uantity of the wine: An instance
of the force of habit, which is the more extraordinary, as they have
adopted the practice of engrafting with respect to their chestnut-trees,
an object of much less importance, which, however, are thus brought to
bear sooner than they would otherwise have done.[63]

[Footnote 63: The censure passed on the carelessness of the people of
Madeira as to the manufacture of their wine, does not now apply; for,
according to Mr Barrow, who touched here in his voyage to Cochin China,
(an account of which appeared in 1806) the care and pains used in
choosing the freshest and ripest grapes only for the wine-press, are
almost incredible. Madeira exports about 15,000 pipes of wine yearly, of
which not one-third part comes to England--about 5500 pipes are taken
out to India.--E.]

We saw no wheel-carriages of any sort in the place, which perhaps was
not more owing to the want of ingenuity to invent them, than to the want
of industry to mend the roads, which, at that time, it was impossible
that any wheel-carriage should pass: The inhabitants had horses and
mules indeed, excellently adapted to such ways; but their wine,
notwithstanding, was brought to town from the vineyards where it was
made, in vessels of goat-skins, which were carried by men upon their
heads. The only imitation of a carriage among these people was a board,
made somewhat hollow in the middle, to one end of which a pole was tied,
by a strap of whit-leather: This wretched sledge approached about as
treat to an English cart, as an Indian canoe to a ship's long-boat; and
even this would probably never have been thought of, if the English had
not introduced wine vessels, which are too big to be carried by hand,
and which, therefore, were dragged about the town upon these machines.

One reason, perhaps, why art and industry have done so little for
Madeira is, nature's having done so much. The soil is very rich, and
there is such a difference of climate between the plains and the hills,
that there is scarcely a single object of luxury that grows either in
Europe or the Indies, that might not be produced here. When we went to
visit Dr Heberden, who lived upon a considerable ascent, about two miles
from town, we left the thermometer at 74; and when we arrived at his
house, we found it at 66. The hills produce, almost spontaneously,
walnuts, chesnuts, and apples in great abundance; and in the town there
are many plants which are the natives b