CHAPTER XIII. Non omnes arbusta juvant humilesque myrica. VIRG. ECL. lib. 4. They unto whom we shall appear tedious are in no wise injured by us; because it is in their own hands to spare that labour which they are not willing to endure. HOOKER. Excursion to the Seven Cities.-Porto Formoso.-Wine shop.— Capellas.Ass-riders in St. Michael's.-Amusing objects on JULY 11, THURSDAY.-On Monday morning (July 8) I started from the Furnas for Ribeira Grande and the Capellas, on my road to the seven cities (Sete Cidades), a little village in a Q 2 228 EXCURSION TO THE SEVEN CITIES. deep valley among the mountains, bearing this singular name.* The path to Ribeira Grande led up the north side of the Furnas valley to the brow of the mountains; and, after skirting the edge of the crater for about a mile, dipped into a deep pumice lane, bordered and fringed with long fresh ferns, over-hanging heaths, and long brambles, and then opened on a wide and level district, resembling a flat heathy common, destitute of trees. The road consisted of a multitude of separate paths, divided and bordered with fine grass, and occasionally intersecting one another, just as may be seen among forest by-paths, or roads over unfrequented English commons. wound along before us, "A length of green and open road As if it from a fountain flowed, It and might be seen for a considerable distance * We were unable to ascertain the origin of this remarkable name; nor is there, as far as we could learn, any island tradition to throw light upon it. It has been suggested, that the spot may have been called the Seven Cities from some such reason as a place in the west of Ireland is called the Seven Churches. OBJECTS ON THE ROAD. 229 a-head, with here and there a few moving objects to indicate the track. You might, for instance, occasionally see a donkey and his indolent rider slowly plodding along, or a flock of pert black goats, tinkling with bells, and attended by their sober goatherd, who whistled to them as they browsed by the way-side, and jumped on and off the steep places and banks; or a few red cows standing in a shallow pond, ruminating and flicking off the flies, while boys, dressed like their fathers, in dwarf carapuças and suits of light-blue linsey-woolsey, sat by to watch them. Besides these objects, there was no living being to relieve the monotony between the Furnas and Porto Formoso,—a village through which we passed on our road to Ribeira Grande. The green heaths before us, intermixed with fern and brambles; in the distance, conical hills, covered with the same; beyond these, mountains rising high above them in less regular forms, and still clothed with the same green garments; the distant ocean to the north "gleaming like a silver shield," and unruffled by a single breeze, constituted the quiet and monotonous scenery through which we passed. Among the heath stood a few melancholy fir-trees, keeping watch over two or three 230 PORTO FORMOSO. ruined cottages, which, if ever inhabited, had long been forsaken, and had come to that stage of naked ruin when dwelling-places look most miserable; just so much of the doors and shutters, rafters, floors, and tiles remaining, as serves to show what time and the weather, and unscrupulous pilferers have destroyed or taken away; and just sufficient paint and whitewash to indicate that the walls and wood-work had seen better days. Porto Formoso, (the Beautiful Port,) after a long ride, with hardly a habitation in sight, seemed, perhaps, more beautiful than it really was. But, on the road turning suddenly, and bringing to view a neat white church, with houses right and left; in front, a dell running towards the sea; a rugged point of lava stretching into the water; a quiet blue bay, edged with white surf, sweeping towards the dell; a few boats, and boatmen; women, in white dresses, beating flax, washing linen, and spreading it to dry in the dazzling sunshine; children squatting in circles round the cottage doors; girls, with shining red pitchers on their heads, coming from the fountain; and, in the distance, the irregular shore dimmed by a hot noonday haze;-I thought it one of the prettiest villages I had seen in the island. The life given by men, women, and children; and the ornamented church, forming a centre-piece to the white and grey cottages about it, were a pleasant change from the dull evergreen mountains and moors that we had left behind. Quitting this village, we passed through more deep pumice paths leading up the hills, where a peasant, who had accompanied us on his mule, told marvellous stories of a battle that had been fought some time before, between Pedroites and Miguelites, in the troublesome times of Portugal. Farther on, a string of donkeys, with jabbering riders in heavy carapuças, passed us, who said, in answer to a question of what was the time, that it wanted but "a hair's breadth of mid-day;" and after a hot ride through fields of Indiancorn and bearded wheat, we entered Ribeirinha, a small village in the outskirts of Ribeira Grande, where we halted at a wine-shop for refreshment. The cottage was very little better than that of a Frenchman, which Cobbet asserts to be "a shed, with a dung-heap before the door." The little room was dark, being lighted only from the door; and as ceiling, walls, and earthen floor, were all |