1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

162

The Vineyards and Wines of Madeira.

The Madeira Mirantes or Look-out Places—Scanty Raiment worn by the Children—The Many Hundred Miles of Terraced-Walls at Madeira— Tenure of Land in the Island—Kent Paid in Kind—Senhor Salles's Vine yard—We visit the Vineyard known as Mae dos Homens,or Mother of Men,in a Bullock-car—Find the Animals more Patient and Quiet than their Excitable, Noisy Drivers—The Principal Vineyards on the North Side of the Island. The morning after our visit to Sao Joao we were aroused ■soon after five o'clock with, tlie announcement tliat men witk carros, or basket sledges, were waiting to run us down from the Mount to Tunchal, whence hammock-bearers were to convey a party of us through several of the principal viticultural districts on the southern side of the island. By six we were scudding fiown the steep shppery roadway at a speed which occasionally touched twenty miles an hour. The basket car in which we made this descent—the usual method of getting to Funchal— slides along on wooden runners easily enough when once set in motion by its pair of swift-footed conductors, who guide it with their hands or by the aidof leathern traces attached to the front on either side. When the road is very steep the men press one of their feet on the framework of the car to lessen its speed, and whenever inclined to be level sling the leathern traces across their shoulders and drag the car along like a pair of fleet coursers. The first time you findyourself thus furiously whisked along over a roughly-paved though slippery road, and see before you the steep declines you are about to descend, or the sharp turns to be made while proceeding at this break-neck pace, you are apt to feel a little nervous. But you soon come to the con clusion that if not exactly the safest this is the easiest and pleasantest, as it is unquestionably the only rapid, mode of travelling in the island. Our party was four in number, and each had his three hammock-bearers—muscular and agile men, two of whom carried the hammock, while the third reheved one or other of them from time to time. As it was necessary we should take our provisions with us, a gang of men and boys had been engaged for this purpose, so that our troop was altogether a considerable one. The hammocks, which are slruig on stout