a house of devotion, presented to our
contemplation a rendezvous for intrigue and the retirement of a
conversazione.

Funchiale or Funchal, takes its derivation from Funcho, signifying in the
Portuguese language, Fennel; it is situated at the bottom of a bay, and may
be considered disproportionate to the island, in extent and appearance, as
it is ill built, and the streets remarkably narrow and ill paved. The
churches are decorated with ornaments, and pictures of images and saints,
most wretchedly executed: I understand, however, that a much better taste
is displayed in the convents, more especially that of the Franciscans, in
which is a small chapel, exhibiting the disgusting view of human skulls and
thigh bones lining its walls. The thigh bones form a cross, and the skulls
are placed in each of the four angles.

Nature has been very bountiful in her favours to Madeira; its soil is rich
and various, and its climate is salubrious and versatile; it abounds in
natural productions, and only requires the fostering hand of the husbandman
to produce every necessary, and almost luxury, of life. Walnuts, chesnuts,
and apples, flourish in the hills, almost spontaneously, and guanas,
mangoes, and bananas, in wild exuberance. At the country residence of James
Gordon, Esq. where we dined, and met with the most distinguished
hospitality, I saw a most surprising instance of rapid growth; a shoot of
the tree, called the Limbriera Royal, started up, perpendicularly from the
trunk, to a height of nearly _thirty feet_, from the month of January to
that of October: it is, however, to be observed, that the branches were
lopped off, and it is supposed the juices of the trunk communicated to this
stem.

Corn of a very good quality grows in this island, and might be produced in
plenty, but the inhabitants, whose characteristic is idleness, neglect its
culture, and thereby subject themselves to the necessity of relying upon
foreign imports. Their beef, mutton, and pork, are remarkably good, and
they have game in the mountains.

By order of the late governor, in 1800, the population was taken from the
confessional returns, and, as he was himself a bishop, it may be inferred
that the number stated below, which I procured from official authority, is
accurate, viz.

Number confessed, 95,000
And, calculating 1 in 10 for children under 5
years of age, the first period of their confession,
is equal to