I believe indeed that the company, like Peter Quince's, consists in great part of handicraftsmen in the town, but it seems strange that in these countries where in ordinary life you find so much pantomime of gesture and countenance, and such varied inflection of voice, that the histrionic personifications even of the humblest amateurs can be so utterly tame and spiritless. What amused me most was the part which the audience seemed to take in the characters or sentiments of the piece. Their applause or disapprobation was invariably directed to these ; and in the warmth of their sympathy with the action, they seemed wholly to forget the performOne of the most successful of the actorsbut who was unfortunately charged with the part of the villain of the piece-could never make his appearance without being saluted with a general hiss.

ance.

Between the acts two or three gentlemen rose in the boxes, and recited certain poetic effusions

C