Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1902 — BEAUTIFUL SCENERY IN PORTUGAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BEAUTIFUL SCENERY IN PORTUGAL

A writer in an eastern newspaper, describing a tour recently made in Portugal, makes the following interesting observations: “After month upon month of festivals, terminating in the big flare up of the royal visit, Ponta Delgada, settles Itself down by the middle of July, into a hot, malodprbus lethargy that moves you to seek some means of escape. You naturally turn your attention to places outside the city, and the suggestion of a day at Sete Cidades (Seven Cities) offers one day of relief from the torpid unsavory town. Sete Cidades is the eastern one of the two great craters of St. Michael’s, between which Ponta Delgada lies, and is a tiny town in the small valley between seven peaks, grim sentinels standing guard where once a greater peak, whose inward Are was its own destruction, frowned out over the island and the sea on either side. It goes without saying that about these seven peaks hangs the usual legend of the hoary monarch, his one beautiful daughter and the seven impassable gates, and so forth, that with more or fess variation is told about every eet of seven peaks or seven lakes to be found anywhere. "It is not the little valley with its worn-out traditions, not the little lake supposed to be half of green and half of blue, nor yet the surrounding seven-peaked coronet of hills that makes Sete Cidades an ineffaceable incident in one’s journeyings. But it is beauty, not evil entreatment, over which memory lingers when Sete Cidades recurs to mind, beauty that is seen on the journey thither, and above all from the crater’s edge, rather than tn the valley' Itself. To do the trip as it should be done go with some one who has been over the ground before; go, if you will, under the guidance of a native Azo'rean gentleman, who speaks English and, indeed, expresses himself in many languages when in temper, and in all others when out of temper." There is such a one here, who will take care of your whole party, and all the day's arrangements, even to the weather, though when your appointed day comes it is not only showery but misty as well. But good San Antonio, what is to be done? The carriages have been ordered since a week ago, the donkeys will be there at the beginning of the trail to meet the ’carriages, and—and there between the showers is a rift of fair sky and a dash of sunshine, and, perhaps, Nosaa Senhora ? Yes, yes*; without <loubt she will, for there are English in the party, English senhoras, and isn't the whole party itself from that glorious United States of America? Surely for the honor of the Portuguese nation Our Lady will look after the weather;’ besides the carriages are already paid for—enough! The Scotsman hath a saving mind, and the Jew is some'what thrifty, but your true Azorean will use what he has paid for though it take his whole year’s income in doctor’s bills.

“So you pile into your particular

carriage, after the usual argument with your voluble guide as to which shall not occupy the place of honor; the customary accompaniment of coats, blankets, bottles, umbrellas and bags—without which no native ever travels in this warm climate —are loaded on top of you, and you are off

on one of these wonderful 6t. Micheal's drives, first along the top of the sea cliff, then north Into the mountains. Your carriage can be closed if necessary, so you fret not for the ■weather, which naturally settles down to be fine, until you come to a full stop a mile or two beyond the last village, and are bustled out, bag and baggage, to await the tardy donkey; it is here, just as the carriage gets

beyopd call, that the rain begins a good, steady downpour. Your valuable guide grows still more loquacious: ‘Ah, Jesu—What can Our Lady be thinking out? I will question her.’ He takes off his hat as he raises his eyes to the home of the Lady without Stain, and the rain beats on his hair-

less pate till he Is glad to clap the hat on again, explaining to Nossa Senhora that she can’t possibly expect him to pray to her till she intercedes for drier weather, whereupon he forsakes prayers for anathemas, running excitedly up and down the road in wild search for the delinquent donkeys and their unsuspecting drivers. “To you the deJay is delightful, for you have long since climbed across the

road and Into one of the earth caves by the roadside dug by the country people for the very purpose to which you now put It. Safely ensconced therein you divide your attention between the unapproachable loveliness of rain on lofty mountain tops, and the pitched battle in the air, amid a scene

of picturesque beauty hardly equaled on the earth.”