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 forget the making of a due
allowance for the prejudices of others. I t 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 pover tyi l l s 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 Vinter 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°. I t 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
noverty 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, tha t 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 London he considers as one
in twenty, is not less inaccurate in these instances than in
many other of his calculations.
The peasantry, however, like all other mountaineers, are a
strong, healthy, hardy race of men, whose chief employment
consists in the various occupations of agriculture, but more
particularly in the cultivation of the vine. When the vintage
is over, and the labours of the vineyard suspended for the
season, several hundreds may daily be seen descending the
mountain paths,, in their way to the town, with their borrachas,
or goat-skin bags of wine, slung on a stick across the
shoulder.
In all countries where little progress has been made in the
refinements of civilization, the drudgery of labour is unfairly
thrown on the weaker sex. In our excursions among the
mountains of Madeira, we observed great numbers of women,
c 2