they increase the quantity of the wine: an instance of the force of habit, which is the more extraordinary, as they have adopted the practice of engrafting with respect to their chesnut-trees, an object of much less importance, which, however, are thus brought to bear sooner than they would otherwise have done. We saw no wheel-carriages of any sort in the place, which, perhaps, is not more owing to the want of ingenuity to invent them than to the want of industry to mend the roads, which, at present, it is impossible that any wheel-carriage should pass: the inhabitants have horses and mules, indeed, excellently adapted to such ways; but their wine is, notwithstanding, brought to town from the vineyards where it is made in vessels of goat-skins, which are carried by men upon their heads. The only imitation of a carriage among these people is a board, made somewhat hollow in the middle, to one end of which a pole is tied, by a strap of whit-leather: this wretched sledge approaches about as near to an English cart as an Indian canoe to a ship’s long-boat; and even this would probably never have been thought of, if the English had not introduced wine-vessels, which are too big to be carried by hand, and which, therefore, are dragged about the town upon these machines. One reason, perhaps, why art and industry have done so little for Madeira, is, Nature’s having done so much. The soil is very rich, and there is such a difference of climate between the plains and the hills, that there is scarcely a single object of luxury that grows either in Europe or the Indies that might not be produced here. When we went to visit Dr. Heberden, who lives upon a considerable ascent, about two miles from town, we left the thermometer at 74, and when we arrived at his house, we found it at 66. The hills produce, almost spontaneously, walnuts, chesnuts, and apples in great abundance; and in the town there are many plants which are the natives both of the East and West Indies, particularly the banana, the guava, the pine-apple or anana, and the mango, which flourish almost without culture. The corn of this country is of a most excellent quality, large grained and very fine, and the island would produce it in great plenty; yet most of what is consumed by the inhabitants is imported. The mutton, pork, and beef, are also very good; the beef, in particular, which we took on board here, was universally allowed to be scarcely inferior to our own; the lean part was very like it, both in colour and grain, though the beasts are much smaller, but the fat is as white as the fat of mutton.