14 PASSAGE TO MADEIRA. 



which line its shores, prove this most conclusively. Tht 

 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 

 immense 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 merid- 

 ian 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 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 sub- 

 marine rocks on which it is said to grow ; but that which 

 we fished up presented all the appearance of beloDging 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 city of Funchal, in twenty-five fathoms water. The 



*The Azores, or Western Islands, a group of nine islands in the Atlantic, between 25° 

 and 30 a -west longitude and 37° and 40° north latitude, were discovered in 1439, by Van- 

 derberg, 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 cattle, hog? 

 and sheep. 



