ship, and the beauty of the horses being much admired, but they are not hurt, unless by accident. The excitement is to see the wild fury of the bulls, and the men escaping from them, just as they have been inciting them to run at them, which they have to do with great agility to escape being tossed or gored. One man was killed the first bullfight of the season, and another badly hurt.

The following morning, Monday, April 19th, we breakfasted at 7-15 and started at 8 o'clock, with Mr. Oakley and another Lisbon gentleman, for Cintra. After an hour's drive, we passed the summer palace of the present King and Queen of Portugal; the country here is very undulating, and the mansion, being built in a hollow, is scarcely visible from the road; the land is stony, and appeared to be merely scratched for a crop, and not properly cultivated. As we drove along we noticed the remains of some ancient aqueducts, as well as some of more recent construction, which appear to be still in use. At length we reached the place from which we ought to have seen, afar off, the Palace at Cintra, belonging to the ex-king; but it was enveloped in mist, and rain was falling. We began to hope, almost against hope, that the day would clear. We were told that the verdure and beauty of Cintra was much owing to the greater rain-fall there than at Lisbon, and to the sea-mists coming up from the Atlantic a few miles off. It seemed as if its beauties would remain invisible for the day; but as the white veil was gradually lifted, more and more were we impressed. Emerging from its morning bath of softest rain and morning dew, radiant with freshness and in balmy fragrance, Cintra was lovely. Around us sweetest scents of roses and flowers; while, with joyful notes, the birds gave forth their morning song, Cintra seemed really an earthly paradise-a glorious Eden. Looking around, we saw far up on highest pinnacle of mountain crag above us, the ex-king's palace-true kingly site, dazzling in whiteness. against the bright blue sky of heaven. As we mount towards

C

it the soft air still wafts round us the aroma of orange blossoms and that of a thousand other flowers, which, like sweet incense ascending, fills the air with sweetest perfume. We rise higher and higher, until, at length, we pass under the deep, dark shade of lofty fir and pine trees, and enjoy their cooling fragrance. Thence, as we rise still higher,

Rocks, crags, and knolls confusedly hurled,
Fit emblem of an earlier world,"

lie in gigantic blocks around us, until, at last, we reach the
palace grounds, next the outworks, then the drawbridge and
strong entrance gates. These all passed, we are ushered
into the inner yard. Then, by silver key, the palace doors
are opened to us, and we enter. First we are shown, in the
chapel, two quaint old pictures of Columbus and his fleet.
on their voyage of discovery, and under the crucifix an
alabaster cylinder on which Scriptural scenes are carved,
which is a great curiosity; after seeing the other pictures
and the rest of the castle, we mounted on to the roof to see
the extensive views. On the west, four or five miles off, we
see the coast line, and, beyond, the vast expanse of the waters
of the Atlantic stretching along the whole of the western
horizon ; as we are at a great elevation, the highest summit
in Portugal, our view over the sea is proportionately
enlarged. We are
We are on the highest of the range of hills
termed the Rock of Lisbon; and to the south of us, where
the range terminates, we see the river Tagus, and trace its
course from Lisbon to its mouth, where its waters are poured
into the Atlantic. About nine miles off, near our eastern
horizon, we see the Palace of Mafra, an immense edifice,
commenced by King Joào V., in 1717, containing 866
rooms, 5,000 doors, two towers 350 feet high, and nine
courts. The estimated cost of the palace, church, and
convent was nineteen million crowns. It may be termed a
king's folly, as it was commenced on too large and grand a
scale, and in quite an unsuitable situation; so that, notwith-
standing the immense sum spent upon it, it has never been

CINTRA.

23 finished. Our Admiral visited it when last at Lisbon, but did not recommend our attempting it. Looking northwards, we see the mansion in which the Convention of Cintra was signed. When we looked out westward, from the windows of the palace, we were told that Emanuel, the king of Portugal, looked out long and patiently from them for the return of the fleet of Vasco da Gama. It consisted of four vessels manned by 160 men, and had been despatched by the king in July, 1497, for the exploration of the great ocean beyond the Cape of Good Hope; and here, on the 29th of July, 1499, the king was the first to descry the first of the two that returned. Da Gama had discovered India. He was welcomed back by his sovereign with great pomp and magnificence; while public fêtes attested the sense of triumph entertained by the Portuguese nation. The importance of the discovery, as time went on, became continually more manifest, and for the next two to three centuries the wealth of India came pouring into the Tagus and Lisbon in an almost uninterrupted stream. We were next shown the gardens of the Palace, where we saw pink and white camelia trees in flower, in the open air, 35 feet high-the flowers were nearly over. Some of the roses were fine; but the gardens are not extensive. It was now time to descend. We had ascended up as far as the gardens on the backs of most willing asses, they were all waiting to take us down, and did so with the greatest good-will, requiring not the slightest coercion, either in ascending or descending, conveying us, especially down to Cintra, quite as fast as we had any desire they should.

Besides the Palace of the ex-king of Portugal, we have just visited, there is a Royal Palace at Cintra, which the king and queen occasionally visit. It is a very old palace, disliked by the queen, as, instead of having any garden, the houses of Cintra are built almost close up to it. We were shown all over it, but there was nothing of very special interest. Who the ex-king of Portugal is, was explained to us as

follows, Don Pedro the present king's grandfather was king of Portugal in 1832, and had one son and one daughter, he left Brazil to his son, and the crown of Portugal to his daughter. The daughter accordingly became queen, and upon her death her son, the present king Dom Luis I., came to the throne, and her husband who was king consort became ex-king. Dom Luis I. is 42 years of age, and married in 1862, Pia, daughter of the late king Victor Emanuel II. of Italy.

After visiting the two palaces we were shown the prison. It was like a two storied cage for wild beasts, within a stone's throw of the king's palace. The side of each cage next the street had strong round bars just wide enough apart for a prisoner to put his fingers to take hold of anything any passer by might be willing to give. In the lower cages there were several men, and in one of the upper ones, one. We gave a trifle to all of them, and they seemed thankful enough. Before leaving Cintra we bought a few things as a memento of our visit. Mine being an alabaster box for one of my little daughters on her birthday. Our vice-admiral tried to buy a canary, as it seemed a good songster, but the owner would not part with it at a reasonable price. We returned in the evening to Lisbon and the Red Rose, and gave our Admiral particulars of our day's excursion, which is here briefly recorded.

This morning, Tuesday, April 20th, we went on shore to see more of the city. The Captain had to make purchases at the market, so we decided to go with him, but while on the way Mr. Hannah and I were so taken with the appearance of a grand white marble public building that we left the rest for a moment to see its grand front. Whilst gazing at the splendid marble figures, the blue sky forming the background, and the full blaze of the midday sun seeming to give life to them, we should have had little power of appreciating the beautiful if we had not been lost in admiration. In fact for a time we felt enchained to the spot till we woke up to

find the rest of the party lost to us. We spent some time in trying to find them, but without success; afterwards they claimed to have been much more usefully employed, as we should see when we came to share the good cheer they had provided in fish, vegetables, fruit, &c.

In the afternoon we visited the remains of a church still standing without its roof, just as the great earthquake left it. It was All Saint's Day, November, 1755, when this event took place. At half-past nine that morning when the churches were filled with lighted candles, in celebration of the feast, a low rumbling noise was heard resembling that of distant thunder which gradually increased until it became as loud as the roar of artillery. When the first shock took place the buildings in the parts of the city most affected are described as rocking from side to side like a ship at sea, causing the upper stories to give way, killing their occupants as well as many in the narrow streets below. Numbers of those who had escaped scrambled over the ruins to the open squares, others to the river's side, when a second shock occurred and the ground near the river sank. Suddenly the water, in a great mountain wave, dashed over the people, so that escape was impossible. This and the other shocks that ensued. caused great destruction to the shipping. At the same time fires burst forth in several quarters, originating, it is said, from the lighted candles in the churches, and raged with such fury that the whole city appeared to be in a blaze. The awestricken citizens were so much paralysed with fear that for a time no organised attempts were made to stop the conflagration, and it was not till the sixth day that it was checked, the destruction of property from it being quite as great as that from the earthquake itself. While the fires were raging, and for some days after, bands of robbers infested the city, committing great depredations. Upon examining the church we were visiting it was evident that the building and surrounding land had sunk quite ten to fifteen feet. The roof over the church has entirely disappeared, but the tall graceful columns