Six months in the West-Indies, in 1825

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MADEIRA. Le monde et ses faux attraits, Sont-ils faits Pour nos regrets ? Non, jamais ! Lieux propices, Vouz n'offrez que des dĂŠlices ! N o n , jamais ! Cet empire N e respire Que la paix.

I should think the situation of Madeira the most enviable on the whole earth. It ensures almost every European comfort, together with almost every tropical luxury. Any degree of temperature may be enjoyed between Funchal and the Ice House. The seasons are the youth, maturity, and old age of a never ending, still beginning spring. Here I found what I used to suppose peculiar to the Garden of Eden and the bowers of Acrasie and Armida:— Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue Appear'd, with gay enamell'd colors mix'd.

The myrtle, the geranium, the rose, and the violet, grow on the right hand and on the left in the boon prodigality of primitive nature. The geranium, in particular, is so common, that the honey of the bees becomes something like a jelly of that flower. I differ from most people in not liking it so well as the English honey, though it is far purer and more transparent. That of Barbados is finer than either. Perhaps after having been within ten degrees


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