16 MADEIRA. 
in some places. The Madeira ponies were obliged to leap from rock 
to rock, frequently at an angle of 45° with the horizon. The lover 
of the picturesque will be amply gratified by pursuing the same 
route. 
Another party, consisting of Messrs. Hale, Eld, Dana, and Holmes, 
went towards the east end of the island, as far as Canical, beyond 
Machico, to examine a bed of fossils, said to exist there. This proved 
to be a bed or deposit of coral, which will be spoken of in the 
Geological Report. 
Passing through Machico, they saw and visited the small church 
or chapel, said to have been erected over the graves of the lovers, 
Anna d'Arfet and Robert Machim, the story of whose love and 
sufferings has long since been placed among the fabulous, though 
still credited in Madeira. 
As their adventures are supposed to have led to the discovery of 
this island, it may be as well to give the history of them a place 
here, as recorded by Alcoforado. 
It is as follows : 
"In the reign of Edward the Third of England, Robert Machim, 
an English gentleman, became the lover of the beautiful Anna 
d'Arfet. It was long before their mutual attachment was known. 
When it became so, Machim's imprisonment was procured by the 
influence of her family for his presuming to aspire to the hand 
of one so much above his rank. During his confinement, Anna 
d'Arfet had been forced into a marriage with a nobleman, who 
confined her in his castle near Bristol. By the assistance of a 
friend, Machim escaped, and induced her to elope with him, to seek 
an asylum in France. They sailed during a storm, which pre- 
vented them from gaining their intended port, and after many days 
of anxiety and suffering, they found themselves in sight of land 
clothed with the richest vegetation, and wild flowers in the greatest 
profusion. They determined to disembark, and experienced a 
climate of surpassing beauty, with birds of the gayest plumage. 
Whilst wandering a few days about in this paradise, there came on 
a violent storm which drove the vessel from the island. This was 
too great a shock for poor Anna, and she died soon after of a broken 
heart. Robert did not long survive her and died, uttering as a last 
request that he might be laid in the same grave with his mistress, in 
a chapel which they had erected in commemoration of their deliver- 
ance from shipwreck. From the survivors, Alcoforado is said to have 
