14 PASSAGE TO MADEIRA. 



line its shores, prove this most conclusively. The northern 

 side, along which we sailed for some time, looked singularly 

 beautiful and romantic. It is one of the Azores,* or Western 

 Islands, and belongs to the Crown of Portugal. 



The next object which engrossed our attention was the im- 

 mense fields of sea -weed, so often met with to the west of the 

 group of islands just mentioned. Two great banks of this 

 singular stringy-looking weed are said to occur in the Atlantic 

 ocean. One of them is to the west of the meridian of Fayal, 

 one of the Azores ; but the location of the other has not been 

 correctly ascertained. According to Burnet, it vegetates within 

 forty degrees of latitude on each side of the equator. It 

 was known to the Phoenicians as the Weedy-Sea, and the 

 Spaniards and Portuguese call it Mar de Zaragossa. It is 

 related of Columbus, that the sailors who attended him on 

 his first voyage of discovery to America, on passing through 

 these fields of sea-weed, urged him to proceed no further on 

 the voyage, but to return home again, as they superstitiously 

 believed that this hindrance was designed by God to put a 

 stop to his wild schemes. This floating fucus is supposed to 

 be detached by storms from the submarine rocks on which it 

 is said to grow ; but that which we fished up presented all the 

 appearance of belonging to a healthy growing plant, nor could 

 I detect any roots which might have induced me to suppose 

 that it had been once attached to the rocky bottom of the 

 ocean. 



On the morning of the 18th of September, we anchored off 



* The Azores, or Western Islands, a group of nine islands in the Atlantic, between 

 25 and 30 west longitude, and 37 and 40 north latitude, were discovered in 1439, 

 by Vanderberg, a merchant of Bruges, and received their name from the number of 

 hawks found among them. The climate is favorable to human health, and the soil is 

 in general fertile, abounding in corn, grapes, oranges, lemons, and other fruits, and 

 feeding many cittle, hogs, and sheep. 



