28 
CBUISE OF H.MS. CHALLENGEB. 
passed to the eastward, the southern coast pre- 
sented a most conspicuous and pleasing aspect, 
giving an air to the place which probably would 
hardly he borne out on landing or making a closer 
acquaintance. 
The next morning we were off the anchorage in 
the Bay of Funchal (Madeira). This island was 
discovered soon after Porto Santo, and from its 
dense forests at that time received this Portuguese 
name for wood. The lovely and fertile island had 
no doubt a people and name of its own, but they 
have passed away, and the footsteps of the civilised 
discoverer have obliterated every trace of the ab- 
origines. The first act of the adventurers was to 
set fire to the dense forests, which fed a conflagration 
that was not fairly extinguished for many years ; 
and when the virgin soil of the land was fully 
exposed, colonisation was successfully established. 
This colony of Madeira was the nursery of two 
notable things of momentous consequence in the 
history of all subsequently discovered and colonised 
western countries. One was the introduction into 
this island of some growing shoots of a plant obtained 
by Prince Henry in Sicily, but originally brought 
from South-Eastern Asia, and spoken of by an old 
Biblical prophet as the 64 sweet cane from a far 
country.” Here, then, was organised and established 
the first sugar-cane plantation, and such was its 
success that after about five years’ experience, 60,000 
