S MADEIRA. 
which prospers, and the Bamboza arundinacea, which will pro- 
bably prove invaluable to the island, as I shall hereafter state. 
After dinner, I was much gratified and surprised by the sight of 
the wild English strawberry. I was informed that a short time 
since it had been discovered on the north side of the island, totally 
neglected and despised by the lazy inhabitants. The climate is 
hardly capable of bringing the pine-apple to perfection. It is 
proposed to cover them with mats during the two rainy months, 
which may probably answer the purpose. There is a single tree of 
the Laurus persea, that bears fruit, which, they say, comes to per- 
fection. The chesnuts and walnuts are good ; apples, and other 
European fruit, miserably bad. 
The next morning by nine o'clock we were on board the Minerva. 
The town of Funchal is defended by a low wall, over which, I 
have no doubt, Remus would have leaped with the utmost 
facility ; flanked by two forts of no possible use. It has also a cita- 
del, and the fort of Loo, to defend the harbour. In the hands of 
the Portuguese, it is certainly at the mercy of the first invader. 
The streets are narrow and detestably dirty. The houses are good 
within side ; the walls are stuccoed for the sake of coolness, and 
ornamented with prints. Several of the hotels are large. The best 
of them were given up by the owners to the English troops during 
their stay. The natives were much astonished by the discipline 
of the 85th regiment: the contrast between their parades and 
those of the miserable bourgeois of the island must have been strik- 
ing. I feel much satisfaction in being able to add, that the conduct 
of both officers and men was irreproachable. Don Joze Manoel da 
Camara, the natural son of a noble Portuguese, is the present Cover- 
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