80 EXCURSIONS IN MADEIRA 



before he could grant the audience; in which he graciously 

 permitted us to come ashore, in a place where there seemed 

 nobody but himself and the drummer to prevent us. The landing 

 is almost as bad as that at Funchal. I begged to wash myself 

 before I proceeded to the governor's, and was bowed into a stable, 

 and furnished with a decanter of water, not as the most conve- 

 nient, but as the most splendid vessel that could be immediately 

 laid hold of in the neighbourhood. The governor's house looked 

 like that of the lawyer in a small village in England; it was very 

 neat, of one story, and contained but two sitting rooms, one of 

 which, however, was spacious, and very comfortably furnished. A 

 row of cannons (some of which had fallen from their carriages, 

 whilst the others, from their monstrous touch-holes and rusty 

 condition, were emblems of peace rather than war, and fit subjects 

 for a society of antiquaries) adorned the turf before the house, 

 and a second row, in sufficiently good condition for the gunner or 

 drummer to fire a salute with some safety, was ranged in the yard. 

 We were given to understand, that we should find the Governor 

 in his library, which proved to be a small room level with the 

 court, adorned with about a dozen books, the drum, some old 

 maps of Sanson and Jansens, (more useful for giving an idea of 

 the history, than of the actual state of geography) and some rude 

 di-awings of his son's, a genteel, smart boy, about thirteen years of 

 age. His Excellency was hard at work in a cotton jacket, writing 

 despatches to Madeira; the unexpected appearance of our boat 

 having flattered him with the rare opportunity of communicating 

 the unchangeable state of tilings in Porto Santo to his superior. 

 He received me with the greatest poUteness, and begged me to 

 believe, that both he and his house were at my service, and 

 sending for the Commandant (an old man of seventy, distinguished 

 by a red edging to his great coat) charged him to order one of the 

 most inteUigent of the better class of peasantry, on his allegiance, 



