At about ten A. M. the captain went ashore with a boat’s crew, for the purpose of purchasing stores for the ship, excellent potatoes and onions being produced in this genial climate, and from the little intercourse these people hold with the rest of mankind, can be obtained at a mere nominal price. On nearing the shore we found the coast rocky and precipitous, covered with herbage of the richest green; a heavy surf was beating on the rocks, but we landed by the assistance of the Portuguese, who fearlessly plunged into the water and hauled our boat ashore. We found on the beach a concourse of dark and light, young and old, male and female, assembled to meet us; all shoeless, and many of them hatless; all making a noise and bounding from cliff to cliff with little less agility than the goats, of which great numbers are kept for the sake of their milk and skins. On proceeding to the town, the name of which I never could discover, not having seen an American who knew, or a Portuguese who could tell me what it was, although I have asked the question frequently, always with the same result, we found that it was built without regard to order or regularity--the buildings of stone. Many plats of ground were surrounded by immense stone walls; some of these plats are not more than sixteen feet square, but are enclosed by walls two feet thick, reminding one of the masonry in the German castles of romance. At the town we saw little to attract except the merry appearance of the female, and scowling expression of the male inhabitants; the men looking upon us, it seemed, as intruders, and desiring but little intercourse with us; the women, although barefooted and with hair unkempt, their negligent dress exposing rather more of their persons than accordant with modesty, were more than affable; every article of our apparel that was exposed to their view being made by them a price for which they were willing to prostitute themselves; and so pertinacious were they, that it was with difficulty a sheath knife was wrested from one of them by a blushing boy of our party to whom their immodest offers (having but three weeks previously left the bosom of a virtuous family of mother and sisters), sounded like sacrilege, and, as he afterwards expressed himself, absolutely appalled him. We saw little evidence of cultivation in the town; but upon inquiry were informed, as well as their broken English could enlighten us, that the produce grew higher up--in the mountains. To scale these we were not adventurous enough; so we sat down, and, after some bargaining, procured boiled eggs, fruit, bread, and sour wine, on which we made a hearty repast. I observed about the town cows, pigs, and dogs, but neither jackass nor donkey; so I do not think the aforesaid long-eared gentleman possesses the right or title to claim the paternity of the world-renowned jackass cheese; although seamen, in a spirit of vagary, have given to it the appellation of that intellectual animal.