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

| Especial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier.)
 Funchal Madeira, Dec. 20, 1901.
 The truth of the old saying-that hu-
 man beings are like sheep in blindly
 following the lead of a bell wether-is
 proved anew in the fact that our veal
 thy countrymen, while searching the
 world over in quest of novelty and per
 lection of climate, have quite neglected
 these isles of eternal June, where beau
 ty and healthfulness are wonderfully
 combined. Even the guidebo have
 passed them by unnoticed; and one
 cannot read up to advantage on a
 subject about which almost nothing has been written. In the United States the most that is known of the Madei-
 ras has been in connection with ab- sconding cashiers and other defaulters, who find in these islands a haven of refuge where eXtradton cannot touch them. So it came about, long ago, that when any HoWgate, Tweed or other it. lustrious runaway was badly wanted
 the first place searched was the ocean,
 highway leading to this port To this
 day it is unsafe to ask questions of
 ones compatriots in Madeira and the
 part of discretion is to avoid allusions
 to the home-country. There are Amer
 jeans here, of means and standing, liv
 ing apparently blameless lives, who
 dare not so much as set foot on yes sel in the harbor, for fear of arrest for some crime committed years ago across
 the broad Atlantic.
 First let us get our bearings we'll in mind. The little archipelago, of two inhabited islands and three bare rocks, lies just about midway between the Caaries and Azores-four thousand miles due east from Charleston, South Carolina, and a little more than three hundred miles from the western coast of Africa. No steamship line makes the trip direct from the United States to Madeira. The Portuguese company Empresa Insulana de Navagacao, which has offices in New York comes nearest to it; and you may go by sail ing vessel from New York or Boston in about twenty days-a trip which is particularly recommended for con sumptives. It is easy enough to visit Madeira while on the Mediterranean trip by breaking the voyage at the Azores, Gibraltar or Tanger, and transferring yourself to any local coasting line, of which there are doz- ems.
 The main island-which the discover CT named Madeira (the Portuguese word for a certain beautiful tree) on account of its mighty forests of that valuable timber-s approximately thir- ty-five miles long by twelve wide. Like it's neighbors, the Azores and Ca naries, it was thrown up from the At lantic by volcanic forces, at a compar- atively recent period-perhaps when sank out of sight; and the an clients reckoned it among the other Isles of the Blest," wherein was Para disc, Late as Milton wrote, you re- member that in Paradise Lost he | made the sun set in Madeira-the most limit of the world!
 The island is of magnificent outline, covered with lofty mountains which | fall abruptly into the sea at either end, to shoreward a series of sheer precipices, detached rosks of fan tastic shapes and rich volcanic color ing A serrated ridge, six thousand feet high--so deeply grooved and tur reted that it looks like a stupendous fortress with bastions and pinnacles- extends from end to end of the island. From this back bone, so to say, other enormous ridges, set at almost regular intervals, run down to the shore on all sides with deep valleys between them, every foot of which is richly cultivated rom the waters edge to the central peaks. The seaward line of every val ey is indented, forming a small, semi circular bay between the headlands: md around the shore of each bay a white walled village is scattered amid groves and gardens. Both in the val eys and on the mountain slopes the and seems to rise in natural, narrow erraces, and all the terraces are cov- red with the most luxuriant vegeta- ion--the golden yellow of sugar-cane, he dark green of coffee and orange groves, and the abounding vineyards rom which the famous wine is made very shelf of rock tiniest spot of soil them being cultivated to the utmost, Sugar-mills and wine-presses lpI iliC Sipl hhb f llNtbi NSdut ioob | winds around the whole island, follow ng the innumerable curvings of the cast line In places the road is a nar- ow shelf, cut low down on the face of he cliff; anon it mounts farup the diz- y heights; then creeps around rocky eadlands, through tunnels lighted by { arrow window -slits blasted out of the olid rock and again it leaps from rag to crag on walls of masonry above he raging surf. Looking at this won erful road from ship board you prom f SC yourself that, once ashore, no time | ( hall be wasted before you traverse ev- ry rod of it. f Rounding Point San Lorenzo, the I astern- most end of the island, the Z reen terraces, deep valleys and Slop- ( lg sierras suddenly disappear and the z appear to the planed off ( vel on top to the edge of the sea, |. here they fall in sheer precipices of feet high. No words can escribe their grandeur of form and eauty of coloring-fleecy clouds veil lg their summits and white spray ashing far up the lava rocks which ear the color of old red sandstone eamed with black and streaked with right vermilion. I