a cluster of islands situated in the Atlantic ocean in W. Long. 16°, and between 32° and 33° N. Lat.—The largest of them, called Madeira, from which the rest take their name, is about 55 English miles long, and 40 miles broad; and was first discovered on the 2d of July, in the year 1419, by Joao Gonzales Zarco, there being no historical foundation for the fabulous report of its discovery by one Machin an Englishman. It is divided into two capitaniarias, named Funchal and Maxico, from the towns Madeiras, of those names. The former contains two judicatures, viz. Funchal and Calhetta; the latter being a town with the title of a county, belonging to the family of Castello Melhor. The second capitania likewise comprehends two judicatures, viz. Maxico (read Maxico) and San Vicente.
Funchal is the only cidade or city in this island, which has also seven villas or towns; of which there are four, Calhetta, Camara de Lobos, Ribeira Braba, and Ponta de Sol in the capitania of Funchal, which is divided into 26 parishes. The other three are in the capitania of Maxico, which consists of 17 parishes; these towns are called Maxico, San Vicente, and Santa Cruz.
The governor is at the head of all the civil and military departments of this island, of Porto-Santo, the Salvages, and the Ilhas Desertas; which last only contain the temporary huts of some fishermen, who resort thither in pursuit of their business.
The law-department is under the corregidor, who is appointed by the king of Portugal, commonly sent from Lisbon, and holds his place during the king's pleasure. All causes come to him from inferior courts by appeal. Each judicature has a senate; and a Juiz or judge, whom they choose, presides over them. At Funchal he is called Juiz da Fora; and in the absence, or after the death of the corregidor, acts as his deputy. The foreign merchants elect their own judges, called the Provosts; who is at the same time collector of the king's customs and revenues, which amount in all to about 12,000l. Sterling. Far the greatest part of this sum is applied towards the salaries of civil and military officers, the pay of troops, and the maintenance of public buildings. This revenue arises, first from the tenth of all the produce of this island belonging to the king, by virtue of his office as grand master of the order of Christ; secondly, from ten per cent. duties laid on all imports, provisions excepted; and lastly, from the eleven per cent. charged on all exports.
The island has but one company of regular soldiers of 100 men: the rest of the military force is a militia consisting of 3000 men, divided into companies, each commanded by a captain, who has one lieutenant under him and one ensign. There is no pay given to either the private men or the officers of this militia; and yet their places are much sought after, on account of the rank which they communicate. These troops are embodied once a-year, and exercised once a-month. All the military are commanded by the Serjeante Mor. The governor has two Capitanos de Sal about him, who do duty as aides-de-camp.
The secular priests on the island are about 1200, many of whom are employed as private tutors. Since the expulsion of the Jesuits, no regular public school is to be found here; unless we except a seminary, where a priest, appointed for that purpose, instructs and educates ten students at the king's expense. These wear a red cloak over the usual black gowns worn by ordinary students. All those who intend to go into orders, are obliged to qualify themselves by studying in the university of Coimbra, lately re-established in Portugal. There is also a dean and chapter at Madeira, with a bishop at their head, whose income Madeiras. income is considerably greater than the governor's; it consists of 110 pipes of wine, and of 40 mugs of wheat, each containing 24 bushels; which amounts in common years to 3000l. Sterling. Here are likewise 60 or 70 Franciscan friars, in four monasteries, one of which is at Funchal. About 300 nuns live on the island, in four convents, of the order of Mercy, Sta. Clara, Incarnacion, and Bom Jesus. Those of the last mentioned institution may marry whenever they choose, and leave their monastery.
In the year 1768, the inhabitants living in the 43 parishes of Madeira, amounted to 63,913, of whom there were 31,341 males and 32,572 females. But in that year 5243 persons died, and no more than 2198 children were born; so that the number of the dead exceeded that of the born by 3,045. It is highly probable that some epidemical distemper carried off so disproportionate a number in that year, as the island would shortly be entirely depopulated if the mortality were always equal to this. Another circumstance concurs to strengthen this supposition, namely, the excellence of the climate. The weather is in general mild and temperate: in summer, the heat is very moderate on the higher parts of the island, whither the better sort of people retire for that season; and in the winter the snow remains there for several days, whilst it is never known to continue above a day or two in the lower parts.
The common people of this island are of a tawny colour, and well shaped; though they have large feet, owing perhaps to the efforts they are obliged to make in climbing the craggy paths of this mountainous country. Their faces are oblong, their eyes dark; their black hair naturally falls in ringlets, and begins to crisp in some individuals, which may perhaps be owing to intermarriages with negroes; in general, they are hard-featured, but not disagreeable. Their women are too frequently ill-favoured, and want the florid complexion, which, when united to a pleasing assemblage of regular features, gives our northern fair ones the superiority over all their sex. They are small, have prominent cheek-bones, large feet, an ungraceful gait, and the colour of the darkest brunette. The just proportion of the body, the fine form of their hands, and their large, lively eyes, seem in some measure to compensate for those defects. The labouring men, in summer, wear linen trousers, a coarse shirt, a large hat, and boots; some have a short jacket made of cloth, and a long cloak, which they sometimes carry over their arm. The women wear a petticoat, and a short corselet or jacket, closely fitting their shapes, which is a simple, and often not an elegant dress. They have also a short, but wide cloak; and those that are unmarried tie their hair on the crown of their head, on which they wear no covering.
The country people are exceeding sober and frugal; their diet in general consisting of bread and onions, or other roots, and little animal-food. However, they avoid eating tripe, or any offals, because it is proverbially said of a very poor man, "He is reduced to eat tripe." Their common drink is water, or an infusion of the remaining rind or skin of the grape (after it has passed through the wine-pres), which when fermented acquires some tartness and acidity, but cannot be kept very long. The wine for which the Madeiras, island is so famous, and which their own hands prepare, seldom if ever regales them.
Their principal occupation is the planting and raising of vines; but as that branch of agriculture requires little attendance during the greatest part of the year, they naturally incline to idleness. The warmth of the climate, which renders great provision against the inclemencies of weather unnecessary, and the ease with which the cravings of appetite are satisfied, must tend to indolence, wherever the regulations of the legislature do not counteract it, by endeavouring, with the prospect of increasing happiness, to infuse the spirit of industry. It seems the Portuguese government does not pursue the proper methods against this dangerous lethargy of the state. They have lately ordered the plantation of olive trees here, on such spots as are too dry and barren to bear vines; but they have not thought of giving temporary assistance to the labourers, and have offered no premium by which these might be induced to conquer their reluctance to innovations and aversion to labour.
The vineyards are held only on an annual tenure, and the farmer reaps but four-tenths of the produce, since four other tenths are paid in kind to the owner of the land, one tenth to the king, and one to the clergy. Such small profits, joined to the thought of toiling merely for the advantage of others, if improvements were attempted, entirely preclude the hopes of a future increase. Oppressed as they are, they have however preserved a high degree of cheerfulness and contentment; their labours are commonly alleviated with songs, and in the evening they assemble from different cottages to dance to the drowsy music of a guitar.
The inhabitants of the towns are more ill-favoured than the country-people, and often pale and lean. The men wear French clothes, commonly black, which do not seem to fit them, and have been in fashion in the polite world about half a century ago. Their ladies are delicate, and have agreeable features; but the characteristic jealousy of the men still locks them up, and deprives them of a happiness which the country-women, amidst all their difficulties, enjoy. Many of the better people are a sort of petite noblesse, which we would call gentry, whose genealogical pride makes them unsociable and ignorant, and causes a ridiculous affectation of gravity. The landed property is in the hands of a few ancient families, who live at Funchal, and in the various towns on the island.
Madeira consists of one large mountain, whose branches rise everywhere from the sea towards the centre of the island, converging to the summit, in the midst of which is a depression or excavation, called the Val by the inhabitants, always covered with a fresh and delicate herbage. The stones on the island seem to have been in the fire, are full of holes, and of a blackish colour; in short, the greater part of them are lava. A few of them are of the kind which the Derbyshire miners call dunstone. The soil of the whole island is a tarra mixed with some particles of clay, lime, and sand, and has much the same appearance as some earths on the isle of Ascension. From this circumstance, and from the excavation of the summit of the mountain, it is probable, that in some remote period a volcano has produced the lava and the ochreous particles, and that the Val was formerly its crater.
Many brooks and small rivulets descend from the summits in deep chasms or glens, which separate the various parts of the island. The beds of the brooks are in some places covered with stones of all sizes, carried down from the higher parts by the violence of winters rains or floods of melted snow. The water is conducted by dikes and channels in the vineyards, where each proprietor has the use of it for a certain time; some being allowed to keep a constant supply of it, some to use it thrice, others twice, and others only once a-week. As the heat of the climate renders this supply of water to the vineyards absolutely necessary, it is not without great expense that a new vineyard can be planted; for the maintenance of which, the owners must purchase water at a high price, from those who are constantly supplied, and are thus enabled to spare some of it.
Wherever a level piece of ground can be contrived in the higher hills, the natives make plantations of eddoes enclosed by a kind of dike to cause a stagnation, as that plant succeeds best in swampy ground. Its leaves serve as food for hogs, and the country-people use the roots for their own nourishment.
The sweet potatoe is planted for the same purpose, and makes a principal article of diet; together with chestnuts, which grow in extensive woods, on the higher parts of the island, where the vine will not thrive. Wheat and barley are likewise sown, especially in spots where the vines are decaying through age, or where they are newly planted. But the crops do not produce above three months provisions; and the inhabitants are therefore obliged to have recourse to other food, besides importing considerable quantities of corn from North America in exchange for wine. The want of manure, and the inactivity of the people, are in some measure the causes of this disadvantage; but supposing husbandry to be carried to its perfection here, they could not raise corn sufficient for their consumption. They make their threshing-floors of a circular form, in a corner of a field, which is cleared and beaten solid for the purpose. The sheaves are laid round about it; and a square board, stuck full of sharp flints below, is dragged over them by a pair of oxen, the driver getting on it to increase its weight. This machine cuts the straw as if it had been chopped, and frees the grain from the husk, from which it is afterwards separated.
The great produce of Madeira is the wine, from which it has acquired fame and support. Where the soil, exposure, and supply of water, will admit of it, the vine is cultivated. One or more walks, about a yard or two wide, intersect each vineyard, and are included by stone-walls two feet high. Along these walks, which are arched over with laths about seven feet high, they erect wooden pillars at regular distances, to support a lattice-work of bamboos, which slopes down from both sides of the walk, till it is only a foot and a half or two feet high, in which elevation it extends over the whole vineyard. The vines are in this manner supported from the ground, and the people have room to root out the weeds which spring up between them. In the season of the vintage, they creep under this lattice-work, cut off the grapes, Madeiras, and lay them into baskets; some bunches of these grapes weigh six pounds and upwards. This method of keeping the ground clean and moist, and ripening the grapes in the shade, contributes to give the Madeira wines that excellent flavour and body for which they are remarkable. The owners of vineyards are however obliged to allot a certain spot of ground for the growth of bamboos; for the lattice work cannot be made without them; and it is said some vineyards lie quite neglected for want of this useful reed.
The wines are not all of equal goodness, and consequently of different prices. The best, made of a wine imported from Candia by order of the Infante of Portugal, Don Henry, is called Madeira Malmsey, a pipe of which cannot be bought on the spot for less than 40 or 42l. Sterling. It is an exceeding rich sweet wine, and is only made in a small quantity. The next sort is a dry wine, such as is exported for the London market, at 32 or 31l. Sterling the pipe. Inferior sorts for the East India, West India, and North American markets, sell at 28, 25, and 20l. Sterling. About 30,000 pipes, upon a mean, are made every year, each containing 110 gallons. About 13,000 pipes of the better sorts are exported; and all the rest is made into brandy for the Brazils, converted into vinegar, or consumed at home.
The inclosures of the vineyards consist of walls, and hedges of prickly pear, pomegranates, myrtles, brambles, and wild roses. The gardens produce peaches, apricots, quinces, apples, pears, walnuts, chestnuts, and many other European fruits; together with now and then some tropical plants, such as bananas, goavas, and pine-apples.
All the common domestic animals of Europe are likewise found at Madeira; and their mutton and beef, though small, is very well tasted. Their horses are small, but sure-footed; and with great agility climb the difficult paths, which are the only means of communication in the country. They have no wheel-carriages of any kind; but in the town they use a sort of drays or sledges, formed of two pieces of plank joined by cross pieces, which make an acute angle before; these are drawn by oxen, and are used to transport casks of wine, and other heavy goods, to and from the warehouses.
The animals of the feathered tribe, which live wild here, are more numerous than the wild quadrupeds; there being only the common grey rabbit here, as a representative of the last-mentioned class. Tame birds, such as turkeys, geese, ducks, and hens, are very rare, which is perhaps owing to the scarcity of corn.
There are no snakes whatsoever in Madeira; but all the houses, vineyards, and gardens, swarm with lizards. The friars of one of the convents complained to Mr Forster, that these vermin destroyed the fruit in their garden; they had therefore placed a brass-kettle in the ground to catch them, as they are constantly running about in quest of food. In this manner they daily caught hundreds, which could not get out on account of the smooth sides of the kettle, but were forced to perish.
The shores of Madeira, and of the neighbouring Salvages and Desertas, are not without fish; but as they are not in plenty enough for the rigid observance of Lent, pickled herrings are brought from Gottenburg in English bottoms, and salted cod from New York and other American ports, to supply the deficiency.