als, and, being arranged in compact order, were easily carried on their backs. The women were made to bear the burden; while the men took no share of the load. One man, who had three wives, very neatly packed upon their backs the whole of what he had to carry away; then taking up a long staff, he marched on before with lordly step, the wives following him in silent train, one after another. We walked gently behind a party of about forty as far as the creek, and there saw some of them embark in their canoes, and paddle up the river, while the others took a narrow path leading into the depths of the forest; and presently the whole body of them were out of sight, leaving not a trace of their visit behind.

They come down, occasionally, in parties, and enter into an engage ment to cut wood for a certain compensation; but no dependence can be placed upon them for a single day, for they sometimes pack up all belonging to them, and return suddenly and unexpectedly into the woods; from whence they come not again for several months, perhaps not at all. They are naturally indolent, and being tenacious of freedom, they become impatient of the restraint imposed by daily labour; wherefore, they hastily east it off, and fly back to the woods to range in their native liberty, which knows no bounds, nor control. From possessing a degree of expertness in the felling of timber, they might be highly use ful in forwarding the cultivation of the colony, but they have no sense of industry, nor do they seem to acquire the least disposition to emulate the colonists in any of their pursuits :--content with finding food

and pepper in the woods, they have no ambition to become planters. Cotton is not necessary to protect their naked skins; nor are their appetites so refined as to require either coffee or sugar.

At the fort we have also had a visit from an Indian family, who came to us in the true style of native accommodation-exhibiting the full equipage of the family canoe, and forming a scene of high interest and novelty. Before the canoe reached the fort, we observed the long black hair and naked skins of the man, his two wives, and several children, who were all stowed about the vessel with the strictest attention to equipoise-trimming it most exactly. The canoe was large, and, in addition to the family, was loaded with cedar and other kinds of wood, for sale or barter. On the top of the cargo appeared a ferocious-looking animal, setting up his bristles like the quills of the porcupine. It was a species of wild-hog caught in the forest, and hence called a bush-hog. A small monkey was likewise skipping about the canoe. At one side sat two very fine parrots, and on the other was perched a large and most beautiful mackaw, exhibiting all the rich splendour of his gay plumage. On the canoe arriving at the landing-place, the bow and arrows, the clay cooking-vessel, calabashes, hammocks, and crabbaskets, were all brought into view, and we gazed on the whole, as form ing a very complete and striking specimen of original equipage and accommodation. The whole family,

the household apparatus-the bow and arrows-the canoe and paddles-the hammocks-in short all the furniture and implements for cooking, for sleeping, for shooting,

fishing,

fishing, and travelling, were here moved together in one compact body, so as to render it indifferent to them, whether they should return to the home from whence they came, or take up a new abode in any other part of the forest.

From

On the Island of Madeira.
Barrow's voyage to Cochinchina.

The few good dwelling-houses that are found in the town (of Funchal) are those which are occupied by the British merchants, who have established themselves here in the wine trade. These houses are in general sufficiently spacious, but neither commodious nor comfortable. These and a few others excepted, all the rest have rather a mean appearance. Their roofs are chiefly covered with tiles, on which large loose stones are laid to prevent their being carried away by the blasts of wind that occasionally blow with great violence from the mountains behind the town. The extent of Funchal may be nearly a mile in a line parallel with the beach, and rather more than half a mile in depth. It is said to contain two thousand houses, occupied by about twelve thousand inhabitants. There are besides six other small towns or villages on the island, the whole population of which, including Funchal, is estimated to amount to about ninety thousand persons.

At a little distance behind the government-house, which stands within the fort Lorenço, and over looks the bay, is the Passao Publico, the public mall, a short but very pretty walk, well shaded with orange or lime trees, willows and poplars. On one side of the entrance

stands the theatre, which is seldom opened, and on the other the hos pital. Funchal, like other towns and cities of Roman Catholic countries, has no scarcity of churches and convents; but we met with little in any of them that could be considered as deserving of particular notice. The beams and the roof of the cathedral are pointed out to strangers as being of cedar, a species of tree with which it is said the island was at its discovery nearly covered. Another curiosity which is shewn in the town is a chamber in one of the wings of the Franciscan convent, the walls and ceiling of which are completely covered with rows of human skulls and human thigh bones, so arranged that in the obtuse angle made by every pair of the latter, crossing cach other obliquely, is placed a skull. The only vacant space that appears is in the centre of the side opposite to the door, on which there is an extraordinary painting above a kind of altar, but what the subject is intended to represent I am really at a loss to decide. A figure in the picture, intended probably for St. Francis, the patron saint, seems to be intent on trying in a balance the comparative weight of a sinner and a saint. But a very accurate drawing, from which a print was taken for Mr. Barrow's work, by Mr. Daniell, will perhaps best explain the subject.

A dirty lamp suspended from the ceiling, and just glimmering in the socket, served dimly to light up this dismal den of skulls. The old monk who attended as shewman was very careful to impress us with the idea that they were all relics of holy men who had died on the island; but I suspect they must oc casionally

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 pointed 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 representations 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 circumstances 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 caunot be supposed to furnish much information of their manners, character, and condition. It requires no little time to get rid of our own preju dices; and while labouring under the influence of those, we are apt

to

to forget the making of a due allowance for the prejudices of others. It does not require, however, any very long stay at Madeira to perceive 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 insupport, able; 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 cleanli

ness.

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 cataneous disease, a spe. cies 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 London 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, lemons, 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 inhabitauts, 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 principal product of the island, of which the quantity made varies, in different years, from fifteen to twenty