100 EXCURSIONS IN MADEIRA 



my way through the crowd of servants which are in attendance in 

 the halls and door-ways on these ocsasions, I was much entertained 

 with the anxious gestures of small parties of the palanquin bearers, 

 who had squatted themselves in different corners, playing with 

 dirty packs of cards, for the very hire they were not to receive 

 until the next morning. But I have as much kindness as pleasure 

 to acknowledge, when speaking of the elegant entertainments of 

 the Portuguese of the first class, the liberal hospitality of my 

 own countrymen settled in Madeira, has long been proverbially 

 well known. 



