MADEIIiA. 
5 
time to admire ; for the wind being light, we did not reach the 
anchorage at Funchal, on the Island of Madeira, until the 15th. 
On landing at that place, I was gratified by finding that 
Major Newman belonging to the eleventh British regiment of 
foot, one of my schoolfellows and earliest friends, was stationed 
on the island ; in whose society I spent three days in the most 
agreeable manner. The town of Funchal, owing to the number 
of ships in the harbour chiefly East Indiamen, formed at this 
time one continued scene of gaiety ; dinner parties, balls and plays 
were repeated every day, and the fineness of the season added to 
the beautiful aspect of the country. I should not, however, from 
the observations I made, judge it was particularly well calculated 
to benefit the health of the numerous invalids now resorting to it, 
unless they possess a greater degree of abstinence from scenes of 
pleasure, than usually belongs to the natives of England. My 
stay, nevertheless, was too short to enable me to make any very 
accurate estimate of the general habits and customs of the place, 
or to gain any new information respecting an island so often 
described. 
On the 18th we took our departure ; on the 20th we saw the 
Island of Palmas, where the sea being, as is usual, calm,we caught 
a turtle sleeping on the water ; on the 10th of April we crossed the 
Equator, and on the 19th of May approached the latitude of the 
Cape of Good Hope. The sea birds round our ship now became 
numerous, many of which were taken by the ship's company 
with a hook and line, and in the same way three albatrosses were 
caught, one of which measured nine feet ten inches from wing to 
wing. On the 20th we came in sight of the mountains of the Cape, 
