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A PORTUGUESE DINNER.

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hen for her young progeny. On our sitting down to dinner, we discovered that our soup was composed of the bony carcase of the sexagenarian hen we had so lately admired. Our hunger would have made even this palatable, but for the quantity of vinegar and aniseed it contained; this was removed by the half-dozen chickens, the skeleton progeny of their deceased mother. Being utterly disgusted and unable to touch these, our attendant buoyed us up with the hope of a second course; it came, and consisted of roast pork, stuffed with garlic and aniseed, and garnished with coarse brown sugar. The wine and brandy were also strongly tinctured with that abominable Portuguese luxury aniseed. In short, this, with garlic and Dutch tiles, are to be smelt, felt, and seen throughout the length and breadth of the land.

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To increase our discomfort, the carriages we had bespoke at Lisbon did not arrive, and to think of sleeping here was any thing but cheering. The evening approaching, we were obliged to remount our jaded mules, and set forward on the road to Cintra, but fortunately met the carriages at Penado.

The road from this to Lisbon was rather picturesque, being more wooded and diversified with hill and dale. The orange groves, particularly near the beautiful village of Bella Vista, are very luxuriant, and the water is supplied to them by the different aqueducts, by means of a rude Persian wheel, of large dimensions, turned by bullocks,

VOL. I.

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and raising the water in earthen jars fixed to the periphery, and discharging their contents into troughs which branch off to the root of each tree. This is, in all probability, a remnant of the Moors.

I was, I confess, disappointed with the city of Lisbon, and much more so with its climate, which was to us very trying, owing to the great transition from heat in the sunshine to cold in the shade. The intense glare and dazzling brightness reflected from the white houses are exceedingly annoying to the sight, and apt to produce head-ache. There is altogether a suffocating feeling in the air, that is particularly distressing, even to a person in health, how much more so must it be to an invalid. I know of few diseases relievable by the air of Lisbon, principally on account of its variability. During the past summer, the thermometer was often 92° in the shade on board some of our vessels in the river, and the next day it would sink to 73°. So marked is the difference here between shade and sunshine, that you have a perfectly different atmosphere on either side of your house-a complete Russian bath. The average maximum daily heat is now 75°.

Having now seen every thing worthy the notice of a passing traveller, and the wind favouring, we sailed down the Tagus on the evening of the 19th, and next day stood out to sea, shaping our course to Madeira.

CHAPTER III.

MADEIRA.

Voyage to Madeira-Arrival at Funchal-Avalanche-Boats-Our Residence Sleighs Wine Carriers-Beauty of the Vegetation-Hill Scenery-The Zebra Spider-Cochineal-Fruit-market-Fish-The Tunny-Costumes and Appearance of the Madeiranese-Aspect of the Country-Botany-Scenery at the Brazen Head-Recession of the Sea-A German Botanist-Eels-A Drag Anchor-Steepness of the Roads-Burroqueros-Palanquins-Cama de Lobos-Moonlight Views in the Mountains-The Day Breeze-Gardin de Sera-Tea Plantation-Guides-View of the Coural des FrierasIts Descent-Regions of Vegetation-Magnificent Scenery-Reflections on its Beauty-Climate of the Island-Accommodation-Application to InvalidsDisease improved by it-Time to Visit it-Effects of Vegetation-Equability of Temperature-Insular Position-Class of Patients benefitted-Consumption— Dr. Heineken-Duties on English Goods-Means of Going out-English Merchants-Wines-Reading-room-Royal Monopolies-Discovery of the Island-Story of the Lady Anna-The Cedar Cross-Nuns of Santa ClaraFeather Flowers—Maria Clementina--A Grave-yard Scene-Farewell.

OCTOBER 23. We made the island of Porto Santo. Our voyage from Lisbon was barren of adventure of any kind, and little occurred to relieve the monotony except the occasional visit of a Mother Carey's chicken, which falsified the oft-repeated assertion, that they are to be seen only in boisterous weather. Yesterday evening, while yet ninety miles from land, a butterfly or two fluttered about us, and came on board. The powers of flight of

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APPEARANCE OF THE ISLAND.

those beautiful ephemerides are truly wonderful, when we consider the span of their short livesmany living but for a day.

In the morning we got a view of the south-east end of the island, consisting of a number of disjointed crags, broken cliffs, and tall isolated rocks spreading out to sea with their spire-like tops, washed by the breakers, the spray of which glittered in the sunbeams, and made the most beautiful artificial rainbows. Here, the rocks form natural arches ; there, jut out into battlements, assuming, in many places, the appearance of some half-submerged cathedral, the turrets and pinnacles rising above the wave.

The breeze freshens, and our course is laid along the southern side of the island; the coast becomes higher, and the enormous columns of basalt look like pedestals supporting this beautiful spot above the ocean. Over those, in many places, the cliffs rise with a perpendicular face of several hundred feet; their tops clothed by the pine and the mahogany, and the alternate layers of red tufa, and dark-coloured scoriæ being visible at a great distance. On passing the Brazen Head, the Loo Rock, crowned by its battery and telegraph, came into sight. Numbers of vessels rock on the heavy swell in the open roadstead. We steered into the midst of them, and anchored early in the day before Funchal.

I had often heard and read of the beauty of this

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place; but it far surpassed all idea I had ever formed of it from description. The town runs

along the edge of an open roadstead, forming but a shallow indentation in the line of coast, embosomed in limes and orange groves, coffee plantations, widespreading bananas, and thousands of the rarest plants and exotics. The hills rise in terraces, almost from the town, clothed with vines and the most luxuriant vegetation; these are studded with the lovely quintas of the inhabitants to a height of several hundred feet. A striking object catches the eye of the traveller, the Mount Church; a large white building, that stands surrounded by some of the finest venaticos and chesnut trees, at an immense height above the town. Behind this, the mountains rise still higher, clothed with verdure, beautified by cascades and waterfalls, and their sides torn into ravines, which vary the landscape by their deep black shades, alternating with the brightness of the surrounding foliage. Above all, the bald tops of the Turhenias rise to a height of several thousand feet from the borders of the Coural.

While we were waiting for a boat to come off, the greatest consternation appeared suddenly excited on shore; the people shouting and running in all directions; presently the water in the bay became muddy, and we found that it arose from one of the mountain torrents sweeping down the bed of the river, which had been lately dry. No rain had

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