The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-23

 l cats, goats and rabbits, and their inac-
 cessible cliffs the haunts of guano- making sea birds; while the archil weed, sometimes called orchilla Ca val uable dye-stuff much used in the cloth manufactures of England, covers the
 rocks from base to summit. Fisher
 men come over from Funchal to gather the weed for expprtation. Others more
 adventurous scale the lofty precipices
 to catch "shearwaters, the fluffy little
 birds whose plumage is so extensively
 used in Madeira Weather-Work. It IS
 asserted that smuggling is carried on
 with rare success in the Desertas, un-
 der the very noses of the customs otil-
 cials sent over to Madeira from Portu-
 gal.
 Porto Sante, the other inhabited lS-
 land of the group, stands alone, forty
 miles from Point San Lorenzo, and
 looks in the distance like vast, half
 submerged cathedral, with turrets and
 pinnacles rising above the water. It IS
 8 trifle larger than either of the De-
 sertas-a collection of tall disjolnted
 crags and broken cliffs, bathed in the
 spray of the breakers, upon which the
 sunbeams play in brilliant ralnboWs.
 It is historically interesting as having
 been the temporary home of Columbus
 when he was maturing his plans for
 finding a shorter passage to India. It
 now forms a parish of the Madeira col ony, and has 8 stationary population or
 ten thousand or more. The lieutenant governor resides in it's only village, La Villa. The island is unproductiVe, with almost no water, and no wood at all, but is valuable on account of mar ble quarry--a geological phenomenon which is of course attributed to the lost Atlantis, the alleged source of all mysterious in these islands,
 Funchal, the capital of the group and only city of consequence, lies on the southern coast of Madeira. Nothing can be more beautiful than the ap- proach to it. The so-called port is only a slight surve between two headlands, with a sea exposure that reaches, to the south pole; yet ships lie here the year around, with no haz- gard at all in the balmy summer time, and little in winter. Nothing so ini- presses the traveller with Madeira's un- exampled mildness of climate as the security of this open roadstead. There is a breakwater which terminates at Loo Rock, the singularly picturesque eminence so familiar in the geography pictures of childhood, with it's citadel atop, which seems to be an integral part of the crag There is no special and all vessels must an ,hor long way out, to be loaded and discharged by means of lighters, the latter drawn up on the beach by inn mense capstands called 'crabs" There are vessels of all sorts in the ofting, floating the flags of many lands, among predominating Portuguese, French and German. the bilious-look- ng banner of Brazil, the white hawk ,f the Azores the British Union Jack md the American Stars and Stripes. n spite of the high sWells and long oilers. native boats of the smallest size | tenture all over the bay They are | lueer little craft, long and narrow | pointed at both ends, with triple keels l
 sing higher than mans head above | he gunwale al both brow and stern, | or convenience in hauling them up the teeply shelving beaches. They are | ,aily painted-green, blue, black, or- .nge with streaks of white scarlet or ,urple around the top. The beach is rowded with them and there is very Babel among the boatmen and the rmy of yelling, bare-legged roust- bouts required to load and launch ach lighter; to say nothing of the Vo- ferrous cries of the drivers of OK cams come down by scores to get the argoes; while dominating all, like a minor chord in music, is the eternal thunder of the surf.
 Funchal, as seen from the sea, lies n a slope so steep that you wonder ow it clings and is rent into three di- isons by gorges, whose rugged sides re nearly vertical At the head of hese ravines, immediately behind the ity, three mountains rise to the height f six thousand feet, but are dimly cen through rifts in their moving can py of clouds. A gray old castle, erched high up on a projectings spur, ssists the eye to realize the steepness f these precipices. One end of the each is hanked by a splendid avenue f royal palms, leading to the gover- or's residence: the other by a shaded Hik ana dn Olu Ieu lDIl, Wltu Dedh6I, epper- box turrets, behind which rise le cliffs known as Barzea Head, and le soft, violet tinted outlines of the earl by Desertas.
 After an unusual amount of fuss
 ith suspicious customs officials we ere a last permitted to go ashore in ne of the queer little boats of many llors, followed close by a rickety tub ( naked youngsters clamoring for sil- ar. You are expected to throw small I Dins into the water, and are impor- l med to use silver instead of copper, { ecause the former is more readily ( zen on the ocean floor The amphib us urchins watch you with the eyes z
 hawks, and the instant a coin leaves our hand there is a twinkle of heels (
 the air as their owners dart head I 'st to the bottom, recovering the mon- ( with unerring accuracy. Not until he has beer a day or two i shore does the stranger realize the l 'ofound sleepiness of Funchal. He 2 on learns to walk on three legs" as e ,es the true Madeiran-that is, he a sists nature with staff on all oc- r sions, which is no doubt often literal t