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