Camacha (parish)

Camacha belonged to the parish (freguesia) of Caniço (‘reed’) until the year of its own creation. It was the high, mountainous part of that parish and came to form its northern boundary. The name Camacha seems to be quite old, and it is without any doubt much older than the time when the area was separated from Caniço. Dr Álvaro de Azevedo conjectures that the name may come from some sesmeiro (holder of a land grant, or sesmaria) or settler with the surname Camacho, who perhaps owned land or had his residence there. We do not consider plausible the idea of attributing the origin of the name to an early colonist who, in memory of his distant homeland, gave this place the same name as some lugar (settlement ranking between a town and a parish) or village on the mainland. As far as we have been able to ascertain, the name is not found in Portuguese territory, except for a small locality (sítio) on the island of Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’).

We do not know when the clearing and settlement of the lands of Camacha began, but we must suppose that it did not take place in the first years after the discovery of the island, because the land of the interior was not immediately brought under cultivation. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the last quarter of the 16th century there must certainly already have been a very sizeable population here, enough to justify its separation from Caniço and its establishment as an independent parish. It is recorded that at this time the residents of Camacha included Captain António Figueira, married to Dona Maria Henriques Figueira, Bartolomeu de Freitas, Brás de Freitas, Domingos da Mota, Francisco de Sousa, Inácio de Caires Caldeira, José de Lamego and João de Freitas Belchior, among others.

It was the royal decree (alvará régio) of Peter II, dated 28 December 1676, that authorised the diocesan bishop, Dom António Teles da Silva, to create this parish, which seems to have been definitively constituted only in 1680. Gaspar Correia was its first parish priest, from 1680 to 1699. He was immediately succeeded by Fathers Manuel Simão de Gouveia, António Gomes Germano and Manuel João

Barreto, up to the middle of the 18th century. From its creation to the present, thirty-one priests have served this parish as its incumbent parish priests. The vicar’s original stipend was 10,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) a year, one and a half moios (dry measure of grain, 60 alqueires) of wheat and one and a half pipas (wine cask and measure, c. 400–500 litres) of wine; over time, and as the number of households (fogos, literally ‘hearths’) grew, it received several increases. The growth of the population, which seems to have been rapid, led the prelate of the diocese, Dom Luís Rodrigues de Vilares, to request the creation of a curacy (curato). This came about in 1801, and the first curate was Father Inácio Cristóvão da Silva. Several curates lived permanently in the parish, but for some decades now they have not resided there.

The seat of the parish was established in the chapel dedicated to São Lourenço (St Lawrence), who became the patron saint of the new parish; we are told that it was built by Francisco Gonçalves Salgado. We know nothing of the year or the site in which the little church was built, but we conjecture that it did not stand on the same spot where the present parish church was later erected. By 1746 this chapel was already in an advanced state of ruin.

There is a vague tradition that a small chapel once stood in the locality of Salgados (‘salt marshes’), and we do not know whether it was perhaps in this chapel that the parish was installed at the time of its creation. The foundation stone of the present church was laid on 30 September 1783. Around 1886 the side walls, which were in imminent danger of collapse, were rebuilt. In recent years the church and its churchyard have undergone major repairs and have been considerably improved in their embellishment and decoration, thanks to the zeal of several parish priests.

When, on 23 August 1828, the absolutist forces landed at Machico and took this island (see Occupation of Madeira by Miguelist troops), the governor and captain-general, José Lúcio Travassos Valdez, ordered Major Francisco Xavier Pereira da Silva, later Count of Antas, to occupy the heights of Camacha. This is recorded in the following report, sent by this officer to the governor of Madeira:

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I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that, in compliance with the order I received from Your Excellency at Porto Novo (‘new harbour’), I marched at midnight last night to take command of this post, which I reached at four o’clock in the morning. The position is very strong, and with the three hundred men and two pieces of artillery that garrison it I am quite certain of defending it, provided the soldiers do not refuse to fight, as they did yesterday to Lieutenant-Colonel Schwalback.’ Pereira da Silva detached part of these forces to Palheiro Ferreiro (‘blacksmith’s barn’), and later had to withdraw to Funchal when his soldiers, on learning of the disaster at Porto Novo, began shamefully to desert. The Miguelist forces that advanced as far as the heights of Camacha no longer found the constitutional troops, who, as already said, had fled in disorder to the city.

This is one of the most picturesque parishes (freguesias) in Madeira. A distinguished poet who lived here and composed some of his most inspired verses in the parish wrote of it:

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In its general appearance, in the rich tree species that people it, in the fine quintas (country estates) that adorn it, and in the freshness and purity of the air that persists at that altitude, Camacha is the place – perhaps the only one – that bears the greatest resemblance to, and has most in common with, the parish of Monte (‘hill’), known as the Madeiran Sintra.

It is Monte seen through a magnifying lens, its panoramas enlarged in scale, with broader and flatter roads and finer, wider horizons, taking in the coastal parishes of Caniço and Gaula, which unfold at its feet in a gradual, step-by-step descent of the land, bounded by the ocean.

The contrast between these latter places and the former is most striking, both in its flora and in its climatic conditions.

Below, on the coast, there are no forest trees, but crops of sugar cane, vines and a variety of market-garden produce; up above, reaching to the uplands, lies Camacha, with its vast pine woods and its groves of leafy oaks, where there grow side by side the oak, the chestnut, the cedar, the til (Ocotea foetens, Madeiran laurel), the folhado (Clethra arborea, a native tree), the laurel, the beech, the lime, the cork oak, the pau de mil homens, the silver tree and various other native and exotic species, probably planted there by the first founders of quintas, for the most part wealthy foreigners, who in former times held that picturesque place in the highest favour.’

Outside Funchal, this is the parish with the finest and most numerous quintas. Among them the Quinta do Vale Paraíso (‘paradise valley’) stands out; it belongs to the viscounts of the same title and is a charming residence, well worth a visit. The former summer residence of the Ornelas family is also a fine and pleasant country house; its owner today is Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, who was born there in March 1866. The old Grabham, Taylor, Bean, Hinton and Francisco Nunes quintas also deserve special mention, besides others of lesser importance. Apart from the Ornelas quinta, all the others were built by British subjects, who had a great and well-founded fondness for Camacha.

One of the attractions for visitors to this parish is the well-known Achada (‘plateau’), a square of some size and perfectly flat, which causes Madeirans a certain wonder and surprise, since they live in a very mountainous region where the relief and ruggedness of the land show themselves everywhere, except on the plateau of the Paul da Serra (‘upland marsh’). On entering this square, the visitor’s attention is at once caught by the tower rising at one end of it, within the bounds of the quinta that belonged to Dr Miguel Grabham. It was this English physician who, some 40 years ago, had the tower built and placed in it an excellent, finely made clock, which is certainly one of the best on this island. Inside the tower is a marble tablet bearing the following inscription: The Clock And Bell Here Placed, Were Brought From the Parish Church of Wolton Near Liverpool By Michel C. Grabham, M. D. F. L. S. E. R. C. P.-Who built this Tower For their Reception, And the Clock Was Set Going By Mary Anne Grabham (Wife of the above) On Easter Monday 6.th April 1896. The building of this tower and clock was an excellent service that Dr Miguel C. Grabham rendered to the inhabitants of this parish.

Camacha is crossed along most of its length by the rich and abundant stream of water called the Levada da Serra (‘upland channel’), to which we shall refer in the appropriate place. When this levada (irrigation channel) was planned and dug, many landowners gave the land for its construction and for the footpath alongside it free of charge, convinced that it would benefit this parish through irrigation. When the works were finished and the water was shared out, however, they saw with deep sorrow that Camacha had been entirely forgotten and had no share in the benefits granted to other parishes. A walk along the levada path (esplanada) of this levada is truly delightful for the varied and surprising views it offers. The footpath beside this aqueduct, level and easy underfoot, is passable from Choupana (‘hut’) to Santo da Serra (‘the saint of the uplands’), a distance of more than 40 kilometres.

The Levada da Azenha and the Levada do Pico do Arvoredo are two important water sources, intended chiefly to irrigate the parish of Caniço, which also irrigate the parish of Camacha, though for only a small part of their rotation (giro). The first rises at Pico da Silva and the second in the uplands of Poiso. In the locality (sítio) of Salgados, fed by the Ribeira do Porto Novo, rises the so-called Levada de Baixo, which waters the land of this parish and also of Caniço.

The house at the locality of Poiso lies within the bounds of this parish. The public-spirited civil governor José Silvestre Ribeiro, recognising the need for a house high in the uplands to give shelter and help to travellers passing between the municipalities of Funchal and Sant’Ana, had a house built at Poiso. Its construction cost about one conto (one million réis; from 1911, 1,000 escudos) and five hundred thousand réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis), and it was completed early in 1852. In the illustrious governor’s own words, a man or a family was to be stationed there permanently, ‘ready at all hours to receive travellers – to have water heated for them, if need be – to keep always a good store of firewood, so that in winter the comfort of a good fire may be found there – to give all those in need whatever help is possible’. The upkeep of this excellent service, which has continued to the present day, was entrusted to the municipal councils of Funchal and Sant’Ana, and there are officially approved instructions governing how the house is to be kept running.

Camacha’s well-known wickerwork, which is truly important and deserves a study of its own, is an industry almost exclusive to this parish. Although wicker goods are also made elsewhere, it is certain that the industry spread from here to other places, and it is here that its largest production centre lies. It is a very important source of income, and the rapid growth of the population is due chiefly to it, since the parish has no other appreciable sources of wealth: its land is suitable only for the so-called poor crops. The workers, however, do not earn from their products a sufficient reward for the labour they put in, whereas the exporting houses, it is said, make very considerable profits, and several fortunes have been made in a few years on the back of this trade. Everything points to the need for the Camacha workers to form a union, cooperative or special association, intended not only to develop and improve this industry but also to promote the sale of its products in our colonies and abroad.

The engineer Senhor Vitorino José dos Santos, head of the industrial labour section in Madeira, published in no. 4 of the Boletim do Trabalho Industrial for 1907 an excellent and detailed monograph on the wicker goods industry in Madeira. From it we shall transcribe a few passages on the industry’s probable origin and early development in the parish of Camacha.

‘The wicker furniture industry appeared approximately 60 years ago. It began with work on chairs, copying the methods used to make other chairs then produced in Madeira from rye straw by prisoners in the Funchal gaol. It is supposed that some prisoner from the parish of Camacha, on his release, took back to this parish the knowledge he had acquired during his apprenticeship in the gaol. In this way the industry slowly and progressively developed in that setting, which for many years was the only place where it was practised. An English subject named William Hinton, a prominent industrialist who died in Madeira a few years ago at an advanced age, also seems to have influenced the first attempts at this industry. He helped the first craftsmen with his knowledge of the manufacture of such furniture, already made in England and Germany from rattan canes, which in their flexibility and other properties closely resemble Madeiran wicker.’

Information received directly from this parish, from a person there who has carried out some research on the subject, does not in essence contradict the account given by the author of the monograph cited. It merely adds that ‘It was António Caldeira who introduced wickerwork. He took apart a mat that had come from abroad through a member of the Hinton family and studied its form and manufacture, taking the flexibility of the osier as his starting point for achieving his aim.’

It is said that this industry, albeit in a very rudimentary state, began in this parish around 1812. It was after 1870 that it began to grow markedly, and over the last 40 years it has developed extraordinarily. The monograph we have cited contains very interesting information on the cultivation of the osier, the methods of making wickerwork, its development, exports, etc.

This parish has an official school for each sex: the boys’ school was created in 1862 and the girls’ school by decree of 12 August 1914. Since its creation the former has had as teachers Miguel Luís Valério, Luís Teixeira de Vasconcelos, Constâncio Figueira da Silva and Manuel de Jesus de Antas e Almeida. The first teacher of the girls’ school was Dona Maria das Mercês Lopes de Faria.

The parish cemetery was built in 1856, at the time of the cholera epidemic, on land offered for the purpose by the Count of Carvalhal, who was one of the largest landowners in this parish.

The main localities (sítios) of this parish are: Igreja, Rochão, Achadinha, Casais de Além, Vale Paraíso, Ribeiro Fernando, Nogueira, Ribeirinha, Salgados and Ribeiro Serrão.

Some localities or places deserve special mention for the picturesque landscape or the fine, wide panoramas they offer, such as Poiso, Pico do Infante, Pico da Silva, Mirante do

Marcado, on the Salgados road, Eira de Fora, etc.

Camacha borders the parishes of São Roque do Faial and Porto da Cruz to the north, Caniço to the south, Santo António da Serra, Santa Cruz and Gaula to the east, and Santa Maria Maior and Monte to the west. It lies 9 and a half kilometres from the seat of the district, approximately 12 from the seat of the municipality (concelho) and of the judicial district (comarca), 6 from the parish of Caniço and 9 from Santo António da Serra.

We do not wish to close this brief article without mentioning the well-liked and helpful citizen Manuel Filipe Gomes, a native of the parish of São Roque, who died in Camacha at a very advanced age approximately 40 years ago, having lived there for more than half a century. He was a man of great austerity of character and of the most upright and unshakeable honesty. His name remains bound to the history of this parish through the selfless services he rendered it, notably in building and improving various roads and paths, in building the public fountain in the locality of Igreja, in acquiring land at Achada as common land (logradouro comum), etc. All this earned him high esteem and well-deserved prestige among the inhabitants of this parish. His personal qualities and his relations with the foreigners who frequented Camacha contributed considerably to the improvements he carried out there, some of which he undertook and completed at great and evident cost to his own fortune.

Councillor Aires de Ornelas de Vasconcelos, whom we shall discuss in a separate article, was a native of this parish.