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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Canary Islands, by Florence Du
-Cane
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: The Canary Islands
-
-Author: Florence Du Cane
-
-Artist: Ella Du Cane
-
-Release Date: September 21, 2021 [eBook #66355]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Fay Dunn, Fiona Holmes and the Online Distributed
-             Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-             produced from images generously made available by The
-             Internet Archive/American Libraries.)  
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CANARY ISLANDS ***
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Notes.
-
-In the Contents List, a V has been added to show VI.
-
-Page 35 — swalwart changed to stalwart (two stalwart girls).
-
-Page 41 — form changed to from (entirely hidden from our eyes).
-
-Page 165 — iberty changed to liberty (“fly-flappers” were set
-  at liberty).
-
-Hyphenation has been standardised.
-
-
-[Illustration: A PATIO]
-
-    THE
-    CANARY ISLANDS
-
-    BY
-    FLORENCE DU CANE
-
-
-    WITH 16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
-    IN COLOUR BY ELLA DU CANE
-
-
-    A. & C. BLACK LTD.
-    4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1.
-
-    PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
-    _First published in 1911_
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
-    I
-                                   PAGE
-    TENERIFFE                                1
-
-    II
-    TENERIFFE (_continued_)                 21
-
-    III
-    TENERIFFE (_continued_)                 32
-
-    IV
-    TENERIFFE (_continued_)                 50
-
-    V
-    TENERIFFE (_continued_)                 68
-
-    VI
-    TENERIFFE (_continued_)                 84
-
-    VII
-    TENERIFFE (_continued_)                 93
-
-    VIII
-    GRAND CANARY                           105
-
-    IX
-    GRAND CANARY (_continued_)             115
-
-    X
-    GRAND CANARY (_continued_)             127
-
-    XI
-    LA PALMA                               136
-
-    XII
-    GOMERA                                 146
-
-    XIII
-    FUERTEVENTURA, LANZAROTE AND HIERRO    151
-
-    XIV
-    HISTORICAL SKETCH                      160
-
-
-
-
-LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-
-    1. A PATIO                           _Frontispiece_
-
-                                            FACING PAGE
-
-    2. A STREET IN PUERTO OROTAVA                    16
-
-    3. THE PEAK, FROM VILLA OROTAVA                  21
-
-    4. REALEJO ALTO                                  28
-
-    5. ENTRANCE TO A SPANISH VILLA                   49
-
-    6. STATICES AND PRIDE OF TENERIFFE               64
-
-    7. LA PAZ                                        69
-
-    8. BOTANICAL GARDENS, OROTAVA                    76
-
-    9. EL SITIO DEL GARDO                            81
-
-    10. CONVENT OF SANT AUGUSTIN, ICOD DE LOS VINOS  96
-
-    11. AN OLD BALCONY                              113
-
-    12. A BANANA CART                               117
-
-    13. AN OLD GATEWAY                              124
-
-    14. THE CANARY PINE                             128
-
-    15. SAN SEBASTIAN                               149
-
-    16. A SPANISH GARDEN                            156
-
-    _Sketch Map at end of volume_
-
-
-
-
-CANARY ISLANDS
-
-
-I
-
-TENERIFFE
-
-
-Probably many people have shared my feeling of disappointment on
-landing at Santa Cruz. I had long ago realised that few places come
-up to the standard of one’s preconceived ideas, so my mental picture
-was not in this case a very beautiful one; but even so, the utter
-hideousness of the capital of Teneriffe was a shock to me.
-
-Unusually clear weather at sea had shown us our first glimpse of the
-Peak, rising like a phantom mountain out of the clouds when 100 miles
-distant, but as we drew nearer to land the clouds had gathered, and
-the cone was wrapped in a mantle of mist. There is no disappointment
-attached to one’s first impression of the Island as seen from the sea.
-The jagged range of hills seemed to come sheer down to the coast, and
-appeared to have been torn and rent by some extraordinary upheaval
-of Nature; the deep ravines (or _barrancos_ as I afterwards learnt to
-call them) were full of dark blue mysterious shadows, a deeply indented
-coast-line stretched far away in the distance, and I thought the land
-well deserved to be called one of the Fortunate Islands.
-
-Santa Cruz, or to give it its full title, Santa Cruz de Santiago,
-though one of the oldest towns in the Canaries, looked, as our ship
-glided into the harbour, as though it had been built yesterday, or
-might even be still in course of construction. Lying low on the shore
-the flat yellow-washed houses, with their red roofs, are thickly massed
-together, the sheer ugliness of the town being redeemed by the spires
-of a couple of old churches, which look down reprovingly on the modern
-houses below. Arid slopes rise gradually behind the town, and appear to
-be utterly devoid of vegetation. Perched on a steep ridge is the Hotel
-Quisisana, which cannot be said to add to the beauty of the scene, and
-all my sympathy went out to those who were condemned to spend a winter
-in such desolate surroundings in search of health.
-
-Probably no foreign town is entirely devoid of interest to the
-traveller. On landing, the picturesque objects which meet the eye make
-one realise that once one’s foot has left the last step of the gangway
-of the ship, England and everything English has been left behind. The
-crowd of swarthy loafers who lounge about the quay in tight yellow or
-white garments, are true sons of a southern race, and laugh and chatter
-gaily with handsome black-eyed girls. Sturdy country women are settling
-heavy loads on their donkeys, preparatory to taking their seat on
-the top of the pack for their journey over the hills. Their peculiar
-head-dress consists of a tiny straw hat, no larger than a saucer, which
-acts as a pad for the loads they carry on their heads, from which hangs
-a large black handkerchief either fluttering in the wind, or drawn
-closely round the shoulders like a shawl.
-
-Here and there old houses remain, dating from the days when the wine
-trade was at its zenith, and though many have now been turned into
-consulates and shipping offices, they stand in reproachful contrast
-to the buildings run up cheaply at a later date. Through many an open
-doorway one gets a glimpse of these cool spacious old houses, whose
-broad staircases and deep balconies surround a shady _patio_ or
-court-yard. On the ground floor the wine was stored and the living
-rooms opened into the roomy balconies on the first floor. Here and
-there a small open Plaza, where drooping pepper trees shade stone
-seats, affords breathing-space, but over all and everything was a thick
-coating of grey dust, which gave a squalid appearance to the town.
-Narrow ill-paved streets, up which struggle lean, over-worked mules,
-dragging heavy rumbling carts, lead out of the town, and I was thankful
-to shake the dust of Santa Cruz off my feet; not that one does, as
-unless there has been very recent rain the dust follows everywhere. An
-electric tramway winds its way up the slopes behind the town at a very
-leisurely pace, giving one ample time to survey the scene.
-
-The only vegetation which looks at home in the dry dusty soil is
-prickly pear, a legacy of the cochineal culture. In those halcyon
-days arid spots were brought into cultivation and the cactus planted
-everywhere. In the eighteenth century the islanders had merely regarded
-cochineal as a loathsome form of blight, and it was forbidden to be
-landed for fear it should spoil their prickly pears, but prejudice
-was overcome, and when it was realised that a possible source of
-wealth was to be found in the cultivation of the cactus, _Opuntia
-coccinellifera_, which is the most suited to the insect, the craze
-began. Land was almost unobtainable; the amount of labour was enormous
-which was expended in breaking up the lava to reach the soil below,
-in terracing hills wherever it was possible to terrace; property was
-mortgaged to buy new fields; in fact, the islanders thought their
-land was as good as a gold-mine. The following figures are given by
-Mr. Samler Brown to show the extraordinary rapidity with which the
-trade developed. “In 1831 the first shipment was 8 lb., the price at
-first being about ten pesetas a lb.; in ten years it had increased
-to 100,566 lb., and in 1869 the highest total, 6,076,869 lb., with a
-value of £789,993.” The rumour of the discovery of aniline dyes alarmed
-the islanders, but for a time they were not sufficiently manufactured
-seriously to affect the cochineal trade, though the fall in prices
-began to make merchants talk of over-production. The crisis came in
-1874, when the price in London fell to 1_s._ 6_d._ or 2_s._, and the
-ruin to the cochineal industry was a foregone conclusion. Aniline dyes
-had taken the public taste, and though cochineal has been proved to be
-the only red dye to resist rain and hard wear, the demand is now small,
-and merchants who had bought up and stored the dried insect were left
-with unsaleable stock on their hands. Retribution, we are told, was
-swift, sudden, and universal, and the farmer who had spent so much on
-bringing land into cultivation foot by foot, realised that the cactus
-must be rooted up or he must face starvation.
-
-Possibly there are many other people as ignorant as I was myself on
-my first visit to the Canaries on the subject of cochineal. Beyond
-the fact that cochineal was a red dye and used occasionally as a
-colouring-matter in cooking, I could not safely have answered any
-question concerning it. I was much disgusted at finding that it is
-really the blood of an insect which looks like a cross between a
-“wood-louse” and a “mealy-bug,” with a fat body rather like a currant.
-The most common method of cultivation, I believe, was to allow the
-insect to attach itself to a piece of muslin in the spring, which
-was then laid on to a box full of “mothers” in a room at a very high
-temperature.
-
-The muslin was then fastened on to the leaf of the cactus by means of
-the thorns of the wild prickly pear. When once attached to the leaf the
-_madre_ cannot move again. There were two different methods of killing
-the insect to send it to market, one by smoking it with sulphur and the
-other by shaking it in sacks. A colony of the insects on a prickly pear
-leaf looks like a large patch of lumpy blight, most unpleasant, and
-enough to make any one say they would never again eat anything coloured
-with cochineal.
-
-This terraced land is now cultivated with potatoes and tomatoes for the
-English market, but the shower of gold in which every one shared in the
-days of the cochineal boom is no more, though the banana trade in other
-parts of the island seems likely to revive those good old days.
-
-La Laguna, about five miles above Santa Cruz, is one of the oldest
-towns in Teneriffe; it was the stronghold of the Guanches and the
-scene of the most desperate fighting with the Spanish invaders. To-day
-it looks merely a sleepy little town, but can boast of several fine
-old churches, besides the old Convente de San Augustin which has been
-turned into the official seat of learning, containing a very large
-public library, and the Bishop’s Palace which has a fine old stone
-façade. The cathedral appears to be in a perpetual state of repairing
-or rebuilding, and though begun in 1513 is not yet completed. One of
-the principal sights of La Laguna is the wonderful old Dragon tree in
-the garden of the Seminary attached to the Church of Santo Domingo,
-of which the age is unknown. The girth of its trunk speaks for itself
-of its immense age, and I was not surprised to hear that even in the
-fifteenth century it was a sufficiently fine specimen to cause the land
-on which it stood to be known as “the farm of the Dragon tree.”
-
-Foreigners regard the town chiefly as being a good centre for
-expeditions, which, judging by the list in our guide-book, are almost
-innumerable. One ride into the beautiful pine forest of La Mina should
-certainly be undertaken, and unless the smooth clay paths are slippery
-after rain the walking is easy. After a long stay in either Santa
-Cruz or even Orotava, where large trees are rare, there is a great
-enchantment in finding oneself once more among forest trees, and what
-splendid trees are these native pines, _Pinus canariensis_, and in damp
-spots one revels in the ferns and mosses, which form such a contrast
-to the vegetation one has grown accustomed to.
-
-Alexander von Humboldt who spent a few days in Teneriffe, on his way to
-South America, landing in Santa Cruz on June 19, 1799, was much struck
-by the contrast of the climate of La Laguna to that of Santa Cruz. The
-following is an extract from his account of the journey he made across
-the island in order to ascend the Peak: “As we approached La Laguna,
-we felt the temperature of the atmosphere gradually become lower. This
-sensation was so much the more agreeable, as we found the air of Santa
-Cruz very oppressive. As our organs are more affected by disagreeable
-impressions, the change of temperature becomes still more sensible when
-we return from Laguna to the port, we seem then to be drawing near the
-mouth of a furnace. The same impression is felt when, on the coast
-of Caracas, we descend from the mountain of Avila to the port of La
-Guayra.... The perpetual coolness which prevails at La Laguna causes it
-to be regarded in the Canaries as a delightful abode.
-
-“Situated in a small plain, surrounded by gardens, protected by a
-hill which is crowned by a wood of laurels, myrtles and arbutus, the
-capital of Teneriffe is very beautifully placed. We should be mistaken
-if, relying on the account of some travellers, we believed it rested
-on the border of a lake. The rain sometimes forms a sheet of water of
-considerable extent, and the geologist, who beholds in everything the
-past rather than the present state of nature, can have no doubt but
-that the whole plain is a great basin dried up.”
-
-“Laguna has fallen from its opulence, since the lateral eruptions of
-the volcano have destroyed the port of Garachico, and since Santa Cruz
-has become the central point of the commerce of the island. It contains
-only 9000 inhabitants, of whom nearly 400 are monks, distributed in
-six convents. The town is surrounded with a great number of windmills,
-which indicate the cultivation of wheat in these higher countries....”
-
-“A great number of chapels, which the Spaniards call _ermitas_,
-encircle the town of Laguna. Shaded by trees of perpetual verdure, and
-erected on small eminences, these chapels add to the picturesque effect
-of the landscape. The interior of the town is not equal to the external
-appearance. The houses are solidly built but very antique, and the
-streets seem deserted. A botanist should not complain of the antiquity
-of the edifices, as the roofs and walls are covered with Canary house
-leek and those elegant _trichomanes_ mentioned by every traveller.
-These plants are nourished by the abundant mists....”
-
-“In winter the climate of Laguna is extremely foggy, and the
-inhabitants complain often of the cold. A fall of snow, however, has
-never been seen, a fact which may seem to indicate that the mean
-temperature of this town must be above 15° R., that is to say higher
-than that of Naples....”
-
-“I was astonished to find that M. Broussonet had planted in the midst
-of this town in the garden of the Marquis de Nava, the bread-fruit
-tree (_Artocarpus incise_) and cinnamon trees (_Laurus cinnamonum_).
-These valuable productions of the South Sea and the East Indies are
-naturalised there as well as at Orotava.”
-
-The most usual route to Tacoronte _en route_ to Orotava, the ultimate
-destination of most travellers, is by the main road or _carretera_,
-which reaches the summit of the pass shortly after leaving La Laguna,
-at a height of 2066 feet. The redeeming feature of the otherwise
-uninteresting road is the long avenue of eucalyptus trees, which gives
-welcome shade in summer. If time and distance are of no account, and
-the journey is being made by motor, the lower road by Tejina is far
-preferable. The high banks of the lanes are crowned with feathery old
-junipers, in spring the grassy slopes are gay with wild flowers, and
-here and there stretches of yellow broom (_spartium junceum_) fill
-the air with its delicious scent. Turns in the road reveal unexpected
-glimpses of the Peak on the long descent to the little village of
-Tegueste, and below lies the church of Tejina, only a few hundred feet
-above the sea. Here the road turns and ascends again to Tacoronte, and
-the Peak now faces one, the cone often rising clear above a bank of
-clouds which covers the base.
-
-At Tacoronte the tram-line ends and either a carriage or motor takes
-the traveller over the remaining fifteen miles down through the fertile
-valley to Puerto Orotava. The valley is justly famous for its beauty,
-and in clear winter weather, when the Peak has a complete mantle of
-snow, no one can refrain from exclaiming at the beauty of the scene,
-when at one bend of the road the whole valley lies stretched at one’s
-feet, bathed in sunshine and enclosed in a semi-circle of snow-capped
-mountains. The clouds cast blue shadows on the mountain sides, and here
-and there patches of white mist sweep across the valley; the dark pine
-woods lie in sharp contrast to the brilliant colouring of the chestnut
-woods whose leaves have been suddenly turned to red gold by frost in
-the higher land. In the lower land broad stretches of banana fields
-are interspersed with ridges of uncultivated ground, where almond, fig
-trees and prickly pears still find a home, and clumps of the native
-Canary palm trees wave their feathery heads in the wind. Small wonder
-that even as great a traveller as Humboldt was so struck with the
-beauty of the scene that he is said to have thrown himself on his knees
-in order to salute the sight as the finest in the world. Without any
-such extravagant demonstration as that of the great traveller, it is
-worth while to stop and enjoy the view; though, to be sure, carriages
-travel at such a leisurely rate in Teneriffe, one has ample time to
-survey the scene. The guardian-angel of the valley--the Peak--dominates
-the broad expanse of land and sea, in times of peace, a placid broad
-white pyramid. But at times the mountain has become angry and waved
-a flaming sword over the land, and for this reason the Guanches
-christened it the Pico de Teide or Hell, though they appear to have
-also regarded it as the Seat of the Deity.
-
-Humboldt himself describes the scene in the following words: “The
-valley of Tacoronte is the entrance into that charming country, of
-which travellers of every nation have spoken with rapturous enthusiasm.
-Under the torrid zone I found sites where Nature is more majestic and
-richer in the display of organic forms; but after having traversed the
-banks of the Orinoco, the Cordilleras of Peru, and the most beautiful
-valleys of Mexico, I own that I have never beheld a prospect more
-varied, more attractive, more harmonious in the distribution of the
-masses of verdure and rocks, than the western coast of Teneriffe.
-
-“The sea-coast is lined with date and cocoa trees; groups of the
-_musa_, as the country rises, form a pleasing contrast with the dragon
-tree, the trunks of which have been justly compared to the tortuous
-form of the serpent. The declivities are covered with vines, which
-throw their branches over towering poles. Orange trees loaded with
-flowers, myrtles and cypress trees encircle the chapels reared to
-devotion on the isolated hills. The divisions of landed property are
-marked by hedges formed of the agave and the cactus. An innumerable
-number of cryptogamous plants, among which ferns most predominate,
-cover the walls, and are moistened by small springs of limpid water.
-
-“In winter, when the volcano is buried under ice and snow, this
-district enjoys perpetual spring. In summer as the day declines, the
-breezes from the sea diffuse a delicious freshness....
-
-“From Tegueste and Tacoronte to the village of San Juan de la Rambla
-(which is celebrated for its excellent Malmsey wine) the rising hills
-are cultivated like a garden. I might compare them to the environs
-of Capua and Valentia, if the western part of Teneriffe were not
-infinitely more beautiful on account of the proximity of the Peak,
-which presents on every side a new point of view.
-
-“The aspect of this mountain is interesting, not merely from its
-gigantic mass; it excites the mind, by carrying it back to the
-mysterious source of its volcanic agency. For thousands of years
-no flames or light have been perceived on the summit of the Piton,
-nevertheless enormous lateral eruptions, the last of which took
-place in 1798, are proofs of the activity of a fire still far from
-being extinguished. There is also something that leaves a melancholy
-impression on beholding a crater in the centre of a fertile and
-well-cultivated country. The history of the globe tells us that
-volcanoes destroy what they have been a long series of ages in
-creating. Islands which the action of submarine fires has raised above
-the water, are by degrees clothed in rich and smiling verdure; but
-these new lands are often laid waste by the renewed action of the same
-power which caused them to emerge from the bottom of the ocean. Islets,
-which are now but heaps of scoriæ and volcanic ashes, were once perhaps
-as fertile as the hills of Tacoronte and Sauzal. Happy the country
-where man has no distrust of the soil on which he lives.”
-
-[Illustration: A STREET IN PUERTO OROTAVA]
-
-Low on the shore lies the little sea-port town of Orotava, known as
-the Puerto to distinguish it from the older and more important Villa
-Orotava lying some three miles away inland, at a higher altitude.
-Further along the coast is San Juan de la Rambla, and on the lower
-slopes of the opposite wall of the valley are the picturesque villages
-of Realejo Alto and Bajo, while Icod el Alto is perched at the very
-edge of the dark cliffs of the Tigaia at a height of about 1700 ft.
-A gap in the further mountain range is known as the Portillo, the
-Fortaleza rises above this “gateway,” and from this point begins the
-long gradual sweep of the Tigaia, which, from the valley, hides all but
-the very cone of the Peak. Above Villa Orotava towers Pedro Gil and the
-Montaña Blanca, with the sun glittering on its freshly fallen snow, and
-near at hand are the villages of Sauzal, Santa Ursula, Matanza and La
-Victoria.
-
-Though Humboldt describes them as “smiling hamlets,” he comments on
-their names which he says are “mingled together in all the Spanish
-colonies, and they form an unpleasing contract with the peaceful and
-tranquil feelings which these countries inspire.
-
-“Matanza signifies slaughter, or carnage, and the word alone recalls
-the price at which victory has been purchased. In the New World it
-generally indicates the defeat of the natives; at Teneriffe the village
-Matanza was built in a place where the Spaniards were conquered by
-those same Guanches who soon after were sold as slaves in the markets
-of Europe.”
-
-In early winter the terraced ridges, which are cultivated with wheat
-and potatoes, are a blot in the landscape, brown and bare, but in
-spring, after the winter rains, these slopes will be transformed into
-sheets of emerald green, and it is then that the valley looks its best.
-For a few days, all too few, the almond trees are smothered with their
-delicate pale pink blooms, but one night’s rain or a few hours’ rough
-wind will scatter all their blossoms, and nothing will remain of their
-rosy loveliness but a carpet of bruised and fallen petals.
-
-The valley soon reveals traces of the upheavals of Nature in a bygone
-age; broad streams of lava, which at some time poured down the valley,
-remain grey and desolate-looking, almost devoid of vegetation, and the
-two cinder heaps or _fumaroles_ resembling huge blackened mole-hills,
-though not entirely bare, cannot be admired. No one seems to know
-their exact history or age, but it appears pretty certain that they
-developed perfectly independently of any eruption of the Peak itself,
-though perhaps not “growing in a single night,” as I was once solemnly
-assured they had done. One theory, which sounded not improbable, was
-that the bed of lava on which several English villas, the church and
-the Grand Hotel have been built, was originally spouted out of one
-of these cinder heaps, and the hill on which the hotel stands was in
-former days the edge of the cliff. The lava is supposed to have flowed
-over the edge and accumulated to such a depth in the sea below that it
-formed the plateau of low-lying ground on which the Puerto now stands.
-
-The little town is not without attraction, though its streets are dusty
-and unswept, being only cleaned once a year, in honour of the Feast
-of Corpus Christi, on which day at the Villa carpets of elaborate
-design, arranged out of the petals of flowers, run down the centre of
-the streets where the processions are to pass. My first impression of
-the town was that it appeared to be a deserted city, hardly a foot
-passenger was to be seen, and my own donkey was the only beast of
-burden in the main street of the town. Gorgeous masses of bougainvillea
-tumbled over garden walls, and glimpses were to be seen through open
-doorways of creeper-clad _patios_. The carved balconies with their
-little tiled roofs are inseparable from all the old houses, more or
-less decorated according to the importance of the house. The soft green
-of the woodwork of the houses, and more especially of the solid green
-shutters or _postijos_, behind which the inhabitants seem to spend many
-hours gazing into the streets, was always a source of admiration to
-me. The main street ends with the mole, and looking seawards the surf
-appears to dash up into the street itself. The town wakes to life when
-a cargo steamer comes into the port, and then one long stream of carts,
-drawn by the finest oxen I have ever seen, finds its way to the mole,
-to unload the crates of bananas which are frequently sold on the quay
-itself to the contractors.
-
-[Illustration: THE PEAK, FROM VILLA OROTAVA]
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-TENERIFFE (_continued_)
-
-
-About a thousand feet above the Puerto de Orotava, on the long gradual
-slope which sweeps down from Pedro Gil forming the valley of Orotava,
-lies the _villa_ or town of Orotava. This most picturesque old town is
-of far more interest than the somewhat squalid port, being the home of
-many old Spanish families, whose beautiful houses are the best examples
-of Spanish architecture in the Canaries. Besides their quiet _patios_,
-which are shady and cool even on the hottest summer days, the exterior
-of many of the houses is most beautiful. The admirable work of the
-carved balconies and shutters, the iron-work and carved stone-work
-cannot fail to make every one admire houses which are rapidly becoming
-unique. The Spaniards have, alas! like many other nations, lost their
-taste in architecture, and the modern houses which are springing up
-all too quickly make one shudder to contemplate. Some had been built
-to replace those which had been burnt, others were merely being built
-by men who had made a fortune in the banana trade. Not satisfied
-with their old solid houses, with their fine old stone doorways and
-overhanging wooden balconies, they are ruthlessly destroying them to
-build a fearsome modern monstrosity, possibly more comfortable to live
-in, but most offending to the eye. The love of their gardens seems also
-to be dying out, and as I once heard some one impatiently exclaim,
-“They have no soul above bananas,” and it is true that the culture of
-bananas is at the moment of all-absorbing interest.
-
-Though the _patios_ of the houses may be decked with plants, the air
-being kept cool and moist by the spray of a tinkling fountain, many of
-the little gardens at the back of these old family mansions have fallen
-into a sad state of disorder and decay. The myrtle and box hedges,
-formerly the pride of their owners, are no longer kept trim and shorn,
-and the little beds are no longer full of flowers. One garden remains
-to show how, when even slightly tended, flowers grow and flourish in
-the cooler air of the Villa. In former days a giant chestnut tree
-was the pride of this garden, only its venerable trunk now remains
-to tell of its departed glories; but the _poyos_ (double walls) are
-full of flowers all the year, and the native _Pico de paloma_ (_Lotus
-Berthelotii_) flourishes better here than in any other garden; it
-drapes the walls and half smothers the steps and stone seats with
-its garlands of soft grey-green, and in spring is covered with its
-deep red “pigeons’ beaks.” The walls are gay with stocks, carnations,
-verbenas, lilies, geraniums, and hosts of plants. Long hedges of
-_Libonia floribunda_, the _bandera d’España_ of the natives, as its red
-and yellow blossoms represent the national colours of Spain, line the
-entrance, and in unconsidered damp corners white arum lilies grow, the
-rather despised _orejas de burros_, or donkeys’ ears, of the country
-people, who give rather apt nick-names to not only flowers, but people.
-
-Though the higher-class Spaniards are a most exclusive race, I met
-with nothing but civility from their hands when asking permission
-to see their _patio_ or gardens; as much cannot be said for the
-middle and lower classes of to-day, who are distinctly anti-foreign.
-The lower classes appear to regard an incessant stream of pennies
-as their right, and hurl abuse or stones at your head when their
-persistent begging is ignored, and even tradesmen are often insolent
-to foreigners. A spirit of independence and republicanism is very
-apparent. An employer of labour can obviously keep no control over his
-men, who work when they choose, or more often don’t work when they
-don’t choose, and the mother or father of a family keeps no control
-over the children. One day I asked our gardener why he did not send his
-children to school to learn to read and write, as he was deploring that
-he could not read the names of the seeds he was sowing. I thought it
-was a good moment to point a moral, but he shrugged his shoulders, and
-said they did not care to go, and also they had no shoes and could not
-go to school barefoot. The man was living rent free, earning the same
-wages as an average English labourer, and two sons in work contributed
-to the expenses of the house, besides the money he got for the crop on
-a small piece of land which the whole family cultivated on Sundays, and
-still he could not afford to provide shoes in order that his children
-should learn to read and write. Another man announced with pride that
-one of his children attended school. Knowing he had two, I inquired,
-“Why only one?” On which he owned that the other one used to go, but
-now she refused to do so, and neither he nor his wife could make her
-go. This independent person was aged nine!
-
-One of the great curiosities of the Villa was the great Dragon Tree,
-and though it stands no more, visitors are still shown the site where
-it once stood and are told of its immense age. Humboldt gave the age
-of the tree at the time of his visit as being at least 6000 years, and
-though this may have been excessive, there is no doubt that it was of
-extreme age. It was blown down and the remains accidentally destroyed
-by fire in 1867, and only old engravings remain to tell of its wondrous
-size. The hollow trunk was large enough for a good-sized room or cave,
-and in the days of the Guanches, when a national assembly was summoned
-to create a new chief or lord, the meeting place was at the great
-Dragon Tree. The land on which it stood was afterwards enclosed and
-became the garden of the Marques de Sauzal.
-
-The ceremony of initiating a lord was a curious one, and the Overlord
-of Taoro (the old name of Orotava), was the greatest of these lords,
-having 6000 warriors at his command. Though the dignity was inherited,
-it was not necessary that it should pass from father to son, and more
-frequently passed from brother to brother. “When they raised one to be
-lord they had this custom. Each lordship had a bone of the most ancient
-lord in their lineage wrapped in skins and guarded. The most ancient
-councillors were convoked to the ‘Tagoror,’ or place of assembly. After
-his election the king was given this bone to kiss. After having kissed
-it he put it over his head. Then the rest of the principal people
-put it over his shoulder, and he said, ‘_Agoñe yacoron yñatzahaña
-Chacoñamet_’ (I swear by the bone on this day on which you have made me
-great). This was the ceremony of the coronation, and on the same day
-the people were called that they might know whom they had for their
-lord. He feasted them, and there were general banquets at the cost of
-the new lord and his relations. Great pomp appears to have surrounded
-these lords, and any one meeting them in the road when they progressed
-to change their summer residence in the mountains to one by the sea
-in winter, was expected to prostrate himself on the ground, and on
-rising to cleanse the king’s feet with the edge of his coat of skins.”
-(See “The Guanches of Teneriffe,” by Sir Clement Markham.) After the
-conquest the Spaniards turned the temple of the Guanches into a chapel,
-and Mass was said within the tree.
-
-In the Villa are several fine old churches, whose spires and domes
-are her fairest adornment. The principal church is the Iglesia de la
-Concepcion, whose domes dominate the whole town. The exterior of the
-church is very fine, though the interior is not so interesting. It is
-curious to think how the silver communion plate, said to have belonged
-to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, can have come into the possession of
-this church. The theory that this and similar plate in the Cathedral
-at Las Palmas are the scattered remains of the magnificent church
-plate which was sold and dispersed by the order of Oliver Cromwell is
-generally accepted.
-
-The fine old doorway and tower of the Convent and Church of Santo
-Domingo date from a time when the Spaniards had more soul for the
-beautiful than they have at the present time.
-
-The narrow steep cobbled streets are hardly any of them without
-interest, and the old balconies, the carved shutters and glimpses of
-flowery _patios_, with a gorgeous mass of creeper tumbling over a
-garden wall or wreathing an old doorway, combine to make it a most
-picturesque town. A feature of almost every Spanish house is the little
-latticed hutch which covers the drip stone filter. In many an old
-house creepers and ferns, revelling in the dampness which exudes from
-the constantly wet stone, almost cover the little house, and even the
-stone itself grows maiden-hair or other ferns, and their presence is
-not regarded as interfering with the purifying properties of the stone,
-in which the natives place great faith. I never could believe that
-clean water could in any way benefit by being passed through the dirt
-of ages which must accumulate in these stones, there being no means of
-cleaning them except on the surface. The red earthenware water-pots of
-decidedly classical shape are made in every size, and a tiny child may
-be seen learning to carry a diminutive one on her head with a somewhat
-uncertain gait which she will soon outgrow, and in a year or two will
-stride along carrying a large water-pot all unconscious of her load,
-leaving her two hands free to carry another burden.
-
-[Illustration: REALEJO ALTO]
-
-A charming walk or donkey-ride leads from the Villa along fairly level
-country to Realejo Alto, passing through the two little villages of La
-Perdoma and La Cruz Santa. In early spring the almond blossom gives a
-rosy tinge to many a stretch of rough uncultivated ground, and in the
-villages over the garden walls was wafted the heavy scent of orange
-blossoms. The trees at this altitude seemed freer of the deadly black
-blight which has ravaged all the orange groves on the lower land,
-and altogether the vegetation struck one as being more luxuriant and
-more forward. The cottage-garden walls were gay with flowers: stocks,
-mauve and white, the favourite _alelis_ of the natives, long trails of
-geraniums and wreaths of _Pico de paloma_, pinks and carnations and
-hosts of other flowers I noticed as we rode past.
-
-The village of Realejo Alto is, without doubt, the most picturesque
-village I ever saw in the Canaries. Its situation on a very steep slope
-with the houses seemingly piled one above the other is very suggestive
-of an Italian mountain village. Part of the Church of San Santiago,
-the portion next the tower, is supposed to be the oldest church in the
-island, and the spire, the most prominent feature of the village and
-neighbourhood, is worthy of the rest of the old church. The interior
-of the church is not without interest when seen in a good light, and
-a fine old doorway is said to be the work of Spanish workmen shortly
-after the conquest. The carved stone-work round this doorway and a very
-similar one in the lower village are unique specimens of this style of
-work in the islands.
-
-The _barranco_ which separates the upper and lower villages of Realejo
-was the scene of a great flood in 1820 which severely damaged both
-villages. Realejo Bajo, though not quite as picturesque as the upper
-village, is well worth a visit, and its inhabitants are justly proud of
-their Dragon Tree, a rival to the one at Icod which may possibly some
-day become as celebrated as the great tree at Orotava.
-
-These two villages are great centres of the _calado_ or
-drawn-thread-work industry. Through every open doorway may be seen
-women and girls bending over the frames on which the work is stretched.
-It is mostly of very inferior quality, very coarsely worked and on poor
-material, and it seems a pity that there is no supply of better and
-finer work. Visitors get tired of the sight of the endless stacks of
-bed-covers and tea-cloths which are offered to them, and certainly the
-work compares badly both in price and quality with that done in the
-East.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-TENERIFFE (_continued_)
-
-
-A spell of clear weather, late in February, made us decide to make
-an expedition to the Cañadas, which, except to those who are bent on
-mountain climbing and always wish to get to the very top of every
-height they see, appeals to the ordinary traveller more than ascending
-the Peak itself. In spite of the promise of fine weather the day
-before, the morning broke cloudy and at dawn, 6 A.M., we started full
-of doubts and misgivings as to what the sunrise would bring. We had
-decided to drive as far as the road would allow, as we had been warned
-that we should find nine or ten hours’ mule riding would be more than
-enough, in fact, our friends were rather Job’s comforters. Some said
-the expedition was so tiring that they had known people to be ill for
-a week after undertaking it. Others said it was never clear at the
-top, we must be prepared to be soaked to the skin in the mist, for
-the mules to stumble and probably roll head over heels, in fact that
-strings of disasters were certain to overtake us. Our mules were to
-join us at Realejo Alto, about an hour’s drive from the port, and there
-we determined we would decide whether we would continue, or content
-ourselves with a shorter expedition on a lower level.
-
-Sunrise did not improve the prospect, a heavy bank of clouds lay over
-Pedro Gil, while ominous drifts of light white clouds were gathering
-below the Tigaia, and the prospect out to sea was not more encouraging.
-The mules were late, in true Spanish fashion, and we consulted a few
-weather-wise looking inhabitants who gathered round our carriage in the
-Plaza, shivering in the morning air, with their _mantas_ or blanket
-cloaks wrapped closely round them. They looked pityingly at these mad
-foreigners who had left their beds at such an hour when they were not
-forced to--for the Spaniard is no early riser--and were proposing to
-ride up into the clouds. The optimistic members of the party said: “It
-is nothing but a little morning mist,” while the pessimist remarked,
-“Morning mists make mid-day clouds in my experience.”
-
-The arrival of the mules put an end to further discussion. The
-muleteers were full of hope and confident that the clouds would
-disperse, or anyway that we should get above the region of cloud and
-find clear weather at the top, so though our old blanket-coated friend
-murmured “_Pobrecitas_” (poor things) below his breath, we made a
-start armed with wraps for the wet and cold we were to encounter. The
-clattering of the mules as we rode up the steep village street brought
-many heads to the windows; the little green shutters, or _postijos_,
-were hastily pushed open to enable the crowd, which appeared to inhabit
-every house, to catch a sight of the “_Inglezes_.” Inquiry as to where
-we were bound for, I noticed, generally brought an exclamation of “Very
-bad weather” (“_Tiempo muy malo_”), to the great indignation of our
-men, who muttered, “Don’t say so!”
-
-The stony path from Realejo leads in a fairly steep ascent to Palo
-Blanco, a little scattered village of charcoal-burners’ huts at a
-height of 2200 feet. The wreaths of blue smoke from their fires mingled
-with the mist, but already there was a promise of better things to
-come, as the sun was breaking through and the clouds were thinner.
-The chant of the charcoal-burners is a sound one gets accustomed
-to in these regions, and I never quite knew whether it was merely a
-song which cheered them on their downward path, or whether it was to
-announce their approach and ask ascending travellers to move out of
-their way, as the size of the loads they carry on their heads makes
-them often very difficult to pass. Presently two stalwart girls came
-into sight, swinging along at a steady trot; their bare feet apparently
-even more at home along the stony track than the unshod feet of the
-mules, as there is no stopping to pick their way, on they go, only
-too anxious to reach their journey’s end, and drop the crushing load
-off their heads. We anxiously inquired as to the state of the weather
-higher up, and to our great relief, with no hesitation, came the
-answer: “_Muy claro_” (very clear), and in a few minutes a puff of wind
-blew all the mist away as if by magic, and there was a shout of triumph
-from the men.
-
-Below lay the whole valley of Orotava, and we were leaving the
-picturesque town of the Villa Orotava far away below us on the left.
-The little villages of La Perdoma, La Cruz Santa, and the two Realejos,
-Alto and Bajo, were more immediately below us, and far away in the
-distance beyond the Puerto were to be seen Santa Ursula, Sauzal and
-the little scattered town of Tacoronte. Pedro Gil and all the range
-of mountains on the left had large stretches of melting snow, shining
-with a dazzling whiteness in the sun. It had been an unusual winter
-for snow, so we were assured, and it was rare to find it still lying
-at the end of February, but we were glad it was so, for it certainly
-added greatly to the beauty of the scene. At the Monte Verde, the
-region of green things, we called a halt, for the sake of man and
-beast, and while our men refreshed themselves with substantial slices
-of sour bread and the snow white local cheese, made from goats’ milk,
-and our mules enjoyed a few minutes’ breathing-space with loosened
-girths, we took a short walk to look down into the beautiful Barranco
-de la Laura. Here the trees have as yet escaped destruction at the
-hands of the charcoal-burners and the steep banks are still clad with
-various kinds of native laurel mixed with large bushes of the _Erica
-arborea_, the heath which covers all the region of the Monte Verde. The
-almost complete deforestation by the charcoal-burners is most deeply
-to be deplored, and it is sad to think how far more beautiful all this
-region must have been before it was stripped of its grand pine and
-laurel trees. The authorities took no steps to stop this wholesale
-destruction of the forests until it was too late, and even now, though
-futile regulations exist, no one takes the trouble to see that they are
-enforced. The law now only allows dead wood to be collected, but it is
-easy enough to _make_ dead wood--a man goes up and breaks down branches
-of trees or _retama_, and a few weeks later goes round and collects
-them as dead wood, and so the law is evaded. As there is a never-ending
-demand for charcoal, it being the only fuel the Spaniard uses, so
-matters will continue until there is nothing left to cut.
-
-No doubt we were on the same path as that by which Humboldt had
-travelled when he visited Teneriffe in 1799 and ascended the Peak.
-His description of the vegetation shows how the ruthless axe of the
-charcoal-burners has destroyed some of the most beautiful forests in
-the world. Humboldt had been obliged to abandon his travels in Italy
-in 1795 without visiting the volcanic districts of Naples and Sicily,
-a knowledge of which was indispensable for his geological studies.
-Four years later the Spanish Court had given him a splendid welcome
-and placed at his disposal the frigate _Pizarro_ for his voyage to the
-equinoctial regions of New Spain. After a narrow escape of falling
-into the hands of English privateers the Trade winds blew him to the
-Canaries. The 21st day of June, 1799, finds him on his way to the
-summit of the Peak accompanied by his friend Bonpland, M. le Gros,
-the secretary of the French Consulate in Santa Cruz, and the English
-gardener of Durasno (the botanical gardens of Orotava). The day appears
-not to have been happily chosen. The top of the Peak was covered in
-thick clouds from sunrise up to ten o’clock. Only one path leads from
-Villa Orotava through the _retama_ plains and the _mal pays_. “This
-is the way that all visitors must follow who are only a short time in
-Teneriffe. When people go up the Peak” (these are Humboldt’s words)
-“it is the same as when the Chamounix or Etna are visited, people
-must follow the guides and one only succeeds in seeing what other
-travellers have seen and described.” Like others he was much struck
-by the contrast of the vegetation in these parts of Teneriffe and in
-that surrounding Santa Cruz, where he had landed. “A narrow stony path
-leads through Chestnut woods to regions full of Laurel and Heath, and
-then further to the Dornajito springs; this being the only fountain
-that is met with all the way to the Peak. We stopped to take our
-provision of water under a solitary fir tree. This station is known
-in the country by the name of Pino del Dornajito. Above this region
-of arborescent heaths called Monte Verde, is the region of ferns.
-Nowhere in the temperate zones have I seen such an abundance of the
-_Pteris_, _Blechium_ and _Asplenium_; yet none of these plants have
-the stateliness of the arborescent ferns which, at the height of 500
-and 600 _toises_, form the principal ornaments of equinoctial America.
-The root of the _Pteris aquilina_ serves the inhabitants of Palma and
-Gomera for food. They grind it to powder, and mix it with a quantity
-of barley meal. This composition when boiled is called _gofio_; the
-use of so homely an aliment is proof of the extreme poverty of the
-lower classes of people in the Canary Islands. (Gofio is still largely
-consumed).
-
-“The region of ferns is succeeded by a wood of juniper trees and firs,
-which has suffered greatly from the violence of hurricanes (not one is
-now left). In this place, mentioned by some travellers under the name
-of Caraveles, Mr. Eden states that in the year 1705, he saw little
-flames, which according to the doctrines of the naturalists of his
-time, he attributes to sulphurous exhalations igniting spontaneously.
-We continued to ascend, till we came to the rock of La Gayta and to
-the Portillo: traversing this narrow pass between two basaltic hills,
-we entered the great plain of _Spartium_.... We spent two hours in
-crossing the Llano del Retama, which appears like an immense sea of
-white sand. In the midst of the plain are tufts of the _retama_, which
-is the _Spartium nubigenum_ of Aiton. M. de Martinière wished to
-introduce this beautiful shrub into Languedoc, where firewood is very
-scarce. It grows to a height of 9 ft. and is loaded with odoriferous
-flowers, with which the goat-hunters who met in our road had decorated
-their hats. The goats of the Peak, which are of a dark brown colour,
-are reckoned delicious food; they browse on the _spartium_ and have
-run wild in the deserts from time immemorial.” Spending the night on
-the mountain, though in mid summer, the travellers complained bitterly
-of the cold, having neither tents nor rugs. At 3 A.M. they started by
-torch-light to make the final ascent to the summit of the Piton. “A
-strong northerly wind chased the clouds, the moon at intervals shooting
-through the vapours exposed its disk on a firmament of the darkest
-blues, and the view of the volcano threw a majestic character over the
-nocturnal scenery.
-
-“Sometimes the peak was entirely hidden from our eyes by the fog,
-at other times it broke upon us in terrific proximity: and like an
-enormous pyramid, threw its shadow over the clouds rolling at our feet.”
-
-Scaling the mountain on the north-eastern side, in two hours the party
-reached Alta Vista, following the same course as travellers of to-day,
-passing over the _mal pays_ (a region devoid of vegetable mould and
-covered with fragments of lava) and visiting the ice caves. After the
-Laurels follow ferns of great size, Junipers and Pines (not one is now
-left of either) all the way up to the Portillo.
-
-The Portillo was still towering far above us, the gateway of the
-range, as its name implies, through which we had to pass to get to the
-Cañadas, and the stony path, though a well defined one, meanders on,
-not at a very steep incline, past rough hillocks where here and there
-pumice stone appears. Gradually the heath, which was just coming
-into flower, and in a few weeks would be covered with its rather
-insignificant little white or pinkish blossoms, becomes interspersed
-with _codeso_, _Adenocarpus viscosus_, with its peculiar flat spreading
-growth and tiny leaves of a soft bluish-green. During all the long
-ascent there is no sign of the Peak; the path lies so immediately
-beneath the dividing range that it is not until the Portillo itself
-is reached, that it suddenly bursts into view. It is a grand scene
-which lies before one. The foreground of rocky ground is interspersed
-with great bushes of _retama_ (_Sparto-cytisus nubigens_), a species
-of broom said to be peculiar to this district. In growth it somewhat
-resembles _Spartium junceum_, commonly known in England as Spanish
-broom, but is more stubby and perhaps not so graceful. When in flower
-in May its sweet scent is so powerful that not only does it fill the
-whole air in this mountain district, but sailors are said to smell it
-miles out at sea. Our guides told us some bushes had white flowers and
-others white tinged with rose colour. At this season large patches of
-thawing snow take the place of flowers, but the bushes of _retama_ can
-be seen piercing the Peak’s dense mantle of snow up to a height of
-quite 10,000 feet.
-
-I had been told that all the beauty of the Peak was lost when seen from
-so near, that the beautiful pyramid of rock and snow which rises some
-12,000 feet and stands towering above the valley of Orotava would look
-like a mere hill when seen rising from the moat of fine sand, which is
-what the Cañadas most resemble, that in fact, all enchantment would
-be gone. One writer even has gone so far as to call the Peak an ugly
-cinder-heap when seen from the Cañadas on the other side, and to say
-they found themselves “in a lifeless, soundless world, burnt out, dead,
-the very abomination of desolation, where once raged a fiery inferno
-over a lake of boiling lava.” I cannot help thinking that the writer of
-the above must have been travelling under adverse circumstances; it is
-curious how being overtired, wet and cold will make one find no beauty
-in a scene, which others, who like ourselves have seen it in glorious
-sunshine, will describe as one of the most beautiful sights in the
-world.
-
-The path just beyond the Portillo (7150 ft.) divides, and those who
-propose to ascend the Peak follow the track up the side of the Montaña
-Blanca, a snow-clad hump at the east base of the Peak. The cone itself
-is locally called Lomo Tiezo, and rises at an angle of 28°. The stone
-hut at the Alta Vista (10,702 ft.) is where many a weary traveller
-spends the night, before ascending the final 1400 ft. on foot, as the
-mules are left at the hut. No doubt in clear weather the traveller
-is well repaid, and the scene is well described as follows by Mr.
-Samler Brown: “Those who cannot ascend the mountain would probably
-greatly help their imagination by looking at a lunar crater through a
-telescope. The surroundings are the essence of desolation and ruin.
-On one side the rounded summit of the Montaña Blanca, on the other
-the threatening craters of the Pico Viejo and of Chahorra, the latter
-three-quarters of a mile in diameter, 10,500 ft. high, once a boiling
-cauldron and even now ready to burst into furious life at any moment.
-Below, the once circular basin of the Cañadas, seamed with streams of
-lava and surrounded by its jagged and many-coloured walls. Around, a
-number of volcanoes, standing, as Piazzi Smyth says, like fish on their
-tails with widely gaping mouths. On the upper slopes the pine forests
-and far beneath the sea, with the Six Satellites (the islands of La
-Palma, Gomera, Hierro, Grand Canary, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote)
-floating in the distance, the enormous horizon giving the impression
-that the looker-on is in a sort of well rather than on a height which,
-taken in relation to its surroundings is second to none in the world.”
-
-To attain the rude little shrine at the Fortaleza where a rest was to
-be taken, the path leads down into the Cañadas itself. A stretch of
-fine yellow sand, like the sand of the Sahara, thoroughly sun-baked,
-proved too great a temptation to one of the mules, and regardless of
-its rider and luncheon-basket, it enjoyed a good roll in the soft warm
-bed--luckily with no untoward results. After a welcome rest in the
-grateful shade of a _retama_ bush, we turned our backs to the Peak and
-left this beautiful solitary scene. The island of La Palma seemed to
-be floating in the sky; the line of the horizon dividing sea and sky
-appeared to be all out of place, in fact it seems to be a weird uncanny
-world in these parts, and though to-day the Peak may be standing calm
-and serene, bathed in sunshine and clad in snow, still it reminds one
-of the death and destruction it has caused by fire and flood, and who
-knows when it may some day awake from its long sleep and shake the
-whole island to its foundations.
-
-It is an accepted theory that the Cañadas themselves were originally an
-immense crater, the second largest in the world, and during a period of
-activity they threw up the Peak which became the new crater. Probably
-during this process the Cañadas themselves subsided, and left the wall
-of rock which appears to form a perfect protection to the Valley of
-Orotava in case the Peak should some day again spout forth burning lava.
-
-It was in the early winter of 1909 that the inhabitants of Teneriffe
-were reminded that their volcano was not dead. For nearly a year
-previously frequent slight shocks of earthquake had warned geological
-experts that some upheaval was to be expected, which in November were
-followed by loud detonations, each one shaking the houses in Orotava.
-One of the inhabitants has described the sensation as one of curious
-instability, that the houses felt as though they were built on a
-foundation of jelly. An entirely new crater opened twenty miles from
-the Peak, and though so far distant from Orotava, the flashes of light
-were distinctly visible above the lower mountains on the south side
-of the Peak. Very little damage seems to have been done, as luckily
-there were no villages near enough to be annihilated by the streams of
-lava, but most exaggerated reports of the eruptions were circulated
-in Europe, and it is even said that a message was sent to the Spanish
-Government asking for men-of-war to be sent at once to take away the
-inhabitants as the island was sinking into the sea! Many geological
-authorities have given it as their opinion that it is most unlikely
-that there will be another eruption in less than another hundred years,
-which is consoling and reassuring.
-
-As the paths were dry we were able to return by a different route,
-which though rather longer is far more beautiful, and to those who
-prefer walking to riding downhill is highly to be recommended. The
-mules appear to be more sure-footed in the stony paths and once the
-region of the Monte Verde begins again and the path is smooth their
-unshod feet get no hold, and in wet weather the path is a mere “mud
-slide” and should not be attempted. It was a beautiful walk along the
-crest of the range; the Peak was lost to sight but the valley below lay
-filled with drifting patches of light mist, through which could just
-be seen the Villa bathed in the afternoon light, and above, all was
-clear. Pedro Gil, and the Montaña Blanca beyond, glowed in a red light,
-and right away in the distance the mountains round La Laguna were just
-visible.
-
-[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO A SPANISH VILLA]
-
-From La Corona the view is perhaps at its best. On the left the
-pine woods above Icod de los Vinos stretch away into the distance
-to the extreme west of the island, and on the right the valley of
-Orotava lies spread out like a map. Just below La Corona one gets
-back into cultivated regions and the sight of a country-woman with
-the usual burden on her head reminded us how many hours it was since
-we had seen a sign of life--not, indeed, since we had passed the two
-charcoal-burners in the early morning who had given such welcome news
-of clear weather ahead. Icod el Alto, with the roughest village street
-it has ever been my fate to encounter, was soon left behind, and the
-mules trudged wearily down as steep a path as we had met with anywhere,
-to Realejo Bajo and back to civilisation and the prosaic. A rickety
-little victoria with three lean but gallant little horses took us home
-exactly twelve hours from the time we started. We had not meant to
-break records, and on the homeward path had certainly taken things
-easily--the ride from Realejo Alto to the Cañadas was exactly four
-hours, one hour’s rest, five hours’ ride down, partly walking, and two
-hours’ driving--and we were neither wet through nor so tired that we
-were ill for a week. I had heard a good description of mule riding by
-some one who was consulted as to whether it was very tiring, and his
-answer was, “It is not _riding_, you just sit, and leave the rest to
-the mule and Providence!”
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-TENERIFFE (_continued_)
-
-
-I know nothing more enjoyable than a ramble along the coast or up one
-of the many _barrancos_ in the neighbourhood of Orotava. I had always
-heard that the Canary Islands were rich in native plants, but I hardly
-realised that almost each separate _barranco_ (literally meaning a
-mountain torrent, but now applied to any ravine or deep gully) would
-have its own special treasures, and that the cliffs by the sea are so
-rich in vegetation that in many places they look like the most perfect
-examples of rock gardens.
-
-One of the best walks is up the steep little path, hardly more than
-a goats’ track, which leads from the Barranco Martinez to the cliffs
-below the terrace of La Paz. It is possible to wander for miles in this
-direction; occasionally, it is true, the spell of enchantment in the
-way of plant collecting will be broken by the path suddenly coming to
-vast stretches of banana cultivation, but luckily there is still a good
-deal of unbroken ground, and the path leads back again to the verge of
-the cliffs and inaccessible places. There are so many plants that will
-be strangers to the newcomer that it is hard to know which to mention
-and which to leave out, as far be it from me to pretend to give a full
-list of Canary plants, and the longer I stayed in the islands the less
-surprised I was to hear that a learned botanist had been four years
-collecting material for a full and complete account of the flora of
-the Canaries, and that still his work was not completed. I think the
-first place must be given to _Euphorbia canariensis_ as one of the most
-conspicuous and ornamental of the cliff plants. Great clumps of this
-“candelabra plant,” as the English have christened it (or _cardon_ in
-Spanish), are so characteristic that it will always be associated in
-my mind with the cliffs of Teneriffe. Its great square fluted columns
-may rise to 10 or 12 ft. leafless, but bearing near the top a reddish
-fruit or flower, and having vicious-looking hooks down the edges of its
-stout branches. If you gash one of the columns with a knife out spurts
-its sticky, milky juice, which if not really poisonous is a strong
-irritant, and there is a legend that the Guanches used it to stupefy
-fish, but precisely in what manner I never ascertained. One feature
-of the cliff vegetation cannot fail to strike every one, and that is
-the soft bluish-green of nearly all the plants. The prickly pears, as
-both the Cactuses are commonly called, _Opuntia Dillenii_ and _Opuntia
-coccinellifera_--the latter especially appears to have been introduced
-for the cultivation of cochineal, and has remained as a weed--the sow
-thistles (_Sonchus_), _Kleinias_, _Artemerias_, and nearly all the
-succulent plants have grey-green colouring, which is in such beautiful
-contrast to the dark cliffs. The overhanging cliffs just below La Paz
-are of most beautiful formation and colouring, in places a deep brick
-red colour, owing to a deposit of yellow ochre, and in others a tawny
-yellow, and so deep are the hollows in the volcanic rocks and the air
-chambers exposed by the inroads of the sea that they have been made
-into dwellings. Apparently more than one family and all their goods
-and chattels are ensconced in the recesses of the rocks, and here they
-live a real open air life, free from house tax or any burden in the way
-of repairs to their dwellings. The best of water-supplies is close at
-hand, indeed the stream which gushes out of the rock provides drinking
-water for the whole town, and when I was told that one of these
-cave-dwellers was a harmless lunatic, I thought there was a good deal
-of method in his madness when I remembered the vile-smelling, stuffy
-cottages that most of the poor inhabit.
-
-_Senecio Kleinia_, or _Kleinia neriifolia_, has the habit of a
-miniature dragon tree, its gouty-forked branches having tufts of
-blue-green leaves. It remains a shrubby plant about 5 ft. high, and
-_Plocama pendula_, with its light weeping form and lovely green colour,
-makes a charming contrast to the stiff growth of the Euphorbias
-and Kleinias, and all three are so thoroughly typical of the cliff
-vegetation that they will probably be the first to attract the
-attention of the newcomer. _Artemesia canariensis_ (Canary wormwood)
-is easily recognised by its whitish leaf and very strong aromatic
-scent, which is far from pleasant when crushed. The native Lavender and
-various Chrysanthemums, the parents probably of the so-called “Paris
-Daisy” in cultivation, are common weeds, but in March and April, the
-months of wild flowers, many more interesting treasures may be found,
-and while sitting on the rocks, within reach of one’s hand a bunch
-of flowers or low-growing shrubs may be collected, all probably new
-to a traveller from northern climes. On the shady damp side of many a
-miniature _barranco_ or crevasse will be seen nestling in the shadow of
-the rocks which protect them from the salt spray, broad patches of the
-wild _Cineraria tussilaginis_, in every shade of soft lilac, prettier
-by far than any of the cultivated hybrids. In one inaccessible spot
-they were interspersed with a yellow Ranunculus, and close by was one
-of the many sow-thistles with its showy yellow flowers. On some of the
-steep slopes, too steep happily for the cultivation of the everlasting
-banana, the great flower stems of the _Agave rigida_ rear their proud
-heads twenty feet in the air, and are the remains of a plantation of
-these agaves, which was originally made with a view to cultivating them
-in order to extract fibre from their leaves. This variety is the true
-_Sisal_ from the Bahamas, botanically known as var. _sisalana_, and
-the rapidity with which it increases once the plants are old enough to
-bloom may be imagined when it is said that from one single flower-spike
-will drop 2000 new plants. Like many other agricultural experiments
-in this island, fibre extraction was abandoned, but I heard of some
-attempt being made to revive it in the arid island of Lanzarote. Among
-the beautiful strata of rock, besides the Euphorbias and prickly pears,
-are to be found many low-growing spreading bushes of the succulent,
-_Salsola oppositæ folia_, _Ruba fruticosa_, a white-flowering little
-_Micromeria_, _Spergularia fimbriata_, whose bright mauve flowers would
-be considered a most valuable addition to a so-called “rock garden” in
-England, and the low-growing violet-blue _Echium violaceum_, which is
-a dreaded weed in Australia, where the seed was probably accidentally
-introduced. I often used to think when rambling over this natural rock
-garden what lessons might be learnt by studying rock formation before
-attempting to lay out in England one of those feeble imitations of
-Nature which usually result in lamentable failure, not only in failure
-to please the eye, but failure to cultivate the plants through not
-providing them with suitable positions.
-
-Those who have a steady head and do not mind scrambling down steep
-narrow paths can get right down on to the rugged rocks, and when a high
-sea is running the spray dashes high on to the cliffs, and one sits in
-a haze of white mist wondering how any vegetation can stand the salt
-spray. The small lilac _Statice pectinata_ grew and flourished in such
-surroundings, reminding one that in England statices are generally
-called Sea Lavenders because the native English Statice, _S. Limonium_,
-grows on marsh land. The miniature-flowered heath-like _Frankenia
-ericifolia_ was also at home amid the spray.
-
-As the path in our wanderings frequently led us back among large farms
-or _fincas_ entirely devoted to the cultivation of bananas, it may be
-of interest to mention something of the history of this most lucrative
-industry. It used to go to my heart to see charming pieces of broken
-ground being ruthlessly stripped of their natural vegetation, old
-gnarled and twisted fig trees cut down, and an army of men set to work
-to break up the soil ready for planting. In most cases the top soil is
-removed, and the soft earth-stone underneath is broken up and the top
-soil replaced; but the system appears to differ according to the nature
-of the soil. Walls are constructed for the protection of the plants,
-or in order to terrace the land and get the level necessary for the
-system of irrigation concrete channels being made for the water. So
-the initial outlay of bringing land into cultivation is heavy, but then
-the reward reaped is almost beyond the dreams of avarice. Good land
-with water used to fetch over £40 an acre per annum--indeed, I have
-even heard of as high a price as £60 having been obtained; that, even
-if true, was exceptional; but perhaps nowhere else in the world is land
-let for agricultural purposes at such a rate. Land, however good, which
-was not irrigated, was only fetching £4 to £6 an acre, and though I
-was never able to ascertain exactly how much per acre the water would
-cost, there is no doubt the rate is a very high one; so the rent is not
-all profit to the landlord. The life of a banana plantation averages
-from twelve to fourteen years, but for eighteen months no return is
-obtained, except from the potato crop which is planted in between the
-young plants, or, rather, the old stumps, from which a young sucker
-will spring up and bear fruit. That shoot will again be cut down, and
-by that time several suckers will spring up, about three being left as
-a rule on a plant, which will each bear fruit in nine or ten months.
-An acre of land in full bearing will produce over 2000 bunches, which
-have to be gathered, carted, and carefully packed for export.
-
-Much of the labour on the plantations is done by women, and long
-processions of them make their way to the packing-houses, bearing the
-immense bunches of green fruit on their heads. Bare-footed, sturdy,
-handsome girls many of them, with curiously deep voices in which
-they chant with a sing-song note as they trip along with a splendid
-upright carriage. Unfortunately their song is instantly broken when
-they catch sight of a foreigner, and a chorus of _Peni, peni, peni_,
-either getting louder and louder if no attention is paid to the demand,
-or turned to a bleating whine for _una perrita_ (a little penny),
-accompanied frequently by a volley of stones. Foreigners complain
-bitterly of this begging, but they have brought it on themselves by
-throwing coins to children as they drive along the road. Or when a
-crowd of urchins collects, as if to reward them for their bright black
-eyes and pretty faces, which many of them have, a shower of coppers is
-thrown to them, so it is small wonder that a race has grown up whose
-earliest instinct teaches it to beg, and I feel sure that _Peni_ is
-often the first word that a toddling child is taught.
-
-The packing-houses are also a blot on the landscape, sometimes great
-unsightly sheds tacked on to what has once been the summer residence
-of an old Spanish family, and here crowds of men, women and girls are
-wrapping up the bunches, which are shipped in wooden crates by the
-thousand, and tens or even hundreds of thousands, I should imagine,
-judging by the endless procession of carts drawn by immense bullocks
-which wend their way down to the mole, when a steamer comes in to take
-a whole cargo of the fruit to England. I used often to wonder that it
-was possible to find such an unlimited market for bananas when one
-thinks that Grand Canary ships as many as Teneriffe, and they have a
-formidable rival also in Jamaica. It is to be hoped that the trade
-will not be overdone and the markets fall, or that a blight will not
-come on the plants, and that the Islands will not again suffer from
-the ruin which followed the cochineal boom. Bananas are said to have
-been introduced to the Canaries from the Gulf of Guinea, but that was
-not their real home, and no one knows how they were originally brought
-from the Far East. From the Canaries they were sent to the West Indian
-Islands in 1516, and on from there to Central America. Oviedo, writing
-about the natural history of the West Indies, mentions having seen
-bananas growing in the orchard of a monastery at Las Palmas in 1520.
-The botanical name of the Banana, _Musa sapientum_, was given in the
-old belief that it was the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and
-evil. The variety now under cultivation is _Musa Cavendishii_, the
-least tropical and most suitable for cool climates. Locally they are
-called _Plátano_, a corruption of the original name _Plántano_, from
-plantain in English, under which name they are always known in the
-East. Though the plant has been known in the islands for nearly four
-centuries, it was of no use as a crop before the water which is so
-absolutely necessary for its cultivation was brought down from the
-mountains. Some residents--those, I noticed, who did not own banana
-plantations--lament that the excessive irrigation has made the climate
-of Orotava damper than it used to be, but if the cultivation has
-brought about a climatic change, it has also brought about a financial
-change in the fortunes of the farmers and landlords, and many an
-enterprising man, who a few years ago was just a working _medianero_,
-satisfied with his potato or tomato crop, has little by little built
-up a very substantial fortune.
-
-A _medianero_ is a tenant or bailiff who cultivates the ground and
-receives a share of the profits. The contract between the landlord
-and the _medianero_ varies a good deal on different estates, and the
-system is rather complicated, but as a rule he provides his tenant
-with a house rent free, pays for half the seed of a cereal, potato or
-vegetable crop, but none of the labour for cultivation, and the profits
-made on the crop are equally divided. Sometimes, especially in the
-case of banana cultivation, the proprietor pays for half the labour of
-planting and gathering the crop for sending to market, but never for
-any of the intermediate labour. The landlord provides the all-important
-water-supply, but all the labour of irrigation has to be done by the
-_medianero_, who also pays a share of taxes. The loss of a crop through
-blight or a storm is equally shared. The trouble of the system, which
-in some ways seems a good one, must come in over the division of the
-profits, as either the honesty of the tenant must be implicitly trusted
-or an overseer must be present when the crop is gathered to see that
-the landlord gets his true _medias_.
-
-At a higher altitude, some 800 or 900 ft. below the village of Santa
-Ursula, which is justly famous for its groups of Canary Palms, is
-a large estate, as yet uncultivated from lack of sufficient water.
-Besides the natural vegetation which stands the summer drought, the
-owner has collected together many drought-resisting plants, among
-which are several natives of Australia. The Golden Wattle seemed quite
-at home, though the trees have not yet attained the size they would
-in their native country, and small groves of _Eucalyptus Lehmanni_,
-with their curious fluffy balls of flower, gave welcome shade, and
-Australian salt bushes were being grown as an experiment with a view
-to providing a new fodder plant. The stony ground was covered with a
-low-growing _Cystus monspeliensis_ closely resembling the variety much
-prized in England as _florentina_, its white blossoms covering the
-bushes. Many of the plants were the same as on the lower cliffs, but
-_Convolvulus scoparius_ I was much interested to find growing in its
-natural state. The growth so closely resembles that of the _retama_
-that it might easily be mistaken for it; the natives call it _Leña
-Noel_ or _Palo de rosa_, but the flower is like a miniature convolvulus
-growing all down the stems. Both this and _Convolvulus floridus_
-are known as Canary Rosewoods, and _scoparius_ has become rare owing
-to the digging of its roots from which the oil was distilled. Dr.
-Morris of Kew was a great admirer of _C. floridus_, and describes
-_guadil_, as it is known locally, as “a most attractive plant. When
-in flower it appears as if covered with newly fallen snow. It is one
-of the few native plants which awaken the enthusiasm of the local
-residents.” Many Sempervivums were to be seen, but _S. Lindleyi_ is
-most curious. Its fleshy transparent leaves grow in clusters and it
-has received the local and very apt name of Guanche grapes. Little
-_Scylla iridifolium_ grew everywhere, and one could have spent days
-collecting treasures, and I felt torn in two between admiring the
-splendid views which the headland commands, and trying to add something
-to my most insufficient knowledge of the native plants. Near the house
-in cultivated ground were to be seen the two most ornamental native
-brooms, _Genista rhodorrhizoides_ and _Cytisus filipes_; both are of
-drooping habit, with very sweet-scented white flowers, and should be
-more widely cultivated. The former very closely resembles the variety
-_mono-sperma_, which grows near the Mediterranean coast.
-
-[Illustration: STATICES AND PRIDE OF TENERIFFE]
-
-Here too were to be seen some splendid clumps of the true native
-_Statice arborea_ which for many years gave rise to such botanical
-discussions. For a long time this variety was lost and a hybrid of
-_arborea_ and _macrophylla_ did duty for the true variety, which was
-definitely pronounced extinct. It was, I believe, Francis Messon who
-first collected this plant in Teneriffe on his way to the Cape in
-1773, and describes its locality as “on a rock in the sea opposite the
-fountain which waters Port Orotava.” These rocks were the Burgado Cove
-to the east of Rambla del Castro, and it was again found growing in
-this neighbourhood in 1829 by Berthelot and Webb, who describe it in
-their admirable book on the “Histoire Naturelle des Iles Canaries.”
-Before this date another French botanist, Broussonet, had “discovered”
-the plant a few miles further along the coast, at Dauté near Garachico,
-and after its complete disappearance from the Burgado rocks, owing
-probably to goats having destroyed it, it was re-discovered in the
-Dauté locality a few years ago, through the untiring efforts and
-perseverance of Dr. George Perez. Having heard of the plants growing
-on inaccessible rocks, he got a shepherd to secure the specimens for
-him, the plants being hauled up by means of ropes to which hooks were
-attached, and it was no doubt thanks to their position that even goats
-were not able to destroy them. So _Statice arborea_ was rescued and is
-once more in cultivation, and one of the most ornamental and effective
-garden plants it is possible to see. The loose panicles of deep purple
-flower-heads last for weeks in perfection, and are so freely produced
-that even one plant of it seems to give colour to a whole garden. The
-statices endemic to the various islands form quite a long list and
-are all ornamental, and prove the fact I have already mentioned of
-the extremely restricted area in which many native plants are found.
-The true _Statice macrophylla_ finds a home in only a small area on
-the north-east coast of Teneriffe and is another very showy species.
-_Statice frutescens_ is very similar to _Statice arborea_, but is
-of much smaller stature; its native home appears to be--or to have
-been--on the rocky promontory of El Freyle, to the extreme west of
-Teneriffe.
-
-From a single high rock, known as Tabucho, near Marca, also on
-the west coast, came in 1907 a new variety, at first thought to
-be _Preauxii_, but it was eventually found to be an entirely new
-contribution and was named _Statice Perezii_ after Dr. Perez who
-discovered the plant and sent the specimen to Kew.
-
-The island of Gomera contributes the very blue-flowered _S.
-brassicifolia_, its winged stems making it easy to recognise, and
-from Lanzarote comes _S. puberula_, a more dwarf kind, very varying
-in colour. These appear to comprise the statices best known now in
-cultivation, though there are several other less interesting varieties.
-
-Here, at Santa Ursula, great interest is also taken in the Echiums,
-another race of Canary plants. _Echium simplex_ must be accorded
-first place, as it is commonly called Pride of Teneriffe; it bears
-one immense spike of white flowers, and like the aloe, after this one
-supreme effort the plant dies. The seed luckily germinates freely. From
-the island of La Palma had come seed of _Echium pininana_, and tales
-of a deep blue flower-spike said to rise from 9 ft. to 15 ft. in the
-air, and though the plants were only one year old some showed promise
-of flowering. The pinkish flowered _E. auberianum_, like so many of
-the statices, has made its home in almost inaccessible places among
-the rocks on the Fortaleza at a height of some 7000 ft., close to the
-Cañadas.
-
-Over the walls were hanging masses of _Lotus Berthelotii_, one of the
-native plants I most admired. Its long trails of soft grey leaves hang
-in garlands and in spring come the deep red flowers. The plant is known
-locally as _Pico de paloma_ (pigeon’s beak) and I found one seldom gave
-it its true botanical name, which does not seem to fit it. Here again
-is another plant whose native lair has been lost. A stretch of country
-between Villa Orotava and La Florida is known to have been its home,
-but for years past botanists have hunted for it in vain. A variety
-which differed slightly found a home in the Pinar above Arico, but that
-equally has disappeared.
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-TENERIFFE (_continued_)
-
-
-To the east of the town lies a district where, in old days, the
-Spaniards built their villas, as summer residences, in which to escape
-from the heat and dust of the town. In those days vineyards and
-cornfields took the place of banana plantations and potato fields, and
-near some of the villas are to be seen to this day the old wine-presses
-with their gigantic beams made of the wood of the native pine. These
-presses have long been silent and idle, as disease ravaged the vines
-some fifty years ago, and “Canary sack” is no longer stored in the vast
-cellars of the old houses.
-
-[Illustration: LA PAZ]
-
-One of these old villas became our temporary home, so I am to be
-forgiven for placing it first on the list. A steep cobbled lane leads
-up from the Puerto, bordered with plane trees, and here and there great
-clumps of oleanders, to the plateau some 300 feet above the sea on
-which stands the house of La Paz. The outer gate is guarded by the
-little chapel of Santo Amaro, and once a year the clanging bell summons
-worshippers to Mass and to escort the figure of the patron saint, amid
-incense and rockets, down the long cypress avenue to the terrace above
-the sea.
-
-Each side of the faded green wooden doorway, two giant cypresses stand
-like sentries to guard the gate, through which may be seen, on one
-side, a row of flaunting red poinsettias, waving their gaudy blossoms
-above a low myrtle hedge, and on the other side the high garden wall
-is draped with orange creepers. At right angles to this path facing
-the entrance to the house, a long avenue of splendid lance-like
-cypresses rises above a thick hedge of myrtles whose trunks speak for
-themselves of their immense age. A round flight of low steps leads to
-the forecourt, and the tiny inner court is guarded by yet another faded
-green doorway. Here flowers run riot in a little garden where prim box
-hedges edge the paved walks. On a flagged terrace stands the “House
-of Peace,” facing the Atlantic, and from the solid green panelled
-door there is an unbroken view down the long, straight avenue to the
-dazzling, dancing sea below.
-
-Over the door is a weather-stained coat-of-arms, and above, again, on
-a piece of soft green scroll-work, is the Latin motto “hic est requies
-mea,” as here to his house of rest came the original owner, to rest
-from his work in the town.
-
-Very little seems to be known of the history of La Paz, but it seems
-fairly certain that it was built by an Irish family of the name of
-Walsh; who, with many of their fellow countrymen, emigrated to the
-Canaries after the siege of Limerick, and in the church of N. S. de la
-Peña de Francia, in the town, the tomb of Bernardo Walsh, who died in
-1721, bears the same arms as those which are carved above the door.
-The family, who no doubt entered into business in the town, appear to
-have found a foreign name inconvenient and changed it into Valois, as
-Bernardo Walsh is described as alias Valois. The two Irish families of
-Walsh and Cologan intermarried at some time, and the property passed to
-the Cologans, who assumed the Spanish title of Marquez de la Candia; to
-this family La Paz still belongs, though it is many years since they
-have lived there, and the present owner, who lives in Spain, has never
-even seen the property.
-
-The traveller Humboldt is said to have been a guest at La Paz for a few
-days, which has caused many Germans to call it “Humboldt’s villa,” and
-even to go so far as to say that he built it, though he only paid a
-flying visit of four days to Orotava in 1799. From the account of his
-visit in his “Personal Narrative” it appears doubtful as to whether
-he stayed at La Paz or at the house belonging to the Cologan family,
-in Villa Orotava. Alluding to his short stay, he remarks: “It is
-impossible to speak of Orotava without recalling to the remembrance of
-the friends of science, the name of Don Bernardo Cologan, whose house
-at all times was open to travellers of every nation. We could have
-wished to have sojourned for some time in Don Bernardo’s house, and to
-have visited with him the charming scenery of San Juan de la Rambla.
-But on a voyage such as we had undertaken, the present is but little
-enjoyed. Continually haunted by the fear of not executing the design
-of to-morrow we live in perpetual uneasiness....” Further on he says:
-“Don Cologan’s family has a country house nearer the coast than that
-I have just mentioned. This house, called La Paz, is connected with
-a circumstance that rendered it peculiarly interesting to us. M. le
-Borde, whose death we deplored, was its inmate during his last visit to
-the Canary Islands. It was in a neighbouring plain that he measured the
-base, by which he determined the height of the Peak.” The house has no
-pretensions to any great architectural beauty, but has an air of peace
-and stateliness which the hand of time gives to many a house of far
-less imposing dimensions than its modern neighbour.
-
-On one side of the house a few steps lead down to the walled garden,
-a large square outlined and traversed by vine-clad pergolas, which
-again form four more squares. In the centre of one an immense pine tree
-shelters a round water basin, where papyrus and arums make a welcome
-shelter for the tiny green frogs. One feature of these old Spanish
-gardens might well be copied in other lands; a low double plaster wall
-some two feet thick, called locally a _poyo_, makes a charming border
-for plants: geraniums, verbenas, stocks, carnations, poppies, and the
-hanging _Pico de paloma_, all look their best grown in this way, and at
-a lower level a wide low seat ran along the walls. The beds were edged
-with sweet-smelling geranium, the white-leafed salvia, a close-growing
-thyme, or box, all kept clipped in neat, compact hedges. Some of the
-garden has now, alas! been given over to a more profitable use than
-that of growing flowers, and a potato crop is succeeded in summer by
-maize, but enough remains for a wealth of flowering trees, shrubs,
-creepers and plants. The brilliant orange _Bignonia venusta_ covers a
-long stretch of the pergola, drapes the garden wall and climbs up to
-the flat roof-top of one of the detached wings of the house. In summer
-a white stephanotis disputes possession and covers the tiled roof of
-a garden shed, filling the whole air with its delicious scent. Among
-other sweet-smelling plants were daturas, whose great trumpets are
-especially night-scented flowers, and in early spring the tiny white
-blossoms of the creeping smilex smell so much like the orange blossoms
-which have not yet opened, that their delicious fragrance might easily
-be mistaken for it. Sweet-scented geraniums grow in every corner, and
-heliotropes, sweet peas and stocks all add to the fragrance of the
-garden.
-
-The grounds contain several good specimen palms, too many perhaps
-for the health of flowers, as their roots seem to poison the ground;
-hibiscus, coral trees, pittosperums and a long list of trees common
-to most sub-tropical gardens find a home, but the tree I most admired
-was a venerable specimen of the native olive growing near a grove of
-feathery giant bamboos.
-
-The cypress avenue leads to a broad terrace at a dizzy height above
-the sea; the surf beats against the cliffs below, but the salt air
-does not seem to affect the beautiful vegetation, and for long years
-great clumps of Euphorbias and Kleinias have stood against the winter
-storms when great breakers roll in and crash against the rocks. On
-the left lies the little flat town of the Puerto, over which in clear
-weather the Island of La Palma emerges from its mantle of clouds, and
-many a gorgeous sunset bathes the whole town in a mist of rosy light,
-recalling the legend that in days of old, navigators had christened the
-little fishing-port the Puerto de Oro, after Casa de Oro, the House of
-Gold, which title they had given to the Peak, as night after night the
-setting sun had turned its cap of snow to pale gold.
-
-On the right the broken coast-line stretches away into the far
-distance, and the mountains rise above the little villages; they in
-their turn are caught by the setting sun and kissed by her last
-departing rays, and turned to a rosy pink, but as the ball of fire
-sinks into the sea, the shadows creep up, and in one moment in this
-land which knows no twilight, the light is gone and the cold greyness
-of night takes possession.
-
-Just behind La Paz are the Botanical gardens, which owe their existence
-to the Marquez de Nava, who in 1795 undertook at enormous expense to
-level the hill of Durasno, and lay it out for receiving the treasures
-of other climes. Though complaints are often made of its distance from
-the so-called “English colony,” the site was well chosen, as the soil
-on this side of the _barranco_, which separates it from the lava bed,
-is decidedly more fertile, and being of a heavier nature and deeper is
-less liable to blight and disease, which are the curse of the gardens
-on light dry soil, and which no amount of irrigation will cure. In
-this garden are collected treasures from every part of the world; new
-ground is sadly needed as the immense trees and shrubs have made the
-cultivation of flowers a great difficulty. Humboldt appreciated the
-use of these gardens for the introduction of plants from Asia, Africa
-and South America, remarking that: “In happier times when maritime
-wars shall no longer interrupt communication, the garden of Teneriffe
-may become extremely useful with respect to the great number of plants
-which are sent from the Indies to Europe: for ere they reach our coasts
-they often perish owing to the length of the passage, during which they
-inhale an air impregnated with salt water. These plants would meet at
-Orotava with the care and climate necessary for their preservation; at
-Durasno, the Protea, the Psidium, the Jambos, the Chirinoya of Peru,
-the sensitive plant, and the Heliconia all grow in the open air.”
-
-[Illustration: BOTANICAL GARDENS, OROTAVA]
-
-To give a list of all the trees and plants would be an impossibility
-and any one who is interested in them will find an excellent account of
-the gardens in a pamphlet written by Dr. Morris of Kew, who was much
-interested in his visit to the Canary Islands in 1895. The gardens
-for some years fell into a neglected state from lack of funds, but
-once again bid fair to regain their former glory under new management.
-Among the chief ornaments of the gardens are the very fine specimens
-of the native pine, _Pinus canariensis_, an immense _Ficus nitida_,
-one of the best shade-giving trees, and travellers from the tropics
-will recognise an old friend in _Ravenala madagascariensis_, the
-“Traveller’s Tree,” in the socket of whose leaves water is always to be
-found.
-
-Further up the road is the property of San Bartolomeo; the land is now
-entirely devoted to banana cultivation, the house is handed over to
-the tender mercies of a _medianero_, and the garden tells a tale of
-departed glories. In the _patio_ of the house a donkey is stalled under
-a purple bougainvillea, and tall cypresses look down reproachfully at
-the fallen state of things. In the chapel of the house mass is still
-said daily, but for seven years I was told the _sala_ had not been
-opened. In the garden the myrtle hedges have grown out of all bounds,
-jessamines have become a dense tangle, and the plaster _poyos_, which
-once were full of plants, are crumbling to decay.
-
-Near by is El Cypres, formerly a villa, and named after its splendid
-cypresses, which mark every old Spanish garden, and now unfortunately
-appear to be little planted. This villa has been turned into a
-_pension_, and its glory is also departed. El Drago has been more
-fortunate, and has been rescued by foreign hands, and the wealth
-of creepers, especially _Plumbago capensis_, which in autumn has a
-complete canopy of pale blue flowers clambering over the pergolas,
-together with its splendid trees, make a landmark in the landscape.
-
-A few miles away I wandered one evening into another deserted garden,
-not entirely uncared for, as I was told the owner from the villa
-came there for a few weeks in summer. This garden showed that it had
-originally been laid out with great care and thought, not in the
-haphazard way which spoils so many gardens, and afterwards I learnt
-that it had been planned by a Portuguese gardener, and I recognised
-the little beds with their neat box hedges, the clumps of rosemaries
-and heaths which, though they were somewhat unkempt, showed that in
-former days they had been clipped into shape after the manner of
-all true Portuguese gardens. The garden walls and plaster seats of
-charming designs showed traces of fresco work in delicate colouring,
-and soft green tiles edged the water basin, in which grew a tangle of
-papyrus, yams and arums. A garden house, whose roof was completely
-covered with wistaria, was surrounded by a balcony whose walls had
-also been frescoed, but now, alas, packing cases for bananas had
-sorely damaged them. The sole occupants of the garden appeared to be
-a pair of peacocks; the male bird at the sight of an intruder spread
-his fan and strutted down the terrace steps to do the honours of the
-garden. The flower-beds, which had once been full of begonias, lilies,
-pelargoniums, and every kind of treasured plant, are now too much
-overshadowed by large trees, but I longed to have the restoring of this
-garden to its former beauty.
-
-On the other side of the yawning _barranco_ lie Sant Antonio and El
-Sitio del Pardo, both old houses, built long before the town began to
-develop and new houses cropped up on the western side. Across this
-_barranco_ a new road, which was to lead from the _carretera_ to the
-Puerto, was commenced some years ago, and left unfinished, after even
-the bridge had been constructed, because the owner of a small piece of
-land refused to sell, or allow the road to pass through his property.
-Thus it remains a “broken road,” because, in true Spanish fashion, no
-one had taken the trouble to make sure that the land was available
-before the undertaking was commenced; and still all the traffic to the
-port has to wind its way slowly along several miles of unnecessary
-road.
-
-[Illustration: EL SITIO DEL GARDO]
-
-El Sitio is another old villa which was visited by Humboldt, who was
-present on the eve of St. John’s Day at a pastoral _fête_ in the garden
-of Mr. Little, who appears to have been the original owner of El Sitio.
-Humboldt says: “This gentleman, who rendered great service to the
-Canarians during the last famine, has cultivated a hill covered with
-volcanic substances. He has formed in this delicious site an English
-garden, whence there is a magnificent view of the Peak, of the villages
-along the coast, and the isle of La Palma, which is bounded by the
-vast expanse of the Atlantic. I cannot compare this prospect with any,
-except the views of the Bay of Genoa and Naples; but Orotava is greatly
-superior to both in the magnitude of the masses and richness of the
-vegetation. In the beginning of the evening, the slope of the volcano
-exhibited on a sudden a most extraordinary spectacle. The shepherds, in
-conformity to a custom no doubt introduced by the Spaniards, though it
-dates from the highest antiquity, had lighted the fires of St. John.
-The scattered masses of fire, and the columns of smoke driven by the
-wind, formed a fine contrast with the deep verdure of the forest, which
-covered the sides of the Peak. Shouts of joy resounding from afar
-were the only sounds that broke the silence of nature in the solitary
-regions.”
-
-El Sitio is also well known as being the house where Miss North made
-her headquarters when she visited Teneriffe, and made her collection
-of drawings of plants from Canary Gardens, which are in the gallery
-at Kew. Miss North, in her book of “Recollections,” appears to have
-thoroughly enjoyed her stay, and describes this garden as follows:
-
-“There were myrtle trees ten or twelve feet high, Bougainvilleas
-running up cypress trees. Mrs. Smith (the owner of the garden
-in those days) complained of their untidiness, and great white
-Longiflorum lilies growing as high as myself. The ground was white
-with fallen orange and lemon petals; the huge white Cherokee roses
-(_Rosa lævigata_) covered a great arbour and tool-house with their
-magnificent flowers. I never smelt roses so sweet as those in that
-garden. Over all peeped the snowy point of the Peak, at sunrise and
-sunset most gorgeous, but even more dazzling in the moonlight. From
-the garden I could stroll up some wild hills of lava, where Mr. Smith
-had allowed the natural vegetation of the island to have all its own
-way. Magnificent aloes, cactus, euphorbias, arums, cinerarias, sundry
-heaths, and other peculiar plants, were to be seen in their fullest
-beauty. Eucalyptus trees had been planted on the top, and were doing
-well with their bark hanging in rags and tatters about them. I scarcely
-ever went out without finding some new wonder to paint, lived a life of
-most perfect peace and happiness, and got strength every day with my
-kind friends.”
-
-This property has been fortunate enough to pass to other hands who
-still appreciate it, and the above paragraph, though written so many
-years ago, is still a very good description of the garden.
-
-Sant Antonio has not been so fortunate. For some years its garden was
-the pride of Orotava. In the terraced ground in front of the house,
-plants and trees from every part of the world found a home; but when
-the maker of this garden left it, the owner ruthlessly tore up the
-garden to plant bananas. Here and there among the banana-groves may
-be seen a solitary bougainvillea still climbing over its trellised
-archway, but little remains, except on one terrace below the house, to
-show that the garden was ever cared for. In the grounds there still
-remains some very good _treillage_ work. The pattern of the screens,
-arches, and arbours are distinctly Chippendale in character and design,
-and are painted a soft dull green. In several other instances I noticed
-admirable patterns in the woodwork of screens to deep verandahs, and in
-the upper part of wooden doorways. Chippendale must at one time have
-been much admired and copied in the Canaries, and to this day, in even
-the humblest cottage, the chairs are of true Chippendale design, though
-roughly carved.
-
-
-
-
-VI
-
-TENERIFFE (_continued_)
-
-
-Icod de los Vinos, a little town on the coast, some seventeen miles
-from Orotava, was in the days of its prosperity a great centre of the
-wine and cochineal trade. Its prosperous days are a thing of the past,
-and to-day it appears to be rather a sleepy little town; but possibly
-for just this reason it is more picturesque than some of its richer
-neighbours, whose inhabitants can afford to build modern and most
-unsightly houses.
-
-The drive from Orotava to Icod is by far the most beautiful drive
-in the island. Once the dusty stretch of _carretera_ between the
-junction of the road from Tacoronte to the Puerto is left behind, the
-drive becomes full of interest. The road passes below the picturesque
-little village of Realejo Bajo, skirts the towering cliffs on which
-is perched the little village of Icod el Alto some 1700 ft. above,
-and winds along the sea shore. Every turn of the road brings into
-sight a fresh view of the deeply indented coast-line between the
-storm-bent old tamarisk trees which edge the road for miles. The long
-avenues of eucalyptus trees, with their ragged bark hanging in strips,
-will always be associated in my mind with all the carriage roads in
-Teneriffe. Early in March the vegetation reminds one that spring
-has begun. The geraniums in the cottage gardens are showing promise
-of their summer glory, fringing the walls or hanging in long trails
-from the little flat roof tops. The winter rains have washed the dust
-off the hedge-rows and banks, and in places where water is dripping
-from the rocks they are draped with a thick coating of maiden-hair
-fern, and the pale lilac blossoms of the wild coltsfoot, _Cineraria
-tussilaginis_, stud the banks. I should imagine this to have been the
-parent of the variety known in cultivation as _Cineraria stellata_, so
-much grown of late years in English greenhouses. The rocks themselves
-are studded with the curious flat _Sempervivum tabulæformæ_, looking
-like great green nail heads, and _S. canariensis_ was just throwing up
-flower-spikes from its rosettes of cabbage-like leaves. Here and there
-a little waterfall gives welcome moisture to water-loving plants.
-Common brambles, encouraged by the dampness, grow to vast dimensions
-and hang in rich profusion, winding themselves into cords until they
-look like the lianes of a tropical forest. Far down in the crevasse
-below the stone bridges, the long fronds of ferns, the untorn leaves of
-a seedling banana, with the large leaves of the common yam, suggest a
-sub-tropical garden.
-
-Between the road and the sea are great stretches of land cultivated
-with bananas, a mine of wealth to their owners, who now no longer visit
-their summer residences on these estates. Neglected gardens tell a tale
-of departed glories, and many of the houses are left to fall to rack
-and ruin, or are merely inhabited by the _medianero_ who has rented the
-ground.
-
-Near the outskirts of San Juan de la Rambla a stone arch crosses the
-road, and just beyond, the deep Barranco Ruiz cuts into the mountain
-sides. It is a grand rocky ravine, and by a steep narrow path which
-winds up the side it is possible to reach Icod el Alto at the top of
-the _barranco_.
-
-The little town of San Juan de la Rambla is very picturesquely
-situated, and every traveller is shown the beautifully carved latticed
-balcony on an old house, as the carriage rattles through the little
-narrow street. We are told that luckily the balcony is made of the
-very hard and durable wood of the beautiful native pine, _Pinus
-canariensis_, which is rapidly becoming a rare tree in the lower parts
-of the island. The wood itself is locally called _tea_, and the trees
-are called _teasolas_ by the country people, who know no other name for
-them.
-
-Once San Juan is passed the Peak becomes the centre of interest.
-The luxuriant vegetation is left behind, the beauty of the coast is
-forgotten, and the completely different aspect which the Peak presents
-from this side absorbs one’s attention. The foreground is nothing
-but rocky ground, but numbers of _Cistus Berthelotianus_ brighten up
-the barren ground with their bushes of showy rose-coloured flowers.
-In places they were interspersed with great quantities of asphodels,
-whose branching spikes of starry white and brownish flowers seem hardly
-worthy of their romantic name. In reality they have always sadly
-shattered my mental picture of the asphodel--the chosen flower of the
-ancients, the flower of blessed oblivion--this surely should have been
-a superb lily, pure white, and “fields of asphodels” which we read
-of should be rich green meadows full of moisture, where the lilies
-should grow knee deep, not arid tufa slopes where erect rods of this
-strange blossom rise from a cluster of half-starved narrow leaves. The
-local name is _gamona_, and in Grand Canary where they abound, one
-large tract of land is called _El llano de las gamonas_, the plain of
-asphodels.
-
-At a higher level begins the _Pinar_ or forest of that most beautiful
-of all pines, the native _Pinus canariensis_. Here on the lower
-cultivated ground the few specimens that remain, having escaped
-complete destruction, are mostly mutilated, having had all their lower
-branches cut for firewood or possibly for fear they should shade some
-little patch of potatoes or onions, and the younger trees resemble a
-mop more than a tree, with nothing left but a tuft of fluffy branches
-at the top.
-
-The little town of Icod de los Vinos is prettily situated, being
-built on a great slope, intersected by many streams of lava. There is
-a very picturesque Plaza with a little garden and fountain in front
-of the old convent of San Augustin, whose façade has several carved
-latticed balconies which are the great beauty of all the old houses in
-Teneriffe.
-
-Visitors to Icod are all taken to see their famous dragon tree,
-_Dracæna Draco_, of which the inhabitants are justly proud, as it is
-now the largest and oldest in the island since the destruction of its
-rival in Villa Orotava. We were assured its age was over 3000 years, an
-assertion I was not prepared to dispute, and hardly even ventured to
-look incredulous, and so cast a slur on their almost sacred _El drago_.
-There is no doubt the growth of these trees is almost incredibly slow;
-they increase in height in the same way as a palm, putting out new
-leaves in the heart of the tufted crowns and dropping an equal number
-of old ones, which process leaves a curiously scarred marking on the
-bark. No one seems to know how often a tuft flowers, but certainly
-only once in many years, and it is only after flowering that the stem
-forks, so in specimens which are centuries old the head of the tree
-becomes a mass of short branches with tufted heads, which in their turn
-become divided, and so it goes on until one begins to wonder whether
-there is not some truth in the immense age attributed to them. The
-curious aerial roots which descend from the branches gradually creep
-down, and it is the layers upon layers of these that strengthen the
-original stem sufficiently to enable it to bear the immense weight of
-its tufted crown, as decay seems always to set in in the heart of the
-stem, and by the time the trees attain to a venerable age they are
-invariably hollow. An old document describing the tree says “it has no
-heart within. The wood is very spongy and light, so that it serves for
-the covering of hives or making shields. The gum which this tree exudes
-is called dragon’s blood, and that which the tree sweats out without
-cutting is the best, and is called ‘blood by the drop.’ It is very good
-for medicine, for sealing letters, and for making the teeth red.”
-
-Icod is a good centre for expeditions, and those who are brave enough
-to face the dirt and discomfort of a Spanish _fonda_ can pass a week
-or so very pleasantly. It is a matter of great regret that better
-accommodation is not available in many of the smaller towns, and I own
-that personally I could never bring myself to face the native inn. No
-scenery is worth the discomfort of dirty beds, impossible food and
-the noise of the _patio_ of a _fonda_, where as often as not, goats,
-chickens, pigeons and a braying donkey all add to the concert of the
-harsh loud voices of the women servants.
-
-Now that motor-cars are available in Orotava it renders matters much
-easier for making expeditions in the day. Formerly, the greater part
-of the day was occupied by the drive to and from Icod, but if an early
-start is made, on arrival at Icod there is still a long day before one,
-and it is possible to make a visit to the old Guanche burial caves or
-to continue the road to Garachico. This now unimportant little village
-was once the chief port of the island, and the number of old churches
-and convents still remaining speak for themselves of the former
-importance of the place. In the days when Icod de los Vinos, as its
-name implies, was celebrated for its vines, the wine which was made
-there was shipped from the port of Garachico. The old sugar factory
-which still stands was once the property of an English firm, but the
-various booms in the wine, cochineal and sugar trade, are things of the
-past, and Orotava is now the centre of the banana boom.
-
-Possibly the pleasantest expeditions from Icod are those which lead
-through the pine forest past the Ermita Sta. Barbara. Good walkers
-will find magnificent walks along fairly level paths once they have
-accomplished the first climb of about 3000 ft., and can make their way
-along to the Corona and down the steep zig-zag path below Icod el Alto,
-or there is a lower track which makes a good mule ride back to Orotava.
-
-
-
-
-VII
-
-TENERIFFE (_continued_)
-
-
-Many visitors to Teneriffe find their way across the mountains from
-Orotava to Guimar in the course of the winter or spring, which is the
-best time for the expedition. Though the actual time required for the
-journey from point to point may be only about seven hours, according
-to the condition of the road, it is best to make an early start and to
-have the whole day before one, so as to have plenty of time to rest on
-the way and enjoy all there is to be seen.
-
-Once the last steep streets of the Villa Orotava are left behind the
-country at once changes its aspect. The banana fields, which have
-become somewhat monotonous after a long stay in their midst, have
-vanished, the air is cooler, and in the early morning the ground
-is saturated with dew. In spring the young corn makes the country
-intensely green, and the pear and other fruit blossoms lighten up
-the landscape, while in the hedge-rows are clumps of the little red
-_Fuchsia coccinea_, and great bushes of the common yellow broom. Here
-and there the two Canary St. John’s worts, _Hypericum canariensis_ and
-_H. floribundum_, are covered with berries, their flowers having fallen
-some months before. Ferns and sweet violets grow on the damp and shady
-banks, and occasionally fine bushes of _Cytisus prolifer_ were to be
-seen smothered with their soft, silky-looking white flowers. Gradually
-the region of the chestnut woods is reached, but these having only
-dropped their leaves after the spell of cold weather early in January,
-are still leafless, and it is sad to see how terribly the trees are
-mutilated by the peasants. Though not allowed to fell whole trees, the
-law does not appear to protect their branches, and often nothing but
-the stump and a few straggling boughs remain, the rest having been
-hacked off for firewood. Small bushes of the white-flowered _Erica
-arborea_ soon appear, and the showy rose-coloured flowers of _Cistus
-vaginatus_ were new to me.
-
-At a height of about 3800 feet the level of the strong stream called
-Agua Mansa is reached, and though it is not actually on the road to
-Guimar many travellers make a short détour to visit the source of the
-stream and the beautifully wooded valley. The absence of woods in the
-lower country no doubt makes the vegetation on the steep slopes of
-the little gorge doubly appreciated. Many narrow paths lead through
-the laurel and heath, and on the shady side of the valley the extreme
-moisture of the air has clothed the stems of the trees with grey
-hoary lichens. The luxury of the sound of a running stream is rare
-in Teneriffe and one is tempted to linger and enjoy the scene under
-a giant chestnut tree, which has shaded many a picnic party from the
-Puerto.
-
-By retracing one’s steps for a short distance the track is regained;
-Pedro Gil looms far ahead and the long steep ascent begins, up the
-narrow mule path among thickets of the tree heaths. Here these heaths
-are merely shrubby, not the splendid specimens which may be seen near
-Agua Garcia, where they are protected from the charcoal-burners, but
-the wide stretches covered with white flowers are very lovely appearing
-through the mist, which even on the finest day is apt to sweep across
-occasionally. The vegetation on these Cumbres is much the same as that
-which is passed through on the way to the Cañadas, and in spring the
-_Adenocarpus viscosus_ or _anagyrus_, its tiny yellow flowers growing
-among the small leaves which crowd the branches, is about the last
-sign of plant life. Above this region are merely occasional patches of
-moss which live on the moisture of the mist which more often than not
-enwraps these heights. In clear weather, the long and rather tedious
-scramble of the last part of the road is soon forgotten in the delight
-at the magnificent view at the end. The top of the pass, 6800 ft., is
-like the back-bone of the island, and on the one side the whole valley
-of Orotava lies stretched below, with the Peak standing grand and
-majestic on the left, and on the other side lie the slopes down to the
-pine woods above Arafo. It is hard to agree with a writer who describes
-the scene as one of “immense desolation and ugliness, the silence
-broken only by the croaking voice of a crow passing overhead.” It is
-just this silence and stillness which appeals to so many in mountain
-regions; there is something intensely restful yet awe-inspiring in the
-complete peace which reigns in high altitudes in fair weather.
-
-[Illustration: CONVENT OF SANT AUGUSTIN, ICOD DE LOS VINOS]
-
-A long pause is necessary to rest both man and beast, as not only is
-the path a long and trying one, but it is possible for the sun to
-be so extremely hot even at that altitude that it seems to bake the
-steep and arid slopes of lava and volcanic sand, and the loose cinders
-near the end of the climb make bad going for the mules. The so-called
-path becomes almost invisible except to the quick eye of the mules,
-accustomed as they are to pick their way across these stretches of
-loose scoriæ. Often the question “Which is the way?” is met by the
-owner of the mule answering “_Il mulo sabe_” (the mule knows), instead
-of saying, “To the right” or “To the left,” and I generally found he
-was right.
-
-Many people prefer the ascent to the descent, and certainly though
-I have nothing but praise for mules as a means of locomotion going
-uphill, there are moments when I preferred to trust to my own legs
-going down the loose cindery track.
-
-The fact that the eastern mountain slopes are warmer and drier, as the
-rainfall is not so great, encourages the vegetation to rise to a much
-higher altitude and the barren world of lava and cinders is sooner
-left behind. Our old friend the _Adenocarpus_ soon greeted us, like
-a pioneer of plant life, and gradually came the different regions of
-pine, tree heaths, laurels, and then the grassy slopes.
-
-The gorge known as the Valle is described as “one of the most
-stupendous efforts of eruptive force to be seen in the world, the gap
-appearing to have been absolutely thrown into space.” A network of what
-might well be mistaken for dykes seems to cut up the surface, and the
-whole formation of the Valle is of great interest to geologists. To
-the ordinary observer it is certainly suggestive of a desolate waste,
-and the black hill known as the Volcan of 1705 does not help to give
-life to the scene. The white lichen, which is the true pioneer of plant
-life, is only beginning to appear, though in crevices where deep cracks
-in the lava have probably exposed soil below the sturdy Euphorbias are
-getting a hold, and a few other robust plants, such as the feathery
-_Sonchus leptocephalus_, which I have always noticed seems to revel
-in lava. Possibly another century may make a great difference to the
-scene, but certainly during the past two hundred years there has not
-been much sign of returning vegetation, and the fiery stream has done
-its work thoroughly. The relief is great at once more reaching the pine
-woods above Arafo, and the fatigue, not peril, of the descent being
-over it is pleasant to find the comfort of the well-named Buen Retiro
-Hotel at Guimar.
-
-Though over a thousand feet above the sea, the situation is so
-sheltered that Guimar boasts of one of the best and sunniest climates
-in Teneriffe, the little village lying as it were in a nest among the
-hills. The flowery garden of the hotel tells its own tale, better than
-any advertisement or guide-book, and a week may be spent exploring the
-various _barrancos_ in the neighbourhood, especially by botanists,
-or lovers of plants. The Barranco del Rio is renowned as being about
-the best botanical collecting ground in the island. Dr. Morris says
-he found there no fewer than a hundred different species of native
-plants, many of which he had not seen elsewhere. The dripping rocks are
-clothed with maiden-hair fern, and the giant buttercup, _Ranunculus
-cortusæfolius_, appears to revel in the damp and the high air. The
-Barranco Badajoz is perhaps wilder and more precipitous; in places the
-rocky walls of these gorges rise to 200 ft., and appeal immensely to
-those who enjoy wild scenery. The lack of a roaring river tumbling
-down them I never quite got over, during all my stay in Teneriffe.
-Perhaps in a bygone age they existed, and owing to some eruption cracks
-were formed and the water vanished, as the bed of the stream seems to
-be there, but, alas! no water or only a trickling stream. The tiniest
-stream has to be utilised to provide water for a village below or for
-irrigation purposes, and this, combined with the deforestation of the
-island, no doubt has helped to drain the _barrancos_. There is more
-water in the Guimar ravines than in most, and from the Barranco del Rio
-or the Madre del Agua I should imagine the whole water-supply of the
-village is derived.
-
-Those who are interested in relics should visit Socorro, about an hour
-distant from Guimar, the original home of the miraculous image of the
-Virgin de Candelaria. So celebrated was this image that nearly a whole
-book on the subject has been issued by the Hakluyt Society, edited and
-translated from old documents by Sir Clement Markham. The image is
-supposed to have been found in about the year 1400, by some shepherds,
-standing upright on a stone in a dry deserted spot near the sandy
-beach. A cross was afterwards erected by Christians when the Spaniards
-occupied the island to mark the spot, and in front of it was built the
-small hermitage called El Socorro. One shepherd saw what he supposed
-to be a woman carrying a child standing in his path, and as the law in
-those days forbad a man to speak to a woman alone in a solitary place,
-on pain of death, he made signs to her to move away in order that he
-and his sheep might pass. No notice being taken and no reply made, he
-took up a stone in order to hurl it at the supposed woman, but his arm
-became instantly stiff, and he could not move it. His companion, though
-filled with fear, sought to ascertain whether she was a living woman,
-and tried to cut one of her fingers, but only cut his own, and did not
-even mark the finger of the image. These accordingly were the two first
-miracles of the sacred figure.
-
-These shepherds related their experiences to the Lord of Guimar, who
-after being shown the stiff arm and cut fingers of the men, summoned
-his councillors to consult as to what had best be done. Accompanied
-by his followers and guided by the shepherds, he came to the spot and
-ordered the shepherds to lift the figure, as it apparently was no
-living thing, and to remove it to his house. On approaching the image
-to carry out their Lord’s orders, the stiff arm of the one and the cut
-fingers of the other instantly became cured. The Lord and his followers
-were so struck with the strange and splendid dress of the woman, who
-was now invested as well with supernatural powers, that they lost their
-first terror. Determined to do honour to so strange a guest within
-his dominions, the Lord of Guimar raised the image in his arms and
-transported it to his own house.
-
-Unbelievers say that the image was merely the figure-head of a ship
-which was washed up on the beach, but the faithful maintain that so
-beautiful was the image, so gorgeous its apparel and so brilliant the
-gold with which it was gilded, that it was the work of no human hands,
-and contact with the sea would have destroyed the brilliancy of its
-colouring.
-
-The Lord of Guimar sent the news of the wonderful discovery to the
-other chiefs in the island, offering that the image, evidently endowed
-with supernatural and healing powers, should spend half the year within
-the territory of the Lord of Taoro. This offer was declined, but the
-chief came with many followers to see the new wonder, which was set
-up on the altar in a cave and guarded with great care. For some forty
-years the image remained in the care of infidels, who regarded it
-with great awe, and then it fell to the lot of a boy named Auton, who
-had been converted to Christianity by the Spaniards, to enlighten the
-natives as to the nature of their treasure. On being shown the figure
-he instantly recognised it as being a representation of the Virgin,
-and after having prayed before it, he instructed the natives in the
-story of the Virgin Mary. The boy was in return made sacristan of the
-image and it was guarded day and night. At certain intervals visions
-of processions on the beach were seen and remains of wax candles were
-found, and a shower of wax upon the beach was supposed to have been
-sent to provide wax for candles to be burnt in honour of Our Lady of
-Candelaria.
-
-The neighbouring islands soon heard tales of the holy relic and the
-inhabitants came to visit it. For several centuries wonderful miracles
-were at different times ascribed to it, and it continued to be regarded
-with the deepest reverence, though the housing and care of the image
-was the cause of various feuds, and on one occasion it was stolen and
-carried away to Fuerteventura, but was returned.
-
-Unfortunately, during a great storm in 1826, the holy relic was swept
-away into the sea, and thus was the original Virgin de Candelaria
-lost, and though a new image was made and blessed by the Pope it has
-never been regarded with quite the same awe and reverence, though many
-pilgrims visit the church on August 15, the feast of Candelaria, and
-again on February 2.
-
-
-
-
-VIII
-
-GRAND CANARY
-
-
-I have noticed that there is always a certain amount of jealousy
-existing between the inhabitants of a group of islands. In old days
-they were of course absolutely unknown to each other, and even spoke
-such a different language that they had some difficulty in making
-themselves understood. Though such is naturally not the case to-day
-when in a few hours the little Interinsular steamers cross from one
-island to another, still in Teneriffe you are apt to be told there
-is nothing to be seen in Grand Canary, or if you happen to visit Las
-Palmas first you will probably be told you are wasting your time
-in proposing to spend some weeks or months in Teneriffe or in even
-contemplating a flying visit to the other islands.
-
-It was with a feeling of great curiosity that I watched our approach
-to Grand Canary, as one evening late in May our steamer crept round
-the isthmus known as La Isleta and glided into the harbour of Puerto
-de la Luz. Many towns look their best from the sea and this is perhaps
-especially true of Las Palmas. The sun was setting behind the low hills
-which rise above the long line of sand dunes, dotted with tamarisks,
-running between the port and the isleta, and in the evening light the
-town itself, some three miles away, looked far from unattractive, its
-cathedral towers rising above the palm trees on the shore.
-
-On landing the illusion is soon destroyed; the dust, which is the curse
-of Las Palmas, was being blown gaily along by the north-east wind,
-which seems to blow perpetually, and the steam tram which connects the
-port and the town was grinding along, emitting showers of black smoke,
-and I began to think the writer was not far wrong who said Las Palmas
-was “a place of barbed wire and cinders.”
-
-Most travellers’ destination is the hotel at Santa Catalina, lying
-midway between the port and the town, and here many of them remain for
-the rest of their stay, not being tempted ever to set foot outside the
-pleasant grounds and comfortable hotel, except possibly to play a game
-of golf on the links above, which are a great attraction and boon to
-those who are spending the winter basking in the sunshine in search of
-health.
-
-The island appears to have altered its name from Canaria to Gran
-Canaria because of the stout resistance offered by the natives, who
-called themselves Canarios, to the Spanish invasion. The original
-name is said to have had some connection with the breed of large dogs
-peculiar to the island, though none appear to exist now. As regards the
-shape of the island the following is a very good description: “The form
-of the island is nearly circular, and greatly resembles a saucerful
-of mud turned upside down, with the sides furrowed by long and deep
-ravines. The highest point is a swelling upland known as Los Pechos,
-6401 ft.” I own that as I approached the island there was a curious
-sense of something lacking, something missing, and then I realised
-that we were no longer to live under the shadow of the Peak, that an
-occasional distant glimpse is all we should see of the great mountain
-which we had grown to look on as a friend.
-
-The nearest object of interest to the hotel is the Santa Catalina
-fountain, where in August 1492, after praying in the chapel,
-Christopher Columbus filled his water-barrels with a store of water
-which was to last him until the New World was sighted. Columbus on each
-of his expeditions touched at the Canaries; but at the very outset of
-his first voyage, one of his ships having lost her rudder and suffered
-other damage in storms encountered on the way, Columbus cruised for
-three weeks among the islands in search of another vessel to replace
-his _caravel_. Though he heard rumours of three Portuguese _caravels_
-hovering off the coast of Ferro (now called Hierro) three days’ calm
-detained him, and by the time he reached the neighbourhood where the
-ships had been seen, they had vanished, and repairing his rudder as
-best he could he started in search of an unknown land, eventually
-reaching one of the Bahama group. Columbus’ next visit to the Canaries
-was on his second voyage of discovery, when he again called at the
-islands, this time taking wood, water, live stock, plants and seeds to
-be propagated in Hispaniola, where he had already been so struck with
-the beautiful and varied vegetation. In the town of Las Palmas an old
-house is pointed out as the house where Christopher Columbus died;
-but I am afraid, if we are to believe historians, this is merely a
-flight of the imagination. In Washington Irving’s “Life of Columbus”
-we are told that he died at Seville surrounded by devoted friends, and
-a note says: “The body of Columbus was first deposited in the convent
-of St. Francisco, and his obsequies were celebrated with funereal pomp
-in the parochial church of Santa Maria de la Antigua, in Valladolid.
-His remains were transported in 1513 to the Carthusian convent of Las
-Cuevas, in Seville. In the year 1536 the bodies of Columbus and his son
-Diego were removed to Hispaniola and interred by the side of the grand
-altar of the cathedral of the city of San Domingo. But even here they
-did not rest in quiet; for on the cession of Hispaniola to the French
-in 1795 they were again disinterred, and conveyed by the Spaniards with
-great pomp and ceremony to the cathedral of Havanna in Cuba, where they
-remain at present.”
-
-One of the easiest expeditions from Las Palmas is along the main road
-to the south of the island, either driving or by motor. Long stretches
-of banana fields provide the fruit for the English market, which finds
-its way daily on to the mole: and in spring hundreds of carts, with
-potato-boxes labelled “Covent Garden,” come from the same district.
-A little way before reaching the village of Tinama, which is built
-amid desolate surroundings of lava and black cinders, the road passes
-through a tunnel, which must have been somewhat of an undertaking to
-bore, and then a vast bed of lava crosses the road. Here some huge
-clumps of _Euphorbia canariensis_ show that this plant is not peculiar
-to any one island, but is equally at home on any bed of lava or cliff.
-
-Telde, famous for its oranges--said to be the best in the world--is not
-a very interesting town; but from a little distance, combined with the
-almost adjoining village of Los Llanos, its Moorish dome amid groves
-of palm trees, and scattered groups of white houses, make it unlike
-most other Canary towns. The celebrated orange groves are some distance
-off, and it is feared that so little care is taken of the trees that
-the disease and blight which have ravaged nearly all the groves in the
-archipelago will soon attack these. The disease could be kept at bay
-by insecticides and combined effort, but it is no use for one grower
-to wage war against the pest, if his neighbour calmly allows it to get
-ahead in his groves, though the excellence of the oranges makes it
-seem as if they deserved more care. If disaster overtakes the banana
-trade--and already I heard whispers of grumbling at the absurd price
-of land, and rumours of as good land and plenty of water to be had on
-the West Coast of Africa, where labour is half the price--possibly
-orange-growing may be taken up by men who have learnt their experience
-in Florida, and by careful cultivation another golden harvest may be
-reaped.
-
-The ultimate destination of most travellers in this direction is the
-Montaña de las Cuatro Puertas (the Mountain of the Four Doors), which
-is a most curious and interesting example of a native place of worship.
-The Canarios seem to have been especially fond of cave-dwellings, which
-are very common in Grand Canary, though they are by no means unknown
-in the other islands; and it is no unusual thing to find districts
-where a scanty population is troglodytic in habit, living entirely in
-cave-dwellings scooped out of the soft sandstone rock. Some families
-have quite a good-sized though strange home, and besides rooms with
-whitewashed walls are stables for goats or mules. One writer says: “The
-hall-mark of gentility in troglodyte circles is the possession _of a
-door_. This shows that the family pays house tax, which is not levied
-upon those who live the simpler life, and are content with an old sack
-hanging across the open doorway.”
-
-Webb and Berthelot, in their “Histoire Naturelle,” seem to have been
-much struck by these cave-dwellings, and the following account appears
-in their description of the Ciudad de las Palmas: “The slopes above
-the town on the west are pierced by grottoes inhabited by families of
-artisans; narrow paths have been made in the face of the cliffs by
-which to get to these excavations. After sunset, when the mountain
-is in deep shadow, the troglodyte quarter begins to light up, and
-all these aerial lights, which shine for a moment and then instantly
-disappear, produce the most curious effect.” The “Mountain of the Four
-Doors” is of much larger dimensions than any ordinary cave-dwelling, as
-the whole mountain appears to have been excavated, and would certainly
-have made a very draughty dwelling, as the four entrances which give
-the mountain its name are only separated by columns, thus allowing
-free entrance to the wind. The sacred hill is said to have been partly
-occupied by embalmers of the dead, the mummies being eventually
-removed to the burial cave on one side. Another side of the hill was
-the residence of the _Faycans_, or priests, who conducted the funeral
-ceremony; and there were the consecrated virgins, or _harimaguedas_,
-who were here kept in the strictest seclusion for years, employed in
-the gruesome occupation of sewing the goat-skins for wrapping up the
-mummies. The Canarios appear to have regarded a shelf in the burial
-cave running north and south as being the most honourable position,
-and on these they placed the bodies of highest rank, judging from the
-mummies found on them, as the leather is often richly embroidered, and
-the greatest care was taken in embalming the bodies. The inferiors
-were laid east and west. Any one who is interested in the study of the
-Canary mummies will find much to interest them in the Museum in Las
-Palmas, which is said to be richer in remains of aboriginals than any
-other museum in the world. Here may be seen rows of mummies in glass
-cases, some curious pottery, and the _Pintaderas_, or dyes, which were
-used to stamp designs on the skin or leather.
-
-[Illustration: AN OLD BALCONY]
-
-In the same museum the sight of the fearsome “devil-fish,” in the
-room devoted to local fishes, must, I think, have made many visitors
-from Orotava shudder to think of the light-hearted way in which
-they had gaily bathed on the Martianez beach--an amusement I often
-considered dangerous from the strength of the breakers and the strong
-undercurrent; but when added to this I was assured the monster, which
-is said to embrace its victims and carry them away under water after
-the manner of the octopus, was “not uncommon round the Canaries,” I was
-thankful to think I had never indulged in bathing.
-
-
-
-
-IX
-
-GRAND CANARY (_continued_)
-
-
-Many of the residents of Las Palmas move to the Monte for the summer,
-but even in late spring most people are glad to get away from the town
-and the white dust, which by then is lying ankle deep on the roads.
-Monte is the only other place which the ordinary traveller will care to
-stay in, as the native inns in Grand Canary bear a bad reputation for
-discomfort and dirt, and the Monte makes a good centre for expeditions,
-besides being an entire change of air and scene.
-
-The last part of the drive up from the town which is only some six
-or seven miles, affords good views of the lie of the land and makes
-one realise the immense length of the _barrancos_ in this island. It
-appears never to be safe to assert the name of a _barranco_, as it is
-not uncommon for one ravine to have four or five different names in the
-course of its wanderings towards the sea. The great _barranco_ one
-looks down into from the road beyond Tafira is called at this point the
-Barranco del Dragonal.
-
-[Illustration: A BANANA CART]
-
-A century ago this district was a mere expanse of cinders interspersed
-with the usual Canary plants which find a home in the most desolate of
-lava beds. Clumps of Euphorbias and its two inseparable companions, the
-miniature dragon tree, _Senecio Kleinia_, and the graceful _Plocama
-pendula_ broke the monotony of the grey lava. Now the scene has changed
-and this once desolate region has been transformed into one of the most
-fertile districts of the island. On the terraced slopes vines flourish,
-whose grapes produce the best red Canary wine. Footpaths bordered with
-flowers lead through these countless acres of vineyards, recalling the
-fashion in Teneriffe of the flower borders, _passeios_, which lead
-through many of the banana plantations, showing that the owner of the
-land still had some soul for gardening and a love of flowers, as he
-spared a strip of the precious soil for flowers. Many an alley in early
-winter is gay with rows of poinsettias feeding and flourishing on the
-water and guano which is given to the crop with a lavish hand, or rows
-of scarlet and white geraniums flank rose trees, interspersed here
-and there with great clumps of white lilies. The country in late
-spring is fragrant and gay from the bushes of Spanish broom (_Spartium
-junceum_) which edge the lanes; their yellow blossoms are in charming
-contrast to the soft grey-green of the old agaves, which make such
-excellent hedges.
-
-Just behind the Monte lies the great basin of the Caldera. It is best
-seen from the Pico de Bandama, a hill 1840 ft., which not only commands
-an excellent view of the crater, but of all the country round. The
-Gran Caldera de Bandama, a vast complete basin with no outlet, is over
-a mile across and 1000 ft. deep, and consequently is one of the most
-perfect craters in the world. The walls are formed of rocks and here
-and there vivid bits of colouring speak for themselves of its origin,
-and round the edge are layers of cinders. It is to be hoped that it
-will not some day come to life again and throw up a peak, as the basin
-of the Cañadas is supposed to have thrown up the great cone of the Peak
-of Teneriffe. It looks peaceable enough to-day, a mule track leading
-down into it. At the bottom of the crater vines are cultivated, and a
-farmer calmly lives on what was once a boiling cauldron.
-
-The vines seem to thrive in the volcanic soil, their roots go down
-deep in search of damper loam below, and this possibly helps to keep
-them free of disease, though in spring the effect of the tender green
-shoots with their long twining tendrils is sadly spoilt when, just as
-they are coming into flower, the mandate goes forth to dust the growth
-with sulphur. The men and women, who for the past weeks have been busy
-gathering in the potato crop, are now employed in sulphur dusting. For
-two months or more whole families are engaged with the potato harvest;
-the rows are either ploughed up with a primeval-looking plough, or hoed
-with the broad native hoe, which does duty for spade or fork in this
-country, and then the potatoes are collected with great rapidity, even
-the smallest member of the family helping, sorted and packed in deal
-boxes holding each some 60 or 70 lb., with a layer of palm fibre on the
-top, and shipped to England. It is well known that Canary new potatoes
-do not command a very good price in the English market, and I often
-wondered whether it is not the kind which is at fault. Kidney potatoes,
-which are regarded in England as the best for new potatoes, are hardly
-ever grown, the Spaniards regarding them with horror and loathing, and
-though English seed is imported annually, the result to my mind seemed
-unsatisfactory, as I never came across any young potatoes worthy of the
-name “new potatoes.” Possibly the soil and climate are unsuited, and
-there is a tendency I was told in all varieties to excessive growth,
-and no doubt the green peas and broad beans, which are most suited to
-English soil, often here grow to mammoth proportions, giving a poor
-result as a crop, and it is only experience which proves which are the
-varieties best suited to the climate and soil. The peas which are grown
-from seed ripened in the island degenerate to tasteless, colourless
-specimens, producing tiny pods, with at the outside three peas in them,
-and the French beans have the same lack of flavour when grown from
-native seed.
-
-Potatoes and tomatoes are both unfortunately liable to disease, and in
-some seasons the whole crop is lost. The same disease appears to affect
-both crops. Dr. Morris, when he visited the islands, thought seriously
-of the outlook, unless systematic action was taken. He says: “There
-is a remedy if carefully applied and the crop superintended, but the
-islanders seem to regard the trouble with strange indifference, and go
-on the plan of ‘If one crop fails, then plant another.’”
-
-The volcanic soil appears to suit cultivated garden plants, as well
-as vines, bananas and potatoes, and the gardens in the neighbourhood
-of Telde are a blaze of colour and have a wonderful wealth of bloom
-in May, which is essentially the “flower month” in all the islands.
-Earlier in the winter it is true the creepers will have been at their
-best, and by now the last trumpet-shaped blooms will have fallen from
-that most gorgeous of all creepers, _Bignonia venusta_, and the colour
-will have faded from the bougainvilleas, red, purple, or lilac, though
-they seem to be in almost perpetual bloom. Allemandas flourish even
-at this higher altitude, as does _Thumbergia grandiflora_, another
-tropical plant. Though its bunches of grey-blue gloxinia-like blooms
-are beautiful enough individually, it is sadly marred by the dead
-blossoms which hang on to the bitter end and are singularly ugly
-in death, not having the grace to drop and leave the newcomers to
-deck the yards of trailing branches, with which the plant will in an
-incredibly short time smother a garden wall or take possession of and
-eventually kill a neighbouring tree. Roses seem to flourish and bloom
-so profusely that the whole bush is covered with blossoms, and a garden
-of roses would well repay the little care the plants seem to require.
-The Spaniards prefer to prune their roses but once a year, in January,
-but by pruning in rotation roses could be had all the year round, and
-certainly half the trees should be cut in October, after the plants
-have sent up long straggling summer growth, and by January a fresh
-crop would be in flower. But the native gardener is nothing if not
-obstinate, and if January is the month for pruning according to his
-ideas, nothing will make him even make an experiment by cutting a few
-trees at a different season, and in this month are cut creepers, trees
-and shrubs, utterly regardless as to whether it is the best season or
-not.
-
-In most gardens the trees comprise several different Ficus, the Pride
-of India (_Melia Azedarach_), many palms, oranges, mangos and guavas,
-lagerstrœmias, pomegranates and daturas, while flower-beds are filled
-with carnations, stocks, cinerarias, hollyhocks and longiflorum lilies,
-all jostling each other in their struggle for room. The country people
-struck me as having a much greater love of flowers here than in
-Teneriffe, where a cared-for strip of cottage garden or row of pot
-plants is almost a rare sight, and roof gardening is perhaps more the
-fashion. Geraniums and other hanging plants tumble over the edge of
-the flat roof tops, looking as though they lived on air, as the boxes
-or tins they are grown in are out of sight. Here the humblest cottager
-grew carnations, fuchsias, begonias, and pelargoniums with loving care
-in every old tin box, or saucepan, that he could lay hands on. One
-reason that pot plants are scarce is the enormous cost of flower-pots,
-which are mostly imported, and often if I wished to buy a plant, the
-price was more than doubled if the precious pot was to be included in
-the bargain. In May, the month especially consecrated to the Virgin
-Mary, all her chapels and way-side shrines are kept adorned with
-flowers. In the larger churches the altar and steps are draped with
-blue and white, and piled up with great white lilies whose heavy scent
-mingling with the incense is almost overpowering, but in the humbler
-shrines the offerings are merely the contributions of posies of mixed
-flowers, placed there probably by many a woman who is called after Our
-Lady. I was always struck by the number of way-side crosses and tiny
-shrines in many of which a lamp shines nightly, and yet I cannot say
-the people seemed to be either reverent or deeply religious, and I was
-never able to obtain an explanation of the crosses one came across in
-unexpected places, even in the branches of trees in the garden. At
-first I thought they must be votive offerings in memory of an escape
-from danger, possibly a child who had fallen from the tree and escaped
-unhurt, but the gardener merely said it was _costumbre_, the custom of
-the country, and offered no further information. On May 3, the Fiesta
-de la Cruz, every cross, however humble, is decked with a garland of
-flowers, which often hangs there until the feast comes round again, and
-in front of many of the crosses a lamp is lighted on this one night in
-the year.
-
-On holidays and Sundays the women, especially those who are on their
-way to Mass, wore their white cashmere mantillas, and I inquired
-whether this also had any connection with “Our Lady’s” month of May,
-but I was told in old days they were the almost universal head-dress,
-a fashion which unfortunately is fast dying out. This appeared to
-be the only distinctively local feature of their dress, and the
-usual head-dress of the women and children, with bright-coloured
-handkerchiefs folded closely round the forehead and knotted in the
-nape of the neck, is common to all the islands. When the family is
-in mourning even the smallest member of the household wears a black
-handkerchief matching its bright black eyes, but the day I fear is fast
-approaching when battered straw hats will take their place, not the
-jaunty little round hats with black-bound brims, which every country
-woman wears to act as a pad for the load she carries on her head. For
-generations the women have carried water-pots and baskets which many
-an English working man would consider a crushing load, and no one can
-fail to admire their splendid carriage and upright bearing, as they
-stride along never even steadying their load with one hand. The only
-peculiarity of the men’s dress is their blanket cloaks; in some of the
-islands they are made of _mantas_ woven from native wool, but as often
-as not an imported blanket is used, gathered into a leather or black
-velvet collar at the neck. On a chilly evening in a mountain village
-every man and boy is closely wrapped in his _manta_, often it must be
-owned in an indescribable state of filth. At night they do duty as a
-blanket on the bed, and in the day are dragged through dust or mud, but
-cleanliness is not regarded in Spanish cottages, where chickens, goats,
-and sometimes a pig all seem to share the common living-room.
-
-[Illustration: AN OLD GATEWAY]
-
-I fear the few model dwellings which the tourist is invited to inspect
-at Atalaya (the Watch Tower) are not true samples of the average
-cottage or cave-dwelling. Atalaya was formerly a native stronghold,
-and one can quite imagine what formidable resistance the invaders must
-have met with from these primitive fortresses. The narrow ledges cut in
-the face of the cliffs made the approach to them almost inaccessible
-except to the Canarios, who appear to have been as agile as goats,
-and from the narrow openings showers of missiles could be hurled at
-the attackers. Atalaya at the present time is the home of the pottery
-makers. They fashion the local clay into pots with a round stone in
-just as primitive a way as did the ancient Canarios. They seem to live
-a life apart, and are regarded with suspicion by their neighbours, who
-rarely intermarry with them. The whole colony are inveterate beggars,
-old and young alike, but as tourists invade their domain in order
-to say they have seen “the most perfect collection of troglodyte
-dwellings in the Archipelago,” and request them to mould pots for their
-edification, it is perhaps not surprising that they expect some reward.
-
-
-
-
-X
-
-GRAND CANARY (_continued_)
-
-
-Those who do not mind a long day and really early start can see a good
-deal of the country and make some very beautiful expeditions without
-facing the terrors of the native inn. When even our guide-book--and
-the writer of a guide-book is surely bound to make the best of
-things--warns the traveller that the “accommodation is poor,” or that
-“arrangements can be made to secure beds,” every one knows what to
-expect. So a long day, however tiring, is preferable, if it is possible
-to return the same night.
-
-A drive of two hours leads to San Mateo, where good accommodation would
-be a great boon, as it is a great centre for expeditions, besides being
-beautifully situated near chestnut and pine woods. A rough mule track
-leads in something under three hours to the Cruz de Tejeda, which is
-about the finest excursion in the island. Good walkers will probably
-prefer to trust their own legs rather than the mule’s; but it is a
-stiff climb, as the starting-point, San Mateo, is only some 2600 ft.
-above the sea, while the Cruz is 5740 ft. Without descending into the
-deep Barranco which leads down to Tejeda itself, in clear weather
-the view is magnificent. That most curious isolated rock, the Roque
-Nublo, stands like a great pillar or obelisk, pointing straight into
-the heavens, rising 370 ft. above all its surroundings, and more than
-6000 ft. above sea-level, and is often clearly visible from Teneriffe.
-The great valley of Tejeda lies stretched before the traveller, who
-is surely well rewarded for his climb by the splendid panorama. Deep
-precipitous ravines full of blue shadows lie in vast succession in
-front, and to the right the cultivated patches in the valley are a
-bright emerald green from the young corn, and over the deep blue sea
-beyond, towers the great Peak of Teneriffe, looking most majestic and
-awe-inspiring rising above the chain of high mountains which are veiled
-in a light, mysterious mist. Never, perhaps, is the great height of the
-mountain so well realised, as it stands crowning a picture which our
-guide-book tells us is “never to be forgotten, and second to none in
-Switzerland or the Alps.”
-
-[Illustration: THE CANARY PINE]
-
-Another favourite expedition for the energetic is to the Cumbres,
-particularly for those who are bent on reaching the highest land in the
-island. The Pico de los Pechos is the highest point (6400 ft.), but the
-Montaña de la Cruz Santa, on the left, is generally chosen, as here
-parties of walkers and riders can meet, under the shadow of the Holy
-Cross, where, on the festivals of St. Peter and St. John, a religious
-_fiesta_ is held. Before the wholesale deforestation took place, this
-district must certainly have been much more beautiful; now it is a
-silent, shadowless world, a desolate region of stony ground, over which
-run great _barrancos_ looking like deep rents in the mountain sides.
-Probably no other island has suffered more cruelly from the axe of the
-charcoal-burner, and in the neighbourhood of Las Palmas everything has
-been cut which could be converted into charcoal, and nowadays that
-necessary article of life to the Spaniard has to be imported.
-
-One of the most beautiful of all their native forests, the forest of
-Doramas, is hardly worthy of its name at the present time; scattered
-trees on the mountain side are all that remains of one of the most
-beautiful of primeval forests, which was so celebrated in the days of
-the Canarios. Even in 1839, when Barker Webb and Berthelot visited the
-forest, they lamented over the destruction of the trees, and whole
-stretches of country which had formerly been pine and laurel woods were
-only covered with native heath. The prince Doramas, who is said to
-have lived in a grotto in the picturesque neighbourhood of Moya, gave
-his name to the mountain and forest, and these travellers visited his
-cave, which was still regarded with great veneration on account of the
-tales of the heroic and brave deeds and almost superhuman strength of
-the prince, which had been handed down from generation to generation.
-They found the door, or rather entrance, to the grotto draped with
-garlands of _Hibalbera_ (_Ruscus androgynus_) and the scarlet-flowered
-_Bicacaro_ of the Guanches (_Canarina campanulata_), as the spot was
-then solitary and deserted. Some years before the Spanish traveller
-Viera had been charmed by the beauty of the forest, and a translation
-of passages from his work on the “General History of the Canary
-Islands” will show what a treasure the Spaniards have lost in allowing
-the destruction of the woods.
-
-“Nature,” he says, “is here seen in all her simplicity, nowhere is she
-to be found in a more gay or laughing mood; the forest of Doramas is
-one of the most beautiful of the world’s creations from the variety of
-its immense straight trees, always green and scattering on all sides
-the wealth of their foliage. The sun has never penetrated through
-their dense branches, the ivy has never detached itself from their old
-trunks; a hundred streams of crystal water join together in torrents
-to water the soil which becomes richer and richer and more productive.
-The most beautiful spot of all in the depth of this virgin forest is
-called Madres de Moya; the singing of the birds is enchanting, and in
-every direction run paths easy of access; one might believe them to be
-the work of man, but they are all the more delightful because they are
-not. By following one of these paths one comes to the spot called by
-the Canarios, the Cathedral, an immense and complete dome of verdure
-formed by the meeting of the branches of the magnificent trees. Laurels
-raise their great trunks in colonnades, with their branches interlaced
-and bent into gigantic arcades, which produce a most marvellous effect.
-Advancing under their majestic shadow one discovers at every turn
-fresh views, and one’s imagination, carried away by the tales of the
-ancients, is filled with poetic impressions. These enchanted regions
-are well worthy of the fictions of fables, and in the enthusiasm they
-give birth to when wandering in their midst, the Canarios appear to
-have lost nothing of their celebrity; these are still the Fortunate
-Islands and their shady groves the Elysium of the Greeks, the wandering
-place of happy souls.”
-
-The poet Cayrasco de Figueroa, who was known as the “divin Poête,” and
-whose tomb is to be seen in one of the side chapels of the cathedral in
-Las Palmas, wrote verses in praise of the forest, which he must have
-seen in all its glory in 1581, and some fifty years later the venerable
-don Christobal de la Camara, Bishop of Grand Canary, travelled all
-through it and wrote of “the mountain of d’Oramas as one of the marvels
-of Spain: the different trees growing to such a height that it is
-impossible to see their summit: the hand of God only could have planted
-them, isolated among precipices and in the midst of masses of rock.
-The forest is traversed by streams of water and so dense are its woods,
-that even in the days of greatest heat the sun can never pierce them.
-All I had been told beforehand of its beauties appeared fabulous, but
-when I had visited it myself I was convinced that I had not been told
-enough.”
-
-Between 1820 and 1830 the forest seems to have suffered much. At the
-former date some part of the woods remained in all their pristine
-beauty on the Moya side and the great Til (_Laurus fœtens_) trees round
-Las Madres were still standing, but ten years later, when Barker Webb
-and his companion visited this spot again, these splendid trees were
-shorn of their finest branches and the devastation of the woods had
-begun.
-
-Long before this date the mountain appears to have become an apple of
-discord. Some influential landed proprietors demanded the division of
-the forest, the _communes_ interfered, and eventually the question
-became a political one. Just as a settlement was arrived at the party
-in power fell and General Morales arrived on the scene, having been
-granted a large part of the forest by Ferdinand VII. in recognition of
-his services, and the deforestation of the district began in earnest,
-in spite of local resistance to the royal decree.
-
-In most of the islands some old pine has been given the name of the
-Pino Santo, and protected by a legend of special sanctity, but perhaps
-the Pino Santo of Teror was the most venerated of all. The tree, old
-historians tell us, was of immense size and grew adjoining the Chapel
-of Our Lady; so close, in fact, that one of its branches served as the
-foundation of the belfry. The unsteadiness of this strange foundation
-not unnaturally hastened the destruction of the little tower, and on
-April 3, 1684, the sacred tree, which collapsed from its great age and
-weight, threatened to crush the chapel beneath. The sacred image of Our
-Lady of the Pine was so named because it was said to have been found
-in the branches of the tree. This miraculous discovery was made after
-the conquest in 1483. The Canarios had often observed a halo of light
-round the tree which they did not even dare approach, but Don Juan de
-Frias, bishop and conqueror, more courageous than the rest, climbed
-into the branches of the tree and brought down a statue of the Virgin.
-He is said to have found the image among thick branches and between
-two dragon trees, nine feet high, which were growing out of a hollow
-in the pine branches. The figure at once received the name of Nuestro
-Señora del Pino, the church, which has been built on the site of the
-old chapel, being dedicated to her. The spot on which stood the sacred
-tree is now marked with a cross, and a pine tree close by is said to
-be a descendant of the Pino Santo. Nor is this all the legend about
-this wonderful tree. A spring of healing water issued from beneath it,
-and here the faithful came to bathe and be healed of their ills. An
-avaricious priest thinking he would collect fees or alms from those
-who came to visit the spring, caused it to be enclosed by masonry and
-a door, which he kept locked, upon which the sacred spring dried up,
-and his schemes were defeated. Below the village to this day are some
-mineral springs dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes. Who knows, possibly
-this is the same sacred spring which has reappeared to benefit the
-sick.
-
-
-
-
-XI
-
-LA PALMA
-
-
-Every one agrees that La Palma is almost the most beautiful of the
-group of seven Fortunate Isles, so it is all the more deeply to be
-deplored that there is not better communication between the little
-port of Santa Cruz de la Palma and Teneriffe or Grand Canary. At rare
-intervals during the winter, especially towards sunset, the island had
-emerged from the clouds in which it is usually enveloped and lain dark
-purple against a golden sunset sky, an omen which we had learnt to
-dread in Orotava, finding there was great truth in the saying of the
-country people, “When La Palma is to be seen, rain will come before two
-days,” and sure enough the storm always came.
-
-The little town of Santa Cruz, or La Ciudad as it is locally called, as
-if it was the only town in the world, is most picturesquely situated
-on steep slopes, very much resembling the situation of Funchal in
-Madeira on a smaller scale. Possibly in days to come La Palma may
-have a great future before it as a tourist resort, when the new mole
-fulfils the hopes of natives and their port becomes a coaling-station
-for larger steamers. An hotel among the pine woods would certainly be
-very attractive, especially in spring, when the whole island is afoam
-with fruit blossom. At present a bad _fonda_ is the only accommodation
-in Santa Cruz, and most people curtail their stay in consequence, and
-hurry away at the end of three days during which time the steamer
-has been at the neighbouring islands of Hierro and Gomera, or else
-they ride over to Los Llanos, spurred by the report of a very fairly
-comfortable inn. The island affords almost endless expeditions,
-especially to good walkers, as the tracks are bad and slippery for
-mules. Near Santa Cruz the Barranco de la Madera is the home of the
-Virgin de las Nieves, a very ancient and much venerated image of the
-Virgin, to whom the church is dedicated. Every five years this sacred
-figure is carried down to the sea in solemn procession, and the stone
-ship at the mouth of the great _barranco_, which is called after Our
-Lady of the Snows, is rigged and decked in gala fashion with bunting.
-Not only from all parts of the island, but many devout Spaniards
-congregate to do honour to her, and a great _fiesta_ takes place, which
-must be a curious and most interesting ceremony.
-
-The Barranco del Rio is the most beautiful of all the walks in the
-neighbourhood. Like its namesake near Guimar in Teneriffe, it is a
-happy hunting-ground for the botanist, and those who have a steady
-head and do not mind narrow paths and precipices can wander far along
-through the gorge, where the beautiful rocks are clad with innumerable
-ferns and native plants.
-
-In ancient days the Guanches gave the island the name of Benahoave,
-meaning “my country,” which sounds as though they were so proud of
-the island when they took possession of it, probably sailing across
-from Teneriffe, that they meant to stick to it. The present name first
-appears on the old Medici map in Florence (1351), which is said to be
-the oldest chart of these waters. The name is supposed to have been
-given to the island by an expedition composed of Florentines, Genoese
-and Majorcans who had visited the Canaries some ten years before. It
-was probably the last-named who christened the island La Palma, after
-the capital of Majorca, so at the time of the conquest, though the
-Spaniards introduced many changes in the way of laws, religion and
-agriculture, they did not change the European name by which the island
-had become known.
-
-Webb and Berthelot when they visited the island in 1837 were loud in
-praise of the wealth and luxury of the vegetation, which in their
-opinion surpassed that of any other of the Canary group.
-
-The island centres in the vast abyss of the Gran Caldera, which
-centuries ago was the boiling cauldron of a great crater. The islanders
-are immensely proud of their old crater, and always assert that the
-Peak of Teneriffe was merely thrown up by _their_ volcano in one of its
-most terrific upheavals. As in the other islands at a certain elevation
-the region of laurels and other evergreen trees, in whose shade ferns
-flourish, is succeeded by the mammoth heaths, and higher still come
-the beautiful pine woods with their slippery carpet of pine needles on
-which both man and beast find a difficulty in keeping a footing. On
-the more arid slopes of parts of the Cumbre the scattered vegetation
-is more suggestive of Alpine regions. The above-mentioned learned
-travellers attribute the presence of the immense number of apparently
-wild almond and other fruit trees to their having sown themselves
-from the original trees introduced to the island by the conquerors,
-who, determined to make the most of the climate and soil, set about
-to change the face of the land. The natural vegetation receded to the
-higher regions as the lower parts became more and more cultivated
-with almonds, vines, oranges, lemons and bananas, which up to then
-had been unknown in the island. In some districts woods of chestnut
-trees, which were also introduced, have taken the place of the virgin
-forest. To these two travellers also belongs the honour and glory of
-having discovered the Echium peculiar to the Island, and they at once
-gave it its local name, _Echium pininana_, though _nana_ does not seem
-very appropriate to it, as it is anything but dwarf, growing to a
-height of 15 ft. with a dense spike of deep blue flowers. Several of
-the lovely Canary brooms appear to be indigenous to the island, and
-Professor Engler of Berlin, who visited La Palma last year, found the
-yellow-flowered _Cytisus stenopetalus_ in two varieties, _palmensis_
-and _sericeus_, besides the graceful drooping and sweet-scented white
-_Cytisus filipes_ and _Retama rhodorrhizoides_, and the _Cytisus
-proliferus_ common to most of the islands.
-
-Most people prefer to visit the great crater from Los Llanos, an
-expedition occupying three days. The journey across the Cumbres _viâ_
-El Paso to Los Llanos is one of extreme beauty, as the vegetation
-begins very soon after leaving Santa Cruz, and at a height of only
-1000 ft. the chestnut, laurel, and heath woods begin. The path winds
-through these enchanting woods until at a higher elevation the giant
-heaths alone are left. From the top of the Cumbre Nueva there is a
-magnificent view over the whole island, Santa Cruz nestling among the
-hills by the shore and in the far distance lie Teneriffe and Gomera. To
-the south is the old Cumbre, called Vieja in contradistinction to its
-newer neighbour; from one of its heights a stream of lava is said to
-have descended in 1585, which is probably the last occasion on which
-the volcano showed any activity. The dense vegetation covering some of
-the streams of lava speaks for itself of their great age, as it is said
-that not a particle of vegetation appears on lava until it has had four
-centuries in which to grow cold, and then the first sign of returning
-life is a peculiar lichen which appears on the heaps of lava. The great
-mountain of Timé, whose black and forbidding precipice overhangs the
-Barranco de las Augustias, makes many a traveller wonder who first had
-the courage to make a path, steep and narrow though it is, down the
-face of the rock. Possibly the goatherds, _pastors_, first learnt the
-lie of the land, swinging themselves on their _lanzas_ or long spiked
-poles from rock to rock with surprising agility, and then others not
-trained to this strange mode of progression made the paved track.
-
-On the western slopes the pine woods soon commence, the splendid trees
-increasing in size until the sacred Pino de la Virgen is reached--a
-giant whose trunk measures some 25 ft. round. Hardly a traveller passes
-the shrine at its foot without dropping a coin, however humble, into
-the money-box which is kept for its support. How long the pine has
-been regarded as a holy tree, or for how many generations the lamp
-has been lighted nightly, I know not; but in 1830 Berthelot wrote:
-“This beautiful tree, said to be a contemporary of the Conquest,
-shows no sign of age; a little statue of the Virgin has been placed
-in the first fork of its branches; every evening the woodcutters of
-the neighbourhood come silently and reverently to light the little
-lamp which hangs above the sacred image. At dusk, if one passes near
-the _Pino Santo_, this lamp, which shines alone in the depth of
-the forest, casting shadows on the leafy bower which protects this
-mysterious shrine, inspires one with a sense of deep feeling and dread.
-The presence of this tree, which has been made sacred and endowed
-with mysterious powers, caused me to feel for it the very greatest
-veneration.”
-
-Though the little village of El Paso is situated somewhat nearer to
-the Gran Caldera, few travellers stop there, as it does not boast
-of an inn, however humble, and to be taken as a “paying guest” does
-not appeal to many people. It is better to push on to Los Llanos, a
-pleasant village reached by a road from Tazaconte, which runs through
-orange groves, where in spring the air is heavy and sickly with the
-scent of the blossom, and then passing through almond groves and
-orchards of every kind of fruit tree, so to the very last the beauty of
-road is kept up, and the traveller is well repaid.
-
-Though the expedition to the Gran Caldera is always described as a
-tiring one, the natives would feel deeply hurt if any visitor to their
-island did not go to see their mighty crater. It is indeed mighty--a
-vast basin, measuring in places four to five miles across, and some
-6500 to 7000 ft. deep; its very size makes it difficult to realise
-that it is a crater, and it might easily be regarded as merely a deep
-hollow among the mountains. Though its walls are great bare grey
-crags, the pine woods which clothe the lower slopes of the hills which
-rise from the bottom of the crater, in places the bottom itself being
-clothed with trees, make it all the less like an ordinary crater.
-Great deep ravines tear the base, and these in their turn have become
-pine woods, carpeted with soft and slippery pine needles which for
-centuries possibly have lain undisturbed. The Caldera is recommended as
-a camping-ground, as water, which in Palma is scarce, is to be found;
-in fact, innocent-looking dry stony beds may through rainy weather on
-the higher land suddenly become a roaring stream. Some people might
-think it too inaccessible a spot, but the solitude, and the sound of
-the wind whispering among the pines, would appeal to many. That the
-depth of the crater has altered since a bygone age is evident, as caves
-of the Haouarythes, the aboriginal inhabitants of La Palma, are now
-absolutely inaccessible; nothing but a bird could reach the entrance
-to them. The action of water is said to account for this; possibly
-underground streams broke loose after a plutonic effort and upheaval of
-the volcano, and the upper crust subsided.
-
-Peasants are still to be seen wearing the peculiar hood or _montera_
-made of dark brown woollen cloth lined with red flannel, in shape like
-a sou’wester, turned up in front fitting closely to the head, the flap
-hanging behind lined with red, or sometimes if the flap is not required
-as a protection against the weather the corners are buttoned over the
-peak in front. The _mantas_, blanket cloaks, are all made of wool woven
-in the island. These are both articles of men’s dress. The women’s
-caps have no flaps, and are very ugly, and the picturesque dress which
-survived for a time in Breña Baja is now extinct altogether, as are
-also the tiny round hats made from the pith of the palm.
-
-
-
-
-XII
-
-GOMERA
-
-
-Gomera is seldom visited by tourists, but a flying visit can be paid
-to it during the stay of the inter-insular boat which plies between
-the islands. In summer its higher land and woods would be an ideal
-camping-ground for a traveller with tents, and the climate is said to
-be very good. The soil appears to be extremely rich and well repays the
-cultivator, but the Cumbres are still clad with beautiful woods, which
-up to now have escaped from the destructive charcoal-burners. The soil
-of the island is volcanic, but it is one of the few of the group which
-cannot boast of an old crater, and the highest point is only about 4400
-ft. A remarkable feature of the vegetation is the entire absence of
-pines; there are none at the present time, and old historians always
-comment on their absence. This in itself showed ancient writers the
-approximate height of the island, as nowhere is the native _Pinus
-canariensis_ found in its natural conditions under 4000 ft. above
-sea level, while in the region below that altitude _Erica arborea_
-flourishes. In Gomera the heaths attain larger dimensions than in any
-other island, and grow into real trees, and on the beautiful expedition
-from San Sebastian, the port, to Valle Hermoso (the Beautiful Valley),
-which appears well to deserve its name, the traveller passes through
-a succession of well-watered and wooded country and lovely forest
-scenery, said to be unsurpassed in the Canaries. San Sebastian was
-formerly of more importance than it is now, as in old days its
-naturally sheltered harbour was much valued by navigators.
-
-It was probably for this reason that it became the favourite anchorage
-of Christopher Columbus on his voyages of discovery. He first called
-at Puerto de la Luz, in Grand Canary, in order to repair the damage
-done to one of his fleet, but leaving his lieutenant in charge of the
-damaged ship, Columbus himself sailed to Gomera on August 12, 1492.
-On this occasion he stayed for eleven days, returning to Grand Canary
-to pick up La Pinta, but he again called at Gomera on September 1.
-He appears to have spent a week in storing provisions, and several
-sailors from Gomera joined his expedition. On his second voyage he
-returned to his old anchorage, this time again picking up sailors, and
-as he had a much larger fleet of vessels under his command, besides
-plants and seeds he embarked cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens,
-all of which he wished to introduce to the country he had already
-discovered, a fact which has been of great interest to zoologists who
-had been puzzled to determine the true race of many animals found in
-the West Indies. Twice again he visited Gomera, so there is no doubt it
-was his favourite port of call. Some old historians assert that for a
-time he lived in Gomera. At San Sebastian an old house is still pointed
-out as having belonged to him. After his marriage in Lisbon with a
-daughter of the Portuguese navigator Perestrello, for some years little
-seems to be known of the admiral’s doings. The inhabitants of Madeira
-claim that he lived in a house in Funchal, while other writers affirm
-that he lived in Gomera and speak of his return to “his old domicile”
-after one of his voyages.
-
-[Illustration: SAN SEBASTIAN]
-
-In old days the inhabitants were called Ghomerythes, and after the
-conquest of the island by the Spaniards, which did not prove a
-difficult matter, as though the islanders were a brave little band they
-knew little or nothing of the art of warfare, the conquerors enlisted
-the services of the natives to help them in attacking the other
-islands. The island was not left entirely undisturbed even after the
-conquest, as Sir Francis Drake made several attempts to take the island
-in 1585, and five years later a Dutch fleet under Vanderdoes invaded
-the town. On the walls of the quaint old church in San Sebastian are
-paintings showing the repulse of the Dutch fleet in the harbour in
-1599. The Moors in the seventeenth century attacked and burnt a great
-part of the town.
-
-A peculiarity of the island is the strange whistling language, which
-probably in ancient times was in universal practice, but is now more
-or less confined to one district, the neighbourhood of the Montaña de
-Chipude, being very rarely used by the natives in San Sebastian, who
-have most of them lost the art. The best whistlers can make themselves
-heard for three or four miles, and in the whistling district all
-messages are sent in this way, which no doubt is of the greatest
-convenience where telegrams are unknown and deep _barrancos_ separate
-one village from another. The greatest adepts in the art do not use
-their fingers at all, and by mere intonations and variations of two
-or three notes a sufficiently elaborate language has been invented to
-enable a conversation to be carried on. The following may possibly
-be a traveller’s tale, but it shows the use which can be made of the
-language: “A landed proprietor from San Sebastian with farms in the
-south took lessons secretly. The next time he visited his tenants he
-heard his approach heralded from hill to hill, instructions being
-given to hide a cow here or a pig there, and so on, in order that he
-should not claim his _medias_ or share of the same.” The writer of
-the above himself heard the following short message given: “There is
-a _caballero_ here who wants a letter taken to San Sebastian. Tell
-Fulano to take this place on his way and fetch it.” This was at once
-understood and acted upon. If any doubt is held as to the accuracy
-of the message, the answer comes to repeat, and when understood the
-receiver answers back, “Aye, aye.” It is to be hoped that the practice
-will not entirely die out, as I believe the whistling language of
-Gomera is unique.
-
-
-
-
-XIII
-
-FUERTEVENTURA, LANZAROTE AND HIERRO
-
-
-The three islands of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, and Hierro, complete the
-group of seven Fortunate Isles, as the little satellites of Graciosa,
-Alegranza, Montaña Clara, are hardly more than large rocks, uninhabited
-and only visited occasionally by fishermen.
-
-Fuerteventura, though by no means a very small island, being over 60
-miles long and about 18 miles broad, has remained in a primitive and
-unexploited condition, because in spite of the fertility of the soil,
-which is said to be remarkable, the scarcity of water is great and the
-inhabitants are entirely dependent on the rainfall. In a good year,
-namely a rainy year, the island grows a very good wheat crop, almost
-larger than that of any other island, but the absence of fresh-water
-springs, or the apathy of the natives in not making use of what there
-are, has prevented any agricultural development. The island has no pine
-forest and trees are scarce: great parts of it are barren, sandy and
-rocky plains, and the little vegetation there is, is said to resemble
-that which is found in certain parts of the northern deserts of Africa.
-Its highest point is only about 2700 ft. and is called Orejas de Asno
-(Ass’s Ears), situated in the sandy peninsula at the extreme south of
-the island. At the present time travellers are warned that drinking
-water is scarce, nasty, and frequently has to be paid for. Whether
-the island is even drier than it was at the beginning of last century
-I know not, but Berthelot and his companion remark that there were
-many good springs, which even in July, the driest month, were cool and
-clear, but were allowed to waste themselves, no trouble being taken to
-collect the water either for irrigation or domestic use.
-
-Both Fuerteventura and the neighbouring island of Lanzarote are given a
-distinctly African appearance by the extensive use of camels as beasts
-of locomotion and burden, donkeys even being comparatively uncommon and
-difficult to procure so communication between the villages is almost
-entirely carried on by means of camels.
-
-Lanzarote received its name from a corruption of the Christian name of
-a Genoese, Captain Lancelot de Malvoisel, and in the old Medici map the
-island is marked with the Genoese coat-of-arms to show that it belonged
-to that town.
-
-Though not as near the African coast as Fuerteventura, which is only
-about 60 miles from Cape Juby, the island is very African in aspect in
-places, the camels, the vast stretches of blown sand and the absence of
-vegetation being suggestive of the Sahara.
-
-The few springs in the north of the island are utilised for growing
-crops of wheat and tomatoes, but are not of sufficient size to allow
-of any extensive plan of irrigation, and in the south the inhabitants
-depend entirely on rain water.
-
-Lanzarote is almost the most volcanic of all the islands, and between
-1730 and 1737 no fewer than twenty-five new craters opened, so it is
-not to be wondered at that the inhabitants were much alarmed when
-fresh disturbances were felt in the summer of 1824. In a series of
-letters written by Don Augustin Cabrera, an inhabitant of the island
-at the time, an excellent account is given of the eruptions. A slight
-earthquake preceded the sudden appearance of a new crater in the early
-morning of July 1, 1824, in the neighbourhood of Tao, in the centre
-of a plain. The crater, which at first had the appearance of a great
-crevasse, emitted showers of sand and red hot stones, and did great
-damage to the surrounding country, destroying some most valuable
-reservoirs, and it was even feared that Tiagua, though a long distance
-away, would be destroyed, as a _montañeta_ in the district began to
-smoke. On September 16, the writer says that after eighteen hours
-the crater had ceased its shower of hot ashes, but a dense column of
-smoke spouted forth, and the rumbling could be heard for miles round,
-and from the _montañeta_, which at first had only smoked, came a
-torrent of boiling water. “Yesterday,” says the writer, “after there
-had been comparative quiet for some time, a loud noise was heard, and
-the boiling water spouted forth in torrents. At times there is dense
-smoke, which clears away, and then comes the water again.” Writing in
-October he gives a most graphic and alarming account of an eruption
-on September 29, when the volcano burst through the lava deposit of
-1730, and flaming torrents flowed down to the sea. A noise like loud
-thunder had continued unceasingly, and prevented the inhabitants from
-sleeping, even many miles away. No wonder they dreaded a repetition of
-the disasters of 1730-37, as in two months two new craters had opened.
-On October 18 another letter says: “There is no doubt a furnace is
-under our feet. For twelve days the volcano had appeared dead, though
-frequent shocks of earthquake warned us such was not the case, and
-true enough yesterday the volcano burst through a bed of lava in the
-centre of a great plain, sending up into the air a column of boiling
-water 150 ft. high.” It is also said that for several days the heat was
-suffocating, and sailors could scarcely see the island because of the
-dense mist.
-
-The island has been a source of the deepest interest to geologists,
-and both M. Buch and Webb and Berthelot visited it between 1820-38,
-spending many weeks in the island. Few travellers seem to find their
-way there now, as there is no port and no mole passengers have to be
-carried ashore.
-
-The little island of Graciosa, only five miles long and a mile broad,
-separated from Lanzarote by the narrow strait of El Rio, is a broad
-stretch of sand covered with shells, but the three principal cones in
-the island are said to be volcanic, and show the origin of the island.
-After autumn rains, the sand is covered with herbaceous plants, and in
-old days the inhabitants of the north of Lanzarote used to transport
-their cattle to feed there.
-
-Montaña Clara, hardly more than a rock some 300 ft. high, lies to the
-north of Graciosa, and Allegranza, the “Joy” of Bethencourt, as it was
-the first soil on which he set foot, is to the north again, and is
-really the first island of the Canary Archipelago, so it consequently
-boasts of a lighthouse. The possession of the island in old days was
-a matter of much dispute, as the feathers of a bird (_Larus Marinus_)
-were very valuable, and nearly as profitable as the down of the eider;
-also puffins, which existed here in vast numbers, were salted and sold,
-and now a small amount of fish-curing is done on the island at certain
-seasons. The greater part of the island is taken up by a crater of
-considerable extent, so even this tiny island is not without its Gran
-Caldera.
-
-[Illustration: A SPANISH GARDEN]
-
-Hierro, the Isle of Iron, is to the extreme south-west of the
-Canary Archipelago, and for several centuries was probably regarded
-by ancient navigators as the most western point in the world--beyond
-lay the unknown. The name is a corruption by the Spaniards of the word
-_heres_, which in the language of the original Ben-bachirs, whose name
-was in its turn changed to Bembachos, meant a small reservoir or tank
-for collecting rain water. As the island is almost entirely dependent
-on the rainfall these tanks were of the greatest value to the natives,
-and in old records it is stated that a _here_ was much more valued
-in a marriage settlement than land. The theory that the island was
-called _hierro_, meaning iron, because of the presence of the metal
-in the island is not much regarded, as we are especially told by old
-historians that when Bethencourt attacked the island the natives
-were armed with lances which had _not_ iron heads, and the historian
-adds, the only iron these natives knew was from the chains of their
-oppressors, who appear to have treated them with great cruelty.
-
-The excessive moisture of the air and the presence of a fair amount
-of wooded country which attracts the moisture, enables the flocks of
-sheep to live on the natural vegetation. The only water they get is
-from eating leaves of plants when saturated with dew, their principal
-fodder being the leaves and even roots of asphodel, also mulberry and
-fig leaves. Hierro is especially celebrated for its figs, which are the
-best grown in any of the islands, and extremely free fruiting. One tree
-alone may bear 400 lb. of fruit.
-
-The best-known springs are those of Los Llanillos, which furnishes
-the best drinking water in the islands, being said to be always clear
-and cold, and the spring of Sabinosa. The latter is warm, smells of
-sulphur, and has a bitter taste and medicinal properties. One of
-Bethencourt’s chaplains mentions that it has a great merit: “When you
-have eaten till you can eat no more, you then drink a glass of this
-water, and after an hour all the meat is digested, and you feel just as
-hungry as you did before you began, and can begin all over again!”
-
-There is no sea-port village, the landing-place consisting merely
-of a small cove sheltered by masses of fallen rock, and the little
-capital of Valverde lies two hours distant on foot. As practically no
-accommodation is to be relied on, those who are bent on exploring
-the island are recommended to provide themselves with a tent. The
-vegetation is said to be of great interest to botanists, and they
-appear to be the only travellers who ever visit the island.
-
-
-
-
-XIV
-
-HISTORICAL SKETCH
-
-
-Few people, until they are proposing to pay a visit to the “Fortunate
-Islands,” a name by which the group of seven Canary Islands seems to
-have been known since very early days, ever trouble themselves to learn
-anything of their history. Beyond the fact that they belong to Spain,
-a piece of information probably surviving from their school-room days,
-they have never troubled their heads about them, and I have known a
-look of surprise come over the face of an Englishwoman on hearing a
-Spaniard mention a fact which probably dated “from before the Conquest,
-quite five centuries ago,” entirely forgetting that “the Conquest”
-could mean anything but the English conquest, instead of the conquest
-of the Canary Islands by the Spaniards at the latter end of the
-fifteenth century.
-
-Possibly the reason that so few authentic records remain of their
-ancient history is that though the outlying islands of the group are
-only some 80 or 100 miles from the African coast, still they were on
-the extreme limit of the ancient world. The various theories that they
-were really the home of the Hesperides, or the garden of Atlas, King
-of Mauretania, where the golden apple was guarded by the dragon, the
-Peak being the Mount Atlas of mythology, or again that they were merely
-the remains of the sunken continent of Atlantis, can never really
-be settled, but it seems almost certain that they were not entirely
-unknown to the ancients. The fact that Homer mentions an island “beyond
-the Pillars of Hercules,” as the Straits of Gibraltar were called, has
-caused the adoption of the Pillars of Hercules, with a small island in
-the distance surmounted with _Oce ano_, as one of the coats-of-arms of
-the Islands, though the more correct one appears to be the two large
-dogs (because of the two native dogs which were taken back to King
-Juba about 50 B.C., when he sent ships from Mauretania to inspect
-Canaria) supporting a shield on which is depicted the seven islands.
-Herodotus in his description of the countries beyond Libya says that,
-“the world ends where the sea is no longer navigable, in that place
-where are the gardens of the Hesperides, where Atlas supports the sky
-on a mountain as conical as a cylinder.” Hesiod says that “Jupiter sent
-dead heroes to the end of the world, to the Fortunate Islands, which
-are in the middle of the ocean.” There is no doubt that the Romans, on
-re-discovering the Islands, christened them _Insulæ Fortunatæ_, which
-name has clung to them ever since.
-
-Pliny, in writing about the islands, quotes the statements of Juba, who
-said the islands were placed at the extreme limit of the world, and
-were perpetually clothed with fire.
-
-It is unfortunate that the Spaniards, when they conquered the islands,
-took no trouble to preserve any of their ancient records, and as the
-natives could not write, any history which might have been handed
-down from generation to generation was entirely lost. For this reason
-very little is known for certain as to what happened to the islands
-in the Middle Ages, though they appear to be mentioned by an Arabian
-geographer in the early part of the twelfth century, who writes of “the
-island of the two magician brothers, Cheram and Clerham, from which,
-in clear weather, smoke could be seen issuing from the African coast.”
-Various European countries, having heard tales of islands beyond the
-seas, appear to have made efforts to conquer them. The fate of the
-Genoese expedition in A.D. 1291 is not known, and though
-the French are said to have “discovered” them in 1330, it was the
-Portuguese who took advantage of this discovery, and a few years later
-sent an expedition to conquer them. They met with no success, and were
-repulsed by the inhabitants of Gomera, and though they made yet another
-attempt after a few years, it appears to have been without result.
-
-No doubt the comparative peace which reigned in the islands for so long
-was owing to the fact that Europe was too much occupied with civil wars
-and crusades, to explore and conquer far-off lands, but during the
-fourteenth century a French nobleman of Spanish extraction was made
-“King of the Fortunate Islands” by the Pope, and told to Christianise
-them in the best way he could. Nothing much seems to have come of these
-instructions, though some missionaries were no doubt sent to Grand
-Canary.
-
-The conquest of the islands seems to have occupied the Spaniards for
-nearly a century, as in 1402 we read of Jean de Bethencourt (a name
-still common in the islands), who fitted out a ship for the purpose of
-conquering them and settling there. Lanzarote was peaceably occupied,
-as its fighting population was small, but in the neighbouring island
-of Fuerteventura he was repulsed. Henry King of Castille provided
-reinforcements, and, on condition that the Archipelago should be
-annexed in his name, Bethencourt was to be made “Lord of the Isles”
-of four of the group. The four smaller islands were soon brought
-under subjection--Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Gomera, and Hierro; in
-fact, in some of the islands the newcomers were welcomed. The three
-larger islands--Canary, Teneriffe, and La Palma--proved a more serious
-undertaking, and the invaders being stoutly resisted and lacking in
-forces, their conquest was for a time abandoned, and Bethencourt did
-not live to see them subjugated. His nephew sold his rights to the
-Portuguese, which complicated matters. It was not until 1464 that any
-determined attack was again made, though Spanish troops had made an
-unsuccessful attempt to conquer La Palma some ten years previously.
-
-The Lord of Gomera, Diego de Herrera, made most determined attacks
-in 1464, beginning unsuccessfully in Canary; but in the same year he
-again collected his forces and attacked Teneriffe, landing at Santa
-Cruz. Don Diego, having been driven into a corner by the Canarios, sent
-his son-in-law, Diego da Silva, to make a counter-attack. He fared no
-better, and escape being cut off, offered to surrender, but quarter
-was denied. By a stratagem a Canario leader was seized as a hostage,
-and Silva demanded free passage to his ship, which was granted. Silva
-had misgivings as to the sincerity of the Canarios, and apparently was
-so glad to escape with his life, that when he arrived at his ship he
-and all his men voluntarily gave up their arms, and vowed never again
-to fight the Canarios--a vow which Silva, at any rate, kept, in spite
-of the indignation of Diego. Some of the men broke their promise, and
-joined Diego’s attacking forces again; and on being taken prisoners
-by the natives, instead of being put to death were condemned to spend
-their lives in brushing away flies, as execution was too high an honour
-for such base creatures.
-
-Some years after, the “fly-flappers” were set at liberty, as Diego
-succeeded in making a treaty with the Canarios; but the island was far
-from being conquered, and still offered stout resistance, though the
-Spaniards seem by now to have determined not to let such a prize escape
-them. Reinforcements came from Spain, and a small body of cavalry, we
-are told, terrorised the natives, and though the Portuguese interfered
-on behalf of the Canarios, the Spaniards now got a footing in the
-island in the year 1478, during the reign of Ferdinand V. of Castille.
-
-After many unsuccessful attacks from the other islands, it fell
-to the lot of Don Alonso de Lugo to complete the work of Jean de
-Bethencourt. “De Lugo el Conquistador, and afterwards Governor of the
-Province of the Canaries, was a Galician nobleman, who had served with
-distinction against the Moors in the conquest of Granada, and had
-been presented with the valley of Ageste (Canary) in return for his
-services. Whilst there he conceived the capture of Teneriffe and of La
-Palma, reconnoitring their coasts and acquainting himself with their
-geographical features.”
-
-Helped by the inhabitants of Gomera, who by this time had become
-accustomed to the rule of the conquerors, De Lugo made a desperate
-though unsuccessful attempt in 1491 to conquer La Palma, which had
-remained in comparative peace for over half a century. It was not till
-1492, after months of desperate fighting, that he succeeded in subduing
-the island and adding it as a prize to the dominions of Spain.
-
-A year later he turned his attention to Teneriffe and landed at Añaza
-(Santa Cruz). He hoped that quarrels among the Guanches might be in
-his favour, but after a considerable number of his men had been cut to
-pieces at Matanza (Place of Slaughter) he was forced to retire, and
-after a year’s fighting evacuated the island, until reinforcements
-were sent to him. Before the close of the same year he returned to the
-attack, and desperate resistance was met with in the district of La
-Laguna. The Guanches, though successful in keeping the invaders at bay,
-were much discouraged by losing several of their leaders, and began to
-quarrel among themselves; how long they might still have held out it is
-impossible to know, but Providence seems at this moment to have come to
-the help of the Spaniards.
-
-The disease known as _Modorra_, possibly some form of typhus fever,
-broke out among the Guanches. Old writings describe this disease as
-being most malignant and mysterious, and its effects among the natives
-were appalling. The Spaniards remained immune, but I should think it
-was not without qualms that they watched the ghastly destruction of
-their foes, who appear to have been seized with hopeless melancholia,
-lost all wish to live, and wandered about listlessly in troops or laid
-down in caves to die. One writer says: “Even at the present day such
-retreats are occasionally discovered, little heaps of bones or seated
-skeletons marking the spot where the despairing victims sank to rise no
-more. It is said that some Spaniards, reconnoitring on the road to La
-Laguna, met an old woman seated alone on the Montaña de Taco, who waved
-them on, bidding them go in and occupy that charnel-house where none
-were left to offer opposition.”
-
-De Lugo seems to have passed through the district of the _modorra_,
-but met with resistance in the valley of Orotava, where the Mencey
-of Taoro (the old name of Villa Orotava) advanced to meet him with a
-considerable force. Another sanguinary engagement took place at La
-Victoria and the invaders again had to retreat. The _modorra_ still
-raged, and in 1496 the site of the present villages of Realejo
-Alto and Bajo, in the valley of Orotava, was the scene of the final
-capitulation of the Guanches, worn out by illness and perpetual
-fighting.
-
-It is not altogether surprising that other countries looked rather
-longingly at Spain’s new possession, and both their Portuguese
-neighbours and the Moors made one or two feeble attempts to claim them.
-
-England was not above making several attacks on the Islands. One
-unsuccessful expedition commanded by Sir Francis Drake was repulsed
-at Las Palmas in 1595, and about sixty years later Sir Robert Blake,
-in command of 36 vessels, attacked Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe, but
-beyond destroying forts, the shipping in the harbour, and sinking some
-treasure galleons, he does not seem to have done much. The English
-again disturbed the peace of the islanders in 1743, but Admiral
-Nelson’s attack of Santa Cruz in 1797 is the one which is of principal
-interest to the English, from the fact probably that it was Nelson’s
-one defeat, and here also he lost his arm. To this day Nelson’s two
-flags are carefully preserved in glass cases on the walls of the
-Iglesia de la Concepcion and are an object of great interest to
-many English travellers. The news that a galleon laden with treasure
-had arrived in Santa Cruz reached Admiral Jervis during the blockade
-of Cadiz, and he at once ordered Vice-Admiral Nelson, in command of
-1500 men and 393 guns, to proceed to Teneriffe to secure the coveted
-prize. The Spanish authorities were formally demanded to deliver up
-the treasure on July 20, 1797, and not unnaturally refused. The town
-seems to have been strongly garrisoned, and Nelson, hampered by an
-unfavourable wind, made unavailing attempts to land and draw the
-soldiers from their forts. Under cover of darkness 700 men succeeded
-in getting close to the mole before the enemy discovered them, but
-soon a deadly fire was opened upon them, and several of the boats
-were sunk. Nelson had no sooner set foot on the jetty than his arm
-was shattered by a cannon ball. Incapacitated though he was by pain
-and loss of blood, directly he got back alongside his ship his first
-thought was for the men who had been left behind, and orders were at
-once given for the boat to go back to their assistance. The men who had
-succeeded in landing on the mole, encouraged by repulsing the enemy
-and spiking their guns, made a desperate attempt to attack the town.
-Their opponents were too numerous for this brave little band, and the
-guns from the Fort of San Christobal killed the greater number of
-their officers and wounded the rest; the survivors retreated in good
-order after holding their position on the mole nearly all night. In
-consequence of the darkness a party under Captain Trowbridge became
-separated and eventually landed at the other side of the town, and took
-possession of the old Dominican Monastery. Taking it for granted that
-Nelson’s party were in possession of the mole, and advancing to meet
-them, Trowbridge demanded the surrender of the fort, only to find that
-his enemy and not his friends were the victors. Eventually, seeing
-that success was impossible, he asked for permission to leave the town
-with all arms, and promised not to attack any part of the Canaries, or
-in the event of these conditions being refused he threatened to burn
-and sack the town. It is well known in history how courteously (once
-the evacuation terms were agreed to) the Spaniards treated their foe.
-The wounded were carefully tended, the invaders were allowed to buy
-provisions, and presents were interchanged between the greatest of
-England’s Admirals and Don Antonio Gutierrez, the Comandante-General of
-the Canaries, and it is said that the first letter Nelson wrote with
-his left hand was to thank the Spanish general for his care of his
-wounded men. After Nelson’s attack the Canaries appear to have remained
-in the undisputed possession of Spain, and were made a province of the
-Mother Country, Santa Cruz, Teneriffe, being made the capital and seat
-of government, somewhat to the annoyance of the other islands. Those
-who are really interested in the history of the conquest of the Islands
-will find that there are many histories written in Spanish, most of
-which are to be seen in the great public library at La Laguna.
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