Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



the invading Spaniards, and from the date of 

 the Jean de Bethencourt's expedition to con- 

 quer them in 1402 a century elapsed before 

 they were completely subdued. It must be 

 owned that in the stirring details of this con- 

 quest, and in the relics of these mysterious and 

 interesting people, the Canaries possess an asset 

 which Madeira with its more peaceful history 

 lacks. 



Midway between Madeira and the Canaries 

 lies a small group of three uninhabited islands, 

 the Salvages, to which a different sort of 

 interest attaches. In 1820 a dying sailor made 

 a confession that Captain Kidd, the celebrated 

 pirate, had buried a great quantity of treasure 

 there. Various attempts have been made to 

 discover it, without success ; and if the dying 

 sailor was not playing a practical joke on the 

 world he was leaving, it still remains to tempt 

 the adventurous. 



If the Romans had not shrunk from explora- 

 tion on the high seas — a curious want of enter- 

 prise considering their taste for conquest and 

 colonization ; and in the course of their wan- 

 derings had occupied Madeira, our gain would 

 perhaps be not merely that of the antiquary 



192 



