From St. Thomas the mail steamer proceeds to Kingston in Jamaica, which has also a fine harbour, available for the largest ships. Another route to Kingston is by the Bermudas, a group of nearly four hundred islands, about 600 miles from the coast of①the United States. These islands-the "still vexed Bermoothes"of Shakespeare-are of great value to Britain as a naval station, one of them containing a land-locked harbour, which has few equals in the world. The port referred to is also used as an arsenal and as a convict settlement; and it is the centre of important transit trade between the West Indies and the mainland of North America. There is regular steam communication from Bermuda to Halifax, New York, and St. Thomas.
From Kingston the mail route is continued to Colon, on the northern side of the Isthmus of Panama. Thence it proceeds②by canal across the isthmus to Panama-a distance of 42
miles. Panama has thus been raised to a position of great importance among Pacific sea-ports. It is now the station for the mails between Great Britain and Peru and Chili. Steamers also ply between Panama and San Francisco in California.
The South American and Pacific route, starting from Liverpool, proceeds by way of Bordeaux, and calls at Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, which stands in the relation of parent state to the modern Brazilian Republic.③ From Lisbon the route proceeds in a south-westerly direction for upwards of 600 miles to the mountainous island of Madeira, which gives its name to a famous wine made from the grapes grown on the island. Madeira is also a favourite resort of consumptive patients during the winter and spring months.
Madeira is a Portuguese island. The Canaries, those next visited, belong to Spain, and form a station at which all ships sailing between Spain and the East or West Indies regularly call. Conspicuous among them by its lofty snow-capped peak is Teneriffe, an extinct, or, at least, quiescent volcano, which rises 12, 182 feet above the ocean.
TENERIFFE
The Cape Verd Islands, in connection with the East Indian route, mark the next stage in the voyage. The steamer then crosses the Atlantic in a south- westerly direction, and makes no further pause til l it reaches either Pernambuco or Bahia (for they are visited alternatelyby successive mails) on the north-eastern coast of Brazil. Thence it proceeds to Rio de Janeiro, the capital of the country, and the second city in commercial importance in South America. Rio, to which alternate steamers sail direct from Lisbon, is situated on the western shore of a vast bay or inlet, 17 miles in length, and 11 in extreme width, which is studded with islands, and forms one of the noblest harbours in the world. This harbour communicates with the Atlantic by a deep and narrow passage between two granite mountains. The entrance is so safe as to render the services of local pilots entirely unnecessary. Yet so commanding is the position of the fortresses at the mouth of the harbour, on its islands, and on the surrounding heights, that the ingress of a hostile fleet would be a work of the utmost difficulty.
From either side of that contracted entrance stretch away, as far as the eye can reach, lofty mountains, whose pointed summits and fantastic shapes recall the glories of Alpland. On the left, the Sugar-Loaf Mountain stands like a giant sentinel over the metropolis of Brazil. On the right another lofty range commences near the principal fortress, which commands the entrance of the bay, and, forming curtain-like ramparts, reaches away in picturesque headlands to the bold promontorywell known to all South Atlantic navigators as Cape Frio. Far through the opening of the bay, and in some places towering even above the lofty coast-barrier, can be discovered the blue outline of the distant Organ Mountains, whose lofty pinnacles will at once suggest the origin of their name.
As far up the bay as the eye can reach, lovely little islands, verdant and palm-clad, may be seen rising out of its dark bosom; while the hills and lofty mountains which surround it on all sides, when gilded by the rays of the setting sun, form a fitting frame for such a picture. At night the lights of the city have a fine effect; and when the land-breeze begins to blow, the rich odour of the orange and other perfumed flowers is borne seaward along with it.
The aspect which Rio de Janeiro presents to the beholder bears no resemblance to the compact brick walls, the dingy roofs, the tall chimneys, and the generally level sites of Northern cities. Its surface is diversified by hills of irregular but picturesque shape, which shoot up in different directions, leaving between them flat intervals of greater or less extent. Along the bases of these hills, and up their sides, stand rows of buildings, whose whitened walls and red-tiled roofs are in happy contrast with the deep green foliage that always surrounds and often embowers them.
From Rio, the steamer continues its course to Monte Video, the capital of Uruguay, situated at the mouth of the La Plata. Monte Video has an excellent harbour, around which the city is built in crescent form. On the opposite side of the La④Plata, farther up the estuary, is Buenos Ayres,the capital ofthe Argentine Republic, and the largest city of the southern hemisphere. The navigation of the La Plata is rendered difficult by its numerous rocks and sand-banks, and it is especially dangerous during the prevalence of the tempestuous south-west winds called pamperos. Prior to 1885 passengers and mails for Buenos Ayres were landed at Monte Video, butRIO DE JANEIROin that year a harbour, large enough to accommodate the mail steamers, was constructed at Buenos Ayres.