A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE CITY OF FUNCHAL IN THE ISLAND OF MADEIRA,

FIRST EDITION. Slim oblong 4to, title page, dedication, list of subscribers and page of descriptive text, tinted lithographic panoramic view 28 x 111 cm, printed by Louis Hague, folded concertina-style and backed with contemporary linen, some overall spotting; original roan backed cloth with the publishers decorated gilt morocco label to upper board; booksellers ticket Benson's Library, Weymouth' on front pastedown.


The reason for the publication appears in the main to have been due to the religious antagonism on the island during the 1840's.

It seems that the health of the husband of Emily Genevieve Smith (1817-1877), was her reason to visit Madeira. The Rev. Reginald Smith, had suspected tuberculosis around 1840 and the Smith's, after no improvement to his heath at Ventnor, on the Isle of Wight, travelled on to Madeira, arriving there sometime in the middle of October 1841. The couple with their three children (another nine were to follow including Harriet who was born on the island in March 1843), and two maids, lived at Madeira for two years, during which period Reginald's health was to improve.

The tranquility on Madeira was somewhat disordered by the proselytising of Dr. Robert Reid Kalley to the poor in the island. A Scottish physician with a heart for Christian missions, Kalley raised funds by charging rich Catholics exorbitant amounts for his services and giving free medicine and education to the poor. The Portuguese authorities began to question his motives, more so when two Portuguese converts took communion. The two were brought before the court and charged with apostasy and then excommunicated. Eventually violence broke out between the two religious denominations and by 1846 the Protestant community, now in fear of their lives, were forced off the island and had to emigrate, first to Trinidad and then to Illinois in the USA!

Emily's view is taken from the official residence of the governor of Madeira 'Quinta Angustias', it was here, incidentally, that the mob were to beat the living daylights out of a group of thirty to forty Calvinists when uncontrollable violence erupted on the 2nd August 1846. Emily shows the still peaceful setting of early 1843, probably taken before or whilst in confinement. Illustrating a panoramic scene the view is described with titles at the foot of each section: The Peak Fort, Funchal, Madeira – Funchal, looking towards the Roxinna Ravine – The Bay of Funchal.

The Smiths left the Island for England in October 1844 before the violent clashes. In Alfred Hewlett's Troubles and Martyrdom of the Rev. George Marsh … in 1555 (London, 1844) is subjoined a letter from Kalley to the Rev. Reginald Smith in which he recounts his current persecution. Clearly, although not Presbyterians, Emily and Reginald, who incidentally had three brothers who had taken the cloth, were however strong supporters of Protestant missions and so were necessary fund raisers for this Madeira cause. The unsettled situation, which they no doubt witnessed on the island, was justification for issuing this Panoramic View. No hint of this is given in the text provided by Emily, probably to avoid any difficulties for Robert Innes who had subscribed 30 copies. He was Secretary to the Scotch Church on the island and thus candidate for the distribution of copies.

Despite the subscription list totalling almost 300 copies, the panorama is exceedingly scarce; probably most copies were supplied in sheets and have not survived so well as the present copy, here backed in linen.

Abbey, Life, 563; OCLC records two copies, at the Biblioteca de Arte Calouste Gulbenkian in Portugal, and The Morgan in the US; a second edition was published later in the same year (one copy in OCLC, at the Mariners Museum library in the US); not in COPAC.