A voyage to Cochinchina in the years 1792 and 1793 ... To which is annexed an account of a journey made in the years 1801 and 1802 to the residence of the chiefs of the Booshuana nation / [Sir John Barrow].

  • John Barrow
Date:
1806
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A voyage to Cochinchina in the years 1792 and 1793 ... To which is annexed an account of a journey made in the years 1801 and 1802 to the residence of the chiefs of the Booshuana nation / [Sir John Barrow]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    which inspired them with a superstitious and reverential awe, being firmly persuaded, as men were in those days, that “ *Tis not vain or fabulous (Though so esteem’d by shallow ignorance) What the sage poets, taught by th’ heavenly muse, Story’d of old in high immortal verse, Of dire chimeras and inchanted isles, And rifted rocks, whose entrance leads to hell.” In fact, it was the popular conjecture, that this settled gloom might be suspended over one of the mouths of hell. The point of elevation, at which this cloud rests on the brow of the mountain, is said to be regulated generally by the course of the sun; floating at his meridian altitude as a thin fleece on the aérial summit, and descending as he sinks into the western horizon in dense volumes to the skirts of the town, over which it remains suspended during the whole night. As the next rising sun gradually dissipates this heavy vapour, a succession of objects, full at least of novelty to the stranger, and of great variety, is unfolded to the eye. On the sweeping shore of a spacious bay, whose extreme points are high and rugged volcanic rocks, is situated the town of Funchal, the white build- ings of which, contrasted with the surrounding rocks of black Java, and the lively verdure of the plantations on the brow of the mountain, convey neither an unpleasing nor an unpicturesque effect. Interspersed among these plantations are numerous delightful villas, churches, chapels, and convents, various in point of form and situation, and mounting one above the other on the steep acclivity, till they are lost in the obscurity- of the hanging cloud. The highest visible object that parti- 4!
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