12 ENGLAND TO RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. I 
not settle their genera, particularly those called by the 
Portuguese mirmulano and pao branco,' both which, and 
especially the first, from the beauty of their leaves, promise 
to be a great ornament to our European gardens. 
The inhabitants here are supposed to number about 
80,000, and from the town of Funchiale (its custom- 
house I mean) the King of Portugal receives £20,000 a 
year, after having paid the Governor and all expenses of 
every kind, which may serve to show in some degree of 
what consequence this little island is to the Crown of 
Portugal. Were it in the hands of any other people in the 
world its value might easily be doubled from the excellence 
of its climate, capable of bearing any kind of crop, a cir- 
cumstance of which the Portuguese do not take the least 
advantage. 
The coin current here is entirely Spanish, for the balance 
of trade with Lisbon being in disfavour of this island, all the 
Portuguese money naturally goes there, to prevent which 
Spanish money is allowed to pass; it is of three denomina- 
tions, pistereens, bitts, and half bitts, the first worth about 
a shilling, the second 6d, the third 3d. They have also 
copper Portuguese money, but it is so scarce that I did not 
in my stay there see a single piece. 
18¢h. This evening got under weigh. 
20th. Took with the casting-net a most beautiful species 
of Medusa of a colour equalling, if not exceeding, the finest 
ultramarine ; it was described and called Medusa azwrea. 
23rd. A fish was taken which was described and called 
Scomber serpens ; the seamen said they had never seen it 
before, except the first lieutenant, who remembered to have 
taken one before just about these islands. Sir Hans Sloane # 
in his passage out-to Jamaica also took one of these fish, 
and gives a figure of it (vol. i. t. i. f. 2). 
24th. This morning the Pike [of Teneriffe] appeared very 
plainly, and immensely high above the clouds, as may well. 
1 Probably Apollonias canariensis, Nees; and Oreodaphne fetens, Nees. 
® Here Banks has a list of 18 Madeiran fish and 299 plants. 
° For notes on the naturalists and travellers mentioned throughout the 
Journal, see pp. xliii,-li. 
