78 EXCURSIONS IN MADEIRA 



unwilling, or more frequently unable, to pay such a sum, allows 

 the tenant to remain, and never thinks of disturbing him again. 

 It is generally thought, that | of the profits of the estate would 

 be a fair proportion for the tenant to enjoy, but surely a fixed 

 rent would be best for both parties. 



There being no appearance of a change of weather, we returned 

 the next day in a small boat to Funchal, and two days after, again 

 repaired to Machico, to join the cargo, which had been left under 

 the care of the baker's brother-in-law, who was to be the acting 

 partner in the projected commercial estabhshment at Porto Santo. 

 We sailed from Machico at four o'clock the next morning, and 

 were out all that day and the following night. My friend, the 

 Genoese, diverted the tiresomeness of our tempestuous voyage 

 with anecdotes of his life; not Hking the family trade, that of a 

 butcher, he quitted Genoa when young, and opened an earthen- 

 ware shop at Marseilles, where he made money enough to freight 

 a small vessel to Gibraltar. In this he was wrecked near Minorca, 

 where he consoled himself by marriage. In a few years, the world 

 smiled on him again, and he w as growing rich on the profits of a 

 Cabaret, but his itching to become a merchant, and to adventure 

 on the seas, ruined him a second time; his schooner was taken by 

 the French, and he was compelled to enhst in their army, then 

 in Spain, in order to regain his hberty, by deserting at the first 

 convenient opportunity. He then visited Morocco with a Swedish 

 Consul, and told marvellous stories of the outrages and excesses 

 committed with impunity by the " mad saints," who rushed into 

 the houses and bit off the ears, and other delicate morsels of young 

 children, whenever an over-nicety in their appetite prompted 

 them. He was afterwards a short time at Janina, which he 

 insisted was in a country called " true Barbary," (nor could I 

 succeed either in undeceiving or understanding him) adding, that 

 although Ali Pacha was a " second Buonaparte," yet for his part 



