1768. September.

the forerunners of a storm; and on the next day we had a very hard gale, which brought us under our Thurf. 1. courses, washed over-board a small boat belonging to the Boatswain, and drowned three or four dozen of our poultry, which we regretted still more.

Friday 2.

Monday 5.

On Friday the 2d of September we saw land between Cape Finister and Cape Ortegal, on the coast of Gallicia, in Spain; and the 5th, by an observation of the fun and moon, we found the latitude of Cape Finister to be 42° 53' North, and its longitude 80 46′ Weft, our first meridian being always fuppofed to pass through Greenwich; variation of the needle 210 4' Weft.

During this courfe, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander had an opportunity of observing many marine animals, of which no naturalist has hitherto taken notice ; particularly, a new fpecies of the Onifcus, which was found adhering to the Medufa Pelagica; and an animal of an angular figure, about three inches long and one thick, with a hollow paffing quite through it, and a brown spot on one end, which they conjectured might be its stomach; four of these adhered together by their fides when they were taken, fo that at first they were thought to be one animal, but upon being put into a glass of water they foon feparated, and fwam about very brifkly. Thefe animals are of a new genus, to which Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander gave the name of Dagyfa, from the likeness of one species of them to a gem: feveral fpecimens of them were taken adhering together, fometimes to the length of a yard or more, and thining in the water with very beautiful colours. Another animal of a new genus they alfo difcovered, which fhone in the water with colours ftill more beautiful and vivid, and which indeed exceeded in variety and brightness any thing that we had ever feen: the colouring, and fplendour of these animals were equal to thofe of an Opal, and from their refemblance to that gem, the genus was called Carcinium Opalinum: One of thefe lived feveral hours in a glass of falt water, fwimming about with great 'agility, and at every motion difplaying a change of colours almost infinitely various. We caught alfo among the rigging of the ship, when we were at the distance of about ten leagues

from

from Cape Finister, several birds which have not been defcribed by Linnæus; they were supposed to have come from Spain, and our gentlemen called the fpecies Motacilla velificans, as they said none but failors would venture themselves on boad a ship that was going round the world; one of them was fo exhausted that it died in Mr. Banks's hand, almoft as foon as it was brought to him.

It was thought extraordinary that no naturalift had hitherto taken notice of the Dagyfa, as the sea abounds with them not twenty leagues from the coaft of Spain; but, unfortunately for the cause of science, there are but very few of those who traverse the sea, that are either difpofed or qualified to remark the curiofities of which Nature has made it the repofitory.

1768: September.

On the 12th, we difcovered the islands of Porto Monday 12Santo and Madeira, and on the next day anchored in Funchiale road, and moored with the ftream-anchor : but, in the night, the bend of the hawfer of the streamanchor flipped, owing to the negligence of the perfon who had been employed to make it faft. In the morning the anchor was heaved up into the boat, and carried out to the fouthward; but in heaving it again, Mr. Weir, the master's mate, was carried overboard by the buoy-rope, and went to the bottom with the anchor: the people in the fhip faw the accident, and got the anchor up with all poffible expedition; it was however too late, the body came up intangled in the buoy-rope, but it was dead.

When the island of Madeira is first approached from the fea, it has a very beautiful appearance; the fides of the hills being entirely covered with vines almost as high as the eye can distinguish, and the vines are green when every kind of herbage, except where they fhade the ground, and here and there by the fides of a rill, is entirely burnt up, which was the cafe at this time.

On the 13th, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, Tuesday 13. a boat, which our failors call the pruduct boat, came on board from the officers of health, without whose permiffion no perfon is fuffered to land from on board a hip. As foon as this permiffion was obtained, we went on fhore at Funchiale, the capital of the island,

and

1768. September.

and proceeded directly to the house of Mr. Cheap, who is the English conful there, and one of the most confiderable merchants of the place. This gentleman received us with the kindness of a brother, and the liberality of a prince; he infifted upon our taking poffeffion of his house, in which he furnished us with every poffible accommodation during our stay upon the island: he procured leave for Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander to search the island for fuch natural curiofities as they fhould think worth their notice; employed perfons to take fish and gather fhells, which time would not have permitted them to collect for themselves; and he provided horses and guides to take them to any part of the country which they fhould choose to vifit. With all these advantages, however, their excurfions were feldom pushed farther than three miles from the town, as they were only five days on fhore; one of which they spent at home, in receiving the honour of a vifit from the Governor. The season was the worst in the year for their purpose, as it was neither that of plants nor infects; a few of the plants, however, were procured in flower, by the kind attention of Dr. Heberden, the chief physician of the island, and brother to Dr. Heberden of London, who alfo gave them fuch fpecimens as he had in his poffeffion, and a copy of his Botanical Obfervations; containing, among other things, a particular defcription of the trees of the ifland. Mr. Banks enquired after the wood which has been imported into England for cabinet work, and is here called Madeira mahogany; he learnt that no wood was exported from the island under that name; but he found a tree called by the natives Vigniatico, the Laurus Indicus of Linnæus, the wood of which cannot eafily be distinguished from mahogany. Dr. Heberden has a book-cafe in which the vigniatico and mahogany are mixed, and they are no otherwise to be known from each other, than by the colour, which, upon a nice examination, appears to be fomewhat lefs brown in the vigniatico than the mohogany; it is therefore in the highest degree probable, that the wood known in England by the name of Madeira mahogany, is the vigniatico.

There is great reason to fuppofe that this whole island was, at some remote period, thrown up by the explosion

of

of fubterraneous fire, as every stone, whether whole 1768. or in fragments, that we saw upon it appeared to have September. been burnt, and even the fand itself to be nothing more than afhes; we did not indeed, see much of the country; but the people informed us that what we did fee was a very exact specimen of the rest.

1

The only article of trade in this ifland is wine, and the manner in which it is made is fo fimple, that it might have been ufed by Noah, who is faid to have planted the first vineyard after the flood; the grapes are put into a fquare wooden veffel, the dimenfions of of which are proportioned to the size of the vineyard to which it belongs; the fervants then, having taken off their stockings and jackets, get into it, and with their feet and elbows, prefs out as much of the juice as they can the stalks are afterwards collected, and being tied together with a rope, are put under a fquare piece of wood, which is preffed down upon them by a lever with a stone tied to the end of it. The inhabitants have made fo little improvement in knowledge or art, that they have but very lately brought all the fruit of a vineyard to be of one fort, by engrafting their vines; there feems to be in mind as there is in matter, a kind of vis inertia, which refifts the first impulfe to change. He who proposes to affift the artificer or the husbandman by a new application of the principles of philofophy, or the powers of mechanifm, will find, that his having hitherto done without them, will be a ftronger motive for continuing to do without them ftill, than any advantage, however manifest and confiderable,for adopting the improvement. Wherever there is ignorance there is prejudice; and the common people of all nations are, with refpect to improvements, like the parish poor of England with refpect to a maintenance, for whom the law muft not only make a provifion, but compel them to accept it, or elfe they will still be found begging in the fireets. It was therefore with great difficulty that the people of Madeira were perfuaded to engraft their vines, and fome of them ftill obftinately refuse to adopt the practice, though a whole vintage is very often spoiled by the number of bad grapes which are mixed in the vat, and which they will not throw out, because they increase the quantity of the VOL. I. wine :

B b

1768. wine: an inftance of the force of habit, which is the September. more extraordinary, as they have adopted the practice of engrafting with refpect to their cheftnut-trees, an object of much less importance, which, however, are thus brought to bear fooner than they would otherwife have done.

We faw no wheel-carriages of any fort in the place, which perhaps is not more owing to the want of ingenuity to invent them, than to the want of industry to mend the roads, which, at present, it is impoffible that any wheel-carriage should pass: the inhabitants have horfes and mules indeed, excellently adapted to fuch ways; but their wine is, notwithstanding, brought to town from the vineyards where it is made, in veffels of goat-skins, which are carried by men upon their heads. The only imitation of a carriage among these people is a board, made fomewhat hollow in the middle, to one end of which a pole is tied, by a strap of white leather this wretched fledge approaches about as near to an English cart, as an Indian canoe to a ship's long-boat; and even this would probably never have been thought of, if the English had not introduced wine veffels which are too big to be carried by hand, and which, therefore, are dragged about the town upon these machines.

One reason, perhaps, why art and industry have done fo little for Madeira is, Nature's having done fo much. The foil is very rich, and there is fuch a difference of climate between the plains and the hills, that there is fcarcely a fingle object of luxury that grows either in Europe or the Indies, that might not be produced here. When we went to visit Dr. Heberden, who lives upon a confiderable afcent, about two miles from town, we left the thermometer at 74, and when we arrived at his houfe, we found it at 66. The hills produce,almoft fpontaneously, walnuts, chestnuts, and apples in great abundance; and in the town there are many plants which are natives both of the East and Weft-Indies, particularly the banana, the guava, the pine-apple or anana, and the mango, which flourish almost without culture. The corn of this country is of a most excellent quality, large-grained and very fine, and the island would produce it in great plenty; yet

moft