The English

In the article on the grant (doação) of the island of Madeira to the Infanta Dona Catarina we have already referred to the attempts said to have been made by the English government to obtain possession of this archipelago at the time of the marriage of the Portuguese infanta Queen Catherine to Charles II, King of England. The question was treated at length by Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo in one of the notes to the ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra). Although he does not prove conclusively there that negotiations were opened between the two governments for the cession of Madeira, there can be no doubt that on this and other occasions British diplomacy sought to seize the opportunity to voice these aspirations, which are believed to go back a long way. After that period there are positive and eloquent facts that clearly demonstrate the wishes of our old ally. The two occupations of Madeira by English troops, carried out in the name of protection and defence against supposed attacks by Napoleonic forces, amounted to a genuine conquest. This is proved not only by many diplomatic documents of the time but also by the way the British administered the public affairs of this archipelago: the Portuguese authorities kept only a semblance of power, which in reality lay solely with the commander-in-chief of the British forces (see Occupation of Madeira by English troops). The Madeirans suffered every kind of humiliation during the eight years that these occupations lasted. Despite the resolutions adopted at the Congress of Vienna, under which England was to evacuate this island without delay, it is certain that in many European chancelleries, and even in the highest circles of the Portuguese government, the occupation of Madeira was thought to amount to absolute and permanent possession. It is to the distinguished diplomat then representing Portugal in London, Dom Domingos António de Sousa Coutinho, that the evacuation of this archipelago and its return to the Portuguese nation are owed. Through his eminent qualities as a statesman and his numerous writings published abroad, he rendered many signal services to his country. Our government honoured him with the title of Count, and later Marquis, of Funchal, a title still borne today by the representatives of his family. If we are still Portuguese, it is chiefly to him that we owe it; and yet there is nothing in this city to commemorate this fact or to pay even a small tribute to the memory of the illustrious diplomat.

During the period of our civil wars, when British diplomacy interfered so much in our internal affairs, England once again hinted at its old and never-forgotten desires. It always did so in a veiled manner, however, which was never confirmed by facts leaving any trace in the diplomatic relations between the two countries. It is certain, nonetheless, that in the political circles of the time the matter was sometimes discussed with a certain insistence, above all at the moments when England’s help was most needed.

In 1897 the English newspaper The Empire put forward the idea that the Madeiran archipelago should be ceded to England, or else purchased. The suggestion was taken up by other British papers, although it is true that some important, widely read London newspapers rejected outright what seemed to be the start of a deliberately prepared campaign.

In the article Foreigners we made no special reference to the English or to subjects of any other nationality. The British colony in Madeira, however, deserves a short article of its own at this point in the Elucidário, on account of its age, the number of its members, the importance it enjoys among us and other particular circumstances.

The number of English people who came to these parts does not seem to have been large in the early days of colonisation, nor during the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th. In those times the foreigners who landed on this island in the greatest numbers were many from northern Europe, notably Flemings, and also from the south, especially Genoese, drawn by the spirit of adventure and still more by industrial and commercial trade (see Foreigners). Only towards the end of the 16th century did the English colony grow and begin to gain real importance, and Dr Rodrigues de Azevedo states ‘that their settlement in Madeira in greater numbers than before dates from 1640.’

The English consulate on this island was created in 1658, and João Cater was the first to hold it. We can present a list, which we do not consider complete, of other individuals who held this office:

• Richard Milty, João Arls and Guilherme Bolton (all in 1691), Benjamin Henrique (1705), Thomás Morgan (1709), Diogo Clarque (1726), Ricardo Baker (1734), Matheus Itnox (1738), Carlos Chambres (1750), Guilherme Naich (1756), Carlos Murray (1787), José Pringle (1803), Archibald Brown (1805), Henrique Veitch (1813), George Stoddart, G. Hayward and W. Keen.

We have a record that in 1754 the English subjects Guilherme Naich, João Catanach, Gul Mundach, Richard Hill, Thomas Lamar, Richard Hill Jnr., João Scot, João Pringle, Matheus Hiccox, Carlos Chamber, Diogo Gordo, João Searte and Francisco Newton, among others, were merchants in Funchal. Paulo Perestrelo da Câmara, in his book Breve Noticia sobre a ilha da Madeira, says that in 1840 there were twenty-odd English commercial houses in this city. He names twelve of them, which he calls rich and reputable, and Dr Azevedo transcribes their firm names on p. 721 of the Saudades.

From 1640 the British colony took hold of almost all trade, above all the wine trade, which came to be entirely in the hands of English merchants. As a result of this veritable monopoly, as the annotator of Gaspar Frutuoso says, these merchants built up large fortunes for themselves, while the landowners and vine-growing farmers grew poorer. Some Portuguese wine-exporting houses later emerged, but they could not compete with the English giants. They lacked capital, they could not easily find outlets for their products abroad, and besides there were the privileges and exemptions those foreign merchants enjoyed. The administrators of entailed lands (terras vinculadas), who generally led idle lives, and many rural landowners too, not excluding the tenant farmers themselves, would draw large sums from the English houses in the course of the year, to be repaid at harvest time. Those houses thus became the creditors of the poor vine-growers, who were left at the mercy of the whims and greed of the wine merchants. On one of these occasions, when the exporting houses set an unprofitable price for the must, João de Carvalhal, later Count of Carvalhal, rescued the farmers from their distress by buying the wine at remunerative prices and forcing the English merchants to follow his salutary example. But João de Carvalhal enjoyed the greatest prestige and influence here in Madeira. He was an extremely rich landowner in every parish of the island and, what is more, held some three million cruzados in banks in England. From note XXVIII of the ‘Longing for the Homeland’ we transcribe a few passages that bear closely on the subject of this article:

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After the revolution of 1 December 1640, Portugal, in order to sustain the war of independence against Spain, had to secure the good offices of France, and especially of England, and obtained them only at the price of painful sacrifices, as we have already had occasion to note on p. 378. One of the favours granted to British subjects was permission, in 1654, to bring in their goods on payment of a small duty. By 1658 there was already an English consul on the island of Madeira. From 1660 to 1662 the English merchants here already enjoyed a special tax exemption on the export of wine. By 1680 they already had powerful trading houses here, which supplied the population at large with basic necessities, and the farming and landowning class with goods of every kind, luxuries included; that class, unfortunately, with honourable exceptions, had grown accustomed to idleness and dissipation. – From this dates English preponderance on the island of Madeira’.

This preponderance became further rooted and extended through the privileges granted to the English by the famous Methuen Treaty, which, says the note cited, tightened still further Madeira’s vassalage to British mercantilism. That vassalage turned into complete and absolute domination when this archipelago was occupied by troops sent from England.

We do not know whether it was to soften somewhat the excesses of this acknowledged dominance, and to forestall any protests or complaints about it from the archipelago’s highest authority, that the English government had decided to offer the governor and captain-general of Madeira an annual sum – no small gift for the time. The legality of accepting it, or the propriety of doing so, gave pause to Governor João António de Sá Pereira, who, in a submission to the government of the Marquis of Pombal dated 30 April 1768, wrote the following curious words:

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The English Nation, wishing to oblige the Governors so as always to keep them favourable, the better to pursue the great profits it draws from this island, and seeing that its vessels paid nothing to the Government, imposed, with the permission of its Court, a levy on the captains of its ships of 240 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) for each pipa (wine cask and measure, c. 400–500 litres) of wine or spirit (aguardente, distilled from sugar cane or wine), 300 for each chest of sugar, 150 for each arroba (weight of about 15 kg) of cinnamon bark and 200 for each sack of orchil exported from here in their vessels, which they came to call – nation’s dues (direitos de nação, export levies collected by the British community) – and which are paid by the shippers, be they Portuguese, English or of any other nation; to collect them they appoint every year a treasurer and a clerk (escrivão), and it amounts to a great sum; from it they meet all the expenses which the community of the nation incurs here, among which is this. . . ’. The gift was 600,000 réis a year, which 150 years ago represented a considerable sum. We do not know when it began to be paid, nor whether it continued to be paid after Sá Pereira’s submission. What we find rather curious, but utterly degrading to our pride as a free nation, was the privilege granted to England of collecting taxes and customs duties on this island, as if it were an English colony!

Another privilege enjoyed by the British colony on this island is the one we have already described in the article Judge-conservator of the English (see that entry). Under it, English subjects had the right to choose a judge to try cases in which disputes or questions between them and the Portuguese had to be settled. The English residents here also had a land registry (Conservatória) of their own for registering their properties and certain commercial transactions, but we cannot determine precisely what this privilege consisted of or how the department concerned operated. British subjects had several places of worship in Funchal for Protestant services. At present there is the Anglican church in Rua da Bela Vista, built in the first quarter of the 19th century, and the Calvinist church in Rua Conselheiro José Silvestre Ribeiro. Not many years ago there was another church in Rua dos Aranhas, which we believe belonged to the sect known as the Ritualists (see English churches). We have vague information that, before these churches were built, there were other Protestant churches in this city, but we cannot specify when they were built or where they stood. At various times some British subjects unconnected with the English colony have appeared among us and devoted themselves to propaganda and proselytising for the Calvinist religion, notably the distinguished physician Dr Roberto Kalley, of whom we shall treat in a separate article.

The English colony has its own cemetery, and it had another near the present one, as can be seen in more detail in the article British Cemetery.

At the beginning of the 19th century a ward known as the British Ward was set up in the Hospital of St Elizabeth of Portugal (Santa Isabel) in this city, intended chiefly for the treatment of the crews of English ships calling at our port. It did not last many years, because in 1837 the Funchal Medical-Surgical School was installed in the rooms occupied by the ward. We know nothing of the circumstances of this ward’s foundation, its upkeep and operation, the reasons for its closure, etc.

The exceptional mildness of our climate (see Climate) has drawn an extraordinary number of foreigners to this island, first and foremost among them the English. Many illustrious figures from England, such as Queen Adelaide (see that entry) and other princes, statesmen, men of science, writers, etc., have sought in Madeira relief from their ailments or a place of rest in which to restore strength drained by exhausting labours, sheltering in a climate of eternal spring and in a region overflowing with the most enchanting and astonishing natural beauties.

This is the place to say that the study of certain branches of the natural history of this archipelago is owed to a relatively large number of English subjects. There are very valuable works, the fruit of deep and lengthy scientific research, which cannot and must not be forgotten by Madeirans. In this Elucidário we have tried to bring out the names of the authors of these works, giving, however briefly, an account of the nature of their studies and of the services they rendered to the natural sciences. The distinguished men of science Richard Thomas Lowe, Thomas Vernon Wollaston, James Yate Johnson, Dr Alfred Merle Norman, etc., etc., will always be remembered by all who devote themselves to the study of Madeiran matters, and their names are inseparably linked with the history of our archipelago. If, as someone has already suggested, a gallery of marble or bronze busts were opened in our public garden, representing some of the most distinguished sons of Madeira or those who had rendered notable services to this land, two or three of the most illustrious English naturalists who studied the flora and fauna of the islands of the archipelago would certainly, and with complete justice, have their place there.

Referring to the influence exerted by the English in our midst, Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo wrote the following: Madeira is to a great extent anglicised, in race, in customs, in property, in commerce and in currency; and the English language is the most widely spoken here after our own. If we are imprudent in saying this, what are the governments, if they are unaware of it, since they do not prevent it – what will they be? Only Portuguese pride keeps us Portuguese. These words, although they refer to 1873, the year in which they were written, are not entirely true to the facts. Yet they undoubtedly contain some assertions that we fully endorse and that seem to us to correspond to reality. The English colony built up remarkable influence and dominance here, owing largely to its monopoly of several important branches of trade. The purchase and export of wine lay entirely in its hands, as did the agencies for the ships that called at our port, the supply of coal and of the provisions and refreshments those ships needed, foreign exchange and the transfer of funds abroad, the import and sale of the main foodstuffs and clothing that the island required, the running of various industries, etc. In this way almost an entire population came to depend on a few dozen foreign subjects. And as the English houses expanded their trade and swelled their capital, their dominance grew in step, helped greatly by the innate haughtiness of their race and the natural and well-known timidity of the Madeirans. In these circumstances it was not difficult for the English to impose themselves as masters, abusing in a truly despotic and cruel manner the sad and distressing situation in which the inhabitants of this island sometimes found themselves. Nor is it surprising that poor islanders, living in the isolation of the ocean and with no spirit of resistance to outside influences, should have let themselves be seduced by the customs, tendencies and tastes of foreigners who came from the great European centres and were regarded as the very models of a civilised people. It is certain, moreover, that in some respects these influences had a very beneficial effect in our midst, especially on social relations and on the elegant society of the so-called people of fashion.

To go from this, however, to asserting that Madeira is anglicised, and that British influence has made itself felt in the race and very profoundly in the customs and habits of the natives, is certainly an exaggeration, which should not pass without the brief remarks we make here. And if we were to apply Dr Álvaro de Azevedo’s words to present circumstances, they would fall even further short of reality (1921). The dominance of the English colony in Madeira has weakened considerably over the last two decades, thanks to the effective initiative and energetic stance of some Portuguese merchants, and especially of the late lamented merchant Commander (comendador) Manuel Gonçalves. Trade has freed itself from local British influence, and this emancipation is making itself markedly felt, day by day, in many branches of our industrial and commercial activity.

This is a fitting moment to say that the English colony never succeeded in winning the affection of Madeiran society, despite the dominance and influence it enjoyed. Racial pride, the isolation it almost always sought to maintain, the haughtiness with which it generally treated the islanders, and its rare displays of philanthropy or charity towards the land that had made it rich are the main reasons why it never created a favourable climate or made itself well liked in the eyes of the Madeirans. There are, however, rare and honourable exceptions, and where acts of notable philanthropy are concerned we shall not forget, in the appropriate places, the names of Roberto Page, J. Phelps and Harry Hinton (see Foreigners).

In 1920 the number of British nationals permanently resident in Funchal was 50 to 60, whereas in 1845 there had been 293 people of that nationality here, 280 in 1855 and 200 in 1885. From 1845 to 1855 English visitors averaged 342, and from 1880 to 1885, 200. There are now some 250 English people in Funchal who intend to spend the winter here (1921).

Although English is the foreign language best known among the commercial class, and many seamen and bumboat men who are illiterate or almost illiterate speak it with a certain practical fluency, it is nonetheless true that the great majority of educated people in Funchal either do not know the language or know it poorly. French is the only language whose study receives the attention of everyone who wishes to be educated. A great many Madeirans speak it with elegance and perfection, and still more, though they do not speak it, are able to read and understand the best that has been written in it.

In March and April 1930 the Diário de Notícias of Funchal published a series of articles under the title Ingleses na Madeira, from the pen of Lieutenant-Colonel Alberto Artur Sarmento, which contain extensive and interesting information about the British colony in Madeira over a long period of three centuries.