, VOYAGE 
TO 
COCHINCHIN A'. 
^c. &c. ^c. 
CHAP. I. 
THE ISLAND OF MADEIRA. 
The Bay of Biscay — Current setting into the Mediterranean explained by an 
Experiment — Remarkable Appearance of Madeira — Town of Funchal — 
Cathedral — Frajiciscan Convent, and Chamber of Skulls — Nunneries — 
Climate and Diseases — Condition of the Inhabitants — Portugueze Beggars — 
Clergy — English Inhabitants — Discovery of the Island — its Defences — 
Productions — Wines — how and to what Amount exported — Eiery Meteor. 
On the 26th of September 1792, our little squadron, con- 
sisting of the Lion ship of war of sixty-four guns, the Hin- 
dostan Indiaman, and the Jackal Brig, sailed from Spithead 
with a fair and fresh breeze, which, as we proceeded down 
the British Channel, increased to an equinoctial gale from 
the south-west, and compelled us to seek for shelter in Torbay. 
Here we remained two days, when, the v/ind becoming mo- 
derate and favourable, we again put to sea and rolled ra- 
pidly across the bay of Biscay, which, like the " Wavering- 
Nation," as Shakspeare aptly calls it, whose shores it laves, is 
B 
