The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-16 00:00:00

BATHING AT THE AZORES.

As early in the morning as five o'clock the operations
of bathing begin, and they continue until nine, ten, and
eleven o'clock. A company of four or five persons
from Ponta Delgada, who have taken lodgings or
own houses in the valley, assemble at their doors
wrapped in cloaks and provided with umbrellas,
under the ample shadow of which they saunter down
to the baths followed by the bare-footed or liveried
servant with his gaudy bag of towels. Another set
of Villa Franca similarly dressed, or wearing
strange-fashioned hats and bonnets, such as ;now are
only to be seen in the Ladies' Magagine, (of the date of
steel-buckled hats and tall crowns), may choose to ride
on asses ; and these, accompanied by their noisy
driver, splash through the ford and hurry and scuffle in
the same direction. A pale soldier and his young wife
who cannot afford to ride ; obese shopkeepers from Al-
lagoa, abdomina tardi ; merry children piled two and
three upon one ass ; a helpless paralytic in his palan-
quin ; a wasted invalid whose heavy cloak hangs about him
as if he were merely bones ; an aged countryman buried
in his carapuca ; a sad woman and a melancholy boy,
both afflicted with leprosy ; the handsome, well-fed,
sleek mistress of the Governor, with her array of gaily-
dressed servants ; a pot-bellied morgado ; a good-tem-
pered and well-favoured Nun from Villa Franca, and
her many friends and single attendant ; an amaurotic
man, led by his mother, and staring at the morning sun ;
waddling priests from the same place • meagre, yellow
young men, with short linen jackets and recent English
trowsers ; fat lads in blouses, and weakly village girls
in blue cloaks and full grey petticoats, may all7be met
with, on one day or another; wending their way from
the village to the Caldeiras in quest of their one thing
needful—health. Having arrived at the springs, they
either take their bath at once, or, if the bathing-houses
are occupied, sit in the small verandas in front of them,
or lounge about the boilers, take snuff; smoke, and gossip
according as they may feet inclined. The choice of baths
at the springs lies between sulphur, iron, and the
mixture of both, There are four bathing-houses ; one
belonging to the Baron de Laranjeiros, which is the 13( st;
another open to the public, which is the worst ;
third, the property of the American Vice-Consul
.Mr. Hickling ; and a fourth, which contains the iron and
sulphur waters mixed, or the cold iron-water alone, and
called the Misturas, the property of I know not whom.
In each bathing-house there is a reclining board ; and
the custom of many of the Azortians is to take their
pbearthspiiraattinan, high temperaturen,seltvoes get in iinitohialgperoeflnutsiel
varying fl•om a quarter of an hour to a whole one :
after this, to envelope their mouths and neck, and
occasionally the entire head, in a pocket-handkerchief or
napkin, that they may, imbibe no breath of cold air on their
way home; and sometimes on their arrival there to lie down
once more and. perspire again. But in neither of these
have we followed them in our daily baths. The most
agreeable temperature for the sulphur baths is from 92
deg. to 95 deg, Fahrenheit ; hotter than this they are
debilitating, and much cooler, chilly. The mixture of
sulphur and iron, as it is more stimulating, may be made
somewhat cooler ; but a temperature between 90 deg.
to 95 deg. is the most pleasant. Never has it been my
good fortune to bathe in so luxurious a bath as the un-
mixed sulphur-water. If anything could possibly be found
to reconcile one to earthquake, it is assuredly to be
found in the baths of the Pumas. Here they are
whenever you may choose to enjoy them, by night and
by day, in the cold and in heat, summer and winter, al-
ways the same, welling from their source in never-failing
abundance; open at: all hours, free to all, and free of cost.
But let it not be supposed that we are in a Bath pump-
room, with its marble luxuries. Nothing can be less in-
viting than the appearance ofthese bathing-houses, which,
for the most part, have a subterranean aspect; but, ex-
cept to the fastidious, they are all-sufficient for the one
purpose for wnich they have been built,—that of
amply enjoying the waters. And let a rheumatic
and sour-tempered Englishman, exercising his national
privilege of grumbling, to its fullest extent, and whose
every word and work, complexion, gait, and temper,
—whose very clothes, hanging on the pegs of the bath-
room, indicate bile, after despising the appearance of
these rooms, slpwly, quietly, otter-Ulte, subside into a
sulphur-bath, tempered by ald John Quiet, to the mode-
rate warmth of 95 deg. ; and then let him confess whe-
ther he be not at once a wiser and a better man, whether
his discontent has not lessened, his lust for purple and
. fine linen vanished, and his care for marble and pump.
rooms faded away.-711milare Winter in the Await
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