1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

Tlie Vineyards of Sao Martinho, Cama de Lohos,&c. 163

poles, about the size of tbe bowsprit of a small sailing boat, must be of considerable weight when tenanted; but our bearers •set off as lightly as if their burden had been merely a walking- stick with a bundle,and strode along up the steep road at fully four miles an hour. After we had passed out of the Punchal district we crossed the ravine ofthe Eibeiro Secco,the narrow mountain road being "bordered by blackberry hedges, interspersed -with wild honey suckles,roses,and geraniums,and occasional prickly pears. Here and there the fazendas,or cultivated lands, which, ovdng to the rocky mountainous character of the region, are often the merest plots, are inclosed by stone walls up which the young lizards may be seen scampering. "W^e pass under trellises of vines, by patches of sugar-canes and shady fig-trees, with small water-, ■courses gurgling along at our side. On our right rise the peaks ■of Sao Martinho and Santo Antonio, the former covered half-way up its sides withvines,while the loftier peaks beyond are crowned with chestnuts and pines. We continually meet brown, bony, and barefooted peasant women, and encounter a party of toiling borachehos in their fantastic-shaped caps resembling inverted funnels, bringing down newly-made wine in sheep and goat skins slung over their backs and kept steady by straps across their burning foreheads. At length we reach the church of Sao Martinho—a grove of cypresses indicating the adjacent cemetery—and pass the -village forge, where all the male gossips ■of the neighbourhood seemed to be congregated. Sao Martinho is an important viticultural district, yielding a high-class -wine with fine bouquet; and fortunately its vines have been only slightly attacked by the phylloxera. The vintage hadalready commenced,but the yield promised tohe only a very moderate one, owing to the grapes having rotted from an excess of moisture. Our first halt was at a place called Terra dos Alhos—in other words, the land of garlic. Here our hammock- bearers had a short rest, regaling themselves with glasses of warm punch at a wayside venda while we stretched our limbs by stridingup and down. Shortly after starting again we descended