news of the result of that battle reached the island, the holders of
the remaining cargo proposed to hand it over for a consideration to
certain parties in the interest of Donna Maria, and it was accordingly
consigned to a Portuguese house in London. The vessel in which it was
sent was called the Saint Anne, of 60 tons, and sailed under British
colours: the cargo consisted of 564 bags,[8] each containing 2 cwt.,
and the whole sold for 15,000£. I mention this circumstance as an
occurrence worth being recorded; the arrival of a vessel to England
direct from the islands being a great novelty, accounted for, in this
instance, by the political events which threw the trade out of its
regular channels.

The principal manufactories of orchilla in England are London and
Liverpool, but there are many others in different parts of the country.
The chief manufacturers are Messrs. Henry Holmes and Sons of Liverpool,
and Mr. Samuel Preston Child of London. The manufactured orchilla is
frequently shipped to Germany, Holland, &c. in its fluid state, with a
small proportion of weed in each cask for the satisfaction of the
purchasers. The inferior qualities of the weed, and also a variety of
mosses that have the same properties as the orchilla, only in a minor
degree, are dried and ground to a fine powder, which is denominated
cudbear, and is applicable to the same purposes as the weed itself.[9]

It is a curious illustration of the importance that is attached to the
weed generally, and to the weed of the Canaries in particular, that,
within the last twenty years, the latter production was considered in
London as a remittance equivalent to specie, and was invariably quoted
in the usual channels of commercial intelligence with the price of gold
and silver, thus:--