Chief authorities of the archipelago

The secretary to the government of this archipelago, Joaquim Pedro Cardoso Casado Giraldes (see that entry), published in Paris, in the first quarter of the 19th century, in Portuguese and French, an Estatística Historico-Geographica das Ilhas da Madeira e Porto Santo. It contains the list of the donataries of Funchal and governors of Madeira, with the designation of the decrees of their appointment, their taking of office and the duration of their governments. The list runs from the discoverer João Gonçalves Zarco to the governor and captain-general Florencio José de Melo, who began to administer this archipelago in April 1815. The French and Portuguese editions of this Estatística, which differ from each other in the nature of their information, are, despite their shortcomings, an extremely valuable and almost unique document for drawing up the list of the governors of Madeira. They served as the main basis for the list that Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo published in the notes to ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) in 1873. The meritorious civil governor of this district, José Silvestre Ribeiro, continued Casado Geraldes’s list up to the time of his own government. It covers 1815 to 1847 and is published in the second volume of the Epocha Administrativa, on page 141 and following.

The illustrious annotator of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ made use of the work of Casado Geraldes and Silvestre Ribeiro, completing it up to the time his notes on Gaspar Frutuoso’s work were published, that is, for the period from 1847 to 1872; this appears on pages 823 and following.

One of the editors of the former Heraldo da Madeira (‘Madeira Herald’), in articles published in issues 1594 and 1596 of that newspaper, completed the list for the period between 1872 and 1910.

The superintendence of the archipelago lay with the governors-general from 1582 to 1640 and with the captains-general (capitão-general, military governor of Madeira) from 1640 to 1834. The first constitutional administrative authority was Luís da Silva Mousinho de Albuquerque, who bore the title of prefect (prefeito) under the decree of 16 May 1832. This office was short-lived, however: it was replaced by that of civil governor by the decree of 18 July 1835, and later by that of administrator-general (administrador geral) as a result of the political events of 9 September 1836. With the restoration of the Charter in 1842, the chief authority of the province again took the title of civil governor, which it still bears today.

• See Donataries, Governors-General, Governors and Captains-General, Civil Governors and Military Commanders. Auxílio Maternal. This Funchal institution was founded on 3 April 1902 on the initiative of the physician and surgeon José Joaquim de Freitas, and its statutes were approved by a royal decree (alvará) of the civil government of 4 July of the same year. Its main purpose is to provide suitable food for children whose mothers, through illness or hardship, are unable to nurse them.