AND PORTO SANTO. 131 



where TIE inches is the computed quantity''. The rainy season 

 of Madeira may be said to comprehend tlie months of October, 

 November, December, and January, although the intervals of fair 

 weather, during the two former months, generally exceed the 

 periods of rain. This season is ushered in by the cessation of the 

 north-east breeze, frequent calms, a prevalence of westerly 



^ In October, 1809, there was a very disastrous flood in Madeira. There had been 

 no rain for several months, and the rivers or torrents were almost dry. The rain did 

 not begin before mid-day, continued incessantly, and at eight o'clock the torrents 

 came down, swept away all the bridges, but one (on which the surveyor had built his 

 own house), and carried away several houses, with the inhabitants in them, vainly 

 imploring relief from the windows; the lower parts being full of water, it was im- 

 possible to force the doors, and before ladders could be applied, the houses went to 

 pieces, and the unfortunate people were lost. One house was carried into the sea, 

 and seen there entire for some minutes, with the lights in the upper windows. Accord- 

 ing to the confession-lists of the priests, not more than 300 persons were lost, but 

 as the principal mischief happened in a quarter of the town inhabited by sailors 

 (among whom were a great many foreigners, it being war time) and prostitutes, 

 who were never on the confession-lists, the total loss of lives must have been upwards 

 of 400. The streets were choked with ruins and heaps of dead oxen, sheep, and 

 domestic animals: the church doors were blockaded with bodies, laid there to be 

 owned, and accumulating as they cleared the streets ; some apparently retaining 

 sparks of life, but neglected and allowed to expire in the general panic and bustle. 

 They were all burned afterwards, and all the pitch and tar put in requisition to fumi- 

 gate the streets by bonfires. It is said to have been scarcely less distressing to view 

 the despondence which for days pervaded almost the whole of the lower classes ; 

 they believed it was the end of the world, and would make no exertion, but remained 

 like statues until roused by the renewal of the rain, when they ran from their houses; 

 some rushing through the crowd with torches, others rolhng over each other in the 

 darkness of the night, many returning in despair, unable to find a retreat. The 

 peasantry flocked to Funchal, thinking the calamity had been confined to the country, 

 and met the flying townspeople on their way. One good, however, resulted, for the 

 quantity of earth carried into the sea diminished the soundings and anchorage of the 

 harbour several fathoms. From the breaking up and transport of large pieces of 

 ground in the interior, it would seem, that a water-spout had burst there, caused 

 probably, by two contrary currents of air giving a rotatory motion to the mass of air 

 which separated them. 



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