72 EXCURSIONS IN MADEIRA 



CHAPTER III. 



Visit to Porto Santo. — Storj/ of Machim. — Sharks. — Insects. — Moi'- 

 gados. — Histoiy of Baker. — Landing at Porto Santo. — Governor s 

 house. — Governor andfamilt/. — Formation of Porto Santo. — Baxo. 

 — Productions of Porto Santo. 



I AVAILED myself of an excellent opportunity of visiting 

 Porto Santo ; to have hired a boat expressly would have been out 

 of the question, although I should not have hesitated a moment 

 to have done so, under different circumstances. A Genoese who 

 had estabhshed liimself as a baker at Fvinchal, having previously 

 hved as cook in the Consul's family, freighted a boat to Porto 

 Santo with flour, salt-fish, and pickled beef, with which he was 

 going to open the the first shop that had ever been seen in Porto 

 Santo; a memorable event, or rather epoch, as he considered it, 

 in the history of that island. This man having once visited 

 Morocco in the suite of a Swedish Consul, and speaking Arabic, 

 professed a kindred feeling for me as an African traveller, and 

 generously offered me a free passage to Porto Santo. Our first 

 effort was unfortunate ; we quitted Funchal at midnight, and 

 from the tempestuous weather, were glad to put into Machico the 

 next evening. 



I hastened to visit the church, raised in commemoration of the 



