MADEIRA. 15 
The penurious and solitaiy life of tlie Portugueze forms a . 
striking contrast with the splendid and con\'iviai nmnner in 
which the houses of the English merchants are constantly kept 
open for the accommodation of strangers who may call at the 
island. If the English at home be represented by foreigners 
as a cold, formal, and distant people, they have at least a 
very different character abroad. Their hospitality at Madeira 
-is unbounded ; and the state of society, the deligiitfid climate, 
and the variety with Avhich the island'libounds, are such that 
he, who could not spend here a few months with pleasure and 
satisfaction, must be possessed of a very fastidious taste. The 
Portugueze Governor, hoAvever, was a social, well-bred, and 
respectable man. Pie entered into all the parties of the 
English, during our stay on the island. lie gave, also, a 
most sumptuous entertainment at the government-house : 
and, as few nations, beside our own, exhibit on their tables 
whole animals, as pigs grinning with oranges in their mouths, 
hares squatting as if about to leap down the throats of the 
hungry guests, and pheasants with their feathers ready to fly 
after them, the Portugueze Governor, in compliment to the 
English taste, had employed English cooks for the occasion ; 
a mark of consideration which I very much doul^t if any of 
the British merchants would have condescended to pay to the 
Portugueze Governor ; as a due respect for the customs and 
prejudices of other nations is certainly not to be found in the 
catalogue of an Englishman's good qualities. 
The Governor of this settlement, which is the case in few 
belonging to Portugal, has a sufficient allowance to enable 
him to support the dignity of his station, and his powers are 
