CHAPTER III.
Visit to Porto Santo.—Story of Machim.— Sharks.— Insects'.— Mor-
gados.—History of Baker.—Landing at Porto Santo.—Governors
home.—Governor and family.—Formation of Porto Santo.—Baxo.
—Productions of Porto Santo.
I AVAILED myself of an excellent opportunity of visiting
Porto Santo; to have hired a boat expressly would have been out
of the question, although I should not have hesitated a moment
to have done so, under different circumstances. A Genoese who
had established himself as a baker at Funchal, having previously
lived as cook in the Consul’s family, freighted -a boat to Porto
Santo with flour, salt-fish, and pickled beef, with which he was
going to open the the first shop that had. ever been seen in Porto
Santo; a memorable event,-or rather epoch, as he considered it,'
in the history of that island. This man having once visited-
Morocco in the suite of a Swedish Consul, and speaking Arabic,
professed a kindred feeling for me as an African traveller, and
generously offered me a free passage to Porto Santo. Our first
effort was unfortunate; we quitted Funchal at midnight, and
from the tempestuous weather, were glad to put into Machico the
next evening.
I hastened to visit the church, raised in commemoration of the
adventure of the unfortunate Machim; and as one or two Portuguese
scribblers have, lately thought it worth their while to
contradict this historical fact, >by mere affirmation instead of
reasoning, (to advance their pretensions to patriotism, by pushing
their antipathy to the English to the utmost) it may be as well to
observe, that the name of the town still records that of Machim;
that the altar-piece of the church (in which the remains of the
cedar cross are still preserved and shewn) is avowedly raised “ in
memoria Machim”; that the.latter.part of the adventure is the
subject of a curious old oil painting in the Government-house at
Funchal, and that the story has not only been recorded in the
first instance by the ancient Spanish and Portuguese writers8, but
8 The story is thus related by Alcafqradb: In .the reign of Edward III, Robert
Machim, an accomplished gentleman of the second degree of nobility, loved, and was
beloved,' by the beautiful . Anna d’Arfet, the daughter of a noble of the .first class.
Machim was incarcerated for his presumption, by” virtue of a royal warrant, and on
his release, endured the bitten mortification of learning, that Anna had been'forcibly
married to atinoble, who carried her to his castle, near Bristol. A friend of Machines
had.the address, to introduce, himself into the family, and became the groom of the
broken-ihearted Anna, who was thus persuaded and enabled to escape on board a
vessel with .her lover, in. the view of ending her days with him ,in France. In their
hurry and alarm they embarked without the pilot, and the season of the year being
the most unfavourable, were soon at the mercy of : a. dreadful storm. The .desired
port was. missed during the night, arid the vessel driven out to sea. After twelve
days of suffering, they discovered faint traces of land .in. the" horizon, and succeeded
in making the .spot still called Machico. ’ The exhausted Anna was conveyed on
shore ; and Machim had spent three days, in exploring the neighourbood with his
friends, when the vessel,, which they, had left in charge of the mariners, broke from
her moorings in a. storm, and was wrecked on the coast of Morocco, where the crew
were made slayes.: Anna. became, dumb with sorrow, and expired three days after.
Machim survived her, but ¡five days, enjoining his companions to bury him in the
same grave, under the venerable cedar, where they had, but a few days before, erected
a cross in acknowledgment of their happy deliverance. An inscription composed by
Machim was carved on the cross, with the request, that the next Christian who might
chance to visit the spot would erect a church there. Having performed this last sad
duty, the survivors fitted out the boat which they had drawn ashore on their landing, L