TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



^ 



Madeira.* According to the historian Lemos Faria 

 e Castro, one hundred and fifty sugar-houses (en- 

 genhos) furnislied annually sixty thousand arrobas 

 of sugar as the royal fifth (quinto).'f But when the 

 far greater fertility of the Portuguese colonies in 

 America was known, the cultivation of the sugar- 

 cane in Madeira gradually ceased. The yam (in- 

 kama} was brought hither soon after the dicovery 

 of the New World, and is now one the most com- 

 mon articles of food, which is more planted than 

 the potatoe, in sloping grounds, which may easily 

 be watered. When the island was given up to the 

 family of the Da Camaras, as donataries, they began 

 to favour especially the growth of the vine, which 

 was likewise first introduced here from the Grecian 

 archipelago, by Prince Henry. The culture of the 

 vine increased so rapidly, that a hundred and fifty 

 years ago, it was the most important occupation of 

 the inhabitants of the colony. Most of the grapes 

 are white, of a longish shape; and the most esteemed 

 is that called Verdelho.t The management of the 

 vines is so far different from that in Portugal that 

 they are planted on stony ground, exposed to the 

 sun, and trained over wooden lattices, several feet 

 high; they form an agreeable arcade, under which 



* Hartmann Schedel liber Chronicarum. edit. Anton Ko- 

 burger, 1493, p. 390. 



f Historia geral de Portugal. Lisb. 8vo. torn. vi. p. 184. 



X John Williams, in Transact, of the London Horticultural 

 Society, vol. ii. p. 106. 



H 



