Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/72

52 WEST AFEICA. favoured climate. Such are rickets, scrofula, consumption, and even leprosy, as in the mother country. The women emigrate far less than the men, so that they are always in excess by several thousands. During the quarter of a century between 1835 and 1859, over 50,000 altogether emigrated, either to the British West Indies, or to Demerara and Brazil, and settlements have also been formed in the Cape and the Sandwich Islands. The land svstem is the same as that which prevails in the Azores. Although landed property has been free since 1863, the descendants of the old feudatories still own the soil and the water used in irrigation. The tenant, however, claims all the produce and all structures erected by himself, so that he cannot be dispossessed without receiving compensation for the standing crops and improve- ments. He has, in fact, become co-proprietor, and may even sell his hcmfeitoria, or "interest," without the consent of ie morgado (ground landlord). In theory the rent claimed by the latter represents half the crop, but it is usually less, and in some cases not even one-fourth. The first great staple of agriculture was the sugar-cane, imported from Sicily, and in the sixteenth century so prosperous that the hundred mills at that time employed yielded over 90,000 cwts. But this industry having been ruined by the competition of Brazil, capitalists took to wine-growing, the plant, introduced from Candia in the fifteenth century, having succeeded beyond all hope. The better vintages acquired, under the names of " malvoisie " and " dry Madeira," a high repute, and at the time of its greatest prosperitj^ about 1820, the total yield amounted to 2,650,000 gallons, valued at £500,000. But in 1852 oidium, after wasting the vineyards of the Cape Yerd and Canary groups, attacked those of Madeira. The ruin was sudden and terrible, and when growers began to recover themselves in the course of ten or twelve years, phylloxera invaded the districts which yielded the choicest vintages. Nevertheless, the struggle continues, and Madeira still exports wine blended either with the ordinary white vintage of Portu- gal, or with cider, or even with the juice of the sugar-cane. The vine grows best in the Funchal district and at the entrance of the southern gorges. It is rare on the northern slope, where its tendrils twine round the branches of the chestnut. Early vegetables, exquisite bananas, and other sub-tropical fruits, are raised for the Lisbon market. Were trade relieved from its fiscal burdens, this industry might be vastly developed, and Madeira might become the southern garden of Western Europe. Lisbon also largely imports the products of the local handicrafts, such as Lee, embroidery, artificial flowers, straw hats, matting, carved and inlaid wood, and a thousand other objects needing taste and a deft hand. In the villages these articles are produced chiefly by the women and the infirm. Another less praiseworthy but no less profitable pursuit is the systematic plunder of invalids and other strangers who come to recruit their strength in this delightful island. But many of these die in the place where they sought renewed life, and Madeira has even been called " one of London's cemeteries." The fault, however, as remarked by M. Thiercelin, is not with the land where people come to die, but with that where they have lived. The number of visitors varies from year to year