Sabean odours from the spicy shore
Of Araby the blest.—Paradise Lost, Book iv.
The voyage from Portugal to India was, in those days, more perilous than will easily be believed in these. The seas swarmed with pirates, shipwrecks were dreadfully frequent, and even when these dangers were escaped, the common mortality was so great, that Vieyra says—‘If the dead, who had been thrown overboard between the coast of Guinea and the Cape of Good Hope, and between that cape and Mozambique, could have monuments placed for them each on the spot where he sunk, the whole way would appear like one continued cemetery.’ Hyperbolical as this is, it shows how enormous the expenditure of life must have been, which could thus be spoken of in the pulpit! The ship in which Camoens sailed was the only one of the fleet which reached its destination.
[27] The middle classes promenade with their families until the sun begins to have effect, when they return to breakfast and to business. Dinner is usually served from noon till 2 p.m., and consists of sopa, vaca cozida, e arroz, (soup, boiled beef, and rice,) with occasionally hum prato do meio (a dish of roast for the centre). Potatoes are seldom or never used, excepting in the kitchen. Fish is only eaten on fast-days, and the delicious sardine (because common and plentiful) shares the fate of the potatoes. The common vin ordinaire of the country is drunk at table out of small tumblers, being supplied from a neighbouring tenda (wine-store) daily or hourly, as it may be required, at a price never exceeding 2d. per pint. Fine old bottled wine (such as we are acquainted with) is altogether unknown in Portugal, and it would be almost as rare to find in any house a couple of dozen bottles of wine, as it would be to discover as many books. Fire-places have not yet become general in dwelling-houses. In cold weather, gentlemen in society wear capotes (large cloth cloaks), and ladies wrap up in thick shawls. Dinner-parties are quite uncommon; but social evening meetings, where tea and simple biscuits are the only refreshments, are of constant occurrence.—Forrester’s Essay.
[28] These peculiar latine sails are exquisitely beautiful when seen in profile and, when beheld in front, resemble a butterfly perched on a dark ground with expanded wings.—Carnarvon. British naval architects will probably be surprised to hear that the Portuguese craft of every kind are all prime built and beautiful models, the elegance of their lines being a source of admiration to every critic. The Oporto fishing-boats, in particular, are fine specimens of the country’s capacity for this sort of excellence, and, when under sail, fly through the water at the rate of 12 to 14 knots an hour.
[29] In the days of Pliny, we are told, the provinces of Minho, Galicia, and Asturias paid not less than a million and a half octaves of gold to the Roman Empire, as a tribute on the ore extracted from various mines then in active operation, and yet, in the present day, the revenues derived by the Portuguese Government from all their mines does not amount to more than £72 17s. The Romans worked mines of gold, silver, iron, lead, coal, antimony, copper, quicksilver, bismuth, arsenic, and tin, in Portugal: and Faria e Souza graphically remarks, ‘Hardly is there a river, or mountain-base that it laves, which does not cover precious stones and grains of gold.’ This language may be considered poetic, but there is no doubt that ‘le sol de Portugal est essentiellement metalifere,’—that metals abound throughout the whole country; but the mines are not worked; neither can their value be correctly ascertained, in the absence of every means of transport, and internal communication.—Forrester.
[30] Hints to Travellers in Portugal, in Search of the Beautiful and the Grand. With an Itinerary of some of the most Interesting Parts of that Remarkable Country.—London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1852.
[31] The Oliveira Prize-Essay on Portugal: with the Evidence Regarding that Country taken before a Committee of the House of Commons in May, 1852; and the Author’s Surveys of the Wine-Districts of the Alto-Douro, as Adopted and Published by order of the House of Commons. Together with a Statistical Comparison of the Resources and Commerce of Great-Britain and Portugal. By Josh. James Forrester, Wine-Grower in the Alto-Douro.—London: John Weale, 59, High Holborn. John Menzies, Edinburgh. Coutinho, Oporto. 1852.
[32] There is scarcely any difficulty now in going to Portugal, for a steamer sails from Southampton for Lisbon on the 7th, 17th, and 27th of every month, or on the following day, when any of those days should fall on a Sunday, and generally enters Vigo Bay in three days; and, weather permitting, calls off Oporto, and arrives in five or six days at Lisbon, from which city a steamer occasionally sails for Oporto, at which place the traveller is recommended to commence his excursions, the province of Minho excelling all others in Portugal in whatever is fertile and picturesque, and being equal, if not superior, in grandeur to the district of the Estrella Mountains. The ordinary mode of travelling is on horses or mules, which can be hired for about 5s. 6d. per day, including their food; but the arrieros who accompany them must be maintained at the cost of him who hires them, and he likewise expects to receive a gratuity. The money of the country is calculated in reis, and taking the mil rei, or 1,000 reis, to be equal to 4s. 6d., the value of the current coin will be nearly as follows:—In Silver: The Cruzado novo, or 480 reis = 2s. 2d.; the 12 Vintem piece, or 240 reis = 1s. 1d.; the 6 Vintem piece, or 120 reis= 6½; the 3 Vintem piece, or 60 reis = 3¼d.; the testoon, or 100 reis = 5½d.; the Half Testoon, or 50 reis = 2⅓d.—In Gold: Moidore, or 4,800 reis = £1 1s. 8d.; the small gold piece, or 5000 reis = £1 2s. 6d.; the gold piece, or 8000 reis = £1 16s. The English sovereign circulates in Portugal for 4500 reis. The copper coins in general circulation are the following:—The 5 reis, equal to little more than 0¼d.; the 10 reis, equal to little more than 0½d.; the 20 reis, or Vintem, equal to little more than 1d.; the 40 reis, or Pataca, equal to little more than 2d.
Our political relationship with Portugal, from the personal family alliances between the two countries, and from other causes, has of late years been kept up at great expense; and, according to some critics, with very little good to any but the individuals at whose instance and on whose behalf British interference has taken place, the Portuguese population being understood to be as little pleased with its effects as English taxpayers are enamoured of its expense. Ostensibly our diplomatic and consular corps now in Portugal consists of the following members, and at the salaries annexed to their names:—Envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, Rt. Hon. Sir Richard Pakenham, K.C.B., salary £4000 per ann.; and house-rent £500; secretary of legation, W. R. Ward, salary £500; paid attaché, Jos. Hume Burnley, £250; unpaid attachés, Hon. W. G. Cornwallis Elliot, and Hon. Francis Pakenham. Consuls:—Lisbon, William Smith, £600; vice-consul, Jeremiah Meagher, £300; Oporto, Edwin Johnston, £500; Loanda, Geo. Brand, vice-consul, £50; St. Michael (Azores) T. C. Hunt, consul, £400; Fayal, J. Minchin, vice-consul, £100; Terciera, J. Read, vice-consul, £100. Of the officers at Madeira and Cape Verds, (Portuguese possessions) due mention will be made under those heads. The Portuguese diplomatic and consular staff in England consists of:—Envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, Count de Lavradrio, 12, Gloucester Place, Portman Square; secretary of legation, Chevalier Pinto de Soveral; attachés, E. F. de la Figaniere, J. C. Stone, and Geo. Manders; consul-general, F. J. Vanzeller, 5, Jeffrey Square, St. Mary Axe; consuls: Liverpool, Almeida Campos; Bristol, Ant. B. de Mascarenhas; Cork, Geo. Manders.