16
A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.
1772.
August.
themselves by studying in the university of Coimbra, lately re-established in Portugal. There is also a dean and chapter at Madeira, with a bishop at their head, whose income is considerably greater than the governor's; it consists of one hundred and ten pipes of wine, and of forty muys of wheat, each containing twenty-four bushels; which amounts in common years to three thousand pounds sterling. Here are likewise sixty or seventy Franciscan friars, in four monasteries, one of which is at Funchal. About three hundred nuns live on the island, in four convents, of the orders of Merci, Sta. Clara, Incarnaçao, and Bom Jesus. Those of the last-mentioned institution may marry whenever they choose, and leave their monastery.
In the year 1768, the inhabitants living in the forty-three parishes of Madeira, amounted to 63,913, of whom there were 31,341 males, and 32,572 females. But in that year 5243 persons died, and no more than 2198 children were born; so that the number of the dead exceeded that of the born by 3045. It is highly probable that some epidemical distemper carried off so disproportionate a number in that year, as the island would shortly be entirely depopulated, if the mortality were always equal to this. Another circumstance concurs to strengthen this supposition, namely, the excellence of the climate. The weather is in general mild and temperate: In summer the heat is very moderate on the higher parts of the island,
whither
