The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1902-01-30

Buffalo, N. Y.
been dashed to pieces at their base. Off
the end of Chaco, the northernmost
lSlet, is gigantic needle, two hundred
feet high, which so nearly resembles a
ship under sail that it has been chris
tened Sail Rock" Deserte Grande
the largest of the group of three, is
six miles long by less than a mile wide
while Bugio, the southernmost. is even
taller and narrower-nothing more
than a SaW-tooth ridge of rock. Yet
the Desertas are not without value,
being overrun with cats, goats and rab-
bits, and their inaccessible cliffs the
hauntS of guano- making sea-blrds; while
the archil weed, some times called or
chilla valuable dye-stuff much used in
the cloth manufactures of England).
covers the rocks from base to summit.
Fishermen come over from Funchal to
gather the weed for eXportation Others,
more adventurous, scale the lofty preci-
pices to catch ''shearwaters. the fluffy
little birds whose plumage is so extern
sively used in Madeira feather-work.
1t is asserted that smuggling is carried
on with rare success in the Desertas.
under the very noses of the customs
officials sent over to Madeira from Por-
tugal.
Porto Santo. the other inhabited is
land of the group, stands alone, forty
miles from Point san Lorenzo. and looks
in the distance like a vast. half sub
merged cathedral, with turrets and PIN
nacles rising above the water 1t is a
tribe larger than either Of the Desertas
"a collection Of tall disjointed crags
and broken cliffs, bathed in the spray
OF the breakers, upon which the sun
beams play in brilliant rainboWs. It is
historically interesting as having been
the temporary home of Columbus when
he was maturing his plans for finding
shorter passage to India. 1t now forms
a parish of the Madeira colony, and has
stationary population of ten thouand
or more. The Lieutenant Governor re-
sides in its only village, La Villa. The
island is unproductive, with almost no
water, and no wood at all, but is valua-
BILE on account of marble quarry-a
geological phenomenon which is of
course attributed to the lost Atlantis.
the alleged source of all mysteries 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 approach
to it, The so-called port is only slight
curve between two headlands, with a
sea exposure that reaches, probably, to
the south pole; yet ships lie here the
year around, with no hazard at all in
the balmy summertime, and little in
winter, Nothing so impresses the
traveller with Madeira's unexampled
mildness of climate as the security of
this open roadstead There is break
water, which terminates at Loo Rock,
the singularly picturesque eminence so
familiar in the geography pictures of
childhood, with its citadel atop, which
seems to be an integral part of the crag
There is no special landing place, and
all vessels must anchor a long way out,
to be loaded and discharged by means
of lighters, the latter drawn up on the
beach by immense capstans called
''crabs" There are vessels of all sorts
in the offing, floating the flags of many
lands among predominating Portuguese,
French and German, the biliouS-looking
banner of Brazil, the white hawk of
Azores, the British Union Jack and the
American Stars and Stripes. In spite of
the high sWells and long rollers native
boats of the smallest size venture all
over the bay. They are queer little
craft, long and narrow, pointed at both
ends, with triple keels rising higher
than mans head above the gunwale
at both PROV and stern, for conven-
fence in hauling them up the steep
shelving beeches. They are gaily paint
ed-green, blue, black, orange, with
streaks of white, scarlet or purple
around the top. The beach is crowded
with them, and there is very Babel
among the boatmen and the army of
yelling, bare-legged roustabouts requir-
ed to load and launch each lighter; to
say nothing of the yociferous cries of
the drivers of ox-teams, come down by
scores to get the cargoes; while domi-
mating all, like a minor chord in music,
is the eternal thunder of the surf.
Funchal, as seen from the sea, lies on
slope SO steep that you wonder how
it clings, and is rent into three divisions