io MADEIRA. 
aware they cannot be less esteemed in a convent ; and they 
make the sacrifice of tlieir hberty under the consohng reflec- 
tion that, by so doing, they shall secure everlasting happiness 
in the world to come. 
The residence of a few days among a foreign people cannot 
be supposed to furnish much information of their manners, 
character, and condition. It requires no little time to get 
rid of our own prejudices ; and, while labouring under tlie in- 
fluence of those, we are apt to forget the making of a due 
allowance for the prejudices of others. It does not require, 
however, any very long stay at Madeira to perceive that the 
great bulk of the people of Funchal, as in most other cities, 
is doomed to encounter the ills of poverty : — ills that, in this 
country, however, on which Nature has bestov/ed so fine a 
climate, would seem to be rather owing to some mismanage- 
ment on tlieir own part, tlian to any system of oppression in 
the government, deficiency in the means of subsistence, or 
other moral or physical causes. The steady and moderate 
temperature which tliis island enjoys is scarcely excelled in 
any part of the world. In the winter montlis, the merciuy in 
Fahrenheit's thermometer seldom descends below 55°, or rises 
higher than 65'' ; and the usual range in sunnner is from 66° 
to 76°. It is visited, however, occasional^, but very rarely, 
by a kind of Sirocco wind from the eastward, that scorches 
vegetation, and renders the air suffocating and insupportable ; 
at such time, the thermometer rises to 90° or 95°. It 
cannot be the climate, therefore, that occasions the meaore, 
sallow, and sickly appearance which the inhabitants of Fun- 
chal generally wear, but may rather be attributed to the 
