Funchal and its Gardens 



" Houses with long white sweep 

 Girdle the glistening bay ; 

 Behind through the soft air 

 The blue haze-cradled mountains spread away." 



Like the Garden of Eden (which, but for his 

 selection of the Seychelles, General Gordon 

 might very well have located in this island), it 

 owns four rivers ; yet none of them at all 

 resembles the Euphrates. In their lower 

 course through the town they usually contain 

 very little water, much having been carried 

 off higher up by the kvadas^ or open canals, 

 which supply water for domestic purposes, and 

 to irrigate the fields ; they are much used for 

 washing clothes, and (illegally) as receptacles 

 for rubbish. But if heavy rains fall in the hills 

 — and when it really rains there is no doubt 

 about it — then their channels become roaring 

 torrents, and the dirt they bring down will 

 colour the sea for a long distance. It happened 

 once that a barrel of permanganate of potash 

 was accidentally dropped into the Sta. Luzia 

 river at a sugar mill above the town. It 

 converted it into a stream resembling Condy's 

 fluid, and the washerwomen ran through the 

 streets screaming that the water had turned to 



27 



