12 
MADEIRA. 
botli old and young, cutting down broom and cytisus, and 
other frutescent plants, as fuel to be ased in the town, which 
tliey afterwards bear in large bundles on the head ; travelling 
barefooted on sharp stoney roads, and down frightful pre- 
cipices, over a distance of at least ten or twelve miles every 
day. The men, who are emploj^ed in the same business, go 
out at two or three o'clock in the morning, in order that they 
may return to Funchal before the heat of the day, when it is 
usual to see them basking at full length in the streets before 
their doors, conveying to a stranger an idea of their extreme 
indolence, which, however, is far from being the case with 
this class of men, whose chief occupation is that of sup- 
plying the town with firewood. Those who may prefer 
a life of ease, with scanty meals, to the comfort of a decent 
livelihood to be procured by moderate labour, are such as are 
occasionally employed in fishing, in shipping wines, which are 
usually slipped to the beach on sledges drawn by oxen, in smug- 
glins;, or in furnishing seamen with wine and spirits. Such 
employments occupy only a small portion of the day, and 
not many days in the week. Some few are engaged in the 
preparation of a sort of white leather for boots, coarse woollens 
for caps and jackets, and striped linens for trowsers. A linen 
or calico shirt, a pair of canvas or checked linen trowsers, 
and a red or blue woollen cap, mostly of the latter colour 
and not unlike the late sacred emblem of Gallic liberty, con- 
stitute their usual dress, which, with their sallow and meagre 
looks and long black hair, gives them a ferocious appearance^ 
that an unprotected stranger would not be desirous of en- 
countering in a lonely place ; yet they are in fact a civil, 
harmless, and well-disposed people. 
