Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

Sept. 1836. TERCEiRA. 595 the intolerable creaking of an occasional bullock-waggon. The churches are very respectable, and there were formerly a good many convents ; but Dom Pedro destroyed several. He levelled three nunneries to the ground, and gave per- mission to the nuns to marry, which, except by some very old ones, was gladly received. Angra was formerly the capital of the whole Archipelago, but it has now only one division of the islands under its government, and its glory has departed. The city is defended by a strong castle on Mount Brazil, and by a line of batteries encirchng the base of this extinct volcano, which overlooks the town. Terceira was the first place that re- ceived Dom Pedro, and from this beginning he conquered the other islands, and finally Portugal. A loan was scraped together in this one island of no less than 400,000 dollars, of which sum not one farthing has ever been paid to these first supporters of the present right royal and honourable family. The next day the Consul kindly lent me his horse, and furnished me with guides to proceed to a spot in the centre of the island, which was described as an active crater. As- cending in deep lanes, bordered on each side by high stone walls, for the three first miles we passed many houses and gardens. We then entered on a very irregular country, consisting of more recent streams of hummocky basaltic lava. The rocks are covered in some parts by a thick brushwood about three feet high, and in others by heath, fern, and short pasture : a few broken down old stone walls completed the resemblance with the mountains of Wales. I saw, moreover, some old English friends amongst the insects ; and of birds, the starling, water- wagtail, chaffinch, and blackbird. There are no houses in this elevated and central part, and the ground is only used for the pasture of cattle and goats. On every side besides the ridges of more ancient lavas, there were cones of various dimensions, which still partly retained their crater-formed summits ; and where broken down, showed a pile of cinders, such as those from an iron-foundry.