We visited them on Thursday evening, just before their supper-time; they made many apologies, that they could not ask us to sup, not being prepared; "but," said they, "if you will come to-morrow, notwithstanding that it is a fast with us, we will have a turkey roasted for you."
There are here besides friaries, three or four houses of nuns. To one of these (Saint Clara) we went, and indeed the ladies did us the honour to express great pleasure in seeing us there. They had heard that we were great philosophers, and expected much from us: one of the first questions that they asked was when it would thunder; they then desired to know if we could put them in a way of finding water in their convent, of which it seems they were in want. Notwithstanding that our answers to their questions were not quite so much to the purpose as they expected, they did not at all cease their civilities; for while we stayed, which was about half an hour, I am sure that there was not a fraction of a second in which their tongues did not go at an uncommonly nimble rate.
It remains now that I should say something of the island in general, and then take my leave of Madeira till some other opportunity offers of visiting it again, for the climate is so fine that any man might wish it was in his power to live there under the benefits of English laws and liberty.
The hills here are very high, much higher than any one would imagine; Pico Ruievo, the highest, is 5068 feet,[1] which is much higher than any land that has been measured in Great Britain. The whole island, as I hinted before, has probably been the production of a volcano, notwithstanding which its fertility is amazing: all the sides of the hills are covered with vines to a certain height, above which are woods of chestnut and pine of immense extent, and above them forests of wild timber of kinds not known in Europe, which amply supply the inhabitants with whatever they may want. Among these, some there were whose flowers we were not able to procure, and consequently could
- ↑ 6059 feet by more recent measurement.
