The principal manufactories of orchilla in England are London and Liverpool, but there are many others in different parts of the country.  The chief manufacturers are Messrs. Henry Holmes and Sons of Liverpool, and Mr. Samuel Preston Child of London.  The manufactured orchilla is frequently shipped to Germany, Holland, &c. in its fluid state, with a small proportion of weed in each cask for the satisfaction of the purchasers.  The inferior qualities of the weed, and also a variety of mosses that have the same properties as the orchilla, only in a minor degree, are dried and ground to a fine powder, which is denominated cudbear, and is applicable to the same purposes as the weed itself.[9]

It is a curious illustration of the importance that is attached to the weed generally, and to the weed of the Canaries in particular, that, within the last twenty years, the latter production was considered in London as a remittance equivalent to specie, and was invariably quoted in the usual channels of commercial intelligence with the price of gold and silver, thus:—­

Doubloons        per ounce
Dollars          ditto
Orchilla Weed    per ton

A bark called the Cape Packet, bound on a whaling voyage in the Pacific, arrived and sailed again to-day.  Our consort the Diadem transport arrived this afternoon, and sailed the following evening, being Saturday 25th.

Sunday, August 26th.—­The Consul General, with his wife and sister, came on board to attend divine service, and pass the remainder of the day.

Monday, 27th.—­Very fine weather.  At 7 in the morning, I accompanied the Rev. Mr. Davy to pass the day with the Consul’s family.  A bark from England, bound to the Cape of Good Hope, anchored in the roads to-day.  A brig, loaded with timber, bound from Sierra Leone to England, was cast away on this island some time since, and the wreck was purchased by our Consul.  He accordingly made an agreement with some people for the purpose of having it broken up, with the understanding that he was to retain the copper bolts, and they were to have the wood for their labour.  I fear that this did not prove a good speculation on the side of the Consul, as he found it necessary to be nearly always on the spot, from a very reasonable suspicion that the workmen would steal some of his bolts.  It is not unlikely, that so great an exposure to the sun as this occasioned him, had no small share in predisposing him for the fever that afterwards attacked him.

The cause of so much fever at St. Jago, may be traced to the peculiar situation of the town, which stands on an elevation between low swampy grounds, the exhalations from which pass over it as they arise.