96 EXCURSIONS IN MADEIRA 



round some parcel of grocery from JFunchal), and the rising glory 

 and future greatness of the Portuguese nation. Presently, " Ughts 

 in the sala !" were announced, and after much ceremony in arrang- 

 ing the precedence, the whole party moved up stairs, preceded by 

 the solitary taper which had ihumined the assembly below. The 

 ladies were then sent for by his excellency, and entered with due 

 form, each gentleman standing erect with his chair in his hand, 

 not only on their first entree, but whenever either of them quitted 

 the room, or entered it afterwards. The female party never 

 exceeded three, the governor's lady, the commandant's (a shrewd 

 old woman), and Donna Antonia her daughter, the belle of the 

 island, who disguised a tolerable figure, by a gown resembhng a 

 Sack with sleeves to it, and a pretty face, by the free use of snuff. 

 Her conversation, however, was sprightly, and her manners pleas- 

 ing. The greatest ornament to the party was the priest, a liberal, 

 sensible man, an enthusiastic admirer of Livy, and full of interest- 

 ing information and large views on the catholic missions to 

 unciviUzed countries. He spoke French with tolerable ease, 

 substituting whole sentences of collo^iuial Latin, when he was at 

 all at a loss : his figure was commanding, and his manners very 

 dignified. The militia officers, who, as if wearied by the monotony 

 of their uniforms, looked like so many faded rainbows in their 

 plain clothes, were the most respectable proprietors and farmers 

 of the island. Their conversation, when it did not turn on the 

 cultivation of their land, which their politeness to the ladies would 

 not always allow, abounded in the most singular notions: when 1 

 admired a beautiful fragment of fibrous gi/psum, which lay in the 

 governor's room, and inquired in what part of the island it was 

 found, they observed to each other, with some surprise, that it was 

 evident that its value as a medicine was known even in my 

 country, for I could have no other object in seeking it; explaining 

 to me, that there was formerly a medical man resident in the 



