MADEIRA COLONIZED. 



133 



stream of milk into a spacious basin. They searched in vain 

 for traces of either inhabitants or cattle. The abundance of 

 building-wood which the island furnished suggested the name 

 of Madeira ; and a tract covered with fennel (funcha) marked 

 the site of the future town of Funchal. 



A modern poet thus describes in verse the scene which we 

 have narrated in prose : 



" Bojador's rocks 

 Arise at distance, frowning o'er the surf, 

 That boils for many a league without. Its course 

 The ship holds on, till, lo ! the beauteous isle 

 That shielded late the sufferers from the storm 

 Springs o'er the wave again. Then they refresh 

 Their wasted strength, and lift their vows to Heaven. 

 But Heaven denies their further search ; for ah ! 

 What fearful apparition, pall'd in clouds, 

 Forever sits upon the western wave, 

 Like night, and, in its strange portentous gloom 

 Wrapping the lonely waters, seems the bounds 

 Of nature? Still it sits, day after day, 

 The same mysterious vision. Holy saints ! 

 Is it the dread abyss where all things cease ? 

 The favoring gales invite : the bowsprit bears 

 Bight onward to the fearful shade : more black 

 The cloudy spectre towers : already fear 

 Shrinks at the view, aghast and breathless. Hark! 

 'Twas more than the deep murmur of the surge 

 That struck the ear ; whilst through the lurid gloom 

 Gigantic phantoms seem to lift in air 

 Their misty arms. Yet, yet — bear boldly on : 

 The mist dissolves : seen through the parting haze, 

 Romantic rocks, like the depicted clouds, 

 Shine out : beneath, a blooming wilderness 

 Of varied wood is spread, that scents the air ; 

 Where fruits of golden rind, thick interspersed 

 And pendent, through the mantling umbrage gleam 

 Inviting." 



Gonzalez and Yax returned at once to Lisbon, where a public 

 day of audience was appointed by the king to give every cele- 

 brity to this successful voyage. Madeira was at once colonized 

 and cultivated; and it is said that Gonzalez, in order to clear a 

 space for his intended city of Funchal, set the shrubs and 



