88 Voyage of the Novara. 



in London, two steamers of war, the Salamander and Hesper^ 

 with provisions, medicine, clothing, bedding, and money, were 

 despatched to Funchal, where the former arrived on the 

 18th and the latter on the 31st of October, 1856. This 

 assistance essentially contributed to the rapid extinction of 

 the epidemic, as it sufficed to relieve the more pressing 

 wants." Considerable contributions arrived also from the 

 United States ; and, according to public statements, the relief 

 that came from foreign countries amounted to £8895. 



The commerce of the island was, as a matter of course, 

 seriously affected by such a train of calamities. The principal 

 exports had hitherto consisted of wine, cattle, fruit, and 

 wicker-work ; the first and most important of these articles — 

 wine — had, as already stated, all but entirely disappeared from 

 the list for several years, the small quantities still exported 

 being merely the remnants of old stocks. 



According to custom-house registers, the entire value of 

 the produce exported in 1851 amounted to £l64,960, of which 

 £96,950 were shipped in English, £26,500 in American, and 

 £16,650 in Portuguese vessels. The exports of 1855 were 

 only £95,470, and in 1855, when the wine export had entirely 

 ceased, the value did not exceed £2400! 



The imports were of a more numerous and varied description; 

 calico, cotton and woollen goods, hardware, spices and provisions 

 from England j timber, salt meat, and other articles from the 



• Oltl clu'onicles report that Madeii-a has been ^dsitecl by a pestileutial disease, 

 that raged witliin the years 1521 to 1535. But the cholera was never in the island 

 before the yeai* ISofi. The yellow fever is altogctlier unknown. 



