y^2 The National Geographic Magazine 



The Open Roadstead of Funchal 



The port of call for steamers from South Africa, South America, Europe, North America, 

 and the Mediterranean. One of the most cosmopolitan anchorages in the world 



runner behind, as the car shoots down at 

 break-neck pace over the cobblestones. 

 The men yell, hens and dogs scamper, 

 foot passengers cling close to the wall of 

 the narrow street, the runners get hot 

 and fill the air with odor of burning 

 wood, as 3'ou shoot around sharp corners, 

 down the busy thoroughfare, past gor- 

 geous masses of flowering creepers, 

 which hang over the walls of the private 

 villas that border your street. 



But oh the change when you get to 

 the bottom ! You are obliged either to 

 walk or take a carro, slowest of all slow 

 vehicles, drawn by slow-moving bullocks, 

 squeaking" and slipping over the stones, 

 now shoved by main strength of the driv- 

 ers away from the curb, now jolting over 

 unusually bad bits of cobblestones, until at 

 a snail's pace you reach your destination. 



The Portuguese island of Madeira, 

 though lying in the latitude of Charleston, 



is almost tropical in character. On the 

 seacoast no freezes occur, and all but the 

 ultra-tropical plants grow luxuriantly in 

 the open air with ordinary care. The 

 English residents have amused them- 

 selves with their gardens and have intro- 

 duced a host of things that now add to 

 the beauty of the island. They lay trib- 

 ute, as it were, on the steamers as they 

 anchor in the little roadstead from all 

 parts of the world, getting from them all 

 sorts of strange plants and animals, and 

 they are sending to remote regions gifts 

 of plants from their collections. 



I know of no other place in the world 

 where one can so sit under the shade of 

 his own arbor and watch the steamers 

 as they come and go to all parts of the 

 world. This one weighing anchor for 

 Pernambuco, just as the smoke of a 

 South African cattle-boat is visible on the 

 horizon. New York and San Francisco 



