AT MADEIRA. 25 



ship. With what skill and strength were her ribs 

 riveted together ; what fabulous power possessed her 

 engines ; and her spars those tapering, graceful firs, 

 broken at the cap have they never braved the tempest 

 in the forests of Maine, or on the banks of the ice- 

 locked fjords of Norway? Ay, have they, and the 

 graceful deer have fed beneath their green feathery 

 plumage. The squirrels and birds have made its 

 boughs a sanctuary, and now the cruel sea, in a fit of 

 wrath, has utterly destroyed them. Ocean, lovely in 

 your rest, fearful in your passion, how unforgiving 

 are you to the poor ship that is in your angry hands, 

 although you may have bathed her sides with your 

 caresses and nursed her on your bosom ! 



However, to-day is calm, and we are promised some 

 hours ashore, to do the sights so well known to every 

 naval officer in our service, and after having done those 

 sights, bring off as much fruit as the chosen of our 

 fellow-passengers can consume. 



Madeira is truly foreign ; the black youths that 

 dive for your spare silver, the garrulous crews of shore - 

 boats, the tawdrily-dressed officials, and last, though not 

 least, the wondrous bum-boats, stocked in every nook 

 and corner with cage -birds or immense stores of semi- 

 tropical fruits, go indisputably to prove the fact. 

 Again, when you land at that disreputable ratan struc- 

 ture called a pier, for the use of which a fee is charged, 

 and you advance into the precincts of the town, well 

 might you think you had dropped into Spain when 

 that country was at her zenith of prosperity. In the 

 town there are no new houses at least, very few. Who 

 now would dream of building such wondrous balconies, 

 or expect to see the light of heaven through such 



