Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume I Part 7

[Footnote 28: Ozone, or oxygen in an allotropic condition, is found in more perceptible quant.i.ty in pure localities than in those where great quant.i.ties of putrescent substances are acc.u.mulated, as the ozone disappears by oxidation. Observations on the quant.i.ty of ozone contained in the air during an epidemic are, therefore, of great interest, because they may throw a light on the influences of the atmosphere in the propagation of certain diseases.]

In the beginning of October the malady gradually began to decrease, the last case which happened on the island occurring at Funchal, on the 16th December, 1856. It appears, from official reports, that out of a population of 102,837 souls, 7041 fell victims to the epidemic; other statements, that seem not less reliable, even raise the number of fatal cases to a much larger figure. A variety of local circ.u.mstances tended to heighten the fearful violence of the epidemic: the great distress among the people, arising from the deficiency of the vintages during several years; the potato disease, which occurred in the summer of 1856, and deprived the population, whilst suffering from other calamities, of one of their most important means of sustenance; and finally, to bring misfortunes to a climax, even that source of gain was dried up which the people derived from the temporary residence of numerous wealthy families.

Terrified by the reports which were in circulation as to the ravages caused by the cholera at Madeira, hundreds altered their original plan of pa.s.sing the winter there, and even resident strangers, horror-stricken, left the island, which had been so suddenly converted from a paradise into a burial-ground. The loss arising from the latter cause is estimated at 20,000, an immense sum at a time when pestilence and famine were raging so fiercely. The British Government, as well as English philanthropists in general, deserve the highest praise for the liberality with which they promptly and generously hastened to the a.s.sistance of the sufferers. Soon as intelligence of the great distress arrived in London, two steamers of war, the _Salamander_ and _Hesper_, with provisions, medicine, clothing, bedding, and money, were despatched to Funchal, where the former arrived on the 18th and the latter on the 31st of October, 1856. This a.s.sistance essentially contributed to the rapid extinction of the epidemic, as it sufficed to relieve the more pressing wants.[29] Considerable contributions arrived also from the United States; and, according to public statements, the relief that came from foreign countries amounted to 8895.

[Footnote 29: Old chronicles report that Madeira has been visited by a pestilential disease, that raged within the years 1521 to 1535. But the cholera was never in the island before the year 1856. The yellow fever is altogether unknown.]

The commerce of the island was, as a matter of course, seriously affected by such a train of calamities. The princ.i.p.al exports had hitherto consisted of wine, cattle, fruit, and wicker-work; the first and most important of these articles--wine--had, as already stated, all but entirely disappeared from the list for several years, the small quant.i.ties still exported being merely the remnants of old stocks.

According to custom-house registers, the entire value of the produce exported in 1851 amounted to 164,960, of which 96,950 were s.h.i.+pped in English, 26,500 in American, and 16,650 in Portuguese vessels. The exports of 1855 were only 95,470, and in 1855, when the wine export had entirely ceased, the value did not exceed 2400!

The imports were of a more numerous and varied description; calico, cotton and woollen goods, hardware, spices and provisions from England; timber, salt meat, and other articles from the United States; grain from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea; and sugar, coffee, oil, rice, and other colonial produce from Lisbon and the Portuguese settlements. The commerce is almost entirely in the hands of the English,[30] whose liberality during the cholera epidemic has much raised them in the estimation of the inhabitants.

[Footnote 30: Three-fifths of the 50,000 tons annually imported are _English_ manufactures.]

The absence of a regular banking establishment is much felt by the trading community, particularly in times of temporary distress. Singularly enough there are few Portuguese coins to be met with, and even these are not liked by the inhabitants. The moneys chiefly in circulation are English and American gold and silver coins, French five-franc pieces, and Spanish dollars. The sailing vessels in the roads of Funchal are mostly under English and American flags. The steamers which keep up the intercourse between Europe and the Brazils call regularly at Funchal for mails and pa.s.sengers,[31] and a steam-packet arrives regularly every fortnight on its way from Europe to South America.

[Footnote 31: An English coal depot has been established in Funchal since 1848.]

The trade carried on under ordinary circ.u.mstances is, as we have seen, by no means inconsiderable, and by proper management might enable the people to extricate themselves from their present depressed position; but though not exactly lazy, they are entirely deficient in the energy requisite for effectively improving their condition. Whenever they have enough of yams and potatoes, they no longer think of exerting themselves or of acquiring a more comfortable or independent mode of existence. Neither in Ireland, nor in the Silesian mountains, nor even amongst the Indians in North or South America, have we witnessed such a degree of poverty and wretchedness as we beheld among the labouring cla.s.ses in the mountainous districts of this island. On entering a village, shoals of haggard-looking beggars covered with rags were seen, whose features indicated their unhealthy way of living, and an utter lack of the most common necessaries of life. The calamities of the last five years have certainly contributed to this excess of misery, and a traveller who visited Madeira twenty years ago, may have carried away with him quite a different impression of its inhabitants.

The race inhabiting the island, notwithstanding some favourable exceptions, is rather unprepossessing and decrepit, owing to the elements of which it is composed. The first settlers, as already stated, belonged by no means to the better cla.s.ses of Portugal, but consisted of a motley a.s.semblage of ruffians, who came to the newly-discovered island merely in search of adventure. The admixture which afterwards took place with the black race imported from Africa, materially contributed to deteriorate the people both physically and morally. Though there is not one single pure negro in the whole island, yet the features of a considerable proportion of the inhabitants denote their African descent. In the population of Punta da Sol, a village on the west side of the island, the negro type is said to be exhibited in its strongest character.

The dress of the native is extremely simple; a pair of white trowsers, a s.h.i.+rt, and linen jacket, const.i.tute the entire toilette; with a few rare exceptions we never saw shoes: but even the poorest of the poor wears a curiously-shaped small cloth cap (_carapuca_) of a blue colour, with red lining, terminating in an erect pointed tail, six inches long. This seems to be a remnant of a turbaned head-dress, worn formerly by the inhabitants of the African coast, with whom the first settlers, allured by the slave-trade, once carried on an active intercourse.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARAPUcA, OR CAP WORN BY THE NATIVES OF MADEIRA.]

Many of the inhabitants of Funchal obtain their livelihood by acting as guides to strangers. The roads being very steep, and formed of pointed stones, horses of an excellent breed are used in going even short distances; however fast the visitors may gallop, the guide follows the horses on foot, to which the natives are habituated from their earliest years. This practice is undoubtedly one of the princ.i.p.al causes of consumptive complaints, which are more frequently met with here than might have been expected considering the climate, though bad nourishment and unhealthy dwellings may have their part in causing the prevalence of the malady. The common people are mostly lodged in small low cabins of wood or timber, thatched with straw, the only opening being the door, through which air and light are admitted. Their sleeping-places are wooden benches, covered with straw, raised only one or two feet from a ground which, during nine months of the year, is damp.

It is scarcely necessary to state that the wealthier cla.s.ses offer a more pleasing aspect. They are extremely obliging, kind, and attentive towards strangers, and evidently endeavour to impress the visitor with favourable ideas of themselves and the island. To the hospitality of the Austrian Consul, as well as to Major P. A. de Azevedo and Don Juan Muniz, so deservedly celebrated for his knowledge of the flora of Madeira, the members of the _Novara_ expedition are indebted for many a happy and delightful hour.

The population is perceptibly on the decrease. The causes are emigration to the British West Indies, and devastation by the cholera. The number of inhabitants in the two islands, in 1836, amounted to 115,446; in 1854, to 103,296; and in 1855, to only 102,183. The emigrants during the last twenty-five years (1835 to 1860) are said to have amounted to 40,000, many of whom depart secretly, in order to avoid the heavy emigration tax.

Numerous benevolent inst.i.tutions indicate the charitable disposition of the inhabitants. The hospital, or Santa Casa de Misericordia, standing in a beautiful square, planted with planes and magnolias, can receive 104 patients, and is exceedingly well managed. It appears, however, rather singular that the surgical are separated from the medical cases, whilst no separation exists amongst the patients who may happen to be labouring under contagious diseases. The most frequently recurring diseases are cutaneous, a circ.u.mstance which need excite no surprise in a country where the natives pay so little attention to the cleanliness of their bodies, and where Government itself favours as it were this carelessness by levying a considerable tax upon the importation of soap! Dysentery prevails throughout the year; intermittent fever and inflammatory diseases occur more rarely; but apoplectic cases are at times very numerous. The nominal amount of the funds of the hospital is estimated at 40,000; the annual income being about 1800 sterling.

The hospital for lepers is fitted up for the reception of about forty patients, most of whom come from places in which the black has least mixed with the white race.

The workhouse, for 230 paupers, was founded in 1847 by public subscription, and has an annual income of from 3000 to 4000 piastres.

The nunnery of St. Isabel, for the reception of female orphans, was erected as early as 1726. Great care is taken of the education of the inmates, who are not permitted to leave the establishment, except in case of getting married or respectably employed.

Foundlings, of whom, in one single year, 839 were maintained by the commune of Funchal, are given out to nurse; and there has been a most singular expedient adopted, in order to prevent abuse as regards obtaining the board money, which amounts to about one piastre a month, for each. A piece of tape is put round the infant's neck, the two ends of which are fastened with a lead seal, and stamped, so that, in the event of death, it cannot be taken off and put on another child's neck. The witnessing of the process of fastening and stamping this necklace is most unpleasant, although no real pain is inflicted on the child.

In the year 1855 there existed in the entire island twelve elementary schools, attended by about 200 scholars, and likewise forty-nine Sunday schools, having about 2400 pupils. Funchal also possesses a college, with six professors and 120 students, an ecclesiastical seminary for twenty-four pupils, and a medical school, with four professors, which, however, during the year of our visit, had only seven students. Though the Government is very rigid in exacting the attendance of the children at school, yet only about a seventh part of the whole number living in the island really avail themselves of the benefit.

A hospital for the consumptive is now in course of erection, at the expense of the Empress dowager of the Brazils, as a memorial of her daughter, who, in 1853, died of this disease on the island.

There exist several public libraries and book societies at Funchal; and in several of the clubs a great many of the leading English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German journals, are to be found. Four weekly papers, in the Portuguese language, are published at Funchal. The first newspaper ever published there was the _Patriota Funchalense_, the first number of which appeared on the 2nd of June, 1821.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CATHEDRAL OF MADEIRA.]

The public buildings offer little to attract notice; the churches are insignificant, and even the cathedral, a building in the Basilica style, is in no way remarkable otherwise than by the innumerable garlands and nosegays, offerings of pious devotees, which as it were transform its interior into a fragrant temple of flowers.

That which was once a Jesuit monastery, has been now converted into a barrack, in which the whole garrison of the island, amounting to 400 men, are lodged. The daily pay of these soldiers amounts to 20 reis, or about one penny!

An ordinary dwelling-house has lately been converted into a town gaol, in which the prisoners are very humanely treated. Pa.s.sers-by may have an undisturbed talk with them through the lattice-work; and once we even observed a man who had thrust his foot through the iron bars, in order to have his measure taken by one of the inmates for a pair of shoes!

The charms of beautiful walks, and a most enchanting neighbourhood, enhance the pleasantness of the climate of Funchal so much resorted to by invalids. In the interior of the town, not far from the sea-sh.o.r.e, splendid avenues of magnificent planes, large-flowered magnolias, and ma.s.sive oaks, form delightful promenades, and afford repose and shade on numerous seats under the dense foliage of their wide-spreading branches.

Seated on a gently-ambling steed, one may reach most pleasantly the summits of those lofty mountains, which rise close to Funchal, where a balmy fragrance perfumes the air, and the eye roams with delight in all directions over scenery of the most striking description.

One of the favourite points from which such a view may be obtained in all its beauty, is the terrace in front of the church of Nossa Senhora de Monte, situated 1965 feet above the level of the sea, on a ridge of the Arrebantao mountain, reached in less than an hour by one or other of the existing conveyances; these are either horses, or hammocks and sedan-chairs, or sledges, covered with tasteful canopies, and drawn by a couple of small oxen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SLEIGH PARTY IN MADEIRA.]

Though a vehicle, reminding one so strongly of a northern winter, appears rather odd in a climate such as that of Madeira, yet its practicability and convenience is very soon perceived, when comfortably sliding away over the smooth stones of Funchal. Wheel carriages, such as used in Europe, are unknown here.

But he who has bodily strength and health enough to be able to wander through the interior of the island, will find spots which command landscapes by far more grand and sublime than that seen from Nossa Senhora de Monte. Cape San Lorenzo, with its petrified fauna;--the awe-inspiring Entroza pa.s.s, that wonderful sculpture of nature which bears so powerful a witness to the corroding action of water;--the lovely and solitary cascade of Rabacal;--the Pic Arrieiro, with its craggy rocks, offering to the geologist such a remarkable peep into the geognostical history of the island;--the numerous gigantic rocky skeletons of volcanic cones, on which the geologist is able to make the most interesting studies and investigations, just in the same manner as the anatomist on a corpse;--all these wonders of nature are calculated to awaken the reflection and excite the admiration of the beholder.

The most delightful event during our stay in the island was an excursion of several days, made to the romantic localities of the northern coast. A stately cavalcade of twenty-two hors.e.m.e.n set out, early on a fine June morning, from Funchal to Nossa Senhora, and from thence over the Pic Poizo, through the glens of Metade to St. Anna. After a ride of two hours, the Casa de Abrigo was reached, a small house, situated about 4500 feet above the level of the sea, erected by the Government some years ago for the shelter of travellers. From this point the path runs through a hilly country covered with heath, from which the majestic Pico Ruivo, with the fantastic forms of its rugged volcanic walls bathed in gold by the rays of the rising sun, presents a most imposing sight. On the whole route only one small miserable village, called Fayal, was pa.s.sed, consisting of a few straw thatched huts, exhibiting a picture of poverty and wretchedness, which can scarcely be paralleled in any part of the habitable globe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VILLAGE OF FAYAL.]

At last, after a ride of eight hours, we reached St. Anna, an extensive village, with a large church and some brick buildings prettily situated in flower-gardens, the most stately of which was--the inn. The good cheer and repose found here for a few hours of the night, compensated in some degree for the fatigues of the past day, and prepared us for those to be encountered on the morrow.

The frequent fogs prevalent in Madeira during the month of June, render it indispensable to start early in the morning, if the traveller wishes to enjoy the beauties of the scenery. At 2 A.M., therefore, our cavalcade set out, followed by a host of boys and porters carrying provisions and instruments for observations. Nature was still buried in sleep, the air quiet and motionless; the full moon, shedding her pallid light over sea and mountain, feebly shadowed forth the outlines of the hedges and bushes of roses, fuchsias, and hortensias, that lined the narrow path, and brought out dimly in faint relief the ghost-like white figures which, standing at the doors of their poor cabins, looked inquisitively at the riders, that were already so early on their way. The path led up to the mountains in steep and numerous windings, sometimes on soft ground through ravines, sometimes on solid basalt, or over the uneven surface of indurated lava. And when at last, emerging from deep glens, steep precipices, and rocky walls, all yet buried in the shades of night, the blue star-spangled sky burst upon us in all its beauty and grandeur, the effect was almost overpowering. A faint glimmer of light appeared on the distant horizon, ma.s.ses of vapour moved over the ocean, and rising mists gathering into clouds, undulated like the surface of an agitated sea. It was only along the ridges of mountains and through the ravines, that one might glance between mist and land down to the calm boundless expanse of water at our feet.

At 4 o'clock a halt was made near a solitary hut, called Choupana, at a height of 4400 feet, when the hors.e.m.e.n dismounted, and left their horses behind, preferring to reach on foot the termination of their journey.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EL HOMEM EM Pe.]

We had just climbed up some steep basalt rock and reached an open spot, when the first rays of the sun tinged the eastern sky. Beaming in all his majesty on the sharply-defined clouds that hovered beneath, they sparkled like so many ice-capped peaks of Alpine glaciers; and when the great luminary ascended higher, distributing mingled light and shade in such gradations of tint as only Nature's cunning hand can mingle, the chaotic ma.s.ses of vapour a.s.sumed the appearance of gigantic islands and lofty towering mountains, whilst a chorus of feathered songsters rung cheerfully out from the depths of the wooded valleys. The path wound along a precipitous declivity, grown over with tangled Til-trees, past a group of basaltic columns, which rose isolated to a height of 40 feet above the beautiful gra.s.sy carpet that clothes the ground, and in the crevices of which an old laurel, the last of its genus at this height, had taken root.

The natives call this singularly-shaped group _Homem em pe_, or the man standing erect.

Arrived at an open s.p.a.ce of meadow ground, the Barreiro, or Enc.u.miada Caixa, a gigantic rocky ridge, suddenly rises to a prodigious height, from a frightful abyss of almost fathomless depth. We now hastened across a plain covered with lava, to the rough basaltic summit of the Enc.u.miada Alta. Safe on an eminence[32] above yawning gulfs, beneath a deep blue sky, in the brilliancy of a lovely morning sun, we abandoned ourselves to the thrilling impressions of the magnificent picture which nature here brought forth of earth, rock, and manifold vegetation. Towards the south an immense mountain ridge, with serried peaks (called Torres and Torinhas), rises to a height of 6000 feet, declining almost imperceptibly on the left hand, whilst on the right it descends abruptly in terraces, with perpendicular walls of rocks 1000 feet in height, connected by an inaccessible ridge with the imposing, stupendous, cupola-shaped summit of the Pico Ruivo. All this is disclosed to the eye within a radius of little more than two miles. Deep clefts and ravines run from the rocky crevices, and unite in a gloomy and profound abyss of 3000 feet, which forms the mouth of the ravine of Ribeiro Secco. Similiar chasms open to the right and to the left, and when they are too distant to be distinguished by the eye, dark shadows rising on the rocky walls indicate the deep crater-like basin of the Curral, and the gulfs of the Metade river, and the Ribeiro Frio. It would seem as if the whole island has, in a series of fearful convulsions, burst from a single central point in all directions; as if entire mountains had sunk into the deep, or had, by the action of torrents permeating their crevices, been converted into rubble, and carried as sand and fragments into the ocean.

[Footnote 32: 5883 feet, according to the geologist's barometrical measurements.]

The summits of the Torres and Torrinhas are nothing but barren naked rocks,--not a blade of gra.s.s, not a shrub, not a trace of vegetation is to be seen. At the highest points, strata nearly horizontal extend in remarkably regular layers, chiefly distinguished by the most manifold variety of colours and tints.[33] A dark grey schistus of volcanic ashes alternates with strongly-marked red, yellow, and violet layers of tufa, dross, and scoriae, together with brown and grey conglomerates. Just as red predominates on the upper part of these _Torres_, green prevails on the lower. From the spot where the springs first issue out of the crevices of the basalt, everything seems covered with a dense green carpet. These are the celebrated "clefts" of Madeira, in which, even on rocks of 1000 feet high, not an inch is to be discovered bare; they afford a rich harvest to the botanist, whilst they fill the spectator with delight and admiration.

[Footnote 33: The celebrated American geologist, Mr. Dana, mentions that these wild contorted ma.s.ses of mountain reminded him of the crater-walls of the Kilauea at the Sandwich Islands.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ERICA TREES.]

Generally speaking, the scenery of Madeira does not owe its character to the grandeur or magnitude of its trees; the peculiar charm of the landscape arises more from gra.s.ses, ferns, shrubs, and different kinds of moss, all of which grow so rank and luxuriant, that the rocks, chasms, and abysses overgrown with them, appear like so many swelling cus.h.i.+ons, or as if laid with soft velvet carpets in all directions. The different shades of green indicate the characteristics of successive zones of vegetation.

Through the lower parts of the valleys run the beds of those mountain waters which, though nearly dried up in the summer, swell in the winter into torrents. Along these are scattered the straw-thatched huts of the natives, surrounded by vineyards and fields planted with rye, barley, potatoes, yams, and in the lower parts with single bananas. These cultivated lands rise to a height of 2000 feet, and in many places even to 3000. Wherever on the steep declivities there is the smallest shelf to be found, even if only a square yard in size, it is turned to account. Next to this region, in ascending, is that of the brush and laurel woods.

_Vaccinias_ (blackberries), and different kinds of heath, often attaining a growth of five or six feet, occupy the whole of the ground, and in the month of June, when the broom is in full flower, a bright golden-coloured belt girts Madeira, at a height of from 3000 to 4000 feet. We beheld this golden girdle in its richest splendour, set off by the dark ma.s.ses of evergreens in the clefts. Higher up is the true region of the _Erica arborea_, which, with its light-green and _paille_ tint, contrasted with the deeper colour of the laurel, represents the underwood of our secondary mountain ranges. The _Erica arborea_ attains here the height of a large tree, and, on some spots, 30 to 40 feet of its gnarled stems stretch along the ground. Thus it may be traced, in company with other heaths, to the summit of the Pico Ruivo.

After having made some physical observations, and enjoyed a most delightful prospect, we re-packed our instruments, filled our boxes and pouches with plants and geological specimens, and prepared for our departure. The guides, despite their heavy burdens, marched steadily on, humming in plaintive cadence their native songs. We soon reached our horses, and, penetrating through layers of clouds, rapidly descended the steep mountain sides to St. Anna.