Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



State is peculiarly responsible. And if steamers 

 ceased to call, and foreigners absented them- 

 selves, the large number of people which lives 

 on traffic with them, directly or indirectly, 

 would be face to face with starvation. Yet 

 years roll on and nothing very dreadful happens, 

 and little in the way of sanitary improvement 

 is carried out, in spite of much talk about 

 it. But the underlying nervousness is always 

 there. 



On our arrival here in December, 1905, we 

 were told that a few cases of plague were said 

 to have occurred ; *' but," added our informant, 

 "it isn't plague, it's all politics." The word 

 " politics " here is of wider application than 

 with us ; it may truly be said to cover a 

 multitude of sins. After some perplexity 

 we discovered the suggestion to be that the 

 authorities thought an epidemic would be a 

 help to a water scheme they were urging on 

 the Lisbon Government, on the principle of 

 getting up a war-scare to carry naval votes. 

 But this seems to have been a libel. In fact, 

 the existence of plague was never officially 

 admitted ; the disease if it existed, and what- 

 ever it was, was described as "infectious fever." 



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