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4 approached the entrance of the Tagus, we coasted along below Cintra, where stands the beautiful palace of the King of Portugal.

Some people extol the beauty of “the Panorama of the Tagus;” but I was greatly disappointed in its aspect. A large sand bank, or bar, in the centre of the entrance of the harbour, compels vessels to pass close to the side of it under an old Moorish tower, and fort. After this you proceed up ‘the centre of the river, with the city rising from the water’s edge up the hill, and ranging along on: the left, for three miles. The ancient city was on the opposite side of the harbour, which was destroyed by the ‘great earthquake of 1755, and was, with its pier thronged with people, engulphed in a vast depth. It is stated that in the place where the mole stood before the earthquake, there was afterwards found 100 fathoms deep of water; but certainly now there are only fifteen fathoms. No perceptible remains of that visitation are now to be seen. The hill, with a few houses on it, slopes down steeply to the water, leaving the imagination to supply the blank of what existed there where the old city, with its 60,000 inhabitants, once stood, and perished.

There are lofty houses of many storeys high in the city, the streets of which had a fishy and warehouse smell, and certainly were not in gay attire. Altogether I was not sorry to embark again; and, I must own, was greatly disappointed in the reported beauty of Lisbon and its Tagus. We could feel a decided change in the weather,