VILLA DE LA LAGUNA.

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appearance of having been formed by a current of lava from the Peak. Some arborescent Euphorbia, Cacalia kleinia, and Cacti, were the only plants observed on these parched acclivities. The mules slipped at every step on the inclined surfaces of the rock although traces of an old road were observable, which, with the numerous other indications that occur in these colonies, afford evidence of the activity displayed by the Spanish nation in the sixteenth century.

very

The heat of Santa Cruz, which is suffocating, is in a great measure to be attributed to the reverberation of the rocks in its vicinity; but as the travellers approached Laguna they became sensible of pleasant diminution of temperature. In fact, the perpetual coolness which exists here renders it a delightful residence. It is situated in a small plain, surrounded by gardens, and commanded by a hill crowned with the laurel, the myrtle, and the arbutus. The rain, in collecting, forms from time to time a kind of large pool or marsh, which has induced travellers to describe the capital of Teneriffe as situated on the margin of a lake. The town, which was deprived of its opulence in consequence of the port of Garachico having been destroyed by the lateral eruptions of the volcano, has only 9000 inhabitants, of which about 400 are mouks. It is surrounded by numerous windmills for corn. Humboldt observes that the cereal grasses were known to the original inhabitants, and that parched barleyflour and goats' milk formed their principal meals. This food tends to show that they were connected with the nations of the old continent, perhaps even with those of the Caucasian race, and not with the inhabitants of the New World, who, previous to the arrival of the Europeans among them, had no know. ledge of grain, milk, or cheese.

The Canary Islands were originally inhabited by a people famed for their tall stature, and known by

D

the name of Guanches. They have now entirely disappeared under the oppression of a more powerful and more enlightened race, which, assuming the superiority supposed to be sanctioned by civilization and the profession of the Christian faith, disposed of the natives in a manner little accordant with the character of a true follower of the Cross. The archipelago of the Canaries was divided into small states hostile to each other; and in the fifteenth century the Spaniards and Portuguese made voyages to these islands for slaves, as the Europeans have latterly been accustomed to do to the coast of Guinea. One Guanche then became the property of another, who sold him to the dealers; while many, rather than become slaves, killed their children and themselves. The natives had been greatly reduced in this manner, when Alonzo de Lugo completed their subjugation. The residue of that unhappy people perished by a terrible pestilence, which was supposed to have originated from the bodies left exposed by the Spaniards after the battle of Laguna. At the present day no individual of pure blood exists in these islands, where all that remains of the aborigines are certain mummies, reduced to an extraordinary degree of desiccation, and found in the sepulchral caverns which are cut in the rock on the eastern slope of the Peak. These skeletons contain remains of aromatic plants, especially the Chenopodium ambrosioides, and are often decorated with small laces, to which are suspended little cakes of baked earth.

The people who succeeded the Guanches were descended from the Spaniards and Normans. The present inhabitants are described by our author as being of a moral and religious character, but of a roving and enterprising disposition, and less industrious at home than abroad. The population in 1790 was 174,000. The produce of the several islands consists chiefly of wheat, barley, maize, potatoes,

CLIMATE OF TENERIFFE.

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wine, a great variety of fruits, sugar, and other articles of food; but the lower orders are frequently obliged to have recourse to the roots of a species of fern. The principal objects of commerce are wine, brandy, archil (a kind of lichen used as a die), and soda.

Teneriffe has been praised for the salubrity of its climate. The ground of the Canary Islands rises gradually to a great height, and presents, on a small scale, the temperature of every zone, from the intense heat of Africa to the cold of the alpine regions; so that a person may have the benefit of whatever climate best suits his temperament or disease. A similar variety exists as to the vegetation; and no country seemed to our travellers more fitted to dissipate melancholy, and restore peace to an agitated mind, than Teneriffe and Madeira, where the natural beauty of the situation and the salubrity of the air conspire to quiet the anxieties of the spirit, and invigorate the body, while the feelings are not harassed by the revolting_sight of slavery, which exists in almost all the European colonies.

In winter the climate of Laguna is excessively foggy, and the inhabitants often complain of cold, although snow never falls. The lowest height at which it occurs annually in Teneriffe has not been ascertained; but it has been seen in a place lying above Esperanza de la Laguna, close to the town of that name, in the gardens of which the breadfruittree (Artocarpus incisa), introduced by M. Broussonet, has been naturalized. In connexion with this subject, Humboldt remarks, that in hot countries the plants are so vigorous that they can bear a greater degree of frost than might be expected, provided it be of short duration. The banana is cultivated in Cuba, in places where the thermometer sometimes descends to very near the freezing-point; and in Spain and Italy, orange and date-trees do not perish,

although the cold may be two degrees below zero. Trees growing in a fertile soil are remarked by cultivators to be less delicate, and less affected by changes of temperature, than those planted in land that affords little nutriment.

From Laguna to the port of Orotava and the western coast of Teneriffe the route is at first over a hilly country, covered by a black argillaceous soil. The subjacent rock is concealed by layers of ferruginous earth; but in some of the ravines are seen columnar basalts, with recent conglomerates, resembling volcanic tufas lying over them, which contain fragments of the former, and also, as is asserted, marine petrifactions. This delightful country, of which travellers of all nations speak with enthusiasm, is entered by the valley of Tacoronte, and presents scenes of unrivalled beauty. The seashore is ornamented with palms of the date and cocoa species. Farther up, groups of musæ and dragon-trees present themselves. The declivities are covered with vines. Orange-trees, myrtles, and cypresses surround the chapels that have been raised on the little hills. The lands are separated by enclosures formed of the agave and cactus. Multitudes of cryptogamic plants, especially ferns, cover the walls. In winter, while the volcano is wrapped in snow, there is continued spring in this beautiful district; and in summer, towards evening, the sea-breezes diffuse a gentle coolness over it. From Tegueste and Tacoronte to the village of San Juan de la Rambla, the coast is cultivated like a garden, and might be compared to the neighbourhood of Capua or Valentia; but the western part of Teneriffe is much more beautiful, on account of the proximity of the Peak, the sight of which has a most imposing effect, and excites the imagination to penetrate into the mysterious source of volcanic action. For thousands of years no light has been observed at the summit of the mountain, and yet enormous lateral

DURASNO OROTAVA.

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eruptions, the last of which happened in 1798, prove the activity of a fire which is far from being extinct. There is, besides, something melancholy in the sight of a crater placed in the midst of a fertile and highlycultivated country.

Pursuing their course to the port of Orotava, the travellers passed the beautiful hamlets of Matanza and Vittoria (slaughter and victory),—names which occur together in all the Spanish colonies, and present a disagreeable contrast to the feelings of peace and quiet which these countries inspire. On their way they visited a botanic garden at Durasno, where they found M. Le Gros, the French vice-consul, who subsequently served as an excellent guide to the Peak. The idea of forming such an establishment at Teneriffe originated with the Marquis de Nava, who thought that the Canary Islands afford the most suitable place for naturalizing the plants of the East and West Indies, previous to their introduction to Europe. They arrived very late at the port, and next morning commenced their journey to the Peak, accompanied by M. Le Gros, M. Lalande, secretary of the French consulate at Santa Cruz, the English gardener of Durasno, and a number of guides.

Orotava, the Taoro of the Guanches, is situated on a very steep declivity, and has a pleasant aspect when viewed from a distance, although the houses, when seen at hand, have a gloomy appearance. One of the most remarkable objects in this place is the dragon-tree in the garden of M. Franqui, of which an engraving is here presented, and which our travellers found to be about 60 feet high, with a circumference of 48 feet near the roots. The trunk divides into a great number of branches, which rise in the form of a candelabrum, and are terminated by tufts of leaves. This tree is said to have been revered by the Guanches as the ash of Ephesus was by the Greeks; and in 1402, at the time of the first expedition of Bethencour, was as large and as hollow