MADEIRA, TENERIFFE, AND CAPE DE VERDE ISLANDS.

_Full many a green isle needs must be
In this wide sea of misery,
Or the mariner worn and wan
Never thus could voyage on._

[Illustration: Our First View of Madeira]


_Sunday, July 16th_.--Porto Santo being visible on the port bow, a
quarter of a mile ahead, by 3.55 a.m. this morning, our three
navigators congratulated themselves and each other on the good
land-fall they had made.

It looks a curious little island, and is situated about thirty-five
miles north-east of Madeira, with a high peak in the centre, of which
we could only see the extreme point, appearing above the clouds.

It is interesting to know that it was from his observation of the
drift-wood and débris washed on to the eastern shore that Columbus,
who had married the daughter of the Governor of Porto Santo, derived
his first impressions of the existence of the New World. Here it was
that he first realised there might possibly be a large and unknown
country to the westward; here it was that he first conceived the
project of exploring the hitherto unknown ocean and of discovering
what new countries might bound its western shores.

An hour later we saw Fora and its light, at the extreme east of