chap, i.] VISIT BOAT. BEACH. — FDNCHAL. 3 



On the 31st of December, 1848, I saw four vessels come 

 on shore one after the other, and Her Majesty's corvette 

 Daphne had a narrow escape. The wind was blowing dead 

 into the bay at this time. One ship, finding she had no 

 chance of holding her ground, set all her canvas, and ran 

 herself high and dry upon the beach. Every vessel was a 

 wreck a very short time after she touched the shore, yet but 

 two lives were lost. The Loo Rock gun fired as each fresh 

 ship was driven from her anchorage. A large barque broke 

 away ; again the gun fired, and as she gradually neared the 

 strand, in spite of all her efforts, her fate seemed sealed, 

 when suddenly the wind veered round a point to the west, 

 and she sailed out amid the shouts of rejoicing of hundreds 

 of spectators on the beach. 



VISIT BOAT. 



As soon as the visit boat returns from you, if it goes with 

 flag unfurled, the sign that you are admitted to pratique, the 

 vessel is surrounded by innumerable boats, painted green, 

 white, blue, and yellow, and manned by mahogany-coloured 

 boatmen, jabbering very inharmonious Portuguese, one louder 

 than the other. 



The beach is perhaps a mile from the anchorage. When 

 you think you have but two strokes more to pull before you 

 jump on shore, the boat is suddenly twisted round stem first, 

 the men tuck up their trousers, jump into the water, and, 

 waiting for a wave, run you up high and dry on the beach. 



FUNCHAX. 



The principal town in Madeira is Funchal. The name 

 means, in Portuguese, a place set with fennel, and it is said 

 to have been so called on account of the quantity of that 



b 9 



