ON the 20th of March, 1848, I embarked on board the brig Eclipse,' A 1, Madeira regular trader, for a passage to Madeira, and about 1 P.M. we were hauled out of Shadwell Basin, taken in tow by a tug-steamer, and proceeded at a rapid rate down the river. The Eclipse' was well fitted for passengers, and could carry forty; but it was now spring, and as invalids generally return to England at that time, we had but eight in the cabin. Five days elapsed before we discharged our pilot and got clear of the Downs, and we were afterwards becalmed in the Bay of Biscay, but we made about an average passage, and on the sixteenth morning, at daylight, sighted the craggy island of Porto Santo.