stowed in hereditary property upon Zarco and Vaz; one division, named Funchal, being given to Zarco, and the other moiety, named Machico, to Vaz.

In the year 1420, Zarco began the plantation of Madeira, and being much impeded in his progress by the immense quantity of thick and tall trees, with which it was then every where encumbered, he set the wood on fire to facilitate the clearing of the surface for cultivation. The wood is reported to have continued burning for seven years, and so great was the devastation as to ocCasion great inconvenience to the colony for many years afterwards, from the want of timber. Don Henry appears to have been a prince of most uncommonly enlarged and liberal views; not only capable of devising the means of making maritime discoveries, which had never been thought of before his time, but of estimating their value when made, and of applying them to purposes the most useful and important to his country. Reflecting upon the reported fertility of the soil, and the excellence of the climate, of Madeira, and acting with all the judicious foresight of a philosopher, politician, and naturalist, in reference to the most valuable productions of similar climates and soils, he wisely conceived, and successfully executed, the idea of introducing the cultivation of sugar and wines into this new colony. For these purposes, Portugal would readily supply him with vines, and with people conversant in their management; but he was obliged to procure sugar-canes, and persons experienced in their cultivation, and in the process of manufacturing sugar from their juice, from the island of Sicily, into which that article of culture had been brought by the Arabs.

So great was the success of this new subject of industry in Madeira, that the fifth part of the produce of one district only, little more than nine miles in circumference, which proportion the prince reserved as the patrimony of his military order, amounted, some years, to 60,000 arobas of twenty-five pounds each; giving the entire acknowledged produce of one district only of the d at 7,500,000 pounds, or 2350 tons. This, at the modern price of eight-pence a-pound, amounts to the enormous sum of £250,000 value of merchantable produce, from a district which could not contain above 5760 English acres; or above the value of £43 of average yearly value from every acre of that district.

* In the introduction to the World Displayed, Dr. Johnson has remarked on this story, That green wood is not very apt to burn; and the heavy rains which fall in these countries must surely have extinguished the conflagration were it ever so violent.' Yet, in 1800, Radnor Forest presented a conflagration of nearly twenty miles in circumference, which continued to spread for a considerable time, in spite of every effort to arrest ita progress.

This astonishingly valuable produce was in the infancy of the sugartrade, when that bland and wholesome condiment was still an article of luxury, and not, as now, almost an indispensable necessary, even in the lowest cottages of modern Europe. The sugars of Madeira were long famous; but, after the establishment of the sugar-plantations in Brazil, and the destructive ravages of a worm which infested the sugar-canes of Madeira, that article of cultivation began to be abandoned, and the principal attention of the islanders was transferred to the grape, which still continues to supply Europe, America, and the East Indies, with the justly | celebrated Madeira wine.

At the same time with the grant of Madeira to Zarco and Vaz, Perestrello received a donation of the island of Puerto Santo, on condition of colonizing and bringing it into culture. But, so great was the multitude of rabbits, all said to have been produced from one doe transmitted with young from Portugal, i that cultivation was attended with peculiar difficulties occasioned by their ravages; insomuch, that in one islet only, three thousand are reported to have been killed at one time.*

LETTERS ON FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

(Continued from Vol. II, page 363.)

LETTER V.

IN that part of Paris which is called the Marais, and at no great

distance from the Arsenal, was the residence of M. Desèze, who pronounced the defence of Louis XVI, and who, before the revolution, was among the most brilliant orators of the French bar. In the house of this gentleman, I was almost domiciliated, and passed the most pleasant, and perhaps instructive hours, which I allotted to social intercourse during my sojournment in the French capital. My memory dwells upon what I saw and heard, in the bosom of his family, with a satisfaction that is wholly without alloy, and my - heart dilates with acknowledgment, when I am led to reflect upon the endearing kindness and the indulgent consideration, which were there displayed towards a young stranger, whose titles to attention fell so far short of those of the host and his society, and whose country was only known to them through descriptions which falsely represented it as the nursery of barbarous manners and sordid passions. I witnessed, in the family of Desèze, a picture of the mild majesty of private life,' such as embellished France, in many hallowed mansions, before the revolution; enlivened by the winning

Kerr's General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels.

vivacity,

vivacity, graced by the polished refinements, and ennobled by the high honour, of the old French character. The virtues of the heart shone with the lustre which they receive from the most valuable endowments of nature, improved by rich culture and exquisite taste; from habitual attention to the most liberal and exalted pursuits; from a sort of youthful, fresh enthusiasm, even in the advanced stages of existence, for the arts and the offspring of imagination; from a fond indulgence of the bland illusions' of domestic and social life; and from that true and amiable philosophy of optimism, which incessantly turns to the eye, under almost any circumstances, the gayest and happiest attitudes of things.'

Desèze is a prominent figure in the charming Memoirs of Marmontel, and was the bosom friend of that admirable writer. I cannot forbear quoting to you the language in which Marmontel describes him, in order that you may become better acquainted with the man of whom I am about to speak in some detail. With respect to M. Desèze,' says Marmontel, I do not believe, that there is on earth, one whose society is more desirable than his. He was eminently conspicuous for a gaiety, ingenious, inviting, and witty; a natural eloquence, that in conversation, even the most familiar, flowed in an abundant current; a quickness, a justness of thought and expression, which, at every moment, seemed inspired; and, better than all, an open heart, full of rectitude, sensibility, kindness, and candour: such were the qualities of the friend, that the Abbé Hauy had long taught me to desire, and that the vicinity of our country-houses procured me.

'From our very first interviews, to see, to enjoy, to cherish each other, to desire to meet again, were simultaneous effects; and distant as we now are, this attachment is the same. At least, on my side, nothing in my solitude has more occupied me, nor more interested me, than he. Desèze is one of those rare men, of whom it may be said, you must love him if you have not loved him already and when you shall have once loved him, you must love him for ever. Cras amet, qui nunquam amavit ; qui jam amavit, cras

amet'

The same qualities still distinguish this noble person, and are now illustrated by the honours with which his talents and conduct have since invested his name. After the ignominious refusal of Target to undertake the vindication of Louis XVI, Desèze was selected by the monarch to co-operate with Maleshrbes, and accepted the perilous distinction, with an alacrity that served to exhibit the pusillanimity of Target in still higher relief. I obtained from him copious details concerning the history of this proceeding,

*Vol. iii, p. 278.

and

and the deportment of his sovereign at this great crisis. Every trait which he narrated served to exalt the moral character of Louis, and to aggravate the infamy of his butchers. Desèze composed and pronounced his defence before the Convention with all the ability and enthusiasm which the occasion required, but with too accurate a knowledge of the dispositions of his judges not to have anticipated the result. The first occupation of the advocate, after his election to this glorious office, was to make all his testamentary arrangements, and to settle his affairs, as if he himself had been condemned to the scaffold. The undertaking was viewed, by himself and all his friends, as the immediate forerunner of his own destruction. He was, indeed, thrown into prison, not long after the execution of Louis, but escaped, by a combination of fortunate contingencies, after a confinement of four years.

A circumstance connected with his imprisonment was related to me by a companion of his misfortunes, and confirmed by the testimony of his excellent wife, which will give you a just idea of the genius of the man, and of the powers of his eloquence. He received information, in the morning of the day on which he was released, that Madame Desèze would probably obtain the desired order for his enlargement in the course of the evening. She was, therefore, as you may imagine, expected with no small impatience. The sun, however, descended, and the hour for repose arrived; but the herald of good tidings did not make her appearance. Desèze retired with a heavy and anxious heart, leaving many solemn and earnest injunctions upon the jailor's wife, who kept the keys, to be ready to open her doors at the first sound that was heard at them. He remained awake, listening eagerly to every noise that assailed his ear, and at length, between twelve and one o'clock, heard a loud knocking at the gate, which, according to his own relation, made him exclaim instantaneously, in a voice loud enough to be overheard by the whole neighbourhood, C'est ma femme.' 'It is 'It is my wife.'

The discipline of the prison forbade him to leave his cell, before he received a formal summons. The knockings were repeated with redoubled violence, but no indication was given of a movement to open the door. He knew at the same time, that the smallest delay might be fatal, and that if the morning found him there, he might be dragged forth to execution, in spite of a thousand commissions for his enlargement. His impatience overcame, at length, every consideration of prudence. He rushed forth, and ran to the room of the jailor's wife, whom he found awake, but with no disposition. to rise. The woman was of a hardened and brutal character, and resisted all his entreaties, alleging that she was expressly privileged from attending to calls at that hour of the night. He then, with

out

out hesitation, seized the keys of the prison, unlocked the doors himself, and found all his wishes realized, in the appearance of his wife, with the order for his immediate release. The noise which this proceeding occasioned, and the sound of his voice, roused his fellow captives, who were apprised of his hopes, and took the most lively interest in his escape. They all came forth instantaneously, notwithstanding the restriction which I have mentioned above, and surrounded him in the hall of the prison.

After the first endearments and congratulations were over, the jailor's wife, who had slowly attired herself in the interval, made her appearance. The indignation which her insensibility had excited in the mind of Desèze, was not suppressed by the joy of his deliverance, and apparently forgetful of the last, he immediately turned to apostrophize her on the inhumanity of her conduct. He descanted on the deformity of her feelings, on the general duties of her station, on the sentiments which it was incumbent upon her to entertain, in favour of the unhappy victims about her, and the dehight with which she should have co-operated in their rescue, in a strain of eloquence so powerful and pathetic, that the woman, at length, fell at his feet, drowned in tears, and agitated by the most violent emotions of sorrow and contrition. The by-standers listened to him for the full half hour during which his harangue lasted, with astonishment and admiration. I have heard from himself, that on no occasion of his life, was he conscious of so strong an inspiration of feeling, and of such vivacity of expression.

I have listened to the recital given by Desèze, and his companions, of what passed in the interior of their prisons, with emotions of unutterable horror:-' with shuddering, meek, submitted thought." Mr. Burke has been accused of indulging his imagination in the pictures which he has drawn of the ferocity and excesses of the jacobin faction; but the testimony now borne on that subject, by all parties in France, proves that neither his vigorous fancy, nor, to use his own language, any muse of fire that had cended the highest heaven of invention,' could exceed the reality, or do more than imperfectly sketch this unparalleled group of horrors. Notwithstanding the cruel indignities and the physical suffering, to which the unhappy victims in the prisons were exposed, the gaiety of the national character triumphed over the pangs of reflection and misery, whenever they were permitted to mingle for social purposes. In the loathsome receptacle in which Desèze was confined, the prisoners, most of them persons of rank and fortune before the revolution, took their wretched and scanty meal at a common table, and were occasionally blessed with the privilege of spending their evenings together. They contrived games for mutual amusement, engaged in lively discussions on sub

GEN. CHRON. VOL. 111. NO. XI.

jects