S U P P L E M E N T ,
H A V IN G unexpectedly procured a letter to the Vicar of
Canipal, about fifteen miles from Funchal, and the last village
towards the eastern end of the island, from which it is not much
more than three miles distant, I hastened to explore its eastern
environs. I quitted Funchal at half past three in the morning, but
did not arrive at Canipal until mid-day, having'been detained at
Machico. It is a small and scattered assemblage of miserable
huts, like a Hottentot kraal, into.'which the inhabitants seem to
creep for shelter rather than comfort. I surprised the good
vicar intent on his only book, the Filosqfia, moral, in a small but
dry room, tacked on to the church, and reached by a flight of
steps, as if it were the belfty. H d received me very kindly,
covered his little table with excellent'bread and cheese, wines, and
marmalade, and ordered an intelligent, active lad to accompany
me in my ramble .towards Porto Lourenp o.
We had followed a rough track, on the margin of shallow cliffs
of alternations of tufa and basalt, for about a mile and a half, when
we reached a depression, more like a basin than a plain, covered
with a deep bed of loose and agglutinated sand. These sands
have in some degree been fixed or bound by the numerous branches
of forest-trees which they have enveloped; for these branches
(which hate preserved their lateral twigs) are so numerous, that
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