aid to extend as far as pictorial
art can succeed in conveying foreign objects to our firesides.
We are indebted for our Engraving to this valuable work.

To economize time and space we must quit this enchanting spot. Gondolas,
like those at Venice, are used on the river, but will not suffice for
our celerity. We must reach at once the point of our Engraving. The view
is taken from Villa Nova, an important suburb of Oporto, on the opposite
bank of the river. The city may be divided into the high and the low
town. It contains, in a civil sense, five wards, or _bairros_, of which
the Se, or cathedral hill, and the Vittoria, or height opposite to the
Se, (and crowned by a church, which was founded in commemoration of a
celebrated battle fought on the spot with the Moors, which terminated in
their defeat and expulsion from the place,) form the town properly
called Oporto; and it is possible still to trace the remains of the old
wall, which formerly surrounded and defended the place. The three other
quarters, San Idelfonso, Miragaya, and Villa Nova, are open. The latter
is connected with the principal town by a bridge of boats, which is so
badly constructed as to be scarcely able to sustain the violent power of
the river when swelled by winter torrents. The Douro, like the Rhine and
the Rhone, and all other rivers which flow through a rocky and often
confined channel, commits at certain seasons the greatest ravages; and
property to a considerable amount is annually lost at Oporto, by the
irresistible force with which the river pours down and carries every
thing before it. A bridge of granite has been long talked of to connect
Villa Nova and Oporto, but the funds are not yet forthcoming, and the
expense will be considerable.

The Engraving represents the most ancient part of the city of Oporto. We
are here directly fronting the bishop's palace, which, with the Se, or
Cathedral,[4] and buildings, to the left, occupy the crest of the hill.
Further left is the steeple of the church dos Clerigos, said to be the
loftiest in Portugal after that of Mafra. This tower is visible from the
sea at a distance of ten leagues, and serves as an important landmark
for ships steering to the mouth of the Douro. It was erected in the year
1748, and is built entirely of the finest masonry, an art in which the
Portuguese are almost unrivalled. On the summit of the hill to the
right, touching the old walls and towers, is the convent of Sant