Advantages of Early Travelling—­Funelle—­“A Traveller stopped at a Widow’s Gate”—­Bright Eyes and Breakfast—­Smiles and Sighs—­The Fish River—­Cold Lodgings—­Fowl Massacre—­Bad Ways—­Gigantic Ant-hills—­ The Campos—­Insect Warriors—­Insinuating Visitors (Tick)—­The Simpleton—­Bertioga—­A Drunkard—­Cold Shoulders—­Mud Church—­Feasting and Fasting; or, the Fate of Tantalus—­Method in a Slow March—­Gentlemen Hungry and Angry—­No “Accommodation for Man or Horse”—­A Practical Bull—­Curtomi—­Hospitable Treatment at Grandie—­Horse Dealer—­A “Chance” Purchase—­Bivouac—­Mule Kneeling—­Sagacious Animal—­Quilos—­A Mist—­ Gold-washing—­Ora Branca—­Hazardous Ascent of the Serra D’Ora Branca—­ Topaz District—­A Colonel the Host—­Capoa—­Jigger-hunters—­Mineralogical Specimens—­Mortality of Animals—­Pasturage—­Account of Ora Preta—­Gold Essayed—­Halt—­Journey resumed—­Arrival at Congo Soco

TRAVELS,

Etc.  Etc.

CHAP.  I.

Passion for Travelling—­Author’s peculiar situation—­Motives for going Abroad—­Resources for the Blind—­Embark in the Eden, Capt.  Owen, for Sierra Leone—­Lord High Admiral at Plymouth—­Cape Finisteire—­Arrival at Madeira—­Town of Funchal—­Wines of Madeira—­Cultiwition of the Grape—­Table of Exports—­Seizure of Gin—­Fruits and Vegetables—­Climate —­Coffee, Tea, and Sugar Cultivation—­Palanquin Travelling—­Departure from Madeira

The passion for travelling is, I believe, instinctive in some natures.  We have seen men persevere in their enterprises against the most formidable obstacles; and, without means or friends, and even ignorant of the languages of the various countries through which they passed, pursue their perilous journeys into remote places, until, like the knight in the Arabian tale, they succeeded in snatching a memorial from every shrine they visited.  For my own part, I have been conscious from my earliest youth of the existence of this desire to explore distant regions, to trace the varieties exhibited by mankind under the different influences of different climates, customs, and laws, and to investigate with unwearied solicitude the moral and physical distinctions that separate and diversify the various nations of the earth.

I am bound to believe that this direction of my faculties and energies has been ordained by a wise and benevolent Providence, as a source of consolation under an affliction which closes upon me all the delights and charms of the visible world.  The constant occupation of the mind, and the continual excitement of mental and bodily action, contribute to diminish, if not to overcome, the sense of deprivation which must otherwise have pressed upon me; while the gratification of this passion scarcely leaves leisure for despondency, at the same time that it supplies me with inexhaustible means of enjoyment.  When I entered the naval service