On entering the church, we were met at the door by a pussy snuff-taking priest, whose besmeared outer garment looked as if it would have been all the better for the application of a cake of brown soap in connection with some of the clear water which coursed down the mountain past his sanctuary. The interior of the edifice displayed the most garish taste, and with its sickening amount of gilding, was embellished in the most tawdry manner. There was the customary proportion of relics, and the paintings around looked very old. Our stay was short, and after leaving a small sum for our footing, as Jack would say, we returned to our steeds, leaving the wax figure of the lady patroness of the island in a glass case in the rear, looking as demure and as indifferent to our presence as when we entered. The whilom legends of the devout tell of her, at a time when breadstuffs were scarce, having left her crystal enclosure and gone to hurry on cargoes of grain to Funchal, which, like Buckingham, were “on the sea.” The descent to the Coral—a deep mountain gorge of singular and circular formation—is by a narrow shelf of a road cut in the face of a precipitous hill, and running in inclined planes. One does not entirely fancy the task of going down; but then the horses are rough-shod, with reference to such places, are remarkably sure footed, and move instinctively with much caution. On getting to the bottom, the road by which we had just come looked like a mere thread-line on the face of the cliff that hung over us. Its depth is some sixteen hundred feet, and you look up to the azure above you as from an immense pit. We stopped at a small mill situated at the lowest point of the Coral, to give our horses a little time to blow, and our borro querros a little country wine, which was likewise patronized by ourselves. I noticed around clumps of pines planted for fuel, and a number of exquisite flowers growing spontaneously. We ascended from the Coral by a road equally as narrow and precipitous as the one by which we had gone down, only proving less clear; a large rock which had caved from the bank nearly barricaded the path, and on reaching it my horse, whose reputation I subsequently ascertained to be one for shying, came quite near treating himself and rider to a Tarpean fate. On reaching the top, we were refreshed by a breeze redolent with perfume, and turned into a road enclosed on either side by hedges of bona fide geranium. It is feeding on this sweet plant that imparts to the meat of the native cattle, when eaten, a peculiar flavor; and the honey of the bee who gathers his sweets from it, is strongly impregnated with its pleasant odor. No wonder that the attenuated invalid should resort to thee, beautiful Madeira, to revive his drooping spirits. We returned to the city in the evening, by a road running past pleasant gardens, and by a bridge that spans the canal which receives the quickly-swollen mountain