I.

FIRST VIEW OF THE ISLAND-IMPRESSIONS ON LANDING-FUN

CHAL-BALCONIES-COSTUMES-THE TURRET.

December 27.-About two in the afternoon the peaks of Porto Santo were discerned over our weather bows, and soon after the mass of Madeira itself appeared looming through the haze; the summits of the mountains, as usual, I believe, capped with clouds; while below extended the long line of low, broken rock and cliff, called Point St. Lorenço, which stood out distinct and black against the haze that enveloped the rest of the island. To the left were the Desertas, three remarkable masses or islets of rock, which lie to the west of Madeira, and seem in their original formation to have been connected with its westernmost cape, the Point St. Lorenço just mentioned.

Night fell before we got a-breast of the island, of which we could only discern the lofty outline, and the precipitous coast; and the lights from the lesser towns situated along the shore. By the

time we had doubled the Brazen-head, a projecting point forming the easternmost horn of the bay of Funchal, the wind had died away and the waters of the bay were perfectly quiet-there was moonlight, and a warm summer feeling in the air which we fancied we could have sat up all night to enjoy, together with the certainty that we were at length at the end of our voyage. The lights for some time were visible from Funchal. We watched them eagerly, longing for day-light, which should reveal to us the scene that lay veiled before us, with something of the impatience with which a child awaits the drawing up of the curtain at the theatre.

We

Dec. 28. On deck soon after sun-rise. were then close under the island, a little to the east of the Brazen-head. It appeared one mass of mountain, rugged, brown and steep, with little wood, except some round-headed firs scattered high up, and no cultivation that we could distinguish at this distance. The white city of Funchal was discernible in the farthermost recess of the bay; but for this we might have doubted the inhabitation (so to speak) of the island, so little token did it present at this point of human abode or industry.

This appearance gave way to one* of a livelier

See "Views in the Madeiras."

FIRST VIEW OF THE ISLAND.

5

character as we gradually approached Funchal, Its white dwellings massed in the bottom of the bay, and the profusion of quintas and cottages scattered over the lower declivities of the mountains that shelter it on every side, shone laughingly in the sun which had just risen over the Desertas behind us. A light cloud rested on the higher parts of the mountains; but in the region nearer the town we could see the steeps as they were terraced into gardens and vineyards, and divided, from space to space, by the dark chesnutclothed ravines that run down to the coast. Mount church, situated high up near the last confine of the cultivated region-the Peak Castle*, crowning with its Gothic bastions an eminence that more immediately commands the town itself -and close at hand, the Loo rock *, a low, black insulated mass of basalt, with a fort at top, that stands out near the shore at the western end of the harbour-were the objects first pointed out to our attention,

The

We left the ship about nine o'clock—emphatically, magno telluris amore egressi. They only who have felt can appreciate the delight with which a wretch of a landsman first steps on shore after a voyage of any length at sea. As I trod the black shingly beach of Madeira, I fancied, in

See "Views in the Madeiras."

deed I felt, I was deriving new vigour and strength, and animation from each successive contact with mother earth; then, every pleasant object of sight, however common-every appliance of comfort, however trivial, after so long a desuetude, strikes the sense with all the relish of novelty.

In our walk from the quay, I observed a vine yet in leaf, though somewhat faded; and a banana over a garden wall, expanding the light green surface of its palmate leaves to the sun. There was in the air of this tree something most characteristically tropical. It seemed to tell us that we were no longer in Europe *.

Dec. 29.-I have not yet got over the feeling of delight in being on shore, enjoying again the comforts and cleanliness of civilized life, after our fortnight's swelter under the hatches of the Brazil packet. But all my happiness is not imputable to this change; the climate is delicious, and strikes with peculiar charm to a stranger, whom a short sail has transferred to it from the very midst of the gloom and chill of an English December. Then again we have been received into a palace, profusely furnished with all the comforts and luxuries which European refinement can supply, and what is bet

*The island, however, is considered as belonging to Europe, though within an African latitude; and the natives warmly disclaim any relationship to this last ill-starred portion of our planet.

STREETS OF FUNCHAL.

7

ter, welcomed with a kindness and cordiality of which our own homes could scarcely have given a warmer and less equivocal expression *.

Funchal is not a handsome city, but at any rate it is unlike any other, which, to a traveller, is perhaps the best recommendation. Strangers commonly abuse it as ugly and inconvenient, and it is true that the streets are generally both steep and narrow; the former is rather the fault of the island, the whole coast of which, I understand, scarcely presents an acre of plain surface; and as for their narrowness, it must be recollected that they are not like those of every other place, intended for the passage of wheel-carriages; such a machine being as unheard of here as a horse at Venice. Now, for foot-passengers, or horsemen, the streets of Funchal are wide enough in all reason, especially under so sunny a sky as this, and they are clean beyond those of any foreign town I have seen. Their very steepness contributes to this quality, assisted by a copious little runnel of water, which is generally

* Yet we came at rather a melancholy moment; the news had but just preceded of the sudden death, in Scotland, of the head and founder of the house, Mr. John Keir; a gentleman, who seems to have enjoyed, in a singular degree, the respect and attachment of people of all classes in the island, the natives as well as English; and to whose kindness of disposition we are ourselves greatly indebted for attentions the most friendly, and delicate shewn to our invalid friend on the occasion of a former visit to the island.