Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-11-11
THE ISLAND OF FAYAL.

island than that Immediately surrounding "Orta, and
also visiting the churches, &c.
1t good feature Of religion that its service attracts
rs to the church every day. whatever may be the inn
mediate motive Of their curiosity. Good thoughts are
apt to drop down upon from sacred roofs and
without being Catholic may put his heart within
the reach of genter and better influences by daily eyere
to great deal to Catholic churches. The sight
Of people praying sincerely is generally effective, and it
is seldom indeed that do not find within the walls of
Catholic church poor wretch who has in from
world without pity to find relief and consolation in
kneeling where there is hope and mercy
One evening, whilst walking through the town about
twilight the convent bells began their pantive chime for
vespers, and particularly struck with the almost
immediate cessation of all occupation Of every SORT The
busy passerby the radesman and the dler at the first
Of the b doed their hats and waited in respectful
silence until the last sound had died away.
Ave Maria soft the vesper hymn
Floats through TIE cloisters of yon holy pile,
And, mid the stiffness Of the night-watch dim,
Attendant spirits to hear and smile.
Hark, hath it ceased? The vestal seeks her cell,
And reads her heart--a melancholy tale !!
On another occasion ! observed o funeral passing
through the street. when all persons by whom the pro-
ceson moved uncovered their heads until had gone by
0rta" looks much better from the than
approach The streets narrow though always clean
the principal alone s paved The houses small,
generally about two stories in height and have ne Chin
neys that in the country, where room often COM
prses the entire house. the only exit for the smoke is the
doorway In the the upper windows have generally
little atticed porcoes in 'front.' at which the females OF
the household frequently show themselves although they
rarely appear upon the street. The inhabitants are
ceedngy polite, and whenever the officers OF our ship
passed. those gentlemen whom might meet would re-
their hats and making respectful bows step from the
sidewalk in order to allow pass No vehicles appear
in the streets except small low heavy numbering
CARTS with solid wooden wheels upon revolving axes and
drawn by two oxen There many beggars, most of
them deformed, and making exhibition Of their de-
ofmity to obtain aims after receiving which they offer
up long prayer for the gver Two governors, military
and civil, reside here Though formerly place of
siderable strength, Orta cannot now be said to be well
fortified, the works having been allowed to decay wall
extends along the whole front of the town.
At the residence of Mr.. Frederick Dabney brother
Of our Consul we saw the fgurehead of the General
Armstrong whose desperate action with the boats of
q British squadron in the harbor Of Fayal, in the
year 1874 is too well remembered to need fresh recital
After long and bloody battle, it being evident that the
commander of the English squadron determined cost
what it might to take the brig Capt Reid ordered his
to cut away the masts, scute the brig and, taking
their clothing to ashore Upon reaching the land they
repaired old convent and there fortified themselves
but the enemy did not moes them. AT this time the
boaswan of the General Armstrong, carrying hachet
in his hand to the ship and amidst hail of bullets
cut away the fgurehead and brought it in triumph to the
shore.
This fgurehead has since been carefully preserved in
the family of Mr. Dabney To be sure the and the
side of the head have been repaired but it is still the
same upon the principle that ship is always the same
ship although the original material of which it
posed may by successive repairs and alterations, have
been in the of time entirely changed Frequently
upon the 4h July Mr. Dabneys gardener crowns the head
with wreath of flowers and it is regarded by the country
people the American Saint whilst the 4h is supposed
to be the only saints day in calendar. The great
gun from the General Armstrong weighing SAT- lbs, is
also preserved in the fort at Fayal.
The chief amusement at Fayal is donkey riding. Our
kind friends resident here made up several parties
instrucng at the time in the most important
words necessary to be used The position occupied upon
of these animals is different from that of either
male or female equestrians You sit sideways facing
neither to the right the left and instead Of saddles
square cushions covering nearly the whole back of the
donkeys, used. As there stirrups other
support beginner often shaken from his seat almost
the seed puts himself in active motion but the
fall is very short one and in few minutes one learns
preserve his equilibrium The power of endurance Of
these animals must be very great We would sometimes
ride for eight ten miles rough roads up and down
the hill sdes and at their greatest speed The drivers
follow foot keeping up with the donkeys and urging
them constantly with the goad.
During of these rides across the women to
whom had committed clothing to be washed doing
their work in manner that, could have made our
selves understood, would have almost tempted to
monstrate 1t was however the ordinary method here
though this did not entirely reconcile to the
TOM The aundresses take their position by the side of
stream and having dipped the articles into the water
until they thoroughly wet rub them with much force
upon large stones threatening destruction to the
ments themselves and tearing away every thing in the
shape of button After having thus washed they spread
them out the ground and place stones upon them
to prevent their being blown away and then sit down by
the side to watch the articles until dry.
We had here bananas, oranges lemons, lines, pears,
apples grapes maricajas the fruit of the passion
flower strawberries, and quava Some Of these fruits
not very abundant the the proper
most of them however, in very great profu-
son For the of the ship also procured every sort
of vegetable could DESIRE The whole country seemed
to form immense garden and presented the unusual
spectacle of fruits belonging to the tropics and
climate growing side by side. This combination espe
cay attracted attention in the garden of Consul
where in addition to the fruits flowers of the most beau
tiful tints and delicious fragrance surrounded
On the 9th July made adieux and set sail from
Fayal roads Our regret at leaving scarcely inferior
that experienced the departure from own
try The only beings there that disturbed happiness
the as, and yet, after you become accustomed
them, they do not disturb repose. Habit exempts
Spanish Portuguese resident of these islands Of
South America from perception Of their wrongs.
We crossed the Equator upon the Oath August in lon
gtudc lSo 40/ w. Nothing was seen of Neptune Am
phtte in the process of inducing those Of the who
had crossed the line been initiated into the mys
teries Of his marine highness
1t is not easy to do justice to the profession of the
sailor The ship that by the agency of the
tain, capricous, and powerful Of elements with
certainty and security only surpassed by the beauty Of
her appearance and the grace Of her motion when under
the control Of q wel-appointed crew, becomes in the
hands of unpractised andsmen the victim of the first
peril and their efforts only urge her the to neyi
table destruction. While admire the noble barque
that breasts the bllows and battling with the
elements until she reaches the point of her destination
how much sublime to contemplation is the intel
gence which directs her with such uncrring
certainty We last anchored in the harbor of Ro
have Cape Frio in the distance passedby Signal
Hill" and Sugar Loaf" and now lying in beauti-
full and capacious BASIN surrounded by elevated noun