A great deal of land is still uncultivated throughout the Azores, so that no able-bodied labourer can want employment, and for two centuries to come there will be employment for the increasing population. The temperature of the climate, ranging from 55° to 76° of Fahrenheit, reducing the physical wants of man as to clothing, fuel, &c.; and the abundance of vegetables, fruits, &c., renders the poor man’s lot easier than in colder climates. In the hospitals there is no limit of rations to the sick patients; they have bread, meat, poultry, milk, &c., in abundance. The state of criminals in the prisons is however dreadful; they are not fed by government, and must die if not succoured by relatives, and the casual supply of bread sent them from the misericordia in cases of extreme need: this however is not obligatory on the part of the hospital. Criminals, after sentence to the galleys, are allowed a loaf of bread per day, but nothing more.
St. Michael’s, April 20, 1834.
Canary Islands.
Mendicity, Vagrants, Destitute Able-bodied, Impotent through Age.
Mendicity does prevail to a great extent in the Canary Islands. There is no legal provision whatever for the relief or support of the poor included in the denominations stated above; casual charity is the only resource; but as the natives for the most part remain in the places where they were born, there are very few who have not some relations and acquaintance, from whom they receive occasional assistance. From the nature of the climate, the wants of the poor, when not suffering from sickness, are very limited; having food sufficient to satisfy their hunger, they are scarcely affected by the privations so sensibly felt by the poor in northern climates. “Goffro,” (which is maize, barley or wheat, roasted, and ground by the hand between two stones,) mixed with water or milk, potatoes and other vegetables, with sometimes a small piece of salt fish, constitute the general food of the peasantry throughout the islands. In the towns the artisans live better, obtaining bread, potatoes, salt fish, and sometimes butcher’s meat.
Sick.
In Santa Cruz there is one hospital for the poor, but the accommodation is very limited (24 beds), in no degree proportional to the wants of the population.
In the town of Laguna is one also, larger than Santa Cruz, and tolerably maintained.
At Las Palmas, the capital of the island of Canary, is the largest and best hospital in the islands; near that town also, is the hospital of St. Lazarus, exclusively for lepers, of which there are considerable numbers. This hospital is well kept up, and the building in a good state of repair, with a garden walled round. The unfortunate inmates are said to be comfortably provided for.