screaming of these wheels is unbearable. They are, however, better suited to the rough roads of the Azores than lighter vehicles would be. Their form can have undergone little or no change since their first invention; and probably none whatever since the days of Cervantes, who likens some "terrible noise" which he is describing, to that caused by the ponderous wheels of an ox-waggon, "from whose harsh and continued creaking," he says, "even wolves and bears fly away." In the outskirts of the town, standing alone by the roadside, is a small cottage, which is the Foundling Hospital of the district of Santa Cruz. It is furnished with a drum turning in a hole in the wall, into which a baby may be put, and secretly deposited in the inner room. A person sleeps in the cottage at night, to receive infants that may be so deposited, and to see that they are put out to nurse. This is done at the expense of the "Chamber," that is, of the municipal body; and the number of illegitimate children thus provided for, is said to be very considerable. The result of this national provision for children of this description is, that infanticide is so rare as to be almost unknown. FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. 111 In other islands a different mode is occasionally adopted, for throwing on the Chamber the burden of supporting superfluous infants, which is as novel and original a plan as Swift's "modest proposal" for bettering the condition of Ireland. The mother puts the baby in a basket, and at night, when all are in bed, deposits the burden outside a neighbour's door. If the child cries, (which is very likely, under such circumstances,) the neighbour wakes, suspects what is going on, gets out of bed, opens the door, and quietly carries the basket to the next door, where, perhaps, the same things happen, and the burden is again removed one house farther on. In this way, if the child is noisy, it may be transferred from house to house through an entire village; for the custom is, that the person at whose door it is found after day-break must take charge of it. A certain weekly payment can then be demanded of the authorities, but the child must be reared by the last discoverer. This plan of mutual accommodation may have been devised from the difficulty of persuading women to take charge of these infants at the remunerating price the state could afford, and it does not lack ingenuity.. Few subjects, indeed, seem to have puzzled legislative wisdom 112 FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. more than the disposal of these children. The large foundling hospitals on the continent of Europe are huge catacombs for infants; the mortality there is prodigious; and in England the other extreme is now being tried, to the great increase of coroners' inquests and trials for childmurder. The laws of Portugal are very ample on the subject of illegitimate children; and the result of them seems to be that the mother is not found in any case to declare the father of her child, against her will; but provided she chooses to nurse it herself, she must then support it altogether. If, however, the sense of shame overcomes her maternal feelings and she takes it to the foundling hospital, where the wheel is provided for the reception of the infant, it is immediately taken care of and put out to nurse at the expense of the municipality; and it is said that at the Island of St. Michael's the practice is, in nine cases out of ten, to carry the child to the wheel. If the infant is a boy, he is apprenticed at the age of seven years to some tradesman, handicraft, or farmer; and if a girl she is sent into domestic service in some family; but until they are of an age sufficient to earn wages, they MARRIAGES AND BIRTHS. 113 are fed and clothed at the charge of the municipality; and should the funds of the municipality be insufficient, the state makes up the deficiency. The proportion of annual marriages to the whole population of the Azores is said to be one to every forty-two persons, and the proportion of annual births to be one to every nineteen persons; and that there are one hundred legitimate children to every fifteen illegitimate. The average age at which men marry who live in the country is estimated at twenty, and women at seventeen; and the average in towns, men twenty-eight, women twenty-four.* *Read's Report to the Poor Law Commissioners, 1834. Vol. xxxix, Appendix (F) p. 643. VOL. II. I CHAPTER VIII. The varied earth, the moving heaven, By secret fire and midnight storms That wander round their windy cones, Of living things are full of strange Astonishment and boundless change. A. TENNYSON. The Island of St. George's.- Ursulina.-Recent volcanic eruption.-Vellas. - Fish-market.—Coast of Pico.- Return to Horta. PICO, MAY 23.-Crossed to Fayal from Pico with a pleasant breeze, and arranged to go to the Island of St. George's to-morrow morning. Fayal was more than usually brilliant in the |