Reminiscences of a Cruise in the Mediterranean and a Visit to the Holy Land and Egypt (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Reminiscences of a Cruise in the Mediterranean and a Visit to the Holy Land and EgyptAfter a delightful voyage of eight days, during which no one could find the least excuse for an attack of' mal de mer, ' we arrived at Funchal, the capital of fair Madeira. It was quite early 1n the morning when our ship dropped anchor, about half a mile from shore, and while dressing, I looked out of the windows of our cabin, and saw a view beautiful beyond de scription. 'mountains, rising one above another, formed a fine background, and there were three high hills, shaped just like bee-hives, with rounded domes, quite unique in appearance. The colouring of the picture was superb blue sea, blue sky, with downy white clouds, bright green h1lls, ' purple shadows, red and grey rocks white houses with red roofs, and a pic turesque old grey fort, crowning the summit of one of the hills. After dressing, and breakfast, we went on deck, and became aware that the sea had suddenly become alive with a ¿otilla of row boats, in which were fishermen and small boys, who begged and demanded, in loud tones, and with expressive gestures, that the passengers would throw money into the sea, for which they would dive. It is really wonderful how they manage to find the money, although I believe they get it before it reaches the bottom, they have trained the eye so accurately, and never lose sight of the coins from the moment they are ¿ung into the water.After some little delay, the official boats came to take us ashore. To step on terra firma once again, after a sea voyage, is always a delight to me (no matter how pleasant the voyage), and on this occasion it was doubly so, as the land was very beautiful. We were immediately taken possession of by a guide, who showed us different places of interest. We first went té see the Governor's residence, an old-fashioned building with spacious rooms. Madeira is under the Crown of Portugal, and in one of the salons was a fine portrait of the late King of Portugal.'About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.