associations are all poetry, I have a higher taste,
and more discriminating eye? One object never palls--that ocean where
the Almighty "Glasses himself in tempests," or over which the gentle
wings of peace seem to brood. The feeling that there was a change,
however, either in the scene or in me, was so strong, that I ran to my
cabin and sought out a sketch I had made in 1809. I compared it with the
town. Every point of the hill, every house was the same, and again Nossa
Senhora da Monte, with her brilliant white towers shining from on high
through the evening cloud, seemed to sanctify the scene, while a few
rough voices from the shore and the neighbouring ships chaunted the Ave
Maria.

Early in the morning of the 19th, we took a large party of the
midshipmen on shore to enjoy the young pleasure of walking on a foreign
land. To them it was new to see the palm, the cypress, and the yucca,
together with the maize, banana, and sugar-cane, surrounded by
vineyards, while the pine and chesnut clothe the hills. We mounted the
boys on mules, and rode up to the little parish church, generally
mistaken for a convent, called Nossa Senhora da Monte. My maid and I
went in a bad sort of palankeen, though convenient for these roads,
which are the worst I have seen; however, the view made up for the
difficulty of getting to it. The sea with the Desertas bounded the
prospect: below us lay the roadstead and shipping, the town and gardens,
and the hill clothed with vineyards and trees of every climate, which
deck the ashy tufa, or compact basalt of which the whole island seems to
be composed. Purchas, who like Bowles, believes the story of the
discovery of Madeira by the Englishman Masham and his dying mistress,
says, that shortly after that event, the woods having taken fire burned
so fiercely, that the inhabitants were forced out to sea to escape from
the flames. The woods, however, are again pretty thick, and some
inferior mahogany among it is used for furniture. The pine is too soft
for most purposes. In the gardens we found a large blue hydrangea very
common: the fuschia is the usual hedge. Mixed with that splendid shrub,
aloes, prickly pear, euphorbia, and cactus, serve for the coarser
fences; and these strange vegetables, together with innumerable lizards
and insects, tell us we are nearing the tropics.

We spent a very happy day at the hospitable country house of Mr.
Wardrope, and our cavalcade to the town at night was delightful