casionally have robbed the churchyard of a few lay-brethren, and perhaps now and then of a heretic. (as strangers are interred in their burying ground,), in order to accumulate such a prodigious number which, on a rough computation, I should suppose to amount to at least three thousand. The skull of one of the holy brotherhood was point. ed out as having a lock-jaw, which occasioned his death; and from the garrulity of our attendant, I have no doubt we might have heard the history of many more equally important, which, though thrown away upon us who had no taste for craniology, would, in all probability, have been highly inter. esting to Doctor Gall, the famous lecturer on skulls in Vienna. On taking leave we deposited our mite on the altar, as charity to the convent, which seems to be the principal object in view of collecting and exhibiting this memento mori of the monastic and mendicant order of St. Francis.

There are other convents, to which young women are sometimes sent for the purpose of completing their education; but not a single instance of the veil having been taken occurs for many years past. Married women also, who are particularly tenacious of their character, and who wish to be considered as models of chastity and virtue, sometimes retire into a convent during the absence of their husbands. In those which were visited by our party, we saw only a few antiquated virgins, who affected a considerable degree of shyness; and though their air and general appearance were not ill calculated to inspire feelings of pity, it was not however, of that kind which "melts

the soul to love," but whose less powerful influence pleads rather to the purse than to the heart: and accordingly we gave them, what was considered to be the most acceptable, a few dollars in exchange for pieces of paper cut into repre sentations of the virgin, and saints, and crucifixes. A general languor, occasioned by confinement and the unvaried insipidity of a monastic life, frequently passes in the nun as the token of patient resignation; and we are apt to attach a lively interest to young females, who are thus so cruelly, as we suppose, separated for ever from all society except that of each other: but it is by no means clear that we do not often ascribe to persons under such cir cumstances notions of purity and delicacy, which are more romantic than just. It is extremely doubtful if they possess those exalted sentiments, nice feelings, and sound understandings, which prevail among females of those countries where they are allowed to enjoy unrestrained freedom. The education of the former is suited to prepare them for their future condition : they are held in such little consideration in their own family, that they are fully aware they cannot be less esteemed in a convent; and they make the sacrifice of their liberty under the consoling reflection that by so doing, they shall secure everlasting happiness in the world to come.

The residence of a few days among a foreign people cannot be supposed to furnish much information of their manners, character, and condition. It requires no little time to get rid of our own prejudices, and while labouring under the influence of those, we are apt

to

to forget the making of a duc allow. ance for the prejudices of others. It does not require, however, any very long stay at Madeira to per ceive that the great bulk of the people of Funchal, as in most other cities, is doomed to encounter the ills of poverty:ills that, in this country, however, on which Nature has bestowed so fine a climate, would seem to be rather owing to some mismanagement on their own part, than to any system of oppression in the government, deficiency in the means of subsistence, or other moral or physical causes. The steady and moderate temperature which this island enjoys is scarcely excelled in any part of the world. In the winter months, the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer seldom descends below 55°, or rises higher than 65°: and the usual range in summer is from 66° to 76°. It is visited, however, occasionally, but very rarely, by a kind of Sirocco wind from the eastward, that scorches vegetation, and renders the air suffocating and insupportable; at such time, the thermometer rises to 90° or 95°. It cannot be the climate, therefore, that occasions the meagre, sallow, and sickly appearance which the inhabitants of Funchal generally wear, but may rather be attributed to the poverty of their food, which chiefly consists of fish, pumpkins, and sour wine, or pernicious spirits; to a life of drudgery and exposure to great vicissitude of climate, by daily ascending the steep and lofty mountains in search of fuel; and, above all, to a total disregard of cleanliness. As a corroborative proof of this being the case it may be mentioned, that almost all the natives are

infected with what they consider an incurable cutaneous disease, a species of itch, which is attended with an extraordinary degree of virulence and inflammation. I do not remember to have seen or heard of any remarkable instance of longevity; and the chances are, that Dr. Price, in speaking of the mortality of this island as one in fifty only of the population, while that of Lon. don he considers as one in twenty, is not less inaccurate in these instances than in many other of his calculations.

Productions, and Exports of Madeira. From the same.

The cultivated plants are vines, oranges, lemous, citrons, figs, bananas, guavas, apricots, peaches, and European fruits, besides good walnuts and chesnuts. The island poduces wheat, barley, and rye; but more than two-thirds of the grain consumed is imported from the Azores or Western Islands, and from America. For more than a century Madeira was considered as valuable chiefly for the quantity of sugar it produced; but since this aromatic reed has been spread over the continent and islands of the new world, little is now in cultivation here; and the sugar extracted from it is of a coarse quality, used only among the lower class of inhabitants, commonly as an inspissated brown juice, not unlike molasses. The arid soil seems much better suited for the growth of the vine than the sugar.cane. Wine, indeed, may be considered as the prin cipal product of the island, of which the quantity made varies, in different years, from fifteen to twenty

The usual mode of training the vines is by basket-work fixed to espaliers, about five feet high; but in some vineyards they are led up trees, or high poles; and in others, cut down to the height of two or three feet, as at the cape of Good Hope. In some places, the hills are terraced, in order to retain the soil, by stone walls. The process of making the wine is very simple. The grapes are picked from the stalk, thrown into a vat, pressed first with the feet and afterwards by a weighted wooden lever. The proprietor of the land and the collector of the taxes for the crown, both attend at the press; the latter takes out of the tub his tenth of the whole must, after which the remainder is equally divided between the landowner and the tenant. Each takes with him a sufficient number of porters to carry away their respective shares, sometimes in barrels, and sometimes in goat-skin bourachas, to the cellars in Funchal. The English merchants usually supply the farmers beforehand with money, to enable them to make a more extensive tillage.

appeared to be of a grave and seri-| ous disposition, seldom speaking to each other, and indicating an aver sion to communicate with strangers. They had long black hair, and the beard was visible only on the upper lip and under the chin. Those who engage in this service are said to be so much detested by their country. men, as to prevent them from ever returning to the horde, apprehensive that if once in their possession they would certainly be put to death.

When the Portuguese were sufficiently convinced of the inefficacy of the attempt to reduce the Brazi lians to slavery, or to compel them to submit to the labours of agriculture, their next recourse was to the settlements they had already acquired on the coast of Africa for a supply of negroes. Whole cargoes of these ill-fated people were annoally transported from their native country and their connections, cut off from every hope of returning and doomed to toil for the remainder of their days in the foreign fields of South America. The number which at present is said to be annually imported amounts, on an average, to twenty thousand; and as this demand is constant, whilst the

From the same.

The antipathy of the Brazilians to the Portuguese is so great that the viceroy is not able, without some difficulty, to keep up an establishment of twelve rowers of the state-barge. These were the only real natives we had an opportunity of seeing during our stay of three weeks. Their features were not much different from those of the Malays, Tartars, and Chinese. Their stature was short. They

be little, if at all increased, for seve ral years past, there are strong grounds to suspect that at least an equal number to those imported must be destroyed every year. Yet these people make a boast of treat ing their slaves better than any other nation. The French and the Dutch do the same; and they all unite in asserting that the English are the most cruel to their slaves. People, however, are apt to differ in their notions of humanity, as well as on less important points; and, where

the whole system is bad, the degrees of atrocity may perhaps be the less discernible. Bad as our countrymen are, I am still inclined to hope that few are to be found among them who would act, on a similar occasion, in the same manner as I am about to relate. An officer in the French army, having discovered that dealing in slaves was a more lucrative profession than fighting, was transporting a cargo, consisting of about three hundred, from Mosambique to the isle of France. They had scarcely put to sea when the small-pox broke out among them. On three or four the pustules appeared in such a manner as to leave no doubt as to the nature of the disease; and about a dozen of the rest were considered to be infected. As it was pretty evident that none of the cargo had gone through the disease, and equally so that they could not escape infection; and as the chances were, in this event, that the mortality would greatly exceed seven per cent., the slave-merchant resolved to throw the fifteen or sixteen in fected persons immediately overboard. This man afterwards wrote an account of his voyage to the East Indies, in which he talks a great deal about humanity, but carefully avoids the mention of this transaction.

Whatever the pretensions of other nations may be, in regard to the good treatment of their slaves, I am inclined to think that the method pursued by the Portuguese planters of the Brazils is far from being the worst. The master expects from the slave a certain quantity of labour in the week, which is calculated to be sufficient to employ four days of moderate application: the other

two are for himself; but out of the proceeds of the labour of these two days he must clothe and feed himself for the whole week. By such a system the lash of the whip is unnecessary; the master is at no expence beyond the first cost, which is about twenty pounds; and the slave, by the surplus produce of the labour bestowed on his own account, is frequently enabled to lay by a suficient sum to purchase his freedom. Those who are doomed to work at the mines experience worse treatment than such as are employed in domestic purposes, or in agriculture. The temptation to secrete small diamonds has sometimes induc ed the slaves to swallow them. Whenever the labour of the day has not been usually productive, or any other cause of suspicion arises that such may have been the case, they are put for a certain time in close confinement, and a strong dose of ipecacuanha is a Iministered. this should not produce the desired effect, the next step is to ply them, like the pearl fishers of Ceylon, with powerful cathartics, till the poor creatures are nearly exhausted; and this happens very often when they are perfectly innocent.

If

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