Note from Manuel Menezes de Sequeira, who discovered this piece. The text is not very well written, but it is interesting for the details of the descriptions. A description of the Azores, especially São Miguel, by a Church of England priest who was in Ponta Delgada, staying at the Brown Hotel between 1891 and 1892, as chaplain of the SPG (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts). The article appeared in the April 27 and May 4, 11, and 18, 1893 issues of the Ross Gazette in Ross-on-Wye, England (the periodical still exists): Manuel Menezes de Sequeira, Professor Emeritus, living on the island of Flore,s has been doing great work on finding these gems and publishing them on his Facebook page. We thank him for his work. He has also translated it into Portuguese. We are happy to publish it here on Filamentos. Thanks, Professor Manuel Menezes de Sequeira, for your constant work and dedication. We have done some very slight editing for a North American audience.

Chapter I.

There are so many books already written about the Azores that I do not intend to write a history or thorough description of St. Michael’s or of the other islands, but just a conversational account, as we should describe it to our friends on first meeting after our stay there from November 1891 to May 1892.

I accepted with much pleasure the S.P.G. [Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, da Igreja da Inglaterra] chaplaincy there, and my wife and self left Middlesborough, in Yorkshire, on the dampest, coldest, and most miserable day we ever remembered. We were lucky enough to get a direct passage in the “Juno,” one of the Wilson lines, a well-known steamer between Hull and Norway. She was chartered by Messrs. J. and B. Shaw during the winter months to bring back fruit from St. Michael’s. As a rule, there is no regular line of steamers between the Azores and England. Messrs. Smiths’ and Messrs. Scrutton’s steamers sometimes call there on their way to the West Indies; otherwise, passengers to the Azores have to go as do the letters—first to Lisbon, then on by the mail-boat service. Two steamers are carrying the mail—the “Funchal,” which I believe is a sister ship to the well-known. yacht “Victoria,” and the “Acore.” [Açor] Both steamers [Companhia Insulana de Navegação] are very good, but it is a more expensive route. Direct to the Azores, by Messrs. J. and B. Shaw’s steamers, is £8 8s the other way, it is quite double.

We left Middlesbrough on November 14th, and after a week of very rough weather, we sighted St. Michael‘s on Saturday morning, the 21st. We came into the beautiful breakwater of Ponta Delgada at 2 o’clock. Our friends met us on the steamer and told us they had been anxious about us as a hurricane blew during the night and early morning.

St. Michael’s is a volcanic island, and every hill above Ponta Delgada looks like a volcano. St. Michael’s is very foreign-looking to anyone who has never seen a Portuguese settlement. Madeira, from Funchal, is certainly more striking, as the hills above it are so high and blue, but the town of Ponta Delgada is very foreign looking, after England. Directly after the steamer was anchored, and the medical officer, from his boat, gave orders for the yellow flag to be hauled down, the Custom House boat came alongside, and two guards with rifles, who looked more like stage brigands, came on board. One or other stayed there day and night till the steamer left at the end of another week. The regiment garrisoning the island was the 11th. They were very young-looking—very little attempt at holding themselves up or of looking like soldiers. They had a plain black uniform, generally very shabby, and their trousers were patched, and altogether, they compared badly with our slackest volunteer regiments. There are a few artillerymen in a funny old antiquated stone fort, and they are a little smarter looking.

Eight passengers were in our steamer, and we waited patiently for about two hours while all the luggage was wonderfully piled up in a very small boat. We expected to see it all topple over into about 100 feet of water when they decided to change it again, and at last, to our great joy, we saw it safe on the Custom House jetty. Luckily, an influential friend got us through the Custom House without much trouble and paid about 3d. for every parcel. The Custom House taxes exports as well as imports. When we arrived, the dues were very heavy, but about January, a new tariff arrived from Lisbon, raising the duties on everything and lowering all the officials’ salaries by 20 percent. The tax on tea was 3s. a lb., and now it is more. To cut a long story short, I am very safe in saying that whatever the cargo of the ship is, it will cost more than the value of the cargo to pay the duty to land it, and in many cargoes, such as oil, if the cargo cost £1,000 in England, or the United States, another £4,000 would not pay the Custom House duties. St. Michael’s would be a rich island without Portugal’s drawing so heavily on it. They say there is no gold, silver, or copper in Portugal, and in about 18 months, Portugal will have drained all the silver and copper from these islands. Money transactions are confusing here. If you buy two or three things in about 2D or 3D. Each shopman invariably puts it down on paper and adds it up. To begin with, there is no gold Portuguese coin in currency here, and the English sovereign is the most sought-after. The island money consists only of copper coins, keeping its value. Portugal’s money is at a premium of 25 percent. In reckoning their money, they begin at five reis—there is no such thing as a one reis [real]; the nearest thing to it is a two reis stamp, and no one knows why these were ever issued. Then, in island money, there are a five reis, a 10 reis, and a 20 reis piece. Then, there is a 20 reis piece of copper in Portugal, worth 25 reis. Then, in silver Portuguese money, there is a 100 reis piece, a 200 reis piece, and a 500 reis piece, which are worth, respectively, 125 reis, 250 reis, and 625 reis. The nominal value of an English sovereign is supposed to be 5,625 reis, but now it is much higher. When we arrived, a sovereign was worth 5,800 reis, but by the end of March, it was worth 7,000 reis, the highest ever known. As long as the drawer’s credit is good, cheques in an English bank are more sought after than gold. Post office orders from England are a very bad way of receiving money, as the post office here, for a sovereign paid in England, pays out only 5,625 reis, so the receiver loses quite 2s. 6d. in the pound to what he would have if he had had a cheque. Anyone coming here, if he knew anyone who would endorse his cheques, would do best to bring his checkbook and not all his money in gold. English bank notes, even the Bank of England, are not cared for. American gold is recognized here, but it is not so sought after and does not command so high a price.

We left the Custom House with much pleasure and were driven in a pair-horse landau to the hotel. There is only one English hotel here, kept by Mrs. [Sarah] Brown, her son [Ernest], and daughter [Sophia]. It has all the comforts of a hotel and none of the disadvantages usual to a hotel, such as a bar and a billiard set. It is a hotel that any single lady would be quite able to stay at by herself, and would soon find how the kindness and attention of the Browns make the hotel more like an English home than a hotel in a foreign country. The hotel has one of the best situations on the island, looking south over the harbor and open sea. When it is clear, the most southerly island of the group, Santa Maria, can be seen quite clearly at a distance of 60 miles. The hotel stands in its own garden, which makes it private and away from the noise and dust of the streets and roads. It also commands a fine view of the breakwater.

The breakwater is said to be the finest in the world, and it is a most wonderful piece of engineering. According to the contract, It began over 30 years ago and is to be finished in three years. A French firm has the contract. The breakwater is about a mile long and in 100 feet of water. Stone is quarried and carried along what is already finished by a locomotive and trucks. Some of the stone is placed in lighters, which are towed out by a tug, and then, when at the end of what is already built, the lighters let the stone out through the bottom of the lighter, and in that way, a wall is piled up from the bottom of the sea. Then, the locomotive takes trucks to the extreme end, and rocks are tipped out of them onto what the lighters have already placed there. When this rough but strong wall is made, a firm and regular highway is built inside. 0n the breakwater, the engineers have what is said to be the largest steam crane in the world, which they use for placing immense blocks of concrete for the dock. Each block is made to fit into another, wet cement is laid on the dovetails, and it is lowered down by the huge crane; and, by the help of five or six divers, it is wedged into its proper place, and in three hours the cement is as hard as a rock. The unfinished part of the breakwater is being built, curving inwards to form a complete shelter from all winds and seas. When finished, it is said to be able to shelter 100 steamers, but it looks as if it would hold that number now. It is also a very easy and safe harbor to get into. Ponta Delgada is the only harbor on the island. A very useful thing in the harbor is a floating dock. It looks like what it is, a dock open at both ends, floating on the water. When a ship wants to be docked, it is sunk by letting water into its air compartments, and the vessel steams into it. The water is pumped out, and the dock gradually rises until the ship is dry above water. Then again, the water is let in when the boat is repaired. The ship floats out. Several steamers and sailing vessels were put in for repairs during our stay on the island. Some sailing ships were condemned, sold by auction, and broken up. One Friday afternoon, the sea was very calm, and a brig sailed in for provisions. She was from Africa, bound to Lisbon, and had been driven out of her course. She anchored outside the breakwater, where the steamers anchor, which call for coal. In the night, the wind got up from the south and blew with such force that her anchor chains snapped the next morning, and she broke ashore in less than half an hour. She was in little pieces, strewn all about the bathing cove. According to customs, she was auctioned for about £100, and the buyers collected what they could. She was laden with cocoanuts. Luckily, the crew was saved, and an invalid passenger went to the hospital. This was a wonderful illustration of the need for the breakwater.

Chapter II.—The People

When we were starting for St. Michael’s, we were told that it was an unfortunate time to go there, as the English were so unpopular [devido ao Ultimatum de 1890], and we must be careful not to go out at night for fear we might be robbed. All this proved to be untrue. The inhabitants of St. Michael’s did not get disaffected towards the English, as in Portugal. In the winter, quite one English steamer a day calls in, and the merchants here do so much business with England that the people feel very friendly towards the English. So when we arrived and began to explore Ponta Delgada, everyone’s innate politeness struck us after England as if we had fallen into a fairyland.

A day or two after we arrived, we started out, and it began to rain. A man went by on a donkey, holding an umbrella over himself. On seeing us, he handed the umbrella to the donkey boy, who gave it to my wife. We tried to decline it, but they would not hear of it, but made us take the umbrella, and away they trotted. We met the donkey man afterward and gave him the umbrella. I am afraid if our Portugee friend on the donkey ever walks down London with his wife, no one will offer them an umbrella. Then everyone we met took their hats off, and we soon forgot about the unfriendly feeling between England and Portugal.

One thing here reminds us strongly of Ireland: the poorer classes seldom wear socks and boots. On Sundays, they are more often worn, but on weekdays, for one pair of boots, 50 pairs of bare feet. Then, the next astonishing thing is, after the display of all these bare feet, the number of shoemakers. Every other shop seems a shoemaker’s. They make their boots such a funny shape. They turn the toes right up in the air. The Portuguese ladies say that the English ladies wear such thick boots—they call them iron boxes.

The laboring classes here are very poor, industrious, and contented. Their working hours are simply described as “while it is light.” In the winter, a laborer gets about 10d. a day; in the summer, they can earn as much as 2s. a day. They never have meat but live on bread made of Indian corn flour, oranges, baked beans, and a little fish. There is no such thing as a union or workhouse. The relatives have to support the aged and those who cannot work. The houses they live in generally consist of one small room, and outside Ponta Delgada, very few houses have glass windows; wooden shutters are used instead. The climate is mild and equable, so they can always open them. These cottages cost about 4s. a month to rent. Another thing that reminds us of Ireland is that the animals casually stroll in and out of the houses.

In the better and best houses on the Island, the ground floor is never used by the family. A carpenter’s shop is often underneath it, as in Count Fonte Bella’s Palace. Sometimes they are used as stables. The houses are rarely more than one story, and so reduce themselves to a flat. Every one-story home has a balcony; the young ladies see very little of the world except these balconies. The daughters of the higher families rarely go for a walk, and if for a drive in their own carriage, one of their parents accompanies them. The little flirtations that they can ever rejoice in are carried on from the balconies, but they rarely marry the balcony beaux; their marriages are arranged for them by their parents. Many of the girls of all classes marry at 14 years of age. In one marriage we heard of, the girl was hardly 14, and it was in the settlements that they were to live with her mother and that she was to go on with her lessons as usual. The weddings are usually at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The bride and her mother enter their carriage first and remain in it while all the other guests form into line in their carriages. This takes about half an hour, and then they clatter off through the paved streets as hard as they all can, generally to a church about two miles out of Ponta Delgada. It is not given out at what church it is to be, so those who want to see it must clatter as hard as they can after the procession. The men are generally in evening dress and all smoking cigarettes. After the service, they all return to the bride’s mother’s house and are entertained.

At the Carnaval time, that is, about three days before Lent, there are a great many rejoicings of all kinds. Several dances and there is one peculiarity about their dances. Between the dancing, the men stay together in one room and the ladies in another, and directly after the dance is over, the lady goes back to her chaperone. The same way in driving, one party very often fills two carriages; all the men go in one carriage, and all the ladies in the other.

Donkey riding is a very favorite amusement. Men and ladies ride on the same sort of saddle. It is like a child’s pad, and men and ladies sit sideways without any crutch or stirrup and, as often as not, without bridle but steer by a stick in the poorer classes. Man and wife generally have only one donkey between them. The wife rides in and out of the towns, and the husband rides the rest of the way—so he rides about five miles to his wife’s one mile. Donkeys are rarely used in harnesses, but their backs are piled with everything. When loaded with maize straw, they look like a locomotive hayrick. Then they are packed with furniture when moving house, with faggots, logs of wood, pottery, and every conceivable thing. It is very curious to see the men and boys get on their donkeys by putting one foot on the donkey’s hook and then stepping up on the donkey, the way a man gets on his bicycle.

The dinner hour for the upper-class Portuguese is 3 o’clock. Calling, or afternoon calls in England, generally occur in St. Michael’s at about 12 o’clock. As in England, the caller rings the bell or knocks at the door, and then it seemingly opens itself; then the caller walks up to the first floor, and the servant is waiting to receive him. Lawn tennis is very seldom played here, if ever. One family sent for a tennis set, but the rats ate the net during the night, which ended the game. Croquet is played greatly in St. Michael’s, which has a croquet club. Cigarette smoking is indulged to a great extent among all classes.

The doctors here have all qualified in a French hospital and speak English fairly well. There is also a very clever dentist who studied in America and speaks English very well. The hairdresser speaks English very well, and in nearly all the shops, someone can speak English or French.

Many shops, especially the ironmongers’, remind us painfully of Birmingham. English, French, and German goods predominate over the Portuguese manufactures. American stores flourish too, especially clock stores. Very few things to be bought in St. Michael’s are interesting and peculiar to the island. The mechanics are very clever, and carriages, cabinets, and furniture are all made well on the island, but it is hard to find anything that looks foreign when set down in England. The women make pretty mats to go over the donkey saddles; they dye the wool themselves and make them with a needle. We bought about a dozen made-to-order and got them to make us a similar carpet. Their bags, made mostly of patchwork, are very conspicuous among the peasants. They carry their dinner or anything an Englishman would put in his pockets or these bags. Some terracotta money boxes are curious. They are much the same shape as a beehive, with a slit for the money to slip in, and when the money is wanted,d they have to be broken. They are only ½d each.

Fayal is a more interesting island than St. Michael’s for native industries, such as creaser work, straw work on the net, lace made out of the pith of the aloe, and straw hats. The peasant women in St. Michael‘s wear a colored handkerchief tied over their heads, a long blue cloak with a large hood, or a black one if they are widows. The cloak is called a capot[e], and the hood a capella [capelo]. They look exactly like a religious order, but they are the only much-coveted dress on the island. When new, they cost about £12. It is almost impossible to see their faces when they wear them, and they think they are most bewitching in them. They have to put their hand on the front of the hood to lock around a corner. We saw a little boy with some stiff maize straw walking close behind one old woman wearing one. He was tickling her with a straw between the Capella and Capot, and every time she stopped and looked around, the little urchin moved around, too. He did it so quietly and neatly that what sounded like an ordinary, stupid joke was a very pretty pantomime.

One interesting fact about Portuguese raising money socially is that titles can be bought. One captain of a sailing ship, who has traded regularly between St. Michael’s and the United States, told us many interesting stories about the many orders he gets given him to buy things in the United States for people here, the trouble being, after they are delivered, to get his money. He is the owner here of a house and land, taken for bad debts. One captain had a very large amount of orders given to him. When he returned, everybody hurried down to him to receive their packages. He waited till everybody arrived, then he began to explain that one day, on his voyage out, he had taken out all his orders, put them on the chart-room table, and had put the money on its order where it had been given him when suddenly there came a gust of wind and blew away all the orders that had not the money on them.

The Portuguese, when talking, gesticulate very much with their hands and shrug their shoulders. They also have a funny way of expressing themselves by turning their ear with their hand backward or forwards and many other expressive actions. The men in the lower classes are very handsome, and some of them are very aristocratic-looking. The boys are also very attractive, but why do I know not? I cannot compliment the women and girls on their looks. The Portuguese navigators from the earliest date were excellent seamen, and so were the Portuguese now. There is not any lifeboat on the island for the praiseworthy reason that an English-built lifeboat and its crew could not compete with a Portuguese fishing boat and its native fishermen, who are born sailors. One grand man here, Antonio, owns the boats that serve between the ships in the harbor and the shore. He will put to sea in his open boat in the fiercest hurricane if life is in danger. It has brought tears to many eyes to see him and his crew battling their way around the end of the breakwater, where the currents are so dangerous in a raging hurricane. The Azores are in the middle of the Atlantic and sometimes get fearful seas. We saw the ” Acore ” come in. on one Saturday in March in a very heavy sea. It was a grand sight, as we knew what a wonderful seaboat she was; otherwise, we should have been very anxious. She had just returned from the Islands. She had been a day late from Lisbon on her way here through exceptionally bad weather. When she arrived, the crew said that if she had not been such a wonderful sea boat, she could never have lived in such a sea. We were much amused when we came out in the “Juno.” The steward was very anxious to be caught in a fearful hurricane, to see if the “Juno” was an extra good sea boat; we were not so nervous. We had a heavy sea the whole way, but the steward was not content. We met him after his third voyage here. They had been in a hurricane, the “Juno” had proved herself an extra good sea boat, and the steward was in charity with all men.

There are many books written about the Azores. The book written by Mr. W. F. Walker is much appreciated. I will quote a short piece about the priests (page 131):—”Only a decade ago, it was customary for the wealthier families to retain the services of a priest, who, besides officiating in the adjoining chapel, was expected, when the weather was cold and damp, to occupy the master’s bed for a short time before the latter retiring there with his lady, so that it might be warmed for them. Warming pans are things unknown in this country, but Azorean padres are generally verging upon obesity.”

The Portuguese ladies care little for reading or music. They are very clever at needlework; their chief pleasure is talking over their dress. They rarely walk out, but the doctors now urge them to exercise to preserve their health.

Chapter III—The English Church

The English church was built in 1827 when English church architecture was at a low ebb; in addition, the Portuguese Government allowed it to be built only on the condition that it should not look like a church or have a bell. It is enclosed in four walls and is a plain square building, with a little graveyard in front of the church. Inside is a gallery at the west end, a very high pulpit on the south side of the altar rails, and a reading desk under the pulpit on the old three-decker system. The pulpit is never used how; it is so high it would take a brave chaplain to ascend it. The sermon is from a very nice modern lectern, presented to the church last November. The church would hold about 200 people, and 1830 was nearly fall.

In those days, the orange trade was greater, and a small fleet of sailing schooners carried oranges to England. The captains and crews made St. Michael’s their headquarters. The orange trade has diminished gradually, and so has the population.

Bishop Courtenay spent the winter of 1890-91 on the Island. As there was no chaplain here, he kindly acted as chaplain and held a confirmation for the Bishop of Sierra Leone. The Azores are in Europe and in the diocese of Sierra Leone. The Portuguese often stroll in during service, listen for a little, and then walk out.

One Sunday, a Portuguese editor of a small paper walked in and sat down. Not long before, he tumbled off his seat with a great bang and greatly alarmed the congregation. The churchwarden and verger went very kindly to help him up when his faithful dog went for them and would not allow them to lift him up. With much persuasion they were both got out. A Portuguese lady appeared, standing in front of the altar rails during the commandments, but with much persuasion, she was induced to go into a pew.

On Christmas Day, most of the congregation helped decorate the church. The flowers chiefly used were evergreens, arum lilies, camellias, azaleas, and ferns. The little churchyard has some fine old geranium plants, single and double, and some self-colored pelargoniums. A little pink oxalis grows all over the grass and is very bright and pretty when the sun shines.

Chapter ІV—The Azores as a Health Resort

Some invalids go to the Azores for their health from America and generally go by sailing ships, and the voyage does them well. Then they typically go to Madeira, 500 miles south of St. Michael’s. The Azores consist of nine islands and form three groups. Santa Maria is the most southerly, and then St. Michael’s, about 80 miles northwest of it. Santa Maria is the driest of all the islands, but there is no hotel or accommodation for visitors. The next group comprises five close-together islands about a hundred miles N.W. of St. Michael’s. Then, the next consists of two small islands, about 100 miles again to the northwest. Fayal, one of the middle groups, has an English hotel, and the prices are about the same as at St. Michael’s.

The Azores are not unhealthy but relaxing—the people suffer from languidness, nicknamed “Azorean torpor.” The Azores are not considered good for consumption. Smallpox is very prevalent; most of the people are badly marked with it. Russian influenza was commonplace in 1890 and 1891, as everywhere else.

Rheumatism is very prevalent, and on the island of St. Michael’s, there are natural hot springs—sulfur and iron are their properties. At Furneas, the government has built and maintained some beautiful baths at its expense.

The winter in the Azores reminded us of a cold summer in England. Frost is unknown; still, in the evening, we should have liked an English house with nice fires. Except for the stove in the hotel hall at St. Michael’s, heating apparatuses are not known in the Azores. Boots, gloves, and clothes must be looked at nearly daily, for they mildew in the driest houses.

The Azores are not to be compared with Madeira and other places as health resorts. They are not unhealthy, but no one could call them life-saving places. At Ponta Delgada, they certainly wanted sanitary inspectors. When it had not rained for some days, the streets smelt so nasty because, though the people washed themselves, they had no idea of sanitary cleanliness or modesty. A corner in the street was as private to their ideas as our dressing rooms to us. All epidemics are generally of a mild form.

Chapter V—Emigration.

Large numbers of the inhabitants emigrate mostly to the States and to the Brazils. A large steamer from Hamburgh started on March 25th, taking 150 emigrants from St. Michael’s and 50 from the island of Terceira. This is the fifth or sixth steamer, or sailing vessel that has taken emigrants within the last two months. This was the first time we had gone down to see them embark. It was a general holiday—the shops shut, everybody dressed their best, and all the women and girls had bright handkerchiefs tied around their heads. The Custom House jetty was crowded with emigrants and their friends seeing them off. It was the most affecting sightseeing experience, especially the parting scene. One loud general wailing and weeping came across the water where we were standing, about 50 yards across the entrance of the Custom House Dock. Women were in hysterics, men hugging each other and weeping on each other’s shoulders. It was almost too much for us, especially as we knew how few of them would ever come back from Brazil. It is considered here a very bad climate, and those who do come back generally bring some disease that finally kills them.

The day before we saw them departing, we had been calling on two sailing ships in the harbor through parish work. They had both come from Rio, where they had lost nearly all their crew to yellow fever.

The Matriz Church is just by the Custom House jetty, and the church bell is always rung as a farewell blessing to the emigrants.

Chapter VI—The Gardens.

Perhaps the gardens are the most interesting thing about the island for anyone who has not been to the tropics. I have been to the Cape and thought parts of Wynneberg [Wynberg] interesting, but the gardens here were all fresh to us. Flowers, trees, and shrubs from all parts of the world. There are three principal private gardens in Ponta Delgada. They belong to residents, but they allow English people to knock at the gate and, when let in, to walk about them.

We first saw Count Jacome’s, and it is better to see it first. It is a very large garden, with the Count’s house in the center, the largest house on the Island, a Shetland pony, and a large St. Bernard looking quite at home. The garden is nicely laid out by a French landscape gardener, with many interesting trees, flowers, and shrubs. Still, compared to the two other gardens, it looks somewhat English.

The next we saw was Mr. Borges’s. This garden is beyond my description; it is very tropical-looking yet not stiff and has the most beautiful grottos and ferneries. There is nearly every kind of palm or tree fern in the world. The cabbage palm, which the natives in its home cut out of it, is a sort of cabbage they eat. Then, the paper tree struck us as very curious; by way of bark, it has what looks exactly like paper.

Another thing that struck us very much in the gardens is that nearly every large tree had beautiful flowers or blossoms. The coral tree struck us very much. It was a very large, high tree, not a leaf on it but the bright red blossom, so high up that we could hardly discern its shape, but the distance took none of its brightness away. We saw a bread tree, a date tree, and such trees as orange, lemon, sweet limes, bananas, nesboras or loquats, Norfolk pines, prickly pears, and magnolias are common sights every day. At Count Fonte Bella’s house in the country, we saw what is said to be one of the biggest magnolia trees in the world.

Then, the third garden is Mr. Decanto’s [do Canto], and it is thought by most people to be the most wonderful and beautiful. Wonderful is a very fair word because it is wonderful how all the trees must have been collected from all parts of the world. To begin with, nothing is indigenous to the island; it is volcanic, and driving through some of the cuttings is like driving through an ashpit. There is an instance from Ponta Delgada to Capella [Capelas]. Then, again, there are not any wildflowers on the Island. A few arum lilies are growing wild in places, but they are not as wild as at the Cape, where you find them near Simon’s Town, about 10 yards above the high water line.

We must remember that this Island is volcanic, and after it appeared, there was no vegetation on it until someone was good enough to bring some seeds or plants and grow something. It is a very fertile soil, and things grow very quickly. In early February, we had green peas and kidney beans all winter. Peas can be grown all year round. The wind is their greatest enemy; it blows them about and breaks them off.

Ponta Delgada is made ugly by its interminable walls. Every garden is surrounded by high walls; without these, the oranges would soon be blown off. However high the walls of the gardens are, they are generally divided off again by rows of incense trees. This tree or shrub grows about 20 20 feet high and has a white blossom with the sweetest scent, sweeter than an orange blossom. The incense tree resembles our English laurestinus, and the blossom resembles Daphne. It blooms in February generally and lasts about a month. There is a lovely creeper that blossoms in December and January and lasts a long time—the bignonia. It has a very bright orange flower and blossoms very freely, and it will cover a whole wall or roof. It is very common on the island and attracts the eye from a long distance. An orchid grows in the gardens and is very beautiful and attractive. It is called the Bird of Paradise, as it resembles the color bird.

There are great varieties of the sparaxis [sparaxis], a flower I had not seen before. The Indian shot was new to us, too. It is called Indian shot because the seeds, when ripe, are very much like shot. The blossom is a bright red and yellow, and there is a self-colored variety, a deep red. It grows about three feet high. The seed pods are very pretty before they are ripe, have a bright green color, and are about as big as gooseberries.

The hotel garden has a sweet verbena tree about nine feet high. It was just showing leaf at the end of March. The bedding out plants, verbenas, heliotropes, and such like had stayed in their beds all the winter and, in March, were in full blossoms. Many of the walls are thickly covered with one of the fig varieties, but not an edible one. The walls, as a rule, are very much wasted. Fruit trees are rarely planted against them. Many roses have been in full bloom all the winter. The “Field of the Cloth of Gold” rose, a deep yellow one, grows perfectly here. Another rose, which is beyond description, is a large single white rose. It is like one of our English wild dog roses, only four times as big and much more delicate and fragile. We also saw another, very much like it, only a deep red. Cinerarias grow and blossom very beautifully in March in the flower borders.

Tea and coffee are both grown on the island. Two Chinese were brought over to teach them how to dry and roll the tea, but they did not do it properly. We bought some by mistake, and we felt grateful to the first person we could get to accept it. They say wherever the camellia grows, the tea plant will also increase.

There is a very good vegetable here called the sweet potato, but, alas! Everything gives way to it. The orange groves have been rooted up to grow it. It is grown in large quantities for the alcohol distilleries to make a very strong spirit, which they call alcohol. They export it in large quantities to Portugal and Africa.

Chapter VII—The Processions

Sundays are little observed as a day of rest. The carpenters prefer Monday as a holiday if they take a day’s rest. There are many public holidays, especially Christmas, Lent, and Easter. On March 27th, we saw a procession; they generally have processions on holiday. On the 27th of March, we saw a procession portraying our Saviour carrying His cross. First of all, four men carried a banner. Then came seven little girls dressed as angels, in colors and with little white wings, each holding something symbolic of the cross. One took some nails, another a pair of pincers, another a thong, and so on.

On January 24th, we saw a procession. A figure of Saint Sebastian was carried around, and three or four arrows pierced its chest. The procession was much the same as usual, except instead of a civil band, they had the military band, and two companies of the 11th Regiment marched in the rear of the priests.

At the Jesuit Church, they have a figure of “Santo Christo.” [Santo Cristo] It is a figure of our Saviour and is carried around once a year. It is decorated with the most beautiful jewelry, which has been presented for it occasionally. The people watch the image as it is carried around and think it alters its expression occasionally. Sometimes, they think it looks sad and think something bad will happen. Other times, they think it seems joyful; then, they believe good seasons or times are coming. In times when they want rain very badly, a procession is formed, and the figure carried around. The lower classes are very ignorant and fearfully superstitious.

Driving through Capella [Capelas], we encountered a band of pilgrims one day. They were coming out of a church and making a tour of the Island. About a hundred had a blanket strapped on their backs and a staff, not any boots. Their absence was not conspicuous because these men rarely wore boots. When they saw us, they set up a hymn tune. They live on bread and water and have no trouble getting a shelter offered to them in each village. The colored handkerchiefs around their heads gave them a gay appearance. The tour of the Island takes a fortnight. They say the pilgrims enjoy it and often go more than once. They were all men. I have not heard of a woman’s pilgrimage.

Chapter VIII—The Climate

The climate of St. Michael’s is very equable, never hardly below 50 degrees or above 80 degrees. After Christmas, we went a whole month without any rain. The two winters before this had been most exceptionally fine, but, after England, we see no reason to complain of this winter. We had some dull weather, but only about three days altogether, so we could not escape continuous rain. We have not had as much rain here as we would in England in an average summer. It is not reckoned a good place for consumptive patients, but it must be much better for them than England, though not so warm as Madeira. There is a stove in the hotel, which is very comfortable during some of the evenings.

Very few houses here have any heating apparatus, but having had fires all through the cold summer of 1891 in England. We rather missed them. Most winters here, they say, we should not have missed a fire at all. It is very seldom that it thunders or lightens here. Our winter here is more like a summer than our summer in England in 1892 was like one. March is said to be the coldest and worst month; it is still very much like a beautiful April in England. The lupins and clover are up to the cattle’s knees, and the birds sing sweetly. There are wild canaries, the green hardy-looking ones, but the yellow wagtails look more like our caged canaries in England. Quails are very plentiful and afford good shooting. The rule about shooting is that you can shoot anywhere and put your head over the wall. Woodcocks are also abundant in some parts of the year.

Chapter IX—The Fruit Trade

Oranges were the great trade of St. Michael’s, but the trade has fallen off, and instead of oranges being exported from November to July, they are over by February. The orange groves have been neglected and uprooted to make way for the sweet potatoes grown for the alcohol distilleries. A new trade has been developed in the shape of pineapples. This year, the number of cases expected to be shipped to England was 75,000; last year, there were 60,000 cases. Each pineapple is worth about 4s here. The cheap or small pines we buy here for about 10d. are not considered worth exporting, though they are just as nice to eat; they do not ripen and keep so well as the larger ones.

They are grown in ordinary glass houses without any artificial heating. The beds are made mostly of heather. We have met trains of donkeys, 30 at a time, all loaded with heather for the pineapple beds. The pines ripen any month in the year, but the growers try to get them ripe in winter, as they sell better in England then. Ananas is the Portuguese name for pineapple and Iaranja for orange. The pineapple glass houses are built by contract at a price per pine that they will grow. I think they cost 4s. per pine. So a house to hold 500 pines would cost £100. Then men who understand pine growing and look after them get about 10s. a week.

At Christmas, we had some very nice oranges, called “mandarines,” about twice as big as the tangerines in England. The tangerines are very good here; many are much bigger than in England. We bought some beautiful ones for a penny.

Bananas we get here all the year round. About January, we got guaras, which are very good, much like a green fig. Custard apples we got also. Nesboras, or loquats, are small yellow fruit and are nice in tarts or to eat. They grow on trees. The English whimberry, or whortleberry, grows here in the autumn and is called the mountain grape. Apples and pears grow on the Island, as do grapes. Strawberries are ripe about April or May. Guara and Cape gooseberry jam can be bought here as blackberry jam.

Chapter X—Returning Home

Easter Sunday in 1892 was on the 17th of April. During the winter months, one or two steamers called every day, most going to England; after the first week in April, the steamers suddenly stopped calling, and we began to get anxious about how to get home. We had known for some time that the s. y. “Victoria,” which makes pleasure voyages much like the “Ceylon” and others, was expected. So we hoped generally that the “ Ceylon” would not call till after Easter Sunday, but, alas! she arrived on Saturday, the 9th, just a week too soon for us, and stayed till the Monday.

It was a beautiful bright day when she steamed in from the south about 10 a.m. The “Acore” mail steamer had just come in about an hour before. She had on board the new Bishop. He had just been consecrated at Rome as the Bishop of the Acores, and he was on his way to Terceira, one of the islands in the Azorean group, where the Bishops make their headquarters. His arrival was a great event. All the priests from different parts of the island had assembled to meet him. The captain of the port, who had been in the English Royal Navy and had, I should say, the Queen’s uniform on with the gold epaulets, the soldiers, officers, and all the nobility were waiting, and crowds of people, to pay the Bishop every honor. The Bishop left the “Acore” in a boat with a silk canopy, and a gun was fired from her deck to announce his coming. It was a lovely bright day, and we happened to be in a boat just between the “Acore” and the jetty, a distance of about a mile. Then the fort opened a salute, and it was a very pretty sight. The Bishop’s boat had eight oars, and we just managed to get in before it and see the Bishop arrive in full canonicals. He went to the Cathedral Church, then to a public dinner afterward, and left again about 7 o’clock in the “Açores.”

April 17th was Easter Sunday, and when evening service was over, we were ready to take the first steamer that would anyway help us towards home. The “Vega” was expected from Lisbon to New York, and we thought of going by her, but on Tuesday, she did not come, and the “Acore” came back from the islands on Tuesday morning, so we decided to go to Lisbon with her. She was a Portuguese steamer but in every way well-found. The chief engineer was an Englishman, all we rest of the crew were Portuguese. The purser could speak English, Spanish, French, and Italian. We could just speak enough Portuguese to ask for what we wanted. We had a good passage and only one surprise. My wife disobeyed the steward and kept the port open when a wave came and drenched her all over when she was lying on a sofa; it frightened her very much by its suddenness.

On Saturday morning, about 9 a.m., we came in sight of land and saw the hills above Cintra. Soon afterward, we passed many picturesque fishing boats. Then we went on an old-fashioned-looking schooner, from which we got a pilot. At the entrance of the Tagus was a fort, with the most lovely magenta[?] creeper[?] climbing over the rampart. The passage up the Tagus took about two hours and was delightful. It is from six to eight miles up the Tagus to Lisbon, and the river is about two miles broad till we get to Lisbon. It opened into a large bay and looked like the open sea. We liked Lisbon so much that we stayed there for 16 days.