not settle their genera, particularly those called by the Portuguese mirmulano and pao branco,[1] both which, and especially the first, from the beauty of their leaves, promise to be a great ornament to our European gardens.
The inhabitants here are supposed to number about 80,000, and from the town of Funchiale (its customhouse I mean) the King of Portugal receives £20,000 a year, after having paid the Governor and all expenses of every kind, which may serve to show in some degree of what consequence this little island is to the Crown of Portugal. Were it in the hands of any other people in the world its value might easily be doubled from the excellence of its climate, capable of bearing any kind of crop, a circumstance of which the Portuguese do not take the least advantage.
The coin current here is entirely Spanish, for the balance of trade with Lisbon being in disfavour of this island, all the Portuguese money naturally goes there, to prevent which Spanish money is allowed to pass; it is of three denominations, pistereens, bitts, and half bitts, the first worth about a shilling, the second 6d., the third 3d. They have also copper Portuguese money, but it is so scarce that I did not in my stay there see a single piece.[2]
18th. This evening got under weigh.
20th. Took with the casting-net a most beautiful species of Medusa of a colour equalling, if not exceeding, the finest ultramarine; it was described and called Medusa azurea.
23rd. A fish was taken which was described and called Scomber serpens; the seamen said they had never seen it before, except the first lieutenant, who remembered to have taken one before just about these islands. Sir Hans Sloane[3] in his passage out to Jamaica also took one of these fish, and gives a figure of it (vol. i. t. i. f. 2).
24th. This morning the Pike [of Teneriffe] appeared very plainly, and immensely high above the clouds, as may well
- ↑ Probably Apollonias canariensis, Nees; and Oreodaphne fœtens, Nees.
- ↑ Here Banks has a list of 18 Madeiran fish and 299 plants.
- ↑ For notes on the naturalists and travellers mentioned throughout the Journal, see pp. xliii.–li.
