chap, iv.] ENGLISH POSSESSION. 67 



landing in the bay of Praya Formosa, and, after a short 

 struggle on the part of the inhabitants, made themselves 

 masters of the city. On the first alarm, a small Mate* had 

 succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the pirates, and making 

 its way with the news to Lisbon. The inhabitants fled from the 

 town, leaving it to be sacked by the invaders ; much gold and 

 silver and many jewels were collected together, and the three 

 vessels sailed away at the end of fifteen days with their spoil, 

 just before the long wished-for succour arrived from Lisbon. 



MADEIRA PASSES INTO THE DOMINION OF SPAIN. 



Dom Sabastiao was killed in battle, in Africa, in the year 

 1578, and in the year 1580 the Philips began to govern in 

 Portugal ; Madeira fell, with the mother country, under the 

 dominion of Spain : one governor was appointed by its new 

 masters over the whole island, to whom sole authority was 

 given in the administration of public affairs. The donatorios 

 were not deprived of their rights in matters of revenue, and 

 the governor was paid by the crown. The Spanish rule, 

 however, bore heavily on commerce, and it was not till that 

 yoke was shaken off under Dom Joao IV. in 1640 that trade 

 revived and the island recovered its prosperity. 



ENGLISH POSSESSION. 



From this time no political event of importance seems to 

 have occurred in the history of the colony, till the English, in 

 the year 1801, under Clinton, and again in 1807, under 

 Beresford, to prevent the danger of French occupation, at a 

 crisis when the rights of neutrals were little respected, took 

 the island under their protection, and the Union Jack for a 

 short time waved from its forts. 



* A sort of " fore and aft" rigged vessel. 



