4 MADEIRA. 
which inspired them with a superstitious and reverential awe, 
being firm]j persuaded, as men were in those days, that 
" 'Tis not vain or fabulous 
(Though so esteem'd by shallow ignorance) 
What the sage poets, taught by th' heavenly muse, 
Story'd of old in high Immortal verse. 
Of dire chimeras and inchanted isles. 
And rifted rocks, whose entrance leads to hell." 
In fact, it was the popular conjecture, that this settled 
gloom might be suspended over one of the mouths of hell. 
The point of elevation, at which this cloud rests on the 
brow of the mountain, is said to be regulated generally by the 
course of the sun ; floating at his meridian altitude as a thin 
fleece on the aerial summit, and descending as he sinks into the 
western horizon in dense volumes to the skirts of the town, 
over which it remains suspended during the whole night. As 
the next rising sun gradually dissipates this heavy vapour, a 
succession of objects, full at least of novelty to the stranger, and 
of great variety, is unfolded to the eye. On the sweeping shore 
of a spacious bay, whose extreme points are high and rugged 
volcanic rocks, is situated the town of Funchal, the white build- 
ings of which, contrasted with the surrounding rocks of black 
lava, and the lively verdure of the plantations on the brow of the 
mountain, convey neither an unpleasing nor an unpicturesque 
effect. Interspersed among these plantations are numerous 
delightful villas, churches, chapels, and convents, various in 
point of form and situation, and mounting one above the 
other on the steep acclivity, till they are lost in the obscurity 
of the hanging cloud. The highest visible object that parti- 
7 
