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diff --git a/8821-0.txt b/8821-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..945ea93 --- /dev/null +++ b/8821-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8729 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of To the Gold Coast for Gold, by Richard F. Burton and Verney Lovett Cameron + +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: To the Gold Coast for Gold + A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Vol. I + +Author: Richard F. Burton and Verney Lovett Cameron + +Release Date: August 13, 2003 [eBook #8821] +[Most recently updated: July 26, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Jim O’Connor, Distributed Proofreaders and David Widger + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO THE GOLD COAST FOR GOLD *** + + + + +TO THE GOLD COAST FOR GOLD + +_A Personal Narrative_ + +BY Richard F. Burton AND Verney Lovett Cameron + +In Two Volumes--Vol. I. + + + +TO OUR EXCELLENT FRIEND + +JAMES IRVINE + +(OF LIVERPOOL, F.R.G.S, F.S.A, &C.) + +WE INSCRIBE THESE PAGES AS A TOKEN OF OUR APPRECIATION AND ADMIRATION +FOR HIS COURAGE AND ENERGY IN OPENING AND WORKING THE GOLDEN LANDS OF +WESTERN AFRICA + + + +_'Much have I travelled in the realms of gold'_ + +SHAKESPEARE + + + +PREFACE. + +The following extract from 'Wanderings in West Africa,' a book which I +wrote in 1862 and published (anonymously) in 1863, will best explain the +reasons which lately sent me to Western Africa:-- + +In several countries, for instance, Dinkira, Tueful, Wásá (Wassaw), and +especially Akim, the hill-region lying north of Accra, the people are +still active in digging gold. The pits, varying from two to three feet +in diameter, and from twelve to fifty deep (eighty feet is the extreme), +are often so near the roads that loss of life has been the +result. 'Shoring up' being little known, the miners are not unfrequently +buried alive. The stuff is drawn up by ropes in clay pots, or +calabashes, and thus a workman at the bottom widens the pit to a +pyriform shape; tunnelling, however, is unknown. The excavated earth is +carried down to be washed. Besides sinking these holes, they pan in the +beds of rivers, and in places collect quartz, which is roughly pounded. + +They (the natives) often refuse to dig deeper than the chin, for fear of +the earth 'caving in;' and, quartz-crushing and the use of quicksilver +being unknown, they will not wash unless the gold 'show colour' to the +naked eye. + +As we advance northwards from the Gold Coast the yield becomes +richer.... + +It is becoming evident that Africa will one day equal half-a-dozen +Californias.... + +Will our grandsons believe in these times ... that this Ophir--that +this California, where every river is a Tmolus and a Pactolus, every +hillock is a gold-field--does not contain a cradle, a puddling-machine, +a quartz-crusher, a pound of mercury? That half the washings are wasted +because quicksilver is unknown? That whilst convict labour is +attainable, not a company has been formed, not a surveyor has been sent +out? I exclaim with Dominie Sampson--'Pro-di-gious!' + +Western Africa was the first field that supplied the precious metal to +mediaeval Europe. The French claim to have imported it from Elmina as +early as A.D. 1382. In 1442 Gonçales Baldeza returned from his second +voyage to the regions about Bojador, bringing with him the first gold. +Presently a company was formed for the purpose of carrying on the +gold-trade between Portugal and Africa. Its leading men were the +navigators Lanzarote and Gilianez, and Prince Henry 'the Navigator' did +not disdain to become a member. In 1471 João de Santarem and Pedro +Escobar reached a place on the Gold Coast to which, from the abundance +of gold found there, they gave the name of 'São Jorje da Mina,' the +present Elmina. After this a flood of gold poured into the lap of +Europe; and at last, cupidity having mastered terror of the Papal Bull, +which assigned to Portugal an exclusive right to the Eastern Hemisphere, +English, French, and Dutch adventurers hastened to share the spoils. + +For long years my words fell upon flat ears. Presently the Ashanti war +of 1873-74 brought the subject before the public. The Protectorate was +overrun by British officers, and their reports and itineraries never +failed to contain, with a marvellous unanimity of iteration, the magic +word--Gold. + +The fraction of country, twenty-six miles of seaboard out of two +hundred, by a depth of sixty--in fact, the valley of the Ancobra +River--now (early 1882) contains five working companies. Upwards of +seventy concessions, to my knowledge, have been obtained from native +owners, and many more are spoken of. In fact, development has at length +begun, and the line of progress is clearly traced. + +At Madeira I was joined (January 8, 1882) by Captain Cameron, R.N., +C.B., &c. Our object was to explore the so-called Kong Mountains, which +of late years have become _quasi_-mythical. He came out admirably +equipped; nor was I less prepared. But inevitable business had delayed +us both, and we landed on the Gold Coast at the end of January instead +of early October. The hot-dry season had set in with a heat and a +drought unknown for years; the climate was exceptionally trying, and all +experts predicted early and violent rains. Finally, we found so much to +do upon the Ancobra River that we had no time for exploration. Geography +is good, but Gold is better. + +In this joint book my energetic and hard-working friend and +fellow-traveller has described the five working mines which I was unable +to visit. He has also made an excellent route-survey of the country, +corrected by many and careful astronomical observations. It is curious +to compare his work with the sketches of previous observers, Jeekel, +Wyatt, Bonnat, and Dahse. To my companion's industry also are mainly due +our collections of natural history. + +We are answerable only for our own, not for each other's statements. As +regards my part, I have described the Gold-land as minutely as possible, +despite the many and obvious disadvantages of the 'photographic style.' +Indeed, we travellers often find ourselves in a serious dilemma. If we +do not draw our landscapes somewhat in pre-Raphaelite fashion, they do +not impress the reader; if we do, critics tell us that they are +wearisome _longueurs,_ and that the half would be better than the +whole. The latter alternative must often be risked, especially in +writing about a country where many at home have friends and +relatives. Of course they desire to have as much detail about it as +possible; hence the reader will probably pardon my 'curiosity.' + +The Appendix discusses at some length the various objections made to the +Gold Coast mines by the public, which suffers equally from the 'bull' +and the 'bear' and from the wild rumours set afloat by those not +interested in the speculation. I first dispose of the dangers menaced by +Ashanti invasions. The second number notices the threatened +labour-famine, and shows how immigration of Chinese, of coolies, and of +Zanzibar-men will, when wanted, supply not only the Gold Coast, but also +the whole of our unhappy West African stations, miscalled colonies, +which are now starving for lack of hands. The third briefly sketches the +history of the Gold-trade in the north-western section of the Dark +Continent, discusses the position and the connections of the auriferous +Kong Mountains, and suggests the easiest system of 'getting' the +precious metal. This is by shallow working, by washing, and by the +'hydraulicking' which I had studied in California. The earlier miners +have, it is believed, begun at the wrong end with deep workings, shafts, +and tunnels; with quartz-crushers, stamps, and heavy and expensive +machinery, when flumes and force-pumps would have cost less and brought +more. Our observations and deductions, drawn from a section of coast, +will apply if true, as I believe they are, to the whole region between +the Assini and the Volta Rivers. + +I went to the Gold Coast with small expectations. I found the Wásá +(Wassaw) country, Ancobra section, far richer than the most glowing +descriptions had represented it. Gold and other metals are there in +abundance, and there are good signs of diamond, ruby, and sapphire. + +Remains to be seen if England has still honesty and public spirit enough +to work this old-new California as it should be worked. I will answer +for its success if the workers will avoid over-exclusiveness, undue +jealousy and rivalry, stockjobbing, and the rings of 'guinea-pigs' and +'guinea-worms.' + +RICHARD F. BURTON. + + + + +CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + +CHAPTER + +I. PRELIMINARY: TRIESTE TO LISBON + +II. FROM LISBON TO MADEIRA + +III. A FORTNIGHT AT MADEIRA + +IV. MADEIRA _(continued)_--CHRISTMAS--SMALL + INDUSTRIES--WINE--DEPARTURE FOR TENERIFE + +V. TO TENERIFE, LA LAGUNA, AND OROTAVA + +VI. THE ROUTINE ASCENT OF MOUNT ATLAS, THE 'PIKE' OF TENERIFE + +VII. THE SPANISH ACCOUNT OF THE REPULSE OF NELSON FROM + SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE + +VIII. TO GRAND CANARY--LAS PALMAS, THE CAPITAL + +IX. THE COCHINEAL--THE 'GALLO'--CANARY 'SACK'--ADIEU TO THE CANARIES + +X. THE RUINED RIVER--PORT AND THE TATTERED FLAG + +XI. SIERRA LEONE: THE CHANGE FOR THE BETTER + + + +TO THE GOLD COAST FOR GOLD. + + +CHAPTER I. + +PRELIMINARY: TRIESTE TO LISBON. + +The glory of an explorer, I need hardly say, results not so much from +the extent, or the marvels of his explorations, as from the consequences +to which they lead. Judged by this test, my little list of discoveries +has not been unfavoured of fortune. Where two purblind fever-stricken +men plodded painfully through fetid swamp and fiery thorn-bush over the +Zanzibar-Tanganyika track, mission-houses and schools may now be +numbered by the dozen. Missionaries bring consuls, and consuls bring +commerce and colonisation. On the Gold Coast of Western Africa, whence +came the good old 'guinea,' not a washing-cradle, not a pound of +quicksilver was to be found in 1862; in 1882 five mining companies are +at work; and in 1892 there will be as many score. + +I had long and curiously watched from afar the movement of the Golden +Land, our long-neglected El Dorado, before the opportunity of a revisit +presented itself. At last, in the autumn of 1881, Mr. James Irvine, of +Liverpool, formerly of the West African 'Oil-rivers,' and now a large +mine-owner in the Gulf of Guinea, proposed to me a tour with the object +of inspecting his concessions, and I proposed to myself a journey of +exploration inland. The Foreign Office liberally gave me leave to escape +the winter of Trieste, where the ferocious Bora (nor'-nor'-easter) wages +eternal war with the depressing and distressing Scirocco, or +south-easter. Some One marvelled aloud and said, 'You are certainly the +first that ever applied to seek health in the "genial and congenial +climate" of the West African Coast.' But then Some One had not realised +the horrors of January and February at the storm-beaten head of the ever +unquiet Adriatic. + +Thus it happened that on November 18,1881, after many adieux and _au +revoirs,_ I found myself on board the Cunard s.s. _Demerara_ +(Captain C. Jones), bound for 'Gib.' My wife was to accompany me as far +as Hungarian Fiume. + +The Cunard route to 'Gib' is decidedly roundabout. We began with a run +to Venice, usually six hours from the Vice-Queen of the Adriatic: it was +prolonged to double by the thick and clinging mist-fog. The sea-city was +enjoying her usual lethargy of repose after the excitement of the +'geographical Carnival,' as we called the farcical Congress of last +September. She is essentially a summering place. Her winter is +miserable, neither city nor houses being built for any but the finest of +fine weather; her 'society'-season lasts only four months from +St. Stephen's Day; her traveller-seasons are spring and autumn. We found +all our friends either in bed with bad colds, or on the wing for England +and elsewhere; we inhaled a _quant. suff._ of choking vapour, even +in the comfortable Britannia Hotel; and, on the morning of the 23rd, we +awoke to find ourselves moored alongside of the new warehouses on the +new port of Hungarian, or rather Croatian, Fiume. + +Fiume had made prodigious strides since I last saw her in 1878; and she +is gradually taking the wind out of the sails of her sister-rival. While +old Tergeste wastes time and trouble upon futile questions of policy, +and angry contrasts between Germans and Slavs, and Italians and +Triestines, Fiume looks to the main chance. The neat, clean, and +well-watered little harbour-city may be called a two-dinner-a-day place, +so profuse is her hospitality to strangers. Here, too, we once more +enjoyed her glorious outlook, the warm winter sun gilding the +snowy-silvery head of Monte Maggiore and raining light and life upon the +indigo-tinted waters of Fiume Bay. Next to Naples, I know nothing in +Europe more beautiful than this ill-named Quarnero. We saw a shot or so +of the far-famed Whitehead torpedo, which now makes twenty-one miles an +hour; and on Nov. 25 we began to run down the Gulf _en route_ for +Patras. + +It was a pleasure to emerge from the stern and gloomy Adriatic; and +nothing could be more lovely than the first evening amongst the Ionian +Islands. To port, backed by the bold heights of the Grecian sea-range, +lay the hoary mount, and the red cliffs, 780 feet high, of Sappho's +Leap, a never-forgotten memory. Starboard rose bleak Ithaca, fronting +the black mountain of Cephalonia, now bald and bare, but clothed with +dark forests till these were burnt down by some mischievous +malignant. Whatever of sterility deformed the scene lay robed under a +glory of colour painted with perfect beauty by the last smile of the +sun. Earth and air and sea showed every variety of the chromatic scale, +especially of rose-tints, from the tenderest morning blush of virgin +snow to the vinous evening flush upon the lowlands washed by the purple +wave. The pure translucent vault never ceased to shift its +chameleon-like hues, that ranged between the diaphanous azure of the +zenith and the faintest rainbow green, a border-land where blue and +yellow met and parted. The air felt soft and balmy; a holy calm was on +the face of creation; all looked delicious after the rude north, and we +acknowledged once more that life was worth living. + +Patras also has greatly improved since I last saw her in 1872. The +malaria-swamps to the north and south of the town have been drained and +are being warped up: the 'never-failing succession of aguish fevers' +will presently fade out of the guide-books. A macadamised boulevard has +been built, and a breakwater is building. The once desert square, +'Georgios A',' has been planted with trees, which should be Eucalyptus; +and adorned with two French statues of bronze which harmonise admirably +with the surroundings. The thoroughfares are still Sloughs of Despond +after rain, and gridirons of St. Laurence in dusty summer; but there are +incipient symptoms of trottoirs. And throughout there is a disappearance +of the hovels which resembled Port Sa'id in her younger day, and a +notable substitution of tall solid houses. + +All this has been brought about by 'fruit,' which in Patras means +currants; that is, 'Corinthian grapes.' The export this year is unusual, +110,000 tons, including the Morea and the Islands; and of this total +only 20,000 go to France for wine-making. It gives a surprising idea of +the Christmas plum-pudding manufacture. Patras also imports for all the +small adjacent places, inhabited by 'shaggy capotes.' And she will have +a fine time when that talented and energetic soldier, General Türr, whom +we last met at Venice, begins the 'piercing of the Isthmus.' _À +propos_ of which, one might suggest to Patras, with due respect, that +(politically speaking) 'honesty is the best policy.' + +Being at Patras on St. Andrew's Day, with a Scotch demoiselle on board, +we could hardly but pilgrimage to the place of the Apostle's +martyrdom. Mrs. Wood kindly sent her daughters to do the honours. +Aghyos Andreas lies at the extreme south of the town on the system of +ruts, called a road, which conducts down-coast. The church is a long +yellow barn, fronting a cypress-grown cemetery, whose contents are being +transferred to the new extramural. A little finger of the holy man +reposes under a dwarf canopy in the south-eastern angle: his left arm is +preserved at Mount Athos in a silver reliquary, set with gems. Outside, +near the south-western corner, is the old well of Demeter (Ceres), which +has not lost its curative virtues by being baptised. You descend a dwarf +flight of brick steps to a mean shrine and portrait of the saint, and +remark the solid bases and the rude rubble arch of the pagan temple. A +fig-tree, under which the martyrdom took place, grew in the adjacent +court; it has long been cut down, probably for fuel. + +The population of Patras still affords a fine study of the 'dirty +picturesque,' with clothes mostly home-made; sheepskin cloaks; +fustanellas or kilts, which contain a whole piece of calico; red +leggings, and the rudest of sandals; Turkish caps, and an occasional +pistol-belt. The Palikar still struts about in all his old bravery; and +the _bourgeois_ humbly imitates the dingy garb of Southern +Italy. The people have no taste for music, no regard for art, no respect +for antiquities, except for just as much as these will bring. They own +two, and only two, objects in life: firstly, to make money, and +secondly, to keep and not to spend it. But this dark picture has a +bright side. No race that I know is so greedy of education; the small +boys, instead of wending unwillingly to school, crowd the doors before +they are opened. Where this exceptional feeling is universal we may hope +for much. + +The last evening at Patras showed us a beautiful view of what is here +called Parnassus (Parnassó), the tall bluff mountain up the Gulf, whose +snows at sunset glowed like a balass ruby. We left the Morea at 2 +A.M. (December 2), and covered the fifty-two miles to Zante before +breakfast. There is, and ever has been, something peculiarly sympathetic +to me in the 'flower of the Levant.' 'Eh! 'tis a bonny, bonny place,' +repeatedly ejaculated our demoiselle. The city lies at the foot of the +grey cliffs, whose northern prolongation extends to the Akroteri, or +Lighthouse Point. A fine quay, the Strada Marina, has been opened during +the last six years along the northern sea-front, where the arcades +suggest those of Chester. It is being prolonged southwards to the old +quarantine-ground and the modern prison, which rests upon the skirts of +the remarkable Skopo, the Prospect Mountain, 1,489 feet high. This +feature, which first shows itself to mariners approaching Zakynthos from +north or from south, has a saddle-back sky-line, with a knob of +limestone shaped like a Turkish pommel and sheltering its monastery, +Panaghia of Skopo, alias Our Lady of the Look-out. Below it appears +another and a similar outcrop near a white patch which has suggested +marble-quarrying; and the northern flank is dotted with farmhouses and +villas. The dwarf breakwater, so easily prolonged over the shallows, has +not been improved; but at its base rises a brand-new opera-house, big +enough for a first-rate city. Similarly at Barletta they raised a loan +to build a mole and they built a theatre. Unlike Patras, Zante long had +the advantage of Italian and then of English rule; and the citizens care +for music more than for transformation-scenes. The Palikar element also +is notably absent; and the soldiers are in uniform, not in half-uniform +and half-brigand attire. I missed the British flag once so conspicuous +upon the southern round tower of the castle, where in days, or rather +nights, of old I had spent not a few jolly hours; but I heard with +pleasure that it is proposed to make a _haute-ville_ of the now +deserted and crumbling triangle, a _Sommerfrisch_ where the +parboiled citizens of Athens will find a splendid prospect and a cooling +sea-breeze. + +Mr. E. Barff kindly accompanied us in the usual drive 'round the +Wrekin,' for which we may here read the 'wreck.' We set out along the +sea-flank of the Castle hill. This formation, once a regular hog's-back, +has been split by weather about the middle; and its southern end has +been shaken down by earthquakes, and carved by wind and rain into +precipices and pinnacles of crumbling sandstone, which form the 'Grey +Cliffs.' Having heard at Patras the worst accounts of Zante since it +passed under Greek rule, I was not a little surprised by the excellent +condition of the roads and the general look of prosperity. + +Turning to the right we entered Mr. Barff's garden-house, where the +grounds were bright and beautiful with balsam and mignonette, dahlias +and cyclamens, chrysanthemums and oleanders, jasmine and double-violets, +orange-blossoms, and a perfect Gulistan of roses, roses of York and +Lancaster, white, pink, and purple, yellow and green--a perfumed spring +in dreary December. Laden with bouquets we again threaded the +olive-grounds, whose huge trunks are truly patriarchal, and saw basking +in the sun old Eumæus, the Swine-King, waiting upon his black and +bristly herd. The glimpse led to a characteristic tale. A wealthy Greek +merchant in London had made the most liberal offers to his brother, a +shepherd in the hills of Cephalonia; the latter returned his very best +thanks, but declared himself perfectly happy and unwilling to tempt +fortune by change of condition to England. Greece, it is evident, has +not ceased to breed 'wise men.' + +We returned, _viâ_ the landward flank of the hog's-back, along the +fine plain ('O Kampos') bounded west by the range called after Mount +Meriy, the apex, rising 3,274 feet. Anglo-Zantiots fondly compare its +outline with the Jura's. The look of the rich lowlands, 'the vale,' as +our charts call it, suggested a river-valley, but river there is +none. Every nook and corner was under cultivation, and each +country-house had its chapel and its drying-ground for 'fruit,' level +yards now hidden under large-leaved daisies and wild flowers. We passed +through the Graetani village, whose tenants bear a bad name, and saw +none of the pretty faces for which Zante is famed. The sex was dressed +in dark jackets and petticoats _à l'italienne_; and the elders were +apparently employed in gathering 'bitter herbs,' dandelion and the wild +endive. Verily this is a frugal race. + +The drive ended with passing up the Strada Larga, the inner High Street, +running parallel with the Marina. After Turkish fashion, trades flock +together, shoemakers to the south and vegetable-vendors to the +north. There are two good specimens of Venetian palazzetti, one +fantastic, the other classical; and there is a rough pavement, which is +still wanting in Patras. A visit to the silk-shop of Garafuglia +Papaiouanou was obligatory: here the golden-hued threads reminded me of +the Indian Tussur-moth. Also _de rigueur_ was the purchase of nougat +and raki, the local mandorlato and mastaché, almond-cake and +grape-spirit. + +Zante appears to me an excellent home for a large family with a small +income. A single man lives at the best hotel (Nazionale) for forty-five +francs per week. A country-house with nine bedrooms, cellarage, +stabling, dog-house, orangery, and large garden, is to be had for +25_l._ a year. Fowls cost less than a franc; turkeys, if you do not +buy them from a shipchandler, two francs and a half. The strong and +sherry-flavoured white wine of Zante rarely exceeds three shillings the +gallon, sixpence a bottle. And other necessaries in the same proportion. + +But, oh that St. Dionysius, patron saint of Zante, would teach his +_protégés_ a little of that old Persian wisdom which abhorred a lie +and its concomitants, cheating and mean trickery! The _Esmeralda_, +after two days and one night at Zante, was charged 15_l._, for +pilotage, when the captain piloted himself; for church, where there is +no parson; and for harbour dues where there is no harbour. It is almost +incredible that so sharp-witted a race can also be so short-sighted; so +wise about pennies, so foolish about pounds. + +On Saturday we left Zante in the teeth of a fresh but purely local +north-easter, which whistled through the gear and hurled the spray high +up Cape Skinari. The result was, as the poet sings-- + + That peculiar up-and-down motion + Which belongs to the treacherous ocean. + +Not without regret I saw the last of the memorious old castle and of +Skopo the picturesque. We ran along the western shore of Cephalonia, the +isle of three hundred villages: anyone passing this coast at once +understands how Greece produced so many and such excellent seamen. The +island was a charming spectacle, with its two culminations, Maraviglia +(3,311 ft.) and Elato (5,246 ft.), both capped by purple cloud; its +fertile slopes and its fissured bight, Argostoli Bay, running deep into +the land. + +We fondly expected to pass the Messina Straits by daylight, and to cast +another glance upon old Etna, Scylla and Charybdis, the Liparis and +Stromboli. And all looked well, as about noon we were abreast of Cape +Spartivento, the 'Split-wind' which divides the mild northers and +southers of the Straits from the raw Boras and rotting Sciroccos of the +Adriatic. But presently a signal for succour was hoisted by a marvellous +old tub, a sailer-made-steamer, sans boats, sans gunwales; a something +whose dirt and general dilapidation suggested the Flying Dutchman. I +almost expected to see her drop out of form and crumble into dust as our +boys boarded her. The _America_, of Barletta, bound from Brindisi +to Genoa, had hurt her boilers. We hauled in her cable--these gentry +must never be trusted with a chance of slipping loose--and tugged her +into Messina, thereby losing a valuable day. + +The famous Straits were almost a replica of Ionian Island scenery: the +shores of the Mediterranean, limestone and sandstone, with here and +there a volcanic patch, continually repeat themselves. After passing the +barren heel of the Boot and its stony big toe, the wady-streaked shores +become populous and well cultivated, while railway trains on either +side, island and continent, toss their snowy plumes in the pride of +civilisation. The ruined castles on the crags and the new villages on +the lowlands told their own story of Turkish and Algerine piracy, now +doomed to the limbo of things that were. In the evening we were safely +anchored within the zancle (sickle) of Messina-port, whose depth of +water and circular shape have suggested an old crater flooded. It was +Sunday, and we were greeted with the familiar sounds, the ringing of +cracked bells, the screaming of harsh, hoarse voices, a military band +and detached musical performances. The classical facade of the Marina, +through whose nineteen archways and upper parallelograms you catch a +vista of dark narrow wynd, contrasts curiously with Catania: the former +is a 'dicky,' a front hiding something unclean; while the latter is laid +out in Eastern style, where, for the best of reasons, the marble palace +hides behind a wall of mud. The only new features I noted were a metal +fish-market, engineer art which contrasts marvellously with the Ionic +pilasters and the solid ashlar of the 'dicky;' and, at the root of the +sickle, a new custom-house of six detached boxes, reddest-roofed and +whitest-walled, built to copy children's toy cottages. Croatian Fiume +would blush to own them. Of the general impurity of the town and of the +_bouquet de Messine_ the less said the better. + +As we made fast to the Marina our tobacco was temporarily sealed after +the usual mean Italian fashion. Next morning an absurd old person, in a +broad red baldrick, came on board and counted noses, to ascertain that +we had not brought the dreaded small-pox from the Ionian Islands. After +being graciously and liberally allowed to land, we were visited by the +local chapmen, whose goods appeared rather mixed--polished cowhorns and +mildewed figs, dolls in costume and corrosive oranges; by the normal +musical barber, who imitates at a humble distance bird and beast; and by +the vendor of binoculars, who asks forty francs and who takes ten. The +captain noted his protest at the Consulate, and claimed by way of +_sauvetage 200l_. The owners offered 200 lire--punds Scots. Briefly, +noon had struck before we passed out of the noise and the smells of +Messina. + +Our good deed had cost us dear. A wet scirocco had replaced the bright +norther and saddened all the view. Passing the tide-rip Charybdis, a +meeting of currents, which called only for another hand at the wheel; +and the castled crag of naughty Scylla, whose town has grown +prodigiously, we bade adieu to the 'tower of Pelorus.' Then we shaped +our course for the Islands of Æolus, or the Winds, and the Lipari +archipelago, all volcanic cones whose outlines were misty as Ossian's +spectres. And we plodded through the dreary dull-grey scene of drizzling +scirocco-- + + Till, when all veilèd sank in darkling air, + Naught but the welkin and the wave was there. + +Next morning showed us to port the Cone of Maritimo: it outlies Marsala, +whose wine caused the blinding of Polyphemus, and since that time has +brought on many an attack of liver. The world then became to us +_pontus et aer_. Days and nights were equally uneventful; the diary +tells only of quiet seas under the lee of Sardinia and of the Balearics, +ghostly glimpses of the North African coast and the steady setting in of +the normal wester, the indraught of 'the Straits.' + +On Friday (November 9) the weather broke and deluged us with rain. At +Gibraltar the downpour lasted twenty-four hours. We found ourselves at +anchor before midnight with a very low barometer, which suggested +unpleasantries. Next morning we sighted the deep blue waters of the Bay, +and the shallow brown waters of the Bayside crested with foam by a +furious norther, that had powdered the far Ronda highlands with +snow. Before noon, however, the gale had abated and allowed me to +transfer myself and African outfit on board the _Fez_ (Capt. Hay), +Moroccan Steamship Company, trading to North Africa. This was a +godsend: there is no regular line between Gibraltar and Lisbon, and one +might easily be delayed for a week. + +The few hours' halt allowed me time to call upon my old friend, +M. Dautez, a Belgian artist. Apparently he is the only person in the +place who cares for science. He has made extensive collections. He owns +twenty-four coins from Carteia, whereas Florez (Medallas, Madrid, 1773) +shows a total of only thirty-three. Amongst his antiquities there is a +charming statuette of Minerva, a bronze miniature admirably finished. He +has collected the rock fauna, especially the molluscs, fossil and +modern. He is preparing an album of the Flora Calpensis. His birds' +nests were lately sold to an Englishman. All these objects, of immense +local interest, were offered by him at the lowest possible rate to the +Military Library, but who is there to understand their value? I wonder +how many Englishmen on the Rock know that they are within easy ride of +the harbour which named the 'Ships of Tarshish'? Tartessus, which was +Carteia, although certain German geographers would, against the general +voice of antiquity, make the former the country and the latter the city, +lay on both sides of the little Guadarranque stream, generally called +First River; and the row of tumuli on the left bank probably denotes the +site of the famous docks. I was anxious to open diggings in 1872, but +permission was not forthcoming: now, however, they say that the Duke of +Medina Sidonia would offer no objections. + +Gib, though barbarous in matters of science, is civilised as regards +'business.' It was a treat to see steamer after steamer puff in, load up +with blue peter at the fore, and start off after a few hours which would +have been days at Patras, Zante, and Messina. Here men work with a will, +as a walk from the Convent to the Old Mole, the Mersa or water-port of a +Moroccan town, amply proves. The uniforms are neat and natty--they were +the reverse five years ago--and it is a pleasure to look upon the fresh +faces of English girls still unstained by unconsumed carbon. And the +authorities have had the good sense to preserve the old Moorish town of +Tárik and his successors, the triangle of walls with the tall tower-like +mosque for apex, and the base facing the bay. + +We left Gibraltar at 5 P.M. on Saturday (December 10), giving a wide +berth to the hated Pearl Rock, which skippers would remove by force of +arms. Seen from east or west Gib has an outline of its own. The +Britisher, whose pride it is, sees the 'lion of England who has laid his +paw upon the key of the Mediterranean,' and compares it with the king of +beasts, sejant, the tail being Europa Point. The Spaniards, to whom it +is an eyesore, liken it to a shrouded corpse, the outlined head lying to +the north, and declare, truly enough, that to them it is a dead body. + +The norther presently changed to the rainy south-wester, the builder of +the Moroccan 'bars' and the scourge of the coast fringing North-west +Africa, Rolling set in with the usual liveliness. Events were not +eventful. The first midnight found us off Cape Trafalgar, and the second +off St. Vincent. At 4 P.M. (December 12), we saw the light of Espíchel +(_Promóntorium Barbaricum_), the last that shines upon the voyager +bound Brazilwards. Before nightfall we had left Buzio lighthouse to +starboard. We then ran up the northern passage in charge of a lagging +pilot; and, as the lamps were lighting, we found ourselves comfortably +berthed off that pretty toy, Belem Tower. + +Next morning broke upon a lovely view: no wonder that the Tagus is the +pride of Portuguese bards. The _Rosicler_, or rosy dawn-light, was +that of a May morning--the May of poetry, not of meteorology--and the +upper windows of distant Lisbon were all ablaze with the unrisen sun. It +was a picture for the loveliest colours, not for 'word-painting;' and +the whole scene was classical as picturesque. We may justly say of it, +'Nullum sine nomine saxum.' Far over the rising hills of the north bank +rose shaggy Cintra, 'the most blessed spot in the habitable globe,' with +its memorious convent and its Moorish castle. The nearer heights were +studded with the oldest-fashioned windmills, when the newest are found +even in the Canaries; a single crest bore its baker's dozen, mostly +decapitated by steam. Advancing we remarked the glorious Belem +monastery, defiled by its ignoble modern ruin to the west; the new +hippodrome crowning the grassy slope; the Bed House of Belem, now being +brightened up for Royal residence during the Exhibition of 1882; the +Memoria and the Ajuda Palace, more unfinished, if possible, than +ever. As we approached the bulk of the city the marking objects were the +cypressed Prazeres Cemetery; the red Necessidades Palace, and the +Estrella, whose dome and domelets, built to mimic St. Peter's, look only +like hen and chickens. Then in due time came the Carmo Church, still +unrepaired since 1755; Blackhorse Square, still bare of trees; the +Government offices, still propped to prevent a tumble-down, and the old +Custom House, still a bilious yellow; the vast barrack-like pile of +S. Vicente, the historic _Sé_ or cathedral with dumpy towers; the +black Castle of São Jorge, so hardly wrung from the gallant Moors, and +the huge Santa Engracia, apparently ever to be a ruin. + +I spent a pleasant week at Lisbon, and had a fair opportunity of +measuring what progress she has made during the last sixteen years. We +have no longer to wander up and down disconsolate + + Mid many things unsightly to strange ee. + +If the beggars remain, the excessive dirt and the vagrant dogs have +disappeared. The Tagus has a fine embankment; but the land side is +occupied by mean warehouses. The sewers, like those of Trieste, still +want a _cloaca maxama_, a general conduit of masonry running along +the quay down-stream. The Rocio has been planted with mean trees, +greatly to the disgust of the average Lusitanian, who hates such +sun-excluding vegetation like a backwoodsman; yet the Quintella +squarelet shows what fine use may be made of cactus and pandanus, aloes +and palms, not to mention the ugly and useful eucalyptus. The +thoroughfares are far cleaner than they were; and Lisbon is now +surrounded by good roads. The new houses are built with some respect for +architectonic effect of light and shade: such fine old streets as the +Rua Augusta offend the eye by façades flat as cards with rows of pips +for windows. Finally, a new park is being laid out to the north of the +Passeio Publico. + +Having always found 'Olisipo' exceptionally hospitable and pleasant, I +look forward to the days when she will be connected with Paris by direct +railway. Her hotels are first-rate; her prices are not excessive; her +winter climate is delightful, and she is the centre of most charming +excursions. The capital has thrown off much of her old lethargy. Her +Geographical Society is doing hard and honest work; she has nobly +expiated the national crime by becoming a 'Camonian' city; and she +indulges freely in exhibitions. One, of Ornamental Art, was about to be +opened when I last saw her, and it extended deep into the next spring. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +FROM LISBON TO MADEIRA. + +My allotted week in Lisbon came to an end only too soon: in the society +of friends, and in the Camonian room (Bibliotheca Nacional), which +contains nearly 300 volumes, I should greatly have enjoyed a month. The +s.s. _Luso_ (Captain Silva), of the 'Empresa Insulana,' one of the +very few Portuguese steamers, announced her departure for December 20; +and I found myself on board early in the morning, with a small but +highly select escort to give me God-speed. + +Unfortunately the 'May weather' had made way for the _cacimbas_ +(mists) of a rainy sou'-wester. The bar broke and roared at us; Cintra, +the apex of Lisbon's extinct volcano and the Mountain of the (Sun and) +Moon, hid her beautiful head, and even the Rock of Lisbon disdained the +normal display of sturdy flank. Then set in a _brise carabinée_, +which lasted during our voyage of 525 miles, and the _Luso_, +rolling like a moribund whale, proved so lively that most of the +fourteen passengers took refuge in their berths. A few who resisted the +sea-fiend's assaults found no cause of complaint: the captain and +officers were exceedingly civil and obliging, and food and wines were +good and not costly. + +From Madeira the _Luso_ makes, once a month, the tour of the +Azores, touching at each island--a great convenience--and returning in +ten days. + +Early on Thursday, the 22nd, the lumpy, churning sea began to subside, +and the invisible balm seduced all the sufferers to the +quarter-deck. They were wild to sight Madeira as children to see the +rising of the pantomime-curtain. There was not much to gaze at; but what +will not attract man's stare at sea?--a gull, a turtle, a flying fish! +By the by, Captain Tuckey, of the Congo Expedition, remarked the +'extraordinary absence of sea-birds in the vicinity of Madeira and the +Canaries:' they have since learned the way thither. Porto Santo appeared +as a purple lump of three knobs, a manner of 'gizzard island,' backed by +a deeper gloom of clouds--Madeira. Then it lit up with a pale glimmer as +of snow, the effect of the sun glancing upon the thin greens of the +northern flank; and, lastly, it broke into two masses--northern and +southern--of peaks and precipices connected by a strip of lowland. + +It is generally held that the discovery of the Madeiran group (1418-19) +was the first marking feature of the century which circumnavigated +Africa, and that Porto Santo was 'invented 'by the Portuguese before +Madeira. The popular account, however, goes lame. For instance, the +story that tried and sturdy soldiers and seamen were deterred from +advancing a few miles, and were driven back to Portugal by the 'thick +impenetrable darkness which was guarded by a strange noise,' and by +anile fancies about the 'Mouth of Hell' and 'Cipango,' reads like mere +stuff and nonsense. Again, great are the difficulties in determining the +nationality of the explorers, and settling the conflicting claims of the +French, Genoese, Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Arabs. History, and +perhaps an aptitude for claiming, have assigned the honour exclusively +to Lusitania: and every guide-book tells the same old tale. But I have +lived long enough to have seen how history is written; and the discovery +was, at best, a mere re-discovery, as we learn from Pliny (vi. 36), +whose 'insulae purpurariae' cannot be confounded [Footnote: Mr. Major, +however, would identify the Purple Islands with Oanarian Fuerteventura +and Lanzarote, both possibly Continental.] with the Fortunate Islands, +or Canaries. The 'Gaetulian dye' of King Juba in the Augustan age is +not known. Its origin has been found in the orchilla still growing upon +the Desertas; but this again appears unlikely enough. Ptolemy (iv. 1,16) +also mentions 'Erythía,' the Red Isle--'red,' possibly, for the same +reason; and Plutarch (in Suet.) may allude to the Madeiran group when he +relates of the Fortunate Islands: 'They are two, separated only by a +narrow channel, and at a distance of 400 leagues (read 320 miles) from +the African coast.' + +The Jesuit, Antonio Cordeyro, [Footnote: _Historia insulana das Ilhas +a Portugal sugoytas_, pp. 61-96. Lisbon, 1717.] who borrows from the +learned and trustworthy Dr. Gaspar Fructuoso, [Footnote: _As Saudades +da Terra_, lib. i. ch. iii, _Historia das Ilhas, &c_. This +lettered and conscientious chronicler, the first who wrote upon the +Portuguese islands, was born (A.D. 1522) at Ponta Delgada (Thin Point) +of St. Michael, Azores. He led a life of holiness and good works, +composed his history in 1590, left many 'sons of his soul,' as he called +his books, and died in his natal place, A.D. 1591. The Madeiran portion +of the two huge folios (some 4,000 pages of MS.) has been printed at +Funchal, with copious notes by Dr. A. Rodrigues de Azevedo, Professor of +Literature, &c., at the National Lyceum; and a copy was kindly lent to +me, during the author's absence in Lisbon, by Governor Viscount de Villa +Mendo.] declares in 1590: 'The first discoverers of the Porto Santo +Island, many say, were those Frenchmen and Castilians (Spaniards) who +went forth from Castile to conquer the Canaries; these, when either +outward or homeward bound, came upon the said island, and, for that they +found it uninhabited and small, they abandoned it; but as they had +weathered a storm and saved themselves there, they named it Port Holy.' +Fructuoso (i. 5) expressly asserts that the Portuguese sailed from +Lisbon in June 1419 for 'the Isle of Porto Sancto'(in 32° N. lat.), +which two years before had been discovered by some Castilian ships +making the Canaries, the latter having been occupied a short time +previously by the French; wherefore the pilot took that route.' The +Jesuit chronicler continues to relate that after the formally proclaimed +annexation of the Canaries by the Normans and Castilians (A.D. 1402-18), +Prince Henry, the Navigator, despatched from Lagos, in 1417, an +expedition to explore Cape Bojador, the 'gorbellied.' The three ships +were worked by the Italian master-seaman Bertholomeu Palestrello or +Palestro, commonly called Perestrello. The soldiers, corresponding to +our marines, were commanded by the 'sweet warman,' João Gonçales da +Camara, nicknamed 'O Zargo,' the Cyclops, not the squint-eyed; +[Footnote: Curious to say, Messieurs White and Johnson, the writers of +the excellent guide-book, will translate the word 'squint-eyed:' they +might have seen the portrait in Government House.] his companion was +Tristão Vaz Teyxeyra, called in honour 'the Tristam.' Azurara, +[Footnote: _Chronica do Descobrimento de Guiné._ By Gomes Eannes de +Azurara, written between A.D. 1452-53, and quoted by Prof. Azevedo, +Notes, p. 830.] a contemporary, sends the 'two noble squires,' Zarco and +Tristam, 'who in bad weather were guided by God to the isle now called +Porto Sancto' (June 1419). They returned home (marvellous to relate) +without touching at Madeira, only twenty-three miles distant; and next +year (1420) Prince Henry commissioned Palestrello also. + +The Spaniards prefer to believe that after Jehan de Béthencourt's attack +upon the Canaries (A.D. 1403), his soldier Lancelot, who named Lanzarote +Island, touched at Porto Santo in 1417; and presently, sailing to the +south-west, discovered Madeira. This appears reasonable enough. + +Patriotic Barbot (1700), in company with the mariner Villault de +Belfons, Père Labat, and Ernest de Fréville, [Footnote: _Mémoire sur +le Commerce Maritime de Rouen._] claims the honour for France. +According to that 'chief factor for the African Company,' the +merchants of Dieppe first traded to West Africa for cardamoms and +ivory. This was during the reign of Charles V., and between 1364 and +1430, or half a century before the Portuguese. Their chief stations were +Goree of Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Cape Mount, the Kru or Liberian +coast, then called 'of Grain,' from the 'Guinea grains' or Malaguetta +pepper (_Amomum granum Paradisi_), and, lastly, the Gold +Coast. Here they founded 'Petit Paris' upon the Baie de France, at +'Serrelionne;' 'Petit Dieppe,' at the mouth of the St. John's River, +near Grand Bassá, south of Monrovia; and 'Cestro' [Footnote: Now +generally called Grand Sestros, and popularly derived from the +Portuguese _cestos_--pepper.] or 'Sestro Paris,' where, three +centuries afterwards, the natives retained a few words of French. Hence +Admiral Bouet-Willaumez explains the Great and Little 'Boutoo' of our +charts by _butteau_, from _butte_, the old Norman word still +preserved in the great western prairies. + +Barbot resumes that in 1383 the Rouen traders, combining with the Dieppe +men, sent upon an exploring voyage three ships, one of which, _La +Vierge_, ran down coast as far as where Commenda (Komenda or Komání) +and Elmina now stand. At the latter place they built a fort and factory +just one century before it was occupied by the Portuguese. The Frenchman +declares that one of the Elmina castles was called Bastion de France, +and 'on it are still to be seen some old arithmetical numbers, which are +_anno_ 13' (i.e. 1383); 'the rest being defaced by weather.' This +first factory was afterwards incorporated with the modern building; and +in 1387 it was enlarged with the addition of a chapel to lodge more than +ten or twelve men, the original garrison. + +In 1670 Ogilvy [Footnote: London: Printed by Tho. Johnson for the +author, and to be had at his house in White Fryers, MDCLXX.] notes: 'The +castle (Elmina) was judged to be an Antient Building from several marks +of Antiquity about it; as first by a decay'd Battery, which the +_Dutch_ repaired some years ago, retaining the name of _the +French Battery_, because it seems to have been built by the +_French_; who, as the Inhabitants say, before the coming of the +_Portugals_ harbour'd there. The _Dutch_ when they won it, +found the numerical Figures of the year thirteen hundred; but were not +able to make anything of the two following Characters. In a small place +within also, may be seen a Writing carved in Stone between two old +Pillars, but so impair'd and worn out by the weather that it is not +legible.' At Groree, too, similar remains were reported. + +The adventurers, it is said, carried on a good trade till 1430-90, when +the civil wars distracting France left her without stomach for distant +adventure; and in 1452 Portugal walked over the course. M. d'Avezac, who +found Porto Santo in a French map of the fourteenth century, [Footnote: +_Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_, cinquième série, tome +v. p. 260. Also 'Iles de l'Afrique,' in the _Univers._ Paris, +1868.] seems inclined to take the part of 'quelques précurseurs +méconnus contre les prétentions trop exclusives des découvreurs +officiels.' + +Barbot's details are circumstantial, but they have not been confirmed by +contemporary evidence or by local tradition. The Portuguese indignantly +deny the whole, and M. Valdez in his 'Complete Maritime Handbook' +[Footnote: _Six Years of a Traveller's Life in Western Africa._ +London, Hurst & Blackett, 1861.] alludes contemptuously to 'Norman +pirates.' They point out that Diego d'Azembuja, the chief captain, sent +in 1481 to found São Jorje da Mina, our 'Elmina Castle,' saw no traces +of previous occupation. But had he done so, would he have dared to +publish the fact? Professor Azevedo relies upon the silence of Azurara, +Barros, and Camoens concerning the French, the Spaniards, and the +English in the person of Robert à Machim. But this is also at best a +negative argument: the 'Livy of Portugal' never mentions the great +mathematician, Martin Behaim, who accompanied Diego Cam to his discovery +of the Congo. In those days fair play was not a jewel. + +The truth is that it would be as easy to name the discoverer of +gunpowder or steam-power as to find the first circumnavigator of the +African continent. I have no difficulty in believing that the +Phoenicians and Carthaginians were capable of making the voyage. They +were followed to West Africa in early days, according to El-Idrisi and +Ibn. el-Wardi, by the Arabs. The former (late eleventh century) relates +that an Arab expedition sailed from Lisbon, shortly after the eighth +century, and named Madeira and Porto Santo the 'Islands El-Ghanam and +Rákah.' However that may be, the first Portuguese occupants found +neither men nor ruins nor large quadrupeds upon any of the group. + +The English accident of hitting upon Madeira, and the romantic tale of +Master Robert à Machim, or Machin, or Macham, and Mistress Anne d'Arfet, +or Darby, or Dorset, which would have suited Camoens, and which I have +told elsewhere, [Footnote: Wanderings in West Africa, vol. i, +p. 17. Chapter II., 'A Day at Madeira,' was written after my second and +before my third visit.] and need not repeat, was probably an 'ingenious +account' invented for politico-international ends or to flatter Dom +Enrique, a Britisher by the distaff-side. It is told with a thousand +variants, and ignored by the learned Fructuoso. According to the +apocryphal manuscript of Francisco Alcoforado, the squire who +accompanied the Zargo, this elopement took place in the earlier days of +Edward III. (A.D. 1327-77). The historian Antonio Galvão fixes upon +September 1344, the date generally accepted. Thus the interval between +Machim's death and the Zargo's discovery would be seventy-four years; +and--_pace_ Mr. Major--the Castilian pilot, Juan Damores (de +Amores), popularly called Morales, could _not_ have met the remnant +of the Bristol crew in their Moroccan prison, and could _not_ have +told the tale to the Portuguese explorers. + +M. d'Avezac (_loc. cit._ p. 116) supports the claims of the +Genoese, quoting the charts and portulans of the fourteenth century in +which appear Italian names, as _Insule dello Legname_ (of wood, +materia, Madeira), _Porto Sancto, Insule Deserte_, and _Insule +Selvaggie_. Mr. R. H. Major replies that these Italian navigators +were commandants of expeditions fitted out by the Portuguese; and that +this practice dated from 1341, when two ships officered by Genoese, with +crews of [footnote: Amongst the 'ridiculous little blots, which are +"nuts" to the old resident,' I must confess to killing Robert Machim in +1334 instead of 1344; 'Collegio' was also translated 'College' instead +of 'Jesuit Church.'] Italians, Castilians, and _Hispani_ (Spanish +and Portuguese), were sent to explore the Canaries. + +'Holy Port' began badly. The first governor, Perestrello, fled from the +progeny of his own she-rabbit. This imprudence was also committed at +Deserta Grande; and, presently, the cats introduced by way of cure ran +wild. A grass-clad rock in the Fiume Gulf can tell the same tale: sheep +and lambs were effectually eaten out by rabbits and cats. It will be +remembered that Columbus married Philippa, third daughter of the +navigator Perestrello, lived as a mapper with his father-in-law, and +thence travelled, between 1470 and 1484, to Guinea, where he found that +the equatorial regions are not uninhabitable by reason of the heat. He +inherited the old seaman's papers, and thus arose the legend of his +learning from a castaway pilot the way to the New World. [Footnote: +Fructuoso writes that in 1486 Columbus gave food and shelter to the crew +of a shattered Biscayan ship; the pilot dying bequeathed to him papers, +charts and valuable observations made on the Western Ocean.] + +Long years rolled by before Porto Santo learnt to bear the vine, to +breed large herds of small cattle, and to produce cereals whose yield is +said to have been 60 to 1. Meanwhile it cut down for bowls, mortars, and +canoes, as the Guanches did for shields, its thin forest of 'Dragons.' +The Dragoeiro (_Dracaena Draco_ Linn., _Palma canariensis_ +Tourn.), which an Irish traveller called a 'dragon-palm,' owed its +vulgar name to the fancy that the fruit contained the perfect figure of +a standing dragon with gaping mouth and long neck, spiny back and +crocodile's tail. It is a quaint tree of which any ingenious carpenter +could make a model. The young trunk is somewhat like that of the +_Oreodoxa regia_, or an asparagus immensely magnified; but it +frequently grows larger above than below. At first it bears only +bristly, ensiform leaves, four feet long by one to three inches broad, +and sharp-pointed, crowning the head like a giant broom. Then it puts +forth gouty fingers, generally five, standing stiffly up and still +capped by the thick yucca-like tufts. Lastly the digitations grow to +enormous arms, sometimes eighteen feet in girth, of light and porous, +soft and spongy wood. The tree then resembles the baobab or calabash, +the elephant or hippopotamus of the vegetable kingdom. + +Amongst the minor uses of this 'Dragon,' the sweet yellowish berries +called _masainhas_ were famous for fattening pigs. The splinters +made tooth-picks which, dipped in the juice, secured health for human +gums. But the great virtue resided in the _Sanguis Draconis_, the +'Indian Cinnabaris' of Pliny, [Footnote: _N.H._ xxxiii. 38.] who +holds it to be the sanies of the dragon mixed with the blood of the +dying elephant. The same semi-mystical name is given to the sap by the +Arab pharmists: in the Middle Ages this strong astringent resin was a +sovereign cure for all complaints; now it is used chiefly for +varnishes. The gum forms great gouts like blood where the bark is +wounded or fissured: at first it is soft as that of the cherry, but it +hardens by exposure to a dry red lump somewhat like 'mummy.' It has no +special taste: when burnt the smell is faintly balsamic. The produce was +collected in canes, and hence the commercial name 'Dragon's blood in +reeds.' + +Mr. P. Barker Webb believed the Dragoeiro to be a species peculiar to +the Madeiras and Canaries. But its chief point of interest is its +extending through Morocco as far as Arabo-African Socotra, and through +the Khamiesberg Range of Southern Africa, where it is called the +Kokerboom. As it is utterly African, like the hippopotamus, the zebra, +and the giraffe, we must account, by transplantation from Socotra, for +the D. Draco seen by Cruttenden in the mountains behind Dhofar and on +the hills of El-Yemen. [Footnote: _Journ. R. Geogr. Soc._ p. 279, +vol. viii. of 1838.] The line of growth, like the coffee-shrub and the +copal-tree, suggests a connection across the Dark Continent: thus the +similar flora of Fernando Po Peak, of Camarones volcano, and of the +highlands of Abyssinia seems to prove a latitudinal range traversing the +equatorial regions, where the glacial epoch banished for ever the +hardier plants from the lower levels. When Humboldt determined it to be +a purely Indian growth, he seems to have confounded the true 'dragon' +with a palm or some other tree supplying the blood. It was a 'dazzling +theory,' but unsound: the few specimens in Indus-land, 'its real +country,' are comparatively young, and are known to have been imported. + +The endogenous monster, indigenous to the Elysian Fields, is to the +surrounding vegetation what the cockatrice is to the cock, the wyvern to +the python. I should say 'was,' for all the replants at Madeira and the +Canaries are modern, and resemble only big toothsticks. But 'dragons' +proper have existed, and perhaps memories of these portents long +lingered in the brain of protohistoric man. Even if they had been +altogether fabulous, the fanciful Hellenic mind would easily have +created them. The Dragoeiro with its boa-like bole, its silvery, +light-glancing skin, and its scars stained with red blood, growing in a +wild garden of glowing red-yellow oranges, would easily become the fiery +saurian guarding the golden apples of the Hesperides. + +Porto Santo and Madeira, though near neighbours, are contrasts in most +respects. The former has yellow sands and brackish water, full of +magnesia and lime, which blacken the front teeth; the latter sweet water +and black shingles. The islet is exceedingly dry, the island damp as +Devonshire. Holy Port prefers wheeled conveyances: Wood-and-Fennel-land +_corsas_ or sledges, everywhere save on the New Road. Finally, the +wines of the northern mite are comparatively light and acidulous; of the +southern, luscious and heady. + +Both scraps of ground are of kindred although disputed +origin. Classicists [Footnote: Plato, _Timaeus_, ii. 517. His +'fruit with a hard rind, affording meat, drink, and ointment,' is +evidently the cocoanut. The cause of the lost empire and the identity of +its site with the Dolphin's Ridge and the shallows noted by +H.M.S. _Challenger_, have been ably pleaded in _Atlantis_, &c., +by Ignatius Donnelly (London, Sampson Low, 1882).] find in these sons of +Vulcan, the _débris_ of Platonic Atlantis, a drowned continent, a +'Kingdom of Nowhere,' which some cataclysm whelmed beneath the waters, +leaving, for all evidence, three shattered groups of outcrops, like the +Channel Islands, fragments of a lost empire, the 'bones of a wasted +body.' Geologists, noting that volcanoes almost always fringe mainlands, +believe them destined, together with the Cape Verdes, to rampart in +future ages the Dark Continent with a Ghaut-chain higher than the +Andes. Other theorists hold to a recent connection of the Madeiras with +Mount Atlas, although the former rise from a narrow oceanic trough some +13,000 to 15,000 feet deep. Others again join them to Southern Europe +and to Northern America. The old Portuguese and certain modern realists +make them a continuation of the Serra de Monchique in the Algarves, even +as the Azores prolong Cintra; and this opinion is somewhat justified by +the flora, which resembles in many points the tertiary and extinct +growths of Europe. [Footnote: Such is the opinion of M. Pégot-Ogier in +_The Fortunate Islands_, translated by Frances Locock (London, +Bentleys, 1871). Moquet set the example in 1601 by including Madeira +also in the 'Elysian Fields and Earthly Paradise' of the ancients.] + +Porto Santo was till lately distinguished only for pride, poverty, and +purity of blood. Her soil, according to the old chroniclers, has never +been polluted, like São Thomé and other colonies, by convicts, Jews, or +other 'infected peoples.' She was populated by Portuguese 'noble and +taintless'--Palestrellos, Calaças, Pinas, Vieyras, Rabaçaes, Crastos, +Nunes, Pestanas, and Concellos. And yet not a little scandal was caused +by Holiport when the 'Prophet Fernando' and the 'Prophetess Philippa' +(Nunes), 'instigated by the demon and the deceitfulness of mankind,' +induced the ecclesiastics to introduce into the introit, with the names +of St. Peter and St. Paul, the 'Blessed Prophet Fernando.' The tale of +murder is told with holy horror by Dr. Gaspar Fructuoso, and the +islanders are still nicknamed 'prophetas.' Foreigners, however, who +have lately visited them, speak highly of their simple primitive ways. + +I boated to the Holy Port in 1862, when Messieurs Blandy's steamship +_Falcon_ was not in existence. And now as the _Luso_ steamed +along shore, no external change appeared. A bird's-eye view of the islet +suggests a _podão_ or Madeiran billhook, about six miles by +three. The tool's broken point is the Ilha da Cima, facing to +north-east, a contorted pile which resembles a magnified cinder. The +handle is the Ilheu Baixo, to the south; and the blade is the tract of +yellow sandy lowlands--the sole specimen of its sort in the +Madeiras--connecting the extremities. Three tall cones at once disclose +vulcanism; the Pico de Facho, or Beacon Peak (1,660 feet), the Pico de +Anna Ferreira (910 feet), and the sugarloaf Pico de Castello (1,447 +feet). The latter rises immediately north of the single town, and its +head still shows in white points the ruins of the fort which more than +once saved the population from the 'Moors.' The lower levels are +terraced, as usual in this archipelago, and the valleys are green with +vines and cereals. The little white _Villa Baleira_ is grouped +around its whiter church, and dotted with dark vegetation, trees, and +houses, straggling off into open country. Here lodge the greater part of +the islanders, now nearly 1,750 souls. The population is far too +thick. But the law of Portugal has, till lately, forbidden emigration to +the islanders unless a substitute for military service be provided; the +force consists of only 250 men, and the term of service is three years; +yet a _remplaçant_ costs upwards of 50_l_. Every emigrant was, +therefore, an energetic stowaway, who landed at Honolulu or Demerara +without shoes and stockings, and returned in a few years with pounds +sterling enough to purchase an estate and a pardon. Half-a-dozen boats, +some of them neat little feluccas with three masts, are drawn up on the +beach: there is not much fishing; the vine-disease has raged, and the +staple export consists of maize in some quantities; of _cantaria,_ +a grey trachyte which works more freely than the brown or black basalt, +and of an impure limestone from Ilheu Baixo, the only _calcaire_ +used in Funchal. This rock is apparently an elevated coral-reef: it also +produces moulds of sea-shells, delicately traced and embedded in blocks +of apparently unbroken limestone. Of late a fine vein of manganese has +been found in the northern or mountainous part of the island: specimens +shown to me by Mr. J. Blandy appeared remarkably rich. + +Under the lee of Porto Santo we enjoyed a dry deck and a foretaste of +the soft and sensuous Madeiran 'Embate,' the wester opposed to the +Leste, Harmattan, Khammasin, or Scirocco, the dry wind which brings +wet. [Footnote: The popular proverb is, 'A Leste never dies thirsty.'] +Then we rolled over the twenty-five geographical miles separating us +from our destination. Familiar sites greeted my eyes: here the 'Isle of +Wood' projects a dwarf tail composed of stony vertebræ: seen upon the +map it looks like the thin handle of a broad chopper. The outermost or +extreme east is the Ilha de Fora, where the A.S.S. _Forerunner_ and +the L. and H. _Newton_ came to grief: a small light, one of the +many on this shore, now warns the careless skipper; but apparently +nothing is easier than to lose ships upon the safest coasts. Inside it +is the Ponta de São Lourenço, where the Zargo, when startled, called +upon his patron Saint of the Gridiron; others say it was named after his +good ship. It has now a lighthouse and a telegraph-station. [Footnote: +The line runs all along the southern shore as far as the Ponta do Pargo +(of the 'braise-fish,' _Pargus vulgaris_), the extreme west. At +Funchal the cable lands north of Fort São Thiago Minor, where ships are +requested not to anchor. It is used chiefly for signalling arrivals from +north and south; and there is talk of extending it to the Porto da Cruz, +a bay on the north-eastern side. It would be of great advantage to +Madeira if steamers could here land their mails when prevented from +touching at Funchal by the south winds, which often last a +week. Accordingly a breakwater has been proposed, and Messieurs Blandy +are taking interest in the improvement.] The innermost of this sharp +line of serrated basaltic outliers is the Pedra do Furado, which +Englishmen call the Arch-Rock. + +The substantial works of the Gonçalo-Machico highway, the +telegraph-posts, and the yellow-green lines of sugar-cane, were the only +changes I could detect in Eastern Madeira. Nothing more charming than +the variety and contrast of colours after the rusty-brown raiment which +Southern Europe dons in mid-December. Even the barren, arid, and +windswept eastern slopes glowed bright with the volcanic muds locally +called laterites, and the foliated beds of saibros and maçapés, +decomposed tufas oxidised red and yellow. As we drew nearer to Funchal, +which looks like a giant _plate-bande_, tilted up at an angle of +40°, we were startled by the verdure of every shade and tint; the +yellow-green of the sugar and common cane (_Arundo sagittata_), of +the light-leaved aloe, banana, and hibiscus; the dark orange, myrtle, +and holm-oak; the gloomy cypress, and the dull laurels and bay-trees, +while waving palms, growing close to stiff pines and junipers (_Oedro +da Serra_), showed the contrast and communion of north and south. + +Lines of plane-trees, with foliage now blighted yellow and bright green +in February, define the embouchures of the three grim black ravines +radiating from the upper heights, and broadening out as they approach +the bay. The rounded grassy hill-heads setting off the horizontal +curtains of dry stone, 'horticultural fortifications' which guard the +slopes, and which rise to a height of 3,000 feet; the lower monticules +and parasitic craters, Signal Hill, Race-course Hill, São Martinho and +Santo Antonio, telling the tale of throes perhaps to be renewed; the +stern basaltic cliff-walls supporting the island and prolonged in black +jags through the glassy azure of the transparent sea; the gigantic +headlands forming abutments for the upper arch; the chequered lights and +shades and the wavy play of sunshine and cloudlet flitting over the face +of earth; the gay tenements habited in white and yellow, red, green, +and, not unfrequently, blue; the houses built after the model of +cigar-boxes set on edge, with towers, belvederes, and gazebos so tall +that no one ascends them, and with flat roofs bearing rooms of glass, +sparkling like mirrors where they catch the eye of day; the toy-forts, +such as the Fortaleza do Pico de São João, built by the Spaniards, an +upper work which a single ironclad would blow to powder with a +broadside; the mariner's landmark, 2,000 feet high, Nossa Senhora do +Monte, white-framed in brown-black and backed by its feathery pines, +distance-dwarfed to mere shrubs, where the snow-winds sport; the +cloud-cap, a wool-pack, iris-tinted by the many-hued western sky, and +the soft sweet breath of the _serre-chaude_ below, profusely +scented with flower and fruit, all combined to form an _ensemble_ +whose first sight Northern travellers long remember. Here everyone +quotes, and so will I:-- + + Hic ver assiduum atque alienis mensibus æstas. + +Though it be midwinter, the land is gorgeous with blossoms; with glowing +rose, fuchsia, and geranium; with snowy datura, jasmine, belladonna, +stephanotis, lily, and camelia; with golden bignonia and grevillea; with +purple passion-creeper; with scarlet coral and poinciana; with blue +_jacaranda_ (rosewood), solanum and lavender; and with +sight-dazzling bougainvillea of five varieties, in mauve, pink, and +orange sheets. Nor have the upper heights been wholly bared. The +mountain-flanks are still bushy and tufty with broom, gorse, and furze; +with myrtle, bilberry and whortleberry; with laurels; with heaths 20 +feet high, and with the imported pine. + +We spin round fantastic Garajáo, [Footnote: Not the meaningless Garajão, +as travellers will write it.] the wart-nosed cliff of 'terns' or +'sea-swallows' (_Sterna hirundo_), by the northern barbarian +termed, from its ruddy tints, Brazen Head. Here opens the well-known +view perpetuated by every photographer--first the blue bay, then the +sheet of white houses gradually rising in the distance. We anchor in the +open roadstead fronting the Fennel-field ('Funchal'), concerning which +the Spaniard spitefully says-- + + Donde crece la escola + Nace el asno que la roya. + +[Footnote: + + Wheresoe'er the fennel grows + Lives the ass that loves to browse.] + +And there, straight before us, lies the city, softly couched against the +hill-side that faces the southern sea, and enjoying her 'kayf' in the +sinking sun. Her lower zone, though in the Temperates, is sub-tropical: +Tuscany is found in the mid-heights, while it is Scotland in the bleak +wolds about Pico Ruivo (6,100 feet) and the Paül (Moorland) da Serra. I +now see some change since 1865. East of the yellow-washed, brown-bound +fort of São Thiago Minor, the island patron, rises a huge white pile, or +rather piles, the Lazaretto, with its three-arched bridge spanning the +Wady Gonçalo Ayres. The fears of the people forbid its being used, +although separated from them by a mile of open space. This over-caution +at Madeira, as at Tenerife, often causes great inconvenience to foreign +residents; moreover, it is directly opposed to treaty. There is a neat +group, meat-market, abattoir, and fish-market--where there is ne'er a +flat fish save those who buy--near those dreariest of academic groves, +the Praça Academica, at the east end proper, or what an Anglo-Indian +would term the 'native town.' Here we see the joint mouth of the +torrent-beds Santa Luzia and João Gomes which has more than once deluged +Funchal. Timid Funchalites are expecting another flood: the first was in +1803, the second in 1842, and thus they suspect a cycle of forty +years. [Footnote: The guide-books make every twenty-fifth year a season +of unusual rain, the last being 1879-80.] The lately repaired Sé +(cathedral) in the heart of the mass is conspicuous for its steeple of +_azulejos_, or varnished tiles, and for the ruddy painting of the +black basaltic façade, contrasting less violently with the huge +splotches of whitewash, the magpie-suit in which the church-architecture +of the Madeiras and the Canaries delights. The São Francisco convent, +with its skull-lined walls, and the foundations of its proposed +successor, the law courts, have disappeared from the space adjoining the +main square; this chief promenade, the Praça da Constituição, is grown +with large magnolias, vinhaticos, or native mahogany (_Persea +Indica_), and til-trees (_Oreodaphne foetens_), and has been +supplemented by the dwarf flower-garden (Jardim Novo) lately opened to +the west. The latter, I regret to say, caused the death of many noble +old trees, including a fine palm; but Portuguese, let me repeat, have +scant sympathy with such growth. The waste ground now belonging to the +city will be laid out as a large public garden with fountains and +band-stands. Finally, that soundly abused 'Tower of Babel,' _alias_ +'Benger's Folly,' built in 1796, has in the evening of its days been +utilised by conversion into a signal-tower. So far so good. + +But the stump of _caes_, or jetty, which was dashed to pieces more +than a score of years ago, remains as it was; The landing-place calls +loudly for a T-headed pier of concrete blocks, or a gangway supported +upon wooden piles and metal pilasters: one does not remark the want in +fine weather; one does bitterly on bad days. There has been no attempt +to make a port or even a _débarcadère_ by connecting the basaltic +lump Loo (Ilheu) Fort with the Pontinha, the curved scorpion's tail of +rock and masonry, Messieurs Blandy's coal stores, to the west. Big ships +must still roll at anchor in a dangerous open roadstead far off shore; +and, during wet weather, ladies, well drenched by the surf, must be +landed with the aid of a crane in what should be the inner harbour. The +broken-down circus near Reid's is to become a theatre, but whence the +money is to come no one knows. The leper hospital cannot afford to make +up more than nine or ten beds. The jail is in its old disgraceful state, +and sadly wants reform: here the minimum of punishment would suffice; I +never saw the true criminal face, and many of the knick-knacks bought in +Madeira are the work of these starving wretches. The Funchal Club gives +periodically a subscription ball, 'to ameliorate, if possible, the +condition of the prisoners at the Funchal jail'--asking strangers, in +fact, to do the work of Government. The Praça da Rainha, a dwarf walk +facing the huge yellow Government House, alias Palacio de São Lourenço, +has been grown with mulberries intended for sericulture. Unfortunately, +whatever may here be done by one party (the 'ins') is sure to be undone +when the 'outs' become 'ins.' There has been no change in the 'Palace,' +except that the quaint portraits of one-eyed Zargo, who has left many +descendants in the island, and of the earlier Captains-General, +dignitaries who were at once civil and military, have been sent to the +Lisbon Exhibition. The queer old views of Machim's landing and of +Funchal Bay still amuse visitors. Daily observations for meteorology are +here taken at 9 A.M. and 3 and 9 P.M.; the observatory standing eighty +feet above sea-level. + +As our anchor rattles downwards, two excise boats with the national flag +take up their stations to starboard and port; and the boatmen are +carefully watched with telescopes from the shore. The wiser Spaniards +have made Santa Cruz, Tenerife, a free port. The health-officer +presently gives us _pratique_, and we welcome the good 'monopolist,' +Mr. William Reid, and his son. The former, an Ayrshire +man, has made himself proprietor of the four chief hostelries. Yates's +or Hollway's in the _Entrada da Cidade_, or short avenue running +north from the landing-place, has become a quasi-ruinous +telegraph-station. Reid's has blossomed into the 'Royal Edinburgh;' it +is rather a tavern than an hotel, admitting the 'casuals' from passing +steamers and men who are not welcome elsewhere. One of these, who called +himself a writer for the press, and who waxed insultingly drunk, made +our hours bitter; but the owner has a satisfactory and sovereign way of +dealing with such brutes. Miles's has become the Carmo, and Schlaff's +the 'German.' The fourth, Santa Clara, retains her maiden name; the +establishment is somewhat _collet monté_, but I know none in Europe +more comfortable. There are many others of the second rank; and the +Hôtel Central, with its café-billiard and estaminet at the +city-entrance, is a good institution which might be made better. + +We throw a few coppers to the diving-boys, who are expert as the Somali +savages of Aden, and we quit our water prison in the three-keeled boats, + + Magno telluris amore + Egressi + +'Tellus,' however, is represented at Funchal by chips and pebbles of +black basalt like petrified kidneys, stuck on edge, often upon a base of +bare rock. They are preferred to the slabs of Trieste and Northern +Italy, which here, with the sole exception of the short Rua de +Bettencourt, are confined to flights of steps. The surfaces are greased +by rags and are polished by the passage of 'cars' or coach-sleighs, +which irreverents call 'cow-carts;' these vehicles, evidently suggested +by the _corsa_, or common sleigh, consist of a black-curtained +carriage-body mounted on runners. The queer cobble-pavement, that +resembles the mosaics of clams and palm-nuts further south, has sundry +advantages. It is said to relieve the horses' back sinews; it is never +dusty; the heaviest rain flows off it at once; nor is it bad walking +when the kidney-stones are small. The black surface is sometimes +diapered with white pebbles, lime from Porto Santo. Very strange is the +glare of moonlight filtered through the foliage; the beams seem to fall +upon patches of iced water. + +We had not even the formality of a visit to the Custom-house: our +unopened boxes were expected to pay only a small fee, besides the hire +of boat, porters, and sledges. A _cedula interina_, costing 200 +reis (11_d_.), was the sole expense for a permit to reside. What a +contrast with London and Liverpool, where I have seen a uniform-case and +a cocked hat-box subjected to the 'perfect politeness' of certain +unpleasant officials: where collections of natural history are plundered +by paid thieves, [Footnote: When we last landed at Liverpool (May 22), +the top tray of my wife's trunk reached us empty, and some of the +choicest birds shot by Cameron and myself were stolen. Since the days of +Waterton the Liverpudlian custom-house has been a scandal and a national +disgrace.] and where I have been obliged to drop my solitary bottle of +Syrian raki! + +I was hotelled at the 'Royal Edinburgh,' and enjoyed once more the +restful calm of a quasi-tropical night, broken only by the Christmas +twanging of the machete (which is to the guitar what kit is to fiddle); +by the clicking of the pebbles on the shore, and by the gentle murmuring +of the waves under the window. + +NOTE.--The Madeiran Archipelago consists of five islands disposed in a +scalene triangle, whose points are Porto Santo (23 miles, north-east), +Madeira (west), and the three Desertas (11 miles, south-east). The Great +and Little Piton of the Selvagens, or Salvages (100 miles, south), +though belonging to Portugal and to the district of Funchal, are +geographically included in the Canarian group. Thus, probably, we may +explain the 'Aprositos,' or Inaccessible Island, which Ptolemy + +[Footnote: The great Alexandrian is here (iv. 6, §§ 33-4) sadly out of +his reckoning. He places the group of six islands adjacent to Libya many +degrees too far south (N. lat. 10°-16°), and assigns one meridian (0° 0' +0") to Aprositos, Pluitana (Pluvialia? Hierro?), Caspeiria (Capraria? +Lanzarote?), and another and the same (1° 0' 0") to Pintouaria (Nivaria? +Tenerife?), Hera (Junonia? Gomera?), and Canaria.] + +includes in his Six Fortunates; and the Isle of SS. Borondon and +Maclovius the Welshman (St. Malo). The run from Lizard's Point is laid +down at 1,164 miles; from Lisbon, 535; from Cape Cantin, 320; from +Mogador (9° 40' west long.), 380; and 260 from Santa Cruz, Tenerife. The +main island lies between N. lat. 32° 49' 44" and 32° 37' 18"; the +parallel is that of Egypt, of Upper India, of Nankin, and of +California. Its longitude is included within 16° 39' 30" and 17° 16' 38" +west of Greenwich. The extreme length is thus 37-1/2 (usually set down +as 33 to 54) miles; the breadth, 12-1/2 (popularly 15-16 1/2); the +circumference, 72; the coast-line, about 110; and the area, 240--nearly +the size of Huntingdonshire, a little smaller than the Isle of Man, and +a quarter larger than the Isle of Wight. Pico Ruivo, the apex of the +central volcanic ridge, rises 6,050-6,100 feet, with a slope of 1 in +3.75; the perpetual snow-line being here 11,500. Madeira is supposed to +tower from a narrow oceanic trough, ranging between 13,200 and 16,800 +feet deep. Of 340 days, there are 263 of north-east winds, 8 of north, 7 +of east, and 62 of west. The rainfall averages only 29.82 to 30.62 +inches per annum. The over-humidity of the climate arises from its lying +in the Guinea Gulf Stream, which bends southward, about the Azores, from +its parent the great Gulf Stream, striking the Canaries and flowing +along the Guinea shore. (White and Johnson's Guide-Book, and 'Du Climat +de Madère,' &c., par A. C. Mourão-Pitta, Montpellier, 1859, the latter +ably pleading a special cause.) + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A FORTNIGHT AT MADEIRA. + +I passed Christmas week at the 'Flower of the Wavy Field;' and, in the +society of old and new friends, found nothing of that sameness and +monotony against which so many, myself included, have whilom +declaimed. The truth is that most places breed _ennui_ for an idle +man. Nor is the climate of Madeira well made for sedentary purposes: it +is apter for one who loves to _flâner_, or, as Victor Hugo has it, +_errer songeant_. + +Having once described Funchal at some length, I see no reason to repeat +the dose; and yet, as Miss Ellen M. Taylor's book shows, + +[Footnote: _Madeira: its Scenery, and how to see it._ Stanford, +London, 1878. This is an acceptable volume, all the handbooks being out +of print. I reviewed it in the _Academy_ July 22, 1882.] + +the subject, though old and well-worn, can still bear a successor to the +excellent White and Johnson handbook. + +[Footnote: Mr. Johnson still survives; not so the well-known Madeiran +names Bewick, (Sir Frederick) Pollock, and Lowe (Rev, R. T.) The latter +was drowned in 1873, with his wife, in the s.s. _Liberia_, Captain +Lowry. The steamer went down in the Bay of Biscay, it is supposed from a +collision. I sailed with Captain Lowry (s.s. _Athenian_) in January +1863, when St. George's steeple was rocking over Liverpool: he was +nearly washed into the lee scuppers, and a quartermaster was swept +overboard during a bad squall. I found him an excellent seaman, and I +deeply regretted his death.] + + As early as 1827 'The Rambler in Madeira' (Mr. Lyall) proclaimed the + theme utterly threadbare, in consequence of 'every traveller opening + his quarto (?) with a short notice of it;' and he proceeded at once to + indite a fair-sized octavo. Humboldt said something of the same sort in + his 'Personal Narrative,' and forthwith wrote the worst description of + the capital and the 'Pike' of Tenerife that any traveller has ever + written of any place. He confesses to having kept a meagre diary, not + intending to publish a mere book of travels, and drew his picture + probably from recollection and diminutive note-books. + +I found Funchal open-hearted and open-handed as ever; and the pleasure +of my stay was marred only by two considerations, both purely +personal. Elysian fields and green countries do not agree with all +temperaments. Many men are perfectly and causelessly miserable in the +damp heats of Western India and the Brazil. We must in their case simply +reverse the Wordsworthian dictum, + + Not melancholy--no, for it is green. + +They are perfectly happy in the Arabian desert, and even in Tenerife, +where others feel as if living perpetually on the verge of high fever. + +To this 'little misery' were added the displeasures of memory. Our last +long visit was in 1863, when the Conde de Farrobo ruled the land, and +when the late Lord Brownlow kept open house at the beautiful Vigia. I +need hardly say that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves: the impressions of +that good old time were deep and durable. + +Amongst other things, Governor Farrobo indulged his fair friends with a +display of the old _jogo de canas_, or running at the ring. The +Praça Academica had been rigged out to serve as a tilting-yard, with a +central alley of palisading and two 'stands,' grand and little. The +purpose was charitable, and the performers were circus-horses, mounted +by professionals and amateurs, who thus 'renowned it' before the public +and their _damas_. The circlet, hanging to a line, equalled the +diameter of a small boy's hat; and when the 'knight' succeeded in +bearing it off upon his pole, he rode up to be decorated by the hands of +a very charming person with a ribbon-_baudrière_ of Bath dimensions +and rainbow colours. Prizes were banal as medals after a modern war, and +perhaps for the same purpose--to prevent unchristian envy, hatred, and +malice. Almost any trooper in an Anglo-Indian cavalry regiment would +have done better; but then he would have couched his bamboo spear +properly and would have put out his horse to speed--an idea which seemed +to elude the Madeiran mind. The fête ended with a _surprise_ less +expensive than that with which the Parisian restaurant astonishes the +travelling Britisher. A paper chandelier was suspended between two +posts, of course to be knocked down, when out sprang an angry +hunch-backed dwarf, who abused and fiercely struck at all straight backs +within reach. + +Madeira is celebrated for excursions, which, however, are enjoyable only +in finest weather. Their grand drawback is inordinate expense; you may +visit the whole seaboard of Morocco, and run to Tenerife and return for +the sum spent in a week of Madeiran travel. The following tour to the +north of the island was marked out for us by the late Mr. Bewick; his +readiness to oblige, his extensive local knowledge, and his high +scientific attainments caused his loss to be long felt in the Isle of +Wood. 'You make on the first day Santa Anna, on the opposite coast, a +six to eight hours' stage by horse or hammock, passing through the grand +scenery of the valleys Metade, Meiometade, and Ribeiro Frio. + +[Footnote: Most of these places are given in _Views_ (26) _in the +Madeiras, &c._, by the Rev. James Bulwer. London, Rivington, 1829. He +also wrote _Rambles in Madeira and in Portugal in _1826.] + + The next day takes you to Pico Ruivo, Rothhorn, Puy Rouge, or Red Peak, + the loftiest in the island, whose summit commands a view of a hundred + hills, and you again night at Santa Anna. The third stage is to the + rocky gorge of São Vicente, which abounds in opportunities for + neck-breaking. The next is a long day with a necessary guide to the + Paül da Serra, the "Marsh of the Wold," and the night is passed at + Seixal, on the north-west coast, famous for its corniche-road. The + fifth day conducts you along-shore to Ponta Delgada, and the last leads + from this "Thin Point" through the Grand Curral back to Funchal.' + +I mention this excursion that the traveller may carefully avoid it in +winter, especially when we attempted the first part, February being the +very worst month. After many days of glorious weather the temper of the +atmosphere gave way; the mercury fell to 28.5, and we were indulged with +a succession of squalls and storms, mists and rain. The elemental rage, +it is true, was that of your southern coquette, sharp, but short, and +broken by intervals of a loving relapse into caress. In the uplands and +on the northern coast, however, it shows the concentrated spleen and +gloom of a climate in high European latitudes. + +We contented ourselves with the Caminho do Meio, the highway supposed to +bisect the island, and gradually rising to the Rocket Road (_Caminho +do Foguete_) with a pleasant slope of 23°, or 1 in 2 1/3. These roads +are heavy on the three h's--head, heart, and hand. We greatly enjoyed +the view from the famous Levada, the watercourse or leat-road of Santa +Luzia, with its scatter of noble _quintas_, + +[Footnote: The country-house is called a _quinta_, or fifth, +because that is the proportion of produce paid by the tenant to the +proprietor.] + +St. Lucy's, St. Anne's, Quinta Davies, Palmeira, and Til. Nossa Senhora +do Monte, by Englishmen misnamed 'the Convent,' and its break-arm +slide-down, in basket-sleighs, is probably as well known, if not better +known, to the reader than St. Paul's, City. Here we found sundry +votaries prostrating themselves before a dark dwarf 'Lady' with jewelled +head and spangled jupe: not a few were crawling on their knees up the +cruel cobble-stones of the mount. On the right yawned the 'Little +Curral,' as our countrymen call the Curral das Romeiras (of the +Pilgrimesses); it is the head of the deluging torrent-bed, João +Gomes. Well worth seeing is this broken punch-bowl, with its wild steep +gap; and, if the traveller want a vertiginous walk, let him wend his way +along the mid-height of the huge tongue which protrudes itself from the +gorge to the valley-mouth. + +Near the refuge-house called the Poizo, some 4,500 feet above sea-level, +a road to the right led us to Comacha, where stood Mr. Edward Hollway's +summer _quinta_. It occupies a ridge-crest of a transverse rib +projected southerly, or seawards, from the central range which, trending +east-west, forms the island dorsum. Hence its temperature is 60° (F.) +when the conservatory upon the bay shows 72°. Below it, 1,800 feet high, +and three miles north-east of the city, lies the Palheiro do Ferreiro +('blacksmith's straw-hut'), the property of the once wealthy Carvalhal +house. The name of these 'Lords of the Oak-ground' is locally +famous. Chronicles mention a certain Count Antonio who flourished, or +rather 'larked,' circa A.D. 1500. In those days the land bore giants and +heroes, and Madeiran blood had not been polluted by extensive +miscegenation with the negro. Anthony, who was feller than More of More +Hall, rode with ungirthed saddle over the most dangerous _achadas_ +(ledges); a single buffet of this furious knight smashed a wild boar, +and he could lift his horse one palm off the ground by holding to a tree +branch. The estate has been wilfully wasted by certain of his +descendants. Comacha, famous for picnics, is a hamlet rich in seclusion +and fine air; it might be utilised by those who, like the novel-heroes +of Thackeray and Bulwer, deliberately sit down to vent themselves in a +book. + +Pico Ruivo was a distressing failure. We saw nothing save a Scotch mist, +which wetted us to the bones; and we shivered standing in a slush of +snow which would have been quite at home in Upper Norwood. On this +topmost peak were found roots of the Madeiran cedar (_Juniperus +Oxycedrus_), showing that at one time the whole island was well +wooded. + +We need not believe in the seven years' fire; but the contrast of the +southern coast with the northern, where the forests primaeval of +Lauraceae and Myrtaceae still linger, shows the same destructive process +which injured Ireland and ruined Iceland. The peculiarity of these +uplands, within certain limits, is that the young spring-verdure clothes +them before it appears in the lower and warmer levels. Here they catch a +sunshine untarnished by watery vapour. + +During our short trip and others subsequent many a little village showed +us the Madeiran peasant pure and simple. Both sexes are distressingly +plain; I saw only one pretty girl amongst them. Froggy faces, dark +skins, and wiry hair are the rule; the reason being that in the good old +days a gentleman would own some eighty slaves. [Footnote: As early as +1552 the total of African imports amounted to 2,700.] But they are an +industrious and reproductive race. + +[Footnote: The following note of the census of 1878 was given to me by +my kind colleague, Mr. Consul Hayward:-- + + Habitations Males Females Total +Madeira.............28,522 62,900 67,367 130,267 +Porto Santo......... 435 874 874 1,748 + _______ + 132,015 + +_No. of Persons who can read and write._ + + Males Females Total +Madeira..............................4,454 4,286 8,740 +Porto Santo.......................... 77 34 111 + ______ + 8,851 + +_No. of Persons who can read but not write._ + + Males Females Total +Madeira.......1,659 2,272 3,931 +Porto Santo... 42 60 102 + _____ + 4,033 + +Miss Taylor (_Madeira_, p. 58) reduces to 33,000--evidently a +misprint--this population about four times as dense as that of +Portugal.] + +Many Madeirans highly distinguished themselves in the Dutch-Brazilian +wars, especially the 'Castriota Lusitano.' His name is unknown; he +changed it when he left his islet home, the townlet Santa Cruz. These +islanders were the model 'navvies' of the age before steam: Albuquerque +applied for Madeirans when he formed the barbarous project of diverting +the Nile to the Red Sea. Their descendants are beggars from the cradle; +but they beg with a good grace, and not with a curse or an insult like +the European 'asker' when refused: moreover, the mendicant pest is not +now over-prevalent. In the towns they cheat and pilfer; they gamble in +the streets; they drink hard on Saturdays and Sundays, and at times they +murder one another. Liquor is cheap; a bottle of _aguardente_ or +_caxaça_ (new raw rum) costs only fivepence, and the second +distillation ninepence. I heard of one assault upon an English girl, but +strangers are mostly safe amongst them. Their extreme civility, +docility, and good temper, except when spoilt by foreigners, makes it a +pleasure to deal with them. They touch their hats with a frank smile, +not the Spanish scowl near Gibraltar, or of Santa Cruz, Tenerife. The +men are comparatively noiseless; a bawling voice startles you like a +pistol-shot. I rarely heard a crying child or a scolding woman offering +'eau bénite à la Xantippe;' even the cocks and hens tied to old shoes +cackle with reserve. The climate tames everything from Dom to +donkey. Except in January and February it is still, intensely still--the +very leaves seem to hang motionless. This softness shows itself +especially in the language, which has none of the abruptness of European +Portuguese. The sound is a drawling singsong; the articulation is +peculiar, and the vocabulary is in some points confined to the Island. + +The country people, an active, agile, unmuscular race, mostly preserve +the old national dress. Some men still wear, and both sexes once wore, +the ridiculous _carapuça_, or funnel-cap with a rat-tail for a +tassel. The rest of the toilet consists of homespun cottons, shirts and +knickerbockers, with buff shoes or boots broad-soled and heelless. The +traveller who prefers walking should always use this _chaussure_, +and the 'little girl in topboots' is still a standing joke. The women +affect parti-coloured petticoats of home-made baize or woollen stuff, +dyed blue, scarlet, brown, or orange; a scalloped cape of the same +material bound with some contrasting hue; and a white or coloured +head-kerchief, sometimes topped by the _carapuça_, but rarely by +the vulgar 'billycock' of the Canaries. In the villages crimson shawls +and capes are general, and they cover the head like mantillas. + +The peasant's cot is of the simplest, and those in the plantations +suggest African huts. Even the best houses, except when copied from the +English, are scantily furnished; and little beyond a roof is absolutely +wanted. The home of the _cazeiro_, or peasant tenant practically +irremovable, is whitewashed and thatched, the straw forming a crest +along the ridge. It covers only one room, converted by a curtain into +'but' and 'ben.' A parental bed, a rickety table, and two or three +stools or settles compose the necessaries; the ornaments are the saints +hanging to the walls, and for windows there are shutters with a sliding +panel. The feeding apparatus consists of a kind of quern for grinding +corn, especially maize, + +[Foonote: The word is of doubtful origin, generally derived from the +Haytian _mahiz_. But in northern Europe _mayse_ (Irish _maise_) +bread, and the Old High German _maz_ (Hind. _mans_) means meat] + +which, however, is now too dear for general use; sundry vegetable +baskets, and an iron pot for boiling fish and porridge, arums +(_Inhame_), and koko (_Colocasia esculenta_). They have some +peculiar dishes, such as the _bolo de mel_, a ginger cake eaten at +Christmas, and the famous _carne de vinho e alhos_ (meat of wine +and garlic). The latter is made by marinating pork in vinegar with +garlic and the herb called _oragão_ (origanum, or wild marjoram); +it is eaten broiled, and even Englishmen learn to appreciate a dish +which is said to _conversar_. The stewed fowl with rice is also +national. As everywhere in Portugal, _bacalháo_, + +[Footnote: Brevoort derives the word from _baculus_, the stick +which keeps the fish open; others from the German _boloh_, fish. In +1498 Seb. Cabot speaks of 'great fishes which the natives call +Baccalaos.' He thus makes the word 'Indian;' whereas Dr. Kohl, when +noticing the cod-fisheries of Europe, declares that in Germany it is +Backljau. Mr. O. Crawford (_Portugal, Old and New._ London: +C. Kegan Paul, 1880) rightly notes that 'bacalháo' applies equally to +the fresh fish and the dried fish.] + +or dried cod-fish, cooked with garlic or onions, is deservedly a +favourite: it contains more nourishment than beef. There is superior +originality amongst the _doces_ (sweetmeats) for which Madeira was +once world-famous; and in the _queques_ (cakes), such as +lagrimas-cakes, cocoanut-cakes, and _rabanadas_, the Moorish +'rabanat,' slabs of wheat bread soaked in milk, fried in olive oil, and +spread with honey. The drink is water, or, at best, _agua-pé_, the +last straining of the grape. Many peasants, who use no stimulant during +the day, will drink on first rising a dram _para espantar o Diabo_ +(to frighten the Devil), as do the Congoese _paramatar o bicho_ (to +kill the worm). + +Here cleanliness is _not_ next to godliness. People bathe only in +hot weather--the rule of man and the lower mammalia. A quick and +intelligent race they are, like the Spaniards and Bedawi Arabs, a +contradiction in religious matters: the Madeiran believes in little or +nothing, yet he hates a _Calvinista_ like the very fiend. They have +lost, as the census shows, something of their extreme ignorance, and +have abated their worst superstitions since the expulsion of the Jesuits +by Pombal (1759), and the reforms of 1820, 1828, and 1835. In the latter +year Dom Pedro suppressed monkeries and nunneries by disallowing masses, +and by pensioning the holy tenantry with 9 dols. per mensem, afterwards, +reduced to 5 dols. In 1863 the bishop, Dom Patricio Xavier de Moura, did +his best to abolish the pretty _refocaria_ (the hearth-lighter), +who, as Griraldus hath it, extinguished more virtue than she lit fires; +and now the rectory is seldom gladdened by the presence of noisy little +nephews and nieces. The popular morals, using the word in its limited +sense, were peculiar. The number of _espostos que não se sabe quem, +são seus pais_ (fatherless foundlings) outnumbered those born _de +legitimo matrimonio_; and few of the gudewives prided themselves upon +absolute fidelity. This flaw, which in England would poison all domestic +affection, was not looked upon in a serious light by the islandry. The +priesthood used to lament the degeneracy of the age and sigh for the +fine times of _foros e fogos_, the rights and fires of an +_auto-da-fé_. The shepherds have now learned to move with the times +and to secure the respect of their sheep. Imagine being directed to +Paradise by a reverend man who gravely asks you where and what Hanover +is. + +Another important change is being brought about by the emigrant. During +the last few years the old rule has been relaxed, and whole families +have wandered abroad in search of fortune. Few Madeirans in these days +ship for the Brazil, once the land of their predilection. They prefer +Cape Town, Honolulu, the Antilles, and especially Demerara; and now the +'Demerarista' holds the position of the 'Brasileiro' in Portugal and the +'Indio' or 'Indiano' of the Canaries: in time he will buy up half the +island. + +In 1862 we hired rowing and sailing boats to visit the southern coast +east and west of Funchal. For the last twelvemonth Mr. Blandy's +steam-tug _Falcão_ has carried travellers to and fro: it is a great +convenience to the lazy sightseer, who cares only to view the outside of +things, and here the outsides are the only things worth viewing. + +We will begin with the western trip to Paül do Mar, affording a grand +prospect of basaltic pillars and geological dykes, and of the three +features--rocky, sylvan, and floral. Steaming by the mouth of the wady +or ravine Sao João, whose decayed toy forts, S. Lazaro and the +palace-battery, are still cumbered with rusty cannon, we pass under the +cliff upon whose brow stand some of the best buildings. These are the +Princess Dona Maria Amelia's _Hospicio_, or Consumptive Hospital, +built on Mr. Lamb's plans and now under management of the French +_soeurs_, whose gull wings are conspicuous at Funchal; the Asylo, +or Poor-house, opened in 1847 for the tempering of mendicancy; and +facing it, in unpleasant proximity, the Portuguese cemetery, decorated +as to its entrance with sundry skulls and cross-bones, and showing its +tall cypresses to the bay. Here comes the Quinta (Comtesse) Lambert, +once occupied by Queen Adelaide. The owner doubled the rent; +consequently _Las Angustías_ (the Agonies), as it was called from +an old chapel, has been unrented for the last two years. A small +pleasaunce overhanging a perpendicular cliff, and commanding a glorious +view, shows the Quinta da Vigia, lately bought by Mr. Hollway for +8,000_l_., and let at 500_l_. to 1,000_l_, a year. Nothing more +charming than its grounds, which attracted H.I.M. of Austria, and +now the charming Countess Tyszkiewicz. Landward it faces the Rua +da Imperatriz, which leads to the 'Loo Fields.' + +The study of basaltic pillars at once begins: Loo Fort is partly built +upon them. Beyond Vigia cliff we pass in succession three jagged +island-rocks, called 'gurgulhos,' or black-beetles (_curculio_), +which, like the opposite foreshore, admirably show the formation. As a +rule the columns are quadrangular; I saw but few pentagons and +hexagons. We cast a look at a spouter of circular shape, the Forja, and +the Forno, a funnel-formed blowing-rock. The cliff is pierced with a +multitude of caves, large and small, and their regular arches look as if +the ejected matter, as happens with lava, had cooled and solidified +above, while still flowing out in a fiery torrent below. Mostly, +however, they are the work of wind and water. + +Then comes the old Gurgulho Fort--a dwarf square, partly thatched and +converted into a private dwelling. It lies below Signal Hill, with its +dwarf ruined tower, a lumpy parasitic crater whose western slopes have +been ruined by disforesting. Between the two runs the New Road, which +owes its being to the grape-famine of 1852. It is the 'Rotten Row' of +Funchal, where horses tread the earth instead of skating and sliding +over the greased pebbles; and where fair amazons charge upon you like +Indian irregular cavalry. Five miles long, it is the only level line of +any extent in Madeira, and it wants but one thing--prolongation. The +lion in the path, however, is Cape Girâo, which would cost a treasure to +'tunnel' or to cut into a corniche. + +The next feature is the Ponta da Cruz, a fantastic slice of detached +basalt. Here, at the southernmost point of the island, the Descobridores +planted a cross, and every boatman doffs his cap to its little iron +descendant. Beyond it comes the Praia Formosa, a long line of shingle +washed down by a deep ravine. All these brooks have the same origin, and +their extent increases the importance of the wady. In 1566 the French +pirates under De Montluc, miscalled heretics (_hereges Ugnotas_) +landed here, as, indeed, every enemy should. The colour of 'Fair Reach' +is ashen grey, scolloped with cinder-black where the creamy foam breaks: +for beauty it wants only golden sands, and for use a few bathing +machines. + +The next notable feature is the Ribeira dos Soccorridos ('River of the +Rescued'), where two of the Zargo's lads were with difficulty saved from +the violent stream then flowing. It is now provided with a long +bridge-causeway of three arches, approached by a chapel, Nossa Senhora +das Victorias, whose tiled and pillared porch reminds one of +Istria. This bed is the drain of the Grand Curral, called by the people +'Das Freiras,' because the holy women here took refuge from the +plundering French 'Lutherans.' The favourite picnic-ground is reached in +three hours from Funchal by two roads, both winding amongst the +pap-shaped hillocks which denote parasitic cones, and both abutting upon +the ravine-side, east and west. The latter, skirting the Pico dos Bodes +(of he-goats), a tall cone seen from near Funchal, and sentinelling the +great gap, is the joy-for-ever of midshipmites. To the horror of the +burriqueiro, or syce, they gallop hired screws, high-heeled as their +grandams, over paths at which an English stag would look twice; and for +a dollar they secure as much chance of a broken limb, if not of 'going +to pot with a young lady' (Captain Basil Hall's phrase), as reasonable +beings can expect. + +The Grand Curral is the central vent of a volcano originally submarine, +and, like the Peak of Tenerife, of the age miocene. Fossils of that +epoch have been found upon the crater-walls of both. Subsequent +movements capped it with subaerial lavas and conglomerates; and wind and +weather, causing constant degradation, deepened the bowl and almost +obliterated signs of igneous action. This is general throughout Madeira; +the only craters still noticed by guide-books are the Lagos (Lake) de +Santo Antonio da Serra, east of Funchal and west of Machico, 500 feet +across by 150 deep; and, secondly, the Fanal to the north-west, about +5,000 feet above sea-level. The Curral floor, smooth and bald, is cut by +a silvery line of unsunned rivulet which at times must swell to a +torrent; and little white cots like egg-shells are scattered around the +normal parish-church, Nossa Senhora do Livramento. The basin-walls, some +2,000 feet high and pinnacled by the loftiest peaks in the island, are +profusely dyked and thickly and darkly forested; and in the bright blue +air, flecked with woolpack, Manta, the buzzard, and frequent kestrels +pass to and fro like flies. + +Beyond the Soccorridos lies the charming valley of Camara dos Lobos, +popularly Cama di Lobos, + +[Footnote: It is placed west instead of east of Cape Girao in the +_Conoise Handbook of Madeira_, by the Rev. J. M. Rendell. London: +Kegan Paul and Co., 1881.] + +the lair of the sea-wolves, or seals. With its vivid lines of +sugar-cane, its terraces, its fine remains of forest vegetation, and its +distances of golden lights, of glazed blue half-lights, and of purple +shades, it looks like a stage-rake, a _décor de théatre_. +Tunny-fishing, wine-making, and sugar-boiling have made it, +from a 'miserable place,' a wealthy townlet whose tall white houses +would not disgrace a city; two manufactories show their craft by heaps +of _bagasse_, or trash; and the deep shingly bay, defended by a +_gurgulho_ of basaltic pillars, is covered with piscator's gear and +with gaily painted green boats. 'Seal's Lair' was the model district of +wine-production, like its neighbour on the north-western upland, +Campanario, famous for its huge Spanish chestnut: both were, however, +wasted by the oidium of 1852. In 1863 it partially recovered, under the +free use of sulphur; but now it has been ravaged by the more dangerous +phylloxera, which is spreading far faster than Mr. Henry Vizetelly +supposes. + +[Footnote: _Facts about Port and Madeira_, by Henry Vizetelly, who +visited the island in 1877. The papers first appeared in the (old +original) Pall Mall Gazette (August 26-September 4,1877), and then were +published in a volume by Ward and Lock, 1880] + +The only cure of this pest known to Madeira is the troublesome and +expensive process practised by a veteran oenologist, Mr. Leacock. + +He bares every vine-root, paints it with turpentine and resin, and +carefully manures the plant to restore its stamina. Mr. Taylor, of +Funchal, has successfully defended the vines about his town-house by the +simple tonic of compost. But the Lobos people have, methinks, done +wisely to uproot the infected plant wholesale: indeed, from this point +to the furthest west we hardly saw a vine-stock. They have supplied its +place with garden-stuff, an article which always finds a ready sale. The +island is annually visited by at least 500 English ships, and there is a +steady demand for 'green meat.' I am not aware that beet-root, one of +the best antiscorbutics, has been extensively tried. + +Off Cama di Lobos is the best tunny-fishing. It is practised quite +differently from the Mediterranean style; here the labyrinth of nets is +supplanted by the line of 300 fathoms. At night the bright fires on +board the fishing-canoes make travellers suspect that spears, grains, or +harpoons are used. This, however, is not the case; line-fishing is +universal, and the lights serve mostly for signals. + +From Cama di Lobos the huge hill-shoulder to the west, whose face, Cabo +Girão, must be ascended by a rough, steep incline. Far easier to view +the scene from a boat. Cape 'Turn Again' is the furthest occidental +point reached by the far-famed exploration of O Zargo. The profile +suggests it to be the northern half of a dome once regular and complete, +but cut in two, as a cake might be, by time and the elements. It has the +name of being the 'highest sea-wall in the world' (1,934 feet); if so, +little Madeira can boast her 'unicum.' Beaching the summit, you either +stand up regardant or you peer couchant, as your nerves incline, down a +height whose merit is to be peculiarly high. Facetious picnickers roll +over the edge-rocks which may kill the unfortunates gathering +grass--dreadful trade!--upon the dizzy ledges. There are also quarrymen +who extract _cantaria_-slabs for sills and copings from the four +square apertures which look afar like mortice-holes; and a fine marbled +stone, white, blue, and ruddy, has been taken from this part of the +cliff-face. Finally, there is a little knot of tiny huts which sticks +like a wasp-nest to the very foot of the huge wall. + +Seen from the deep indigo-blue water, that turns leek-green in the +shallows, Cape Girão ('they turn') is a grand study of volcanic +dykes. They are of all sizes, from a rope to a cable multiplied a +thousandfold; and they stand out in boldest dado-relief where the soft +background of tufa, or laterite, has been crumbled away by rain and +storm-blast. Some writers have described them as ramifying like a tree +and its branches, and crossing and interlacing like the ties of a +building; as if sundry volcanic vents had a common centre below. I saw +nothing of this kind. The dykes of light grey material, sometimes +hollowed out and converted into gutters by falling water, appeared to +have been shot up in distinct lines, and the only crossing was where a +slip or a fault occurred. + +A front view of Cape Girão shows that it is supported on either side, +east and west, by buttresses of a darker rock: the eastern dip at an +angle of 45°, the western range between 20° above and 40° below. The +great central upheaval seems to have pushed its way through these older +strata, once straight, now inclined. The layers of the more modern +formation--lavas and scoriae--are horizontal; sheets of sub-columnar, +compact basalt have been spread upon and have crushed down to +paper-thickness their beds of bright red tufa, here and there white with +a saline effervescence. Of such distinct superimpositions we counted in +one place five; there may have been many more. All are altered soils, as +is shown by remains of trees and decayed vegetation. + +Beyond Cabo Girão the scenery is grand enough, but monotonous in the +extreme. The island is girt by a sea-wall, more or less perpendicular; +from this coping there is a gentle upslope, the marvellous terracing for +cultivation being carried up to the mountain-tops. The lower levels are +everywhere dotted with white farmhouses and brown villages. The colours +of the wall are the grey of basalt, the purple of volcanic +conglomerates, and the bright reds and yellows of tufas. Here and there, +however, a thread of water pouring from the summit, or bursting from the +flank, fills a cavity which it has worn and turned for itself; and from +this reservoir the industrious peasant has diverted sufficient to +irrigate his dwarf terraced plots of cane, bananas, yams, or other +vegetables; not a drop of the precious fluid is wasted, and beds are +laid out wherever the vivifying influence can extend. The water-race +down the wall is shown by mosses and lichens, pellitories, and +rock-plants; curtains and hangers; slides, shrubs, and weepers of the +most vivid green, which give life and beauty to the sternest stone. + +The only breaks in this regular coast-wall are the spines and spurs +protruding seawards; the caverns in which the surges break and roar, and +the _ribeiras_ or ravines whose heads are far inland, and whose +lines show grey second distances and blue third distances. At their +mouths lie the sea-beaches and the settlements: the latter, with their +towered churches and their large whitewashed houses, look more like +detached bits of city than our notion of villages. Other places are +built upon heaps of _débris_ washed down from the heights, which +hold out no promise of not falling again. The huts scattered amidst the +cultivation remind one of nothing but Africa. In some places, too, a +soft layer of tufa has been hollowed for man's abode, suggesting, like +the caves, a fine old smuggling-trade. As many as eight doors may be +counted side by side. In other places a rock-ledge, or even a detached +boulder, has been converted into a house by masonry-walls. We shall +seldom see these savageries on the eastern coast of the island. + +The seafaring settlements are connected with the interior by breakneck +paths and by rude steps, slippery with green moss. The people seem to +delight in standing, like wild goats, upon the dizziest of 'jumpy' +peaks; we see boys perched like birds upon impossible places, and men +walking along precipice-faces apparently pathless. The villages are +joined to one another by roads which attempt to follow the sea-line; the +chasms are spanned by the flimsiest wooden bridges, and the cliff is +tunnelled or cut into a _corniche_. + +After disembarking passengers at Ponta d'Agua and Ribeira Nova we passed +the great landslip of 1805, Lugar do Baixo. The heap of ruins has long +been greened over. The cause was evidently a waterfall which now +descends freely; it must have undermined the cliff, which in time would +give way. So in the Brazil they use water instead of blasting powder: a +trench is dug behind the slice of highland to be removed; this is filled +by the rains and the pressure of the column throws the rock bodily +down. We shall find this cheap contrivance useful when 'hydraulicking' +the auriferous clays of the Gold Coast. + +Then we came to Ponta do Sol, the only remarkable site on the trip, +famous for bodice-making and infamous for elephantiasis. Here a huge +column of curiously contorted basalt has been connected by a solid +high-arched causeway with the cliff, which is equally remarkable, +showing a central boss of stone with lines radiating quaquaversally. +There are outer steps and an inner flight leading under +a blind archway, the latter supplied with a crane. The landing in the +_levadia_, or surf, is abominable and a life-boat waits accidents +outside. It works with the heavy Madeiran oars, square near the grip and +provided with a board into whose hole the pin fits. The townlet, capital +of the 'comarca,' fronted by its little Alameda and a strip of beach +upon which I should prefer to debark, shows a tall factory-chimney, +noting the sugar-works of Wilhabram Bros. There is a still larger +establishment at the Serra d'Agoa in the Arco [Footnote: _Arco_ +(bow, arch) is locally applied to a ridge or to the district bounded by +it.] da Calheta (Arch of the Creeklet), a property of the Visconde de +Calçada. The guide-books mention iron pyrites and specular iron in small +quantities behind Ponta do Sol. + +Passing the deep ravine, Ribeiro Fundo, and the Ponta da Galéra, with +its rooky spur, we sighted Jardim do Mar, a village on a mound of +_débris_ with black walls of dry stone defending the terraces from +surf and spray. The furthest point, where we halted half an hour, is +'Paül do Mar' (Swamp of the Sea), apparently a misnomer. It is the port +of the Fajãa da Ovelha (Ewe's landslip), whose white tenements we see +perched on the _estreito_, or tall horizon-slope. The large +harbour-town is backed by a waterfall which may prove disastrous to it; +its lands were formerly famous for the high-priced _malvasia +Candida_--Candia malmsey. + +The day had been delightful, 'June weather' in fickle April. The sea was +smooth as glass, and the skies, sunny in the morning and starry at +night, were canopied during the day by clouds banking up from the +south-east. The western wind blew crisp and cold. This phase of climate +often lasts till the end of June, and renders early summer endurable at +Madeira. The steam-tug was more punctual going than coming. She left +Funchal at 9 A.M., reached Paül do Mar at half-past twelve, covering +some twenty-one direct knots; and returned to her moorings, crowded with +passengers, at half-past five, instead of half-past four. My companion, +M. Dahse, and I agreed that the coast was well worth seeing. + +It would hardly be fair to leave Madeira without a visit to Machico, the +scene of Machim's apocryphal death. The realists derive the name from +Algarvan Monchique. I have made it on foot, on horseback, and by boat, +but never so comfortably as when on board the steam-tug +_Falcão_. Garajáo, whose ruddy rocks of volcanic tufa, embedding +bits of lava, probably entitled it 'Brazenhead,' is worth inspecting +from the sea. Possibly the classic term 'Purple Islands' may have arisen +from the fiery red hue of the volcanic cliffs seen at the sunset +hour. Like Girão, the middle block of Tern Point is horizontally +stratified, while the western abutment slopes to the water. Eastward, +however, there has been immense degradation; half the dome has been +shaken down and washed away; while a succession of upheavals and +earthquakes has contorted the strata in the strangest manner. Seen from +Funchal, the profile of Garajáo is that of an elephant's head, the +mahaut sitting behind it in the shape of a red-brown boss, the expanded +head of a double dyke seaming the tufas of the eastern face. We +distinguish on the brow two 'dragons,' puny descendants of the +aboriginal monsters. Beyond Garajáo the shore falls flat, and the upland +soil is red as that of Devonshire. It is broken by the Ponta da +Oliveira, where there is ne'er an olive-tree, and by the grim ravine of +Porto de Caniço o Bispo, the 'bishop' being a basaltic pillar with mitre +and pontifical robes sitting in a cave of the same material. I find a +better _episkopos_ at Ponta da Atalaia, 'Sentinel Point.' Head, +profile, and shoulders are well defined; the hands rest upon the knees, +and the plaited folds of the dress are well expressed by the basaltic +columns of the central upheaval. Beyond Porto Novo do Cal, with its old +fort and its limekiln, is the chapel of São Pedro, famous for its +_romeiro_, 'pattern' or pilgrimage for St. Peter's Day. June 29 is +kept even at Funchal by water-excursions; it is homage enough to pay a +penny and to go round the ships. + +We anchored and screamed abominably off Santa Cruz, the capital of its +'comarca.' The townlet lies on the left of a large ravine, whose upper +bed contains the Madre d'Agoa, or water-reservoir. The settlement, +fronted by its line of trees, the Alameda, and by its broad beach +strewed with boats, consists of white, red, and yellow houses, one-, +two-, and three-storied; of a white-steepled church and of a new +market-place. East of it, and facing south, lies the large house of 'the +Squire' (Mr. H. B. Blandy), a villa whose feet are washed by the waves; +the garden shows the lovely union, here common, of pine and palm. The +latter, however, promises much and performs little, refusing, like the +olive, to bear ripe fruit. Beyond the Squire's is the hotel, approached +by a shady avenue: it is the most comfortable in the island after the +four of Funchal. + +[Footnote: There are only two other country inns, both on the northern +coast. The first is at Santa Anna, some 20 miles north-north-east of the +capital; the second at São Vicente, to the north-west. All three are +kept by natives of Madeira. Unless you write to warn the owners that you +are coming, the first will be a 'banyan-day,' the second comfortable +enough. This must be expected; it is the Istrian 'Città Nuova, chi porta +trova.'] + +Santa Cruz has a regular spring-season; and the few residents of the +capital frequent it to enjoy the sea-breeze, which to-day (April 23) +blows a trifle too fresh. + +We then pass the Ponta da Queimada, whose layers of basalt are deeply +caverned, and we open the Bay of Machico. The site, a broad, green and +riant valley, with a high background, is softer and gayer than that of +Funchal. It has been well sketched in 'Views in the Madeiras,' and by +the Norwegian artist Johan F. Eckersberg in folio, with letterpress by +Mr. Johnson of the guide-book. The 'Falcon' anchors close to the +landing-stairs, under a grim, grey old fort, O Desembarcadouro, +originally a tower, and now apparently a dwelling-place. The +_débarcadère_ has the usual lamp and the three iron chains intended +to prevent accidents. + +The prosperous little fishing-village, formerly the capital of +_the_ Tristam, lies as usual upon a wady, the S. Gonsales, and +consists of a beach, an Alameda, a church with a square tower, and some +good houses. Twenty years ago the people had almost forgotten a story +which named the settlement; and the impromptu cicerone carried strangers +who sought the scene of Machim's death to the Quinta de Santa Anna, + +[Footnote: Here Mr. White made some of his meteorological +observations. VOL. I.] + +well situated upon a land-tongue up the valley; to the parish church, +which was in a state of chronic repair, and in fact to every place but +the right. The latter is now supposed to be the little _Ermida_ +(chapel) _de N. S. da Visitação._ with its long steps and +wall-belfry on the beach and the left jaw of the wady: it is a mere +humbug, for the original building was washed away by the flood of +1803. In those days, too, visitors vainly asked for the 'remains of +Machim's cross, collected and deposited here by Robert Page, 1825.' Now +a piece of it is shown in frame. About 1863 I was told that a member of +the family, whose name, it is said, still survives about Bristol, wished +to mark the site by a monument--decidedly encouraging to +Gretna-Greenism. + +From Machico Bay we see the Fora and other eastern outliers which form +the Madeiran hatchet-handle. Some enthusiasts prolong the trip to what +is called the 'Fossil-bed,' whose mere agglomerations of calcareous +matter are not fossils at all. The sail, however, gives fine views of +the 'Deserters' (_Desertas_), beginning with the 'Ship Rock,' a +stack or needle mistaken in fogs for a craft under sail. Next to it lies +the Ilheu Chão, the Northern or Table Deserta, not unlike Alderney or a +Périgord pie. Deserta Grande has midway precipices 2,000 feet high, +bisected by a lateral valley, where the chief landing is. Finally, Cu de +Bugio (as Cordeyro terms it) is in plan a long thin strip, and in +elevation a miniature of its big brother, with the additions of sundry +jags and peaks. + +The group is too windy for cereals, but it grows spontaneously orchil +and barilla (_Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum_), burnt for soda. Few +strangers visit it, and many old residents have never attempted the +excursion. It is not, however, unknown to sportsmen, who land--with +leave--upon the main island and shoot the handsome 'Deserta petrels,' +the _cagarras_ (_Puffinus major_, or sheerwater), the rabbits, +the goats that have now run wild, and possibly a seal. A poisonous +spider is here noticed by the guide-books, and the sea supplies the +edible _pulvo (octopus)_ and the dreaded _urgamanta_. This +huge ray (?) enwraps the swimmer in its mighty double flaps and drags +him to the bottom, paralysing him by the wet shroud and the dreadful +stare of its hideous eyes. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MADEIRA (_continued_)--CHRISTMAS--SMALL INDUSTRIES-- +WINE--DEPARTURE FOR TENERIFE. + +The Christmas of 1881 at Madeira could by no means be called gay. The +foreign colony was hospitable, as usual, with dinners, dances, and +Christmas trees. But amongst the people festivities seemed to consist +chiefly of promenading one's best clothes about the military band and +firing royal salutes, not to speak of pistols and squibs. The noise +reminded me of Natal amongst the Cairene Greeks; here, as in the Brazil, +if you give a boy a copper he expends it not on lollipops, but on +fireworks. We wished one another _boas entradas_, the 'buon' +principio' of Italy, and remembered the procession of seventeen years +ago. The life-sized figures, coarsely carved in wood and dressed in real +clothes, were St. Francis, St. Antonio de Noto, a negro (Madeiran +Catholics recognise no 'aristocracy of the skin'); a couple of married +saints (for even matrimony may be sanctified), SS. Bono and Luzia, with +half a dozen others. The several platforms, carried by the brotherhoods +in purple copes, were preceded by the clergy with banners and crosses +and were followed by soldiers. The latter then consisted of a battalion +of _caçadores_, 480 to 500 men, raised in the island and commanded +by a colonel entitled 'Military Governor.' They are small, dark figures +compared with the burly Portuguese artillerymen stationed at the Loo +Fort and São Thiago Battery, and they are armed with old English +sniders. + +Behind the Tree of Penitence and the crosses of the orders came an Ecce +Homo and a bit of the 'true Cross' shaded by a canopy. The peasantry, +who crowded into town--they do so no longer--knelt to kiss whatever was +kissable, and dodged up and down the back streets to gain +opportunities. Even the higher ranks were afoot; they used to acquire in +infancy a relish for these mild amusements. And one thing is to be noted +in favour of the processions; the taste of town-decoration was +excellent, and the combinations of floral colours were admirable. +Perhaps there is too much of nosegay in Madeira, making us +remember the line-- + + Posthume, non bene olet qui bane semper olet. + +I went to the Jesuit church to hear the _predica_, or sermon. The +preacher does not part his hair 'amidships,' or display cambric and +diamond-rings, yet his manner is none the less _maniérée_. For him +and his order, in Portugal as in Spain, the strictest minutiae of +demeanour and deportment are laid down. The body should be borne +upright, but not stuck up, and when the congregation is addressed the +chest is slightly advanced. The dorsal region must never face the +Sacrament; this would be turning one's back, as it were, upon the +Deity. The elbow may not rest upon the cushion. The head, held erect, +but not haughtily, should move upon the atlas gently and suavely, +avoiding 'lightness' and undue vivacity. The lips must not smile; but, +when occasion calls for it, they may display a saintly joy. The eyebrows +must not be raised too high towards the hair-roots; nor should one be +elevated while the other is depressed. The voice should be at times +_tremolando_, and the tone periodically 'sing-song.' Finally, the +eyes are ordered to wander indiscriminately, and with all pudicity, over +the whole flock, and never to be fixed upon a pretty lamb. + +Our countrymen are not over-popular in Portugal or in Madeira; such +mortal insults as those offered by Byron, to name only the corypheus, +will rankle and can never be forgotten. In this island strangers, +especially Englishmen, have a bad practice of not calling upon the two +governors, civil and military. The former, Visconde de Villa Mendo, is +exceptional; he likes England and the English. As a rule the highest +classes mix well with strangers; not so the _medio ceto_ who, under +a constitutional _régime_, rule the roast. Men with small fixed +incomes have little to thank us for; we make things dear, and we benefit +only the working men. Bourgeois exactions have driven both French ships +and American whalers to Tenerife; and many of them would do the same +with the English and German residents and visitors of Funchal. Not a few +have noble and historic names, whose owners are fallen into extreme +poverty. Professor Azevedo's book is also a _nobiliaire de +Madère_. The last generation used to be remarkably prim and precise, +in dress as in language and manner. They never spoke of 'hogs' or +'horns,' and they wore the skimpy waistcoats and the regulation whiskers +of Wellington's day. The fair sex appeared only at 'functions,' at +church, and at the Sunday promenade in the Place. The moderns dress +better than their parents, who affected the most violent colours, an +exceedingly pink pink upon a remarkably green green; and the shape of +the garment was an obsolete caricature of London and Paris. They no +longer assume the peculiar waddle, looking as if the lower limbs were +unequal to the weight of the upper story; but the walk never equals that +of the Spanish woman. This applies to Portugal as well. The strong +points, here as in the Peninsula, are velvety black eyes and blue-black +hair dressed _à la Diane_. It is still the fashion, as at Lisbon, +to look somewhat _boudeuse_ when abroad, by way of hint that man +must not expect too much; yet these cross faces at home or with +intimates are those of _bonnes enfants_. Lastly, the dark +complexions and the irregular features do not contrast well with the +charming faces and figures of Tenerife, who mingle the beauty of +Guanchedom with that of Spain and Ireland. + +The list of public amusements at Funchal is not extensive. Years ago the +theatre was converted into a grain-store, and now it is a +wine-store. The circus of lumber has been transferred from under the +Peak Fort to near the sea; it mostly lacks men and horses. The Germans +have a tolerable lending library; and the public _bibliotheca_ in +the Town House, near the Jesuit church, is rich in old volumes, mostly +collected from religious houses. In 1851 the books numbered 1,800; now +they may be 2,000; kept neat and clean in two rooms of the fine solid +old building. Of course the collection is somewhat mixed, Fox's +'Martyrs' and the 'Lives of the Saints' standing peacefully near the +'Encyclopédie' and Voltaire. A catalogue can hardly be expected. + +There are three Masonic lodges and two Portuguese clubs, one good, the +other not; and the former (Club Funchalense), well lodged in a house +belonging to Viscountess Torre Bella, gives some twice or three times a +year very enjoyable balls. The Café Central, with _estaminet_ and +French billiard-table, is much frequented by the youth of the town, but +not by residents. The great institution is the club called the 'English +Rooms,' which has been removed from over a shop in the Aljube to +Viscondessa de Torre Bella's house in the Rua da Alfandega. The British +Consulate is under the same roof, and next door is Messieurs Blandy's +ubiquitous 'Steamer Agency.' The roomy and comfortable quarters, with a +fine covered balcony looking out upon the sea, are open to both +sexes. The collection of books is old; but the sum of 100_l_. laid +out on works of reference would bring it fairly up to the level of the +average English country-club. Strangers' names were hospitably put down +by any proprietary member as guests and visitors if they did not outstay +the fortnight; otherwise they became subscribers. But crowding was the +result, and the term has been reduced to three days: a month's +subscription, however, costs only 10_s_. 6_d_. The doors close +at 7.30 P.M.: I used to think this an old-world custom kept up by the +veteran hands; but in an invalid place perhaps it is wisely done. + +The principal _passetemps_ at Madeira consists of eating, drinking, +and smoking; it is the life of a horse in a loose box, where the animal +eats _pour passer le temps_. After early tea and toast there is +breakfast à la fourchette_ at nine; an equally heavy lunch, or rather +an early dinner (No. 1), appears at 1 to 2 P.M.; afternoon tea follows, +and a second dinner at 6 to 7. Residents and invalids suppress tiffin +and dine at 2 to 3 P.M. In fact, as on board ship, people eat because +they have nothing else to do; and English life does not admit of the +sensible French hours--_déjeuner à la fourchette_ at 11 A.M. and +dinner after sunset. + +The first walk through Funchal shows that it has not improved during the +last score of years, and to be stationary in these days is equivalent to +being retrograde. It received two heavy blows--in 1852 the vine-disease; +and, since that time, a gradual decline of reputation as a +sanatorium. Yet it may, I think, look for a better future when the Land +Bill Law system, extending to England and Scotland, will cover the +continent with colonies of British _rentiers_ who rejoice in large +families and small incomes. Moreover, Anglo-African officials are +gradually learning that it is best to leave their 'wives and wees' at +Madeira; and the coming mines of the Gold Coast will greatly add to the +numbers. For the economist Funchal and its environs present peculiar +advantages. The dearness of coin appears in the cheapness of houses and +premises. Estates which cost 5,000_l_. to 15,000_l_. a generation +ago have been sold to 'Demerarists' for one-tenth that +sum. 'Palmeira,' for instance, was built for 42,000_l_., and was +bought for 4,000_l_. A family can live quietly, even keeping +ponies, for 500_l_. per annum; and it is something to find a place +four to seven days' sail from England inhabitable, to a certain extent +all the year round. The mean annual temperature is 67.3 degrees; that of +summer varies from 70 degrees to 85 degrees, and in winter it rarely +falls below 50 degrees to 60 degrees. The range, which is the most +important consideration, averages 9 degrees, with extremes of 5 degrees +to 35 degrees. The moist heat is admirably adapted for old age, and I +doubt not that it greatly prolongs life. Youth, English youth, cannot +thrive in this subtropical air; there are certain advantages for +education at Funchal; but children are sent north, as from Anglo-India, +to be reared. Otherwise they will grow up yellow and languid, without +energy or industry, and with no object in life but to live. + +Madeira has at once gained credit for comfort and has lost reputation as +a sanatorium, a subject upon which fashion is peculiarly fickle. During +the last century the Faculty sent its incurables to Lisbon and +Montpellier despite the _mistral_ and the fatal _vent de +bise_. The latter town then lodged some 300 English families of +invalids, presently reduced to a few economists and wine-merchants. +Succeeded Nice and Pisa, one of the most wearying and relaxing +of 'sick bays;' and Pau in the Pyrenees, of which the native +Béarnais said that the year has eight months of winter and four of +inferno. Madeira then rose in the world, and a host of medical residents +sounded her praises, till Mentone was written up and proved a powerful +rival. And the climate of the hot-damp category was found to suit, +mainly if not only, that tubercular cachexy and those, bronchial +affections and lung-lesions in which the viscus would suffer from the +over-excitement of an exceedingly dry air like the light invigorating +medium of Tenerife or Thebes. Lastly, when phthisis was determined to be +a disease of debility, of anæmia, of organic exhaustion, and of +defective nutrition, cases fitted for Madeira were greatly limited. Here +instruments deceive us as to humidity. The exceeding dampness is shown +by the rusting of iron and the tarnishing of steel almost as effectually +as upon the West African coast. Yet Mr. Vivian's observations, assuming +100 to be saturation, made Torquay 76 and Funchal 73. [Footnote: Others +make the mean humidity of Funchal 76, and remark that in the healthiest +and most pleasant climates the figures range between 70 and +80]. Moreover it was found out that consumption, as well as intermittent +fevers, are common on the island, so common, indeed, as to require an +especial hospital for the poorer classes, although the people declare +them to have been imported by the stranger. I may here observe that +while amongst all the nations of Southern Europe great precautions are +taken against the contagion of true phthisis, English medicos seem to +ignore it. A Pisan housekeeper will even repaper the rooms after the +death of a consumptive patient. At Funchal sufferers in every stage of +the disease live in the same house and even in the same rooms. + +Then came the discovery that for consumptives dry cold is a medium +superior to damp heat. Invalids were sent to the Tyrol, to the Engadine, +to Canada, and even to Iceland, where phthisis is absolutely unknown, +and where a diet of oleaginous fish is like feeding upon cod-liver or +shark-liver oil. The air as well as the diet proved a tonic, and +patients escaped the frequent cough, catarrh, influenza, and neuralgia +which are so troublesome at Funchal. Here, too, the invalid must be +accompanied by a 'prudent and watchful friend,' or friends, and the +companions will surely suffer. I know few climates so bad and none worse +for those fecund causes of suffering in Europe, liver-affections +('mucous fevers'), diarrhoeas, and dysenteries; for nervous complaints, +tic douloureux, and neuralgia, or for rheumatism and lumbago. Asthma is +one of the disorders which shows the most peculiar forms, and must be +treated in the most various ways: here some sufferers are benefitted, +others are not. Madeira is reputedly dangerous also for typhoid +affections, for paralysis, and for apoplexy. There is still another +change to come. The valley north of the beautiful and ever maligned +'Dead Sea' of Palestine, where the old Knights Templar had their +sugar-mills and indigo-manufactories, has peculiar merits. Lying some +1,350 feet below the Mediterranean, it enables a man to live with a +quarter of a lung: you may run till your legs fail with fatigue, but you +can no more get out of breath than you can sink in the saline waters of +Lake Asphaltites. When a railway from Jafa to Jerusalem shall civilise +the 'Holy Land,' I expect great things from the sites about the Jordan +embouchure. + +After the 'gadding vine' had disappeared the people returned to their +old amours, the sugar-cane, whose five loaves, disposed crosswise, gave +the island her heraldic cognisance. Madeira first cultivated sugar in +the western hemisphere and passed it on to the New World. Yet the cane +was always worked under difficulties. Space is limited: the upper +extreme of cultivation on the southern side may be estimated at 1,000 +feet. The crop exhausts the soil; the plant requires water, and it +demands what it can rarely obtain in quantity--manure. Again, machinery +is expensive and adventure is small. Jamaica and her slave-labour soon +reduced the mills from one hundred and fifty to three, and now five. My +hospitable friend, Mr. William Hinton, is the only islander who works +sugar successfully at the _Torreão_. The large rival mill with the +tall regulation smoke-stack near the left mouth of the Ribeira de São' +João, though inscribed 'Omnia vincit improbus labor,' and though +provided with the most expensive modern appliances, is understood not to +be a success for the Companhia Fabril d'Assucar. + +Here sugar-working in the present day requires for bare existence high +protective duties. The Government, however, has had the common sense, +and the Madeirans patriotic feeling enough, to defend their industry +from certain ruinous vagaries, by taxing imported growths 80 reis +(4_d_.) per kilo. A hard-grit free-trader would abolish this +abomination and ruin half the island. And here I would remark that in +England the world has seen for the first time a wealthy and commercial, +a great and generous nation proclaim, and take pride in proclaiming, the +most immoral doctrine. 'Free Trade,' so called, I presume, because it is +practically the reverse of free or fair trade, openly abjures public +spirit and the chief obligation of the citizen--to think of his +neighbour as well as himself, and not to let charity end, as it often +begins, at home. 'Buy cheap and sell dear' is the law delivered by its +prophets, the whole duty of 'the merchant and the man.' When its +theorists ask me the favourite question, 'Would you not buy in the +cheapest market?' I reply, 'Yes, but my idea of cheapness is not yours: +I want the best, no matter what its price, because it will prove +cheapest in the end.' How long these Free-trade fads and fooleries will +last no one can say; but they can hardly endure till that millennium +when the world accepts the doctrine, and when Free Trade becomes free +trade and fair trade. + +As regards _petite industrie_ in Madeira, there is a considerable +traffic in 'products of native industry,' sold to steamer-passengers. +The list gives jewellery and marquetry or inlaid woodwork; +feather-flowers, straw hats, lace and embroidery, the latter an +important item; boots and shoes of unblackened leather; sweetmeats, +especially guava-cheese; wax-fruits, soap-berry bracelets, and 'Job's +tears;' costumes in wood and clay; basketry, and the well-known wicker +chairs, tables, and sofas. The cooperage is admirable; I have nowhere +seen better-made casks. The handsomest shops, as we might expect, are +the apothecaries'; and, here, as elsewhere, they thrive by charging a +sixpence for what cost them a halfpenny. + +An enterprising Englishman lately imported sheep from home. The native +mutton was described in 1842 as 'strong in flavour and lean in +condition;' in fact, very little superior to that of Trieste. Now it is +remarkably good, and will be better. Silk, I have said, has not been +fairly tried, and the same is the case with ginger. Cotton suffered +terribly from the worm. Chinchona propagated from cuttings, not from the +seed, did well. Dr. Grabham [Footnote: _The Climate and Resources of +Madeira_. By Michael C. Grabham, M.D., F.R.G.S., F.R.C.P. London; +Churchill, 1870.] tells us that the coffee-berry ripens and yields a +beverage locally thought superior to that of the imported kinds. It has +become almost extinct in consequence of protracted blights: the island +air is far too damp. Tea did not succeed. [Footnote: Page 189, _Du +Climat de Madère, etc_., par C. A. Mourão Pitta, Montpellier, 1859.] +Cochineal also proved a failure. The true Mexican cactus (_Opuntia +Tuna_) was brought to supplant the tree-like and lean-leafed native +growth; but there is too much wind and rain for the insects, and the +people prefer to eat the figs or 'prickly pears.' Bananas grow well, and +a large quantity is now exported for the English market. But the climate +does not agree with European fruits and vegetables; strawberries and +French beans are equally flavourless. I remarked the same in the +glorious valley of the Lower Congo: it must result from some telluric or +atmospheric condition which we cannot yet appreciate. + +Tobacco has been tried with some success, though the results do not +equal those of the Canaries; there, however, the atmosphere is too dry, +here it is not. The _estanco_ (monopoly) and the chronic debt to +those who farm the import-tax long compelled the public to pay dear for +a poor article. Home-growth was forbidden till late years; now it is +encouraged, and rate-payers contribute a small additional sum. Hitherto, +however, results have not been over-favourable, because, I believe, the +tobacco-beds have been unhappily placed. Rich valley-soils and +sea-slopes, as at Cuban Vuelta de Abajo and Syrian Latakia, are the +proper habitats of the 'holy herb.' Here it is planted in the high dry +grounds about the 'Peak Fort' and the uplands east of the city. Manure +also is rare and dear, and so is water, which, by the by, is sadly +wasted in Madeira for want of reservoirs. Consequently the peasants +smoke tobacco from the Azores. + +The Casa Funchalense, north of the Cathedral, is the chief depôt for +island-growths. It sells 'Escuros' (dark brands) of 20 reis, or +1_d_., and 50 reis, according to size. The 'Claros,' which seem to +be the same leaf steamed, fetch from 40 to 100 reis. A small half-ounce +of very weak and poor-flavoured pipe-tobacco also is worth 1_d_. + +An influential planter, Senhor João de Salles Caldeira, kindly sent to +Mr. John Blandy some specimens of his nicotiana for me to test in +Africa. The leaf-tobaccos, all grown between 1879 and 1881, at Magdalena +in the parish of St. Antonio, were of three kinds. The Havano was far +too short for the trade; the Bahiano, also dark, was longer; and the +so-called 'North-American' was still longer, light-coloured and well +tied in prick-shape. The negro verdict was, 'Left, a lilly he be foine,' +meaning they want but little to be excellent. The Gold Coast prefers +yellow Virginia, whose invoice price is 7_d_. per lb. The traders +are now introducing Kentucky, which, landed from Yankee ships, costs +6_d_. But, here as elsewhere, it is difficult to bring about any +such change. + +There were two qualities of Madeiran _charutos_ (cigars): one long +Claro which smoked very mild, and a short Escuro, which tasted a trifle +bitter. The blacks complained that they were too new; and I should rank +them with the average produce of Brazilian Bahia. A papered +_cigarilha_, clad in an outer leaf of tobacco, was exceptionally +good. The _cígarros_ (cigarettes), neatly bound in bundles of +twenty-five, were of three kinds, _fortes_ (strong), +_entre-fortes_, and _fracos_ (mild). All were excellent and +full of flavour; they did not sicken during the voyage, and I should +rank them with the far-famed Bragança of the Brazil. + +The most successful of these small speculations is that of +Mr. E. Hollway. Assisted by an able gardener from Saint Michael, Azores, +where the pineapple made a little fortune for Ponta Delgada, he has +converted Mount Pleasant, his father's house and grounds on the Caminho +do Meio, into one huge pinery. The Madeiran sun does all the work of +English fires and flues; but the glass must be whitewashed; otherwise, +being badly made, with bubbles and flaws, it would burn holes in the +plants. The best temperature for the hot-houses is about 90° F.: it will +rise after midday to 140°, and fall at night to 65°. The species +preferred are, in order of merit, the Cayena, the black Jamaica, and the +Brazilian Abacaxi. The largest of Mr. Hollway's produce weighed 20 +lbs.--pumpkin size. Those of 12 lbs. and 15 lbs. are common, but the +market prefers 8 lbs. His highest price was 2_l_., and he easily +obtains from 10_s_. to 15_s_. In one greenhouse we saw 2,500 +plants potted and bedded; the total numbers more than double that +figure. The proprietor has a steam-saw, makes his own boxes, and packs +his pines with dry leaves of maize and plantain. He is also cultivating +a dwarf banana, too short to be wind-wrung. His ground will grow +anything: the wild asparagus, which in Istria rises knee-high, here +becomes a tall woody shrub. + +And now of the wine which once delighted the world, and which has not +yet become 'food for the antiquary.' To begin with, a few dates and +figures are necessary. In 1852, that terrible year for France, the +Oïdium fungus attacked the vine, and soon reduced to 2,000 the normal +yearly production of 20,000 and even 22,000 pipes. + +[Footnote: Between 1792 and 1827 the yearly average was 20,000. +In 1813 it was 22,000. + " 1814 " 14,000. + " 1816 " 15,000. + +In 1816 it was 12,000. + " 1818 " 18,000. + " 1825 " 14,000. + +It then decreased to an average of 7,000 till the oïdium-year +(Miss E. M, Taylor, p. 74).] + +The finest growths suffered first, as animals of the highest blood +succumb the soonest to epidemics. When I wrote in 1863 the grape was +being replanted, chiefly the white _verdelho_, the Tuscan +_verdea_. In 1873 the devastating Phylloxera appeared, and before +1881 it had ruined two of the finest southern districts. The following +numerals show the rapid decline of yield:--6,000 pipes in 1878, 5,000 in +1879, 3,000 in 1880, and 2,000 in 1881. There are still in store some +30,000 pipes, each=92 gallons (forty-five dozen); and a single firm, +Messrs. Blandy Brothers, own 3,000. Mr. Charles R. Blandy, the late head +of the house, bought up all the _must_ grown since 1863; but he did +not care to sell. This did much harm to the trade, by baulking the +demand and by teaching the public to do without it. His two surviving +sons have worked hard and advertised on a large scale; they issue a +yearly circular, and the result is improved enquiry. Till late years the +world was not aware that the Madeiran vine has again produced Madeira +wine; and a Dutch admiral, amongst others, was surprised to hear that +all was not made at Cettes. I give below Messrs. Blandy's trade-prices, +to which some 20 per cent, must be added for retail. + +[Footnote: Sound light medium Madeiras from 26s. to 32s. per dozen, +packed and delivered in London; light, golden, delicate, 36_s_.; +tawny Tinta, also called 'Madeira Burgundy,' a red wine mixing well with +water, 40_s_.; fine old dry Verdelho, 48_s_.; rich soft old +Bual, not unlike Amontillado, 54_s_.; very fine dry old Sercial +(the Riesling grape), 56_s_.; and the same for highly-flavoured +soft old Malmsey, 'Malvasia Candida,' corrupted from 'Candia' because +supposed to have been imported from that island in 1445. 'Grand Old Oama +de Lobos' is worth 70_s_., and the best Old Preserve wine +86_s_. For wines very old in bottle there are special quotations.] + +The lowest price free on board is 23_l_, and the values rise from +40_l_. at four years old to 1OO_l_. at ten years old. + +'Madeira' was most popular in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, +especially at the Court of Francois I. Shakespeare in 'Henry IV.' makes +drouthy Jack sell his soul on Good Friday for a cup of Madeira and a +cold capon's leg. Mr. H. Vizetelly, whose professional work should be +read by all who would master the subject, marvels why and how this +'magnificent wine' went out of fashion. The causes are many, all easy to +trace. Men not yet very old remember the day when England had no _vino +de pasto_ fit to be drunk at meals; when they found only ports, +sherries, and loaded clarets; and when they sighed in vain for light +Rhine or Bordeaux growths, good _ordinaire_ being to drink what +bread is to food. + +[Footnote: This, however, is a mere individual opinion. I have lately +read a book recommending strong and well-brandied wines as preventing +the crave for pure alcohol.] + +Now, however, the national taste has changed; the supply of Madeira not +sufficing for the demand, the class called _boticarios_ +(apothecaries) brought rivals into the market; and extensive imitation's +with apples, loquats (Japanese medlars), and other frauds, brandied to +make the stuff keep, plastered or doctored with Paris-plaster to correct +over-acidity, and coloured and sweetened with burnt sugar and with +boiled 'must' (_mosto_) to mock the Madeira flavour, gave the +island-produce a bad name. Again, the revolution in the wine-trade of +1860-61 brought with it certain Continental ideas. In France a glass of +Madeira follows soup, and in Austria it is drunk in liqueur-glasses like +Tokay. + +[Footnote: 'Madeira' is the island modification of the Cyprus and the +Candia (?) grape. 'Tokay' comes from the Languedoc muscatel, and +'Constantia' from Burgundy, like most of the Rhine-wines.] + +The island wine must change once more to suit public taste. At present +it ships at the average strength of 18°-25° per cent, of 'proof spirit,' +which consists of alcohol and water in equal proportions. For that +purpose each pipe is dosed with a gallon or two of Porto Santo or São +Vicente brandy. This can do no harm; the addition is homogeneous and +chemically combines with the grape-juice; but when potato-spirit and +cane-rum are substituted for alcohol distilled from wine, the result is +bad. The vintage is rarely ripened by time, whose unrivalled work is +imperfectly done in the _estufa_ or flue-stove, the old fumarium, +or in the _sertio_ (apotheca), an attic whose glass roofing admits +the sun. The voyage to the East Indies was a clumsy contrivance for the +same purpose; and now the merchants are beginning to destroy the germs +of fermentation not by mere heat, but by the strainer extensively used +in Jerez. The press shown to me was one of Messrs. Johnson and Co., +which passes the liquor through eighteen thick cottons supported by iron +plates. It might be worth while to apply electricity in the form used to +destroy fusel-oil. Lastly, the wine made for the market is a brand or a +blend, not a 'vintage-wine.' At any of the _armazems_, or stores, +you can taste the wines of '70, '75, '76, and so forth, of A 1 quality; +and you can learn their place as well as their date of birth. But these +are mixed when wine of a particular kind is required and the produce +becomes artificial. What is now wanted is a thin light wine, red or +white, with the Madeira flavour, and this will be the drink of the +future. The now-forgotten _tisane de Madère_ and the 'rain-water +Madeira,' made for the American markets, a soft, delicate, and +straw-coloured beverage, must be the models. + +I sampled the new wines carefully; and, with due remembrance of the +peaches in 'Gil Blas,' I came to the conclusion that they are no longer +what they were. The wine is tainted with sulphur in its odorous union +with hydrogen. It is unduly saccharine, fermenting irregularly and +insufficiently. For years the plant has constantly been treated against +oidium with antiseptics, which destroy the spores and germ-growths; and +we can hardly expect a first-rate yield from a chronically-diseased +stock. Still the drink is rich and highly flavoured; and, under many +circumstances, it answers better than any kind of sherry. No more +satisfactory refreshment on a small scale than a biscuit and a glass of +Bual. Moreover, the palate requires variety, and here finds it in a +harmless form. But as a daily drink Madeira should be avoided: even in +the island I should prefer French Bordeaux, not English claret, with an +occasional change to Burgundy. Meanwhile, 'London particular' is a fact, +and the supply will probably exceed the demand of the present +generation. + +I also carefully sampled the wines of the north coast, which had not, as +in Funchal, been subjected to doctoring by stove, by spirits, and by +blend. They are lighter than the southern; but, if unbrandied, some soon +turn sour, and others by keeping get strong and heady. The proportion of +alcoholism is peremptorily determined by climate--that is, the +comparative ratio of sun and rain. In Europe, for instance, light wines +cannot be produced without 'liquor,' as the trade calls _aqua +pura_, by latitudes lower than Germany and Southern France. When heat +greatly exceeds moisture, the wines may be mild to mouth and nose, yet +they are exceedingly potent; witness the _vino d'oro_ of the +Libanus. + +At Funchal I also tasted a very neat wine, a _vin de pays_ with the +island flavour and not old enough to become spirituous. If the vine be +again grown in these parts, its produce will be drunk in England under +some such form. But Madeira has at last found her 'manifest destiny:' +she will be an orchard to Northern Europe and (like the England of the +future) a kitchen-garden to the West African Coast, especially the Gold +Mines. + +My sojourn at the Isle of Wood and its 'lotus-eating' (which means +double dinners) came to an end on Sunday, January 8, the +s.s. _Senegal_ Captain W. L. Keene, bringing my long-expected +friend Cameron, of African fame. The last day passed pleasantly enough +in introducing him to various admirers; and we ate at Santa Clara a +final dinner, perfectly conscious that we were not likely to see its +like for many a month. We were followed to the beach by a choice band of +well-wishers--Baron Adelin de Vercour, Colonel H. W. Keays Young, and +Dr. Struthers--who determined upon accompanying us to Tenerife. The +night was black as it well could be, and the white surf rattled the +clicking pebbles, as we climbed into the shore-boat with broad +cheek-pieces, and were pulled off shipwards. On board we found +Mr. William Reid, junior, who had carefully lodged our numerous +impediments; and, at 10 P.M., we weighed for Tenerife. + +I must not leave the Isle of Wood, which has so often given me +hospitality, without expressing a hearty wish that the Portuguese +'Government,' now rhyming with 'impediment,' will do its duty by +her. The Canaries and their free ports, which are different from 'free +trade,' have set the best example; and they have made great progress +while the Madeiras have stood still, or rather have retrograded. The +Funchal custom-house is a pest; the import charges are so excessive that +visitors never import, and for landing a single parcel the ship must pay +high port-charges where no port exists. The population is heavily taxed, +and would willingly 'pronounce' if it could only find a head. The +produce, instead of being spent upon the island, is transmitted to +Lisbon: surely a portion of it might be diverted from bureaucratic +pockets and converted into an emigration fund. It is sad to think that a +single stroke of the Ministerial pen would set all right and give new +life to the lovely island, and yet that the pen remains idle. + +And a parting word of praise for Madeira. Whatever the traveller from +Europe may think of this quasi-tropical Tyrol, those homeward-bound from +Asia and Africa will pronounce her a Paradise. They will enjoy good +hotels, comfortable _tables d'hôte_, and beef that does not +resemble horseflesh or unsalted junk. Nor is there any better place +wherein to rest and recruit after hard service in the tropics. Moreover, +at the end of a month spent in perfect repose the visitor will look +forward with a manner of dismay to the plunge into excited civilised +life. + +But Madeira is not 'played out;' _au contraire_, she is one of +those 'obligatory points' for commerce which cannot but prosper as the +world progresses. The increasing traffic of the West African coast will +make men resort to her for comforts and luxuries, for climate and +repose. And when the Gold Mines shall be worked as they should be this +island may fairly look forward to catch many a drop of the golden +shower. + +The following interesting table, given to me by M. d'Oliveira, clerk of +the English Rooms, shows what movement is already the rule of Funchal. + +SUMMARY OF VESSELS ENTERED IN THE PORT FROM JANUARY 1 TO DECEMBER 31. + +Vessels of War + +Nationality Sailing/Steamers + Frigates Corvettes Schooners/Transports -/Gunboats +American -/1 1/1 -/- -/- +Argentine -/- -/- -/- -/- +Austrian -/- -/- -/- -/- +Belgian -/- -/- -/- -/- +Brazilian -/- -/- -/- -/- +British -/6 -/3 1/10 -/7 +Danish -/- -/1 -/- -/- +Dutch -/- -/2 -/- -/1 +French 2/2 -/- -/1 -/1 +German -/3 -/3 -/- -/- +Italian -/- -/1 -/- -/- +Norwegian -/- -/1 -/- -/- +Portuguese -/- -/- -/- -/2 +Russian -/- -/- -/- -/- +Spanish -/- -/- -/- -/- +Swedish -/- -/1 -/- -/- +Totals: 2/12 1/13 1/11 -/11 + + +Pleasure Vessels + +Nationality Steam Yachts + Yachts +American - - +Argentine - - +Austrian - - +Belgian - - +Brazilian - - +British 2 4 +Danish - - +Dutch - - +French - - +German - - +Italian - - +Norwegian - - +Portuguese - - +Russian - - +Spanish - - +Swedish - - + +Totals: 2 4 + + +Merchant Vessels + +Nationality Steamers Ships Barques Barquantines Brigs + +American - - 3 - - +Argentine 1 - - - - +Austrian - 1 2 - - +Belgian 26 - - - - +Brazilian 3 - - - - +British 439 1 9 20 9 +Danish - - - - 1 +Dutch 1 - - - - +French - - 3 - - +German 8 - 16 - 2 +Italian - - - - - +Norwegian - - 5 1 1 +Portuguese 48 - 3 - - +Russian - - 2 - - +Spanish - - 2 - - +Swedish - - 2 - - + +Totals: 526 2 43 21 13 + + + +CHAPTER V. + +TO TENERIFE, LA LAGUNA, AND OROTAVA. + +When I left, in 1865, the western coast of the Dark Continent, its +transit and traffic were monopolised by the A(frican) S(team) S(hip) +Company, a monthly line established in 1852, mainly by the late +Macgregor Laird. In 1869 Messieurs Elder, Dempster, and Co., of Glasgow, +started the B(ritish) and A(frican) to divide the spoils. The junior +numbers nineteen keel, including two being built. It could easily 'eat +up' the decrepit senior, which is now known as the A(frican) +S(tarvation) S(teamers); but this process would produce serious +competition. Both lines sail from Liverpool on alternate Saturdays, and +make Funchal, with their normal unpunctuality, between Fridays and +Sundays. This is dreary slow compared with the four days' fast running +of the 'Union S. S. C.' and the comfortable 'Castle Line,' alias the +Cape steamers. + +The B. and A. s.s. _Senegal_ is a fair specimen of the modern West +African trader 'improved:' unfortunately the improvements affect the +shareholders' pockets rather than the passengers' persons. The +sleeping-berths are better, but the roomy, well-lighted, comfortable old +saloon, sadly shorn of its fair proportions, has become the upper story +of a store-room. The unfortunate stewards must catch fever by frequent +diving into the close and sultry mine of solids and fluids under +floor. There being no baggage-compartment, boxes and bags are stowed +away in the after part, unduly curtailing light and air; the stern +lockers, once such pleasant sleeping-sofas, and their fixed tables are +of no use to anything besides baskets and barrels. Here the surgeon, +who, if anyone, should have a cabin by way of dispensary, must lodge his +medicine-chest. Amongst minor grievances the main cabin is washed every +night, breeding a manner of malaria. The ice intended for passengers is +either sold or preserved for those who ship most cargo. Per contra, the +cook is good, the table is plentiful, the wines not over bad, the +stewards civil, and the officers companionable. + +Both lines, however, are distinctly traders. They bind themselves to no +time; they are often a week late, and they touch wherever demand calls +them. The freight-charges are exorbitant, three pounds for fine goods +and a minimum of thirty-six shillings, when fifteen per ton would +pay. The White Star Line, therefore, threatens _concurrence_. Let +us also hope that when the Gold Mines prosper we shall have our special +steamers, where the passenger will be more prized than the puncheon of +palm-oil. But future rivals must have a care; they will encounter a +somewhat unscrupulous opposition; and they had better ship American +crews, at any rate not Liverpudlians. + +The night and the next day were spent at sea in a truly delicious +climate, which seemed to wax softer and serener as we advanced. Here the +moon, whose hue is golden, not silvern, has a regular dawn before +rising, and an afterglow to her setting; and Venus casts a broad cestus +of glimmering light upon the purple sea. Mount Atlas, alias the Pike of +Teyde, gradually upreared his giant statue, two and a half miles high: +travellers speak of seeing him from Madeira, a distance of some 260 +(dir. geog.) miles; but this would be possible only were both termini +15,000 feet in altitude. The limit of sight for terrestrial objects +under the most favourable conditions does not exceed 210 miles. Yet here +it is not difficult to explain the impossible distances, 200 miles +instead of 120, at which, they say, the cone has been sighted: mirage or +refraction accounts for what the earth's convexity disallows. + +We first see a low and regular wall of cloud-bank whose coping bears +here and there bulges of white, cottony cloud. Then a regular pyramid, +at this season white as snow, shows its gnomon-like point, impaling the +cumuli. Hour by hour the outlines grow clearer, till at last the +terminal cone looks somewhat like a thimble upon a pillow--the +_cumbre_, or lofty foundation of pumice-plains. But the aspect +everywhere varies according as you approach the island from north, +south, east, or west. + +The evening of January 9 showed us right abeam a splendid display of the +Zodiacal Light, whose pyramid suggested the glow of a hemisphere on +fire. The triangle, slightly spherical, measured at its base 22 degrees +to 24 degrees and rose to within 6" of Jupiter. The reflection in the +water was perfect and lit up with startling distinctness the whole +eastern horizon. + +At 7 A.M. next morning, after running past the Anaga knuckle-bone--and +very bony it is--of the Tenerife _gigot_, we cast anchor in the Bay +of Santa Cruz, took boat, and hurried ashore. In the early times of the +A.S.S. halts at the several stations often lasted three days. Business +is now done in the same number of hours; and the captain informs you +that 'up goes the anchor' the moment his last bale or bag comes on +board. This trading economy of time, again, is an improvement more +satisfactory to the passenger than to the traveller and sightseer who +may wish to see the world. + +Brusque was the contrast between the vivid verdure of Sylvania, the Isle +of Wood, and the grim nudity of north-eastern Tenerife; brusquer still +the stationary condition of the former compared with the signs, of +progress everywhere evident in the latter. Spain, under the influence of +anticlerical laws and a spell of republicanism, has awoke from her sleep +of ages, and we note the effects of her revival even in these +colonies. A brand-new red fort has been added to La Ciudadela at the +northern suburb, whence a mole is proposed to meet the southern branch +and form a basin. Then comes the triangular city whose hypothenuse, +fronting east, is on the sea; its chief fault is having been laid out on +too small a scale. At the still-building pier, which projects some 500 +yards from the central mass of fort and _cuadras_ (insulae or +house-blocks), I noticed a considerable growth of buildings, especially +the Marineria and other offices connected with the free port. The old +pink 'castle' San Cristobal (Christopher), still cumbers the jetty-root; +but the least sentimental can hardly expect the lieges to level so +historic a building: it is the site of Alonso Fernandez de Lugo's first +tower, and where his disembarkation on May 3, 1493, gave its Christian +name 'Holy Cross' to the Guanche 'Añasa.' Meanwhile the Rambleta de +Ravenal, dated 1861, a garden, formerly dusty, glary, and dreary as the +old Florian of Malta, now bears lovers' seats, a goodly growth of planes +and tamarinds, a statue, a fountain, and generally a gypsy-like +family. By its side runs a tramway for transporting the huge blocks of +concrete intended to prolong the pier. The inner town also shows a new +palace, a new hospital, and a host of improvements. + +Landing at Santa Cruz, a long dull line of glaring masonry, smokeless +and shadeless, was to me intensely saddening. A score of years had +carried off all my friends. Kindly Mrs. Nugent, called 'the Admiral,' +and her amiable daughter are in the English burial-ground; the +hospitable Mr. Consul Grattan had also faded from the land of the +living. The French Consul, M. Berthelot, who published [Footnote: +_Histoire naturelle des Iles Canaries_, par MM. P. Barker Webb et +Sabin Berthelot, ouvrage publié sous les auspices de M. Guizot, Ministre +de l'Instruction Publique, Paris, 1839. Seven folio vols., with maps, +plans, and sketches, all regardless of expense.] by favour of the late +Mr. Webb, went to the many in 1880. One of the brothers Richardson had +died; the other had subsided into a clerk, and the Fonda Ingleza had +become the British Consulate. The new hotel kept by Señor Camacho and +his English wife appeared comfortable enough, but it had none of those +associations which make the old familiar inn a kind of home. _En +revanche_, however, I met Mr. Consul Dundas, my successor at the port +of Santos, whence so few have escaped with life; and his wife, the +daughter of an Anglo-Brazilian friend. + +Between 1860 and 1865 I spent many a week in Tenerife, and here I am +tempted to transcribe a few extracts from my voluminous notes upon +various subjects, especially the Guanche population and the ascent of +the Pike. A brief history of the unhappy Berber-speaking goatherds who, +after being butchered to make sport for certain unoccupied gentlemen, +have been raised by their assailants to kings and heroes rivalling the +demi-gods of Greece and Rome, and the melancholy destruction of the +race, have been noticed in a previous volume. [Footnote: Yol. i. chap, +ii., _Wanderings in West Africa_. The _modorra_, lethargy or +melancholia, which killed so many of those Numidian islanders suggests +the pining of a wild bird prisoned in a cage.] I here confine myself to +the contents of my note-book upon the Guanche collections in the island. + +One fine morning my wife and I set out in a venerable carriage for San +Cristobal de la Laguna. The Camiño de los Coches, a fine modern highway +in corkscrew fashion from Santa Cruz to Orotava, was begun, by the grace +of General Ortega, who died smoking in the face of the firing party, and +ended between 1862 and 1868. This section, eight kilomètres long, +occupies at least one hour and a half, zigzagging some 2,000 feet up a +steep slope which its predecessor uncompromisingly breasted. Here stood +the villa of Peter Pindar (Dr. Walcott), who hymned the fleas of +Tenerife: I would back those of Tiberias. The land is arid, being +exposed to the full force of the torrid northeast trade. Its principal +produce is the cactus (_coccinellifera_), a fantastic monster with +fat oval leaves and apparently destitute of aught beyond thorns and +prickles. Here and there a string of small and rather mangy camels, each +carrying some 500 lbs., paced _par monts et par vaux_, and gave a +Bedawi touch to the scene: they were introduced from Africa by De +Béthencourt, surnamed the Great. We remarked the barrenness of the +bronze-coloured Banda del Sur, whose wealth is in cochineal and +'dripstones,' or filters of porous lava. Here few save the hardiest +plants can live, the spiny, gummy, and succulent cactus and thistles, +aloes and figs. The arborescent tabayba (_Euphorbia canariensis_), +locally called 'cardon,' is compared by some with the 'chandelier' of +the Cape, bristling with wax tapers: the Guanches used it extensively +for narcotising fish. This 'milk plant,' with its acrid, viscid, and +virulent juice, and a small remedial shrub growing by its side, probably +gave rise to the island fable of the twin fountains; one killed the +traveller by a kind of _risus Sardonicus_, unless he used the other +by way of cure. A scatter of crosses, which are impaled against every +wall and which rise from every eminence; a ruined fort here and there; a +long zigzag for wheels, not over-macadamised, with an older short cut +for hoofs, and the Puente de Zurita over the Barranco Santo, an old +bridge made new, led to the _cuesta_, or crest, which looks down +upon the Vega de la Laguna, the native Aguere. + +The 'noble and ancient city' San Cristobal de la Laguna was founded on +June 26, 1495, St. Christopher's Day, by De Lugo, who lies buried in the +San Miguel side-chapel of La Concepcion de la Victorias. The site is an +ancient lava-current, the successor of a far older crater, originally +submarine. The latest sub-aerial fire-stream, a broad band flowing from +north to south--we have ascended it by the coach-road--and garnished +with small parasitic craters, affords a bed and basis to the +capital-port, Santa Cruz. After rains the lake reappears in mud and +mire; and upon the lip where the town is built the north-east and the +south-west winds contend for mastery, shedding abundant tears. Yet the +old French chronicler says of the site, 'Je ne croy pas qu'il y eu ait +en tout le monde aucune autre de plus plaisante.' The mean annual +temperature is 62° 51' (F.), and the sensation is of cold: the altitude +being 1,740 feet. Hence, like Orotava, it escaped the yellow fever which +in October 1862 had slain its 616 victims. + +[Footnote: The list of epidemics at Santa Cruz is rather formidable, +_e.g._ 1621 and 1628, _peste_ (plague); 1810 and 1862, yellow +Jack; 1814, whooping cough, scarlatina, and measles; 1816-16, small-pox +(2,000 victims); 1826, cough and scarlet ferer; 1847, fatal dysentery; +and 1861-62, cholera (7,000 to 12,000 deaths).] + +La Laguna offers an extensive study of medieval baronial houses, of +colonial churches, of _ermitas_, or chapels, of altars, and of +convents now deserted, but once swarming with Franciscans and Augustines +and Dominicans and Jesuits. These establishments must have been very +rich, for, here as elsewhere, + + Dieu prodigue ses biens + À ceux qui font voeu d'être siens. + +St. Augustine, with its short black belfry, shows a Christus Vinctus of +the Seville school, and the institute or college in the ex-monastery +contains a library of valuable old books. The Concepcion boasts a +picture of St. John which in 1648 sweated for forty days. [Footnote: +Evidently a survival of the classic _aera sudantia_. Mrs. Murray +notices the 'miracle' at full length (ii. 76).] The black and white +cathedral, bristling with cannon-like gargoyles, a common architectural +feature in these regions, still owns the fine pulpit of Carrara marble +sent from Genoa in 1767. The _chef d'oeuvre_ then cost 200_l._; +now it would be cheap at five times that price. In the sacristy +are the usual rich vestments and other clerical curios. The +Ermita de San Cristobal, built upon an historic site, is denoted as +usual by a giant Charon bearing a small infant. There is a Carriera or +Corso (High Street) mostly empty, also the great deserted Plaza del +Adelantado, of the conqueror Lugo. The arms of the latter, with his +lance and banner, are shown at the Ayuntamiento, or town-house; I do not +admire his commercial motto-- + + Quien lanza sabe tener, + Ella le da de comer. + +[Footnote: + Whose lance can wield + Daily bread 'twill yield.] + +Conquering must not be named in the same breath as 'bread-winning.' +There, too, is the scutheon of Tenerife, given to it in 1510; Michael +the Archangel, a favourite with the invader, stands unroasted upon the +fire-vomiting Nivarian peak, and this grand vision of the guarded mount +gave rise to satiric lines by Vieira:-- + + Miguel, Angel Miguel, sobre esta altura + Te puso el Rey Fernando y Tenerife; + Para ser del asufre y nieve fria + Guardia, administrador y almoxarife. + +[Footnote: + Michael, archangel Michael, on this brow + Throned thee King Ferdinand and Tenerife; + To be of sulphur grough and frigid snow + Administrator, guard, and reeve-in-chief.] + +The deserted streets were long lines with an unclean central +gutter. Some of the stone houses were tall, grand, solid, and stately; +such are the pavilion of the Counts of Salazar, the huge, heavy abode of +the Marquesses de Nava, and the mansions of the Villanuevas del +Pardo. But yellow fever had driven away half of the population--10,000 +souls, who could easily be 20,000--and had barricaded the houses to the +curious stranger. Most of them, faced and porticoed with florid pillars, +were mere dickies opening upon nothing, and only the huge armorial +bearings showed that they had ever been owned. Mixed with these +'palaces.' were 'cat-faced cottages' and pauper, mildewed tenements, +whose rusty iron-work, tattered planks, and broken windows gave them a +truly dreary and dismal appearance. The sole noticeable movement was a +tendency to gravitate in the roofs. The principal growth, favoured by +the vapour-laden air, was of grass in the thoroughfares, of moss on the +walls, and of the 'fat weed' upon the tiles. The horse-leek +(_sempervivum urbium_), brought from Madeira, was first described +by the 'gifted Swede' Professor Smith, who died on the Congo +River. Finally, though the streets are wide and regular, and the large +town is well aired by four squares, the whole aspect was strongly +suggestive of the _cocineros_ (cooks), as the citizens of the +capital are called by the sons of the capital-port. They retort by +terming their rival brethren _chicharreros_, or fishers of the +_chicharro_ (horse-mackerel, _Caranx Cuvieri_.) + +From La Laguna we passed forward to Tacoronte, the 'Garden of the +Guanches,' and inspected the little museum of the late D. Sebastian +Casilda, collected by his father, a merchant-captain de long +_cours_. It was a chaos of curiosities ranging from China to +Peru. Amongst them, however, were four entire mummies, including one +from Grand Canary. Thus we can correct M. Berthelot, who follows others +in asserting that only the Guanches of Tenerife mummified their +dead. The oldest description of this embalming is by a 'judicious and +ingenious man who had lived twenty years in the island as a physitian +and merchant.' It was inserted by Dr. Thomas Sprat in the 'Transactions +of the Royal Society,' London, and was republished in John Ogilby's +enormous folio [Footnote: The 'physitian' was Dr. Eden, an Englishman +who visited Tenerife in 1662.--Bohn's _Humboldtr_, i. 66] yclept +'Africa.' The merchant 'set out from Guimar, a Town for the most part +inhabited by such as derive themselves from the Antient +_Guanchios_, in the company of some of them, to view their Caves +and the corps buried in them (a favour they seldom or never permit to +any, having the Corps of their Ancestors in great veneration, and +likewise being extremely against any molestation of the Dead); but he +had done many Eleemosynary Cures amongst them, for they are very poor +(yet the poorest think themselves too good to Marry with the best +_Spaniard_), which endeared him to them exceedingly. Otherwise it +is death for any Stranger to visit these Caves and Bodies. The Corps are +sew'd up in Goatskins with Thongs of the same, with very great +curiosity, particularly in the incomparable exactness and evenness of +the Seams; and the skins are made close and fit to the Corps, which for +the most part are entire, the Eyes clos'd, Hair on their heads, Ears, +Nose, Teeth, Lips, and Beards, all perfect, onely discolour'd and a +little shrivell'd. He saw about three or four hundred in several Caves, +some of them standing, others lying upon Beds of Wood, so hardened by an +art they had (which the Spaniards call _curay_, to cure a piece of +Wood) that no iron can pierce or hurt it.[Footnote: The same writer +tells that they had earthen pots so hard that they could not be +broken. I have heard of similar articles amongst the barbarous races +east of Dalmatia.] These Bodies are very light, as if made of straw; and +in some broken Bodies he observ'd the Nerves and Tendons, and also the +String of the Veins and Arteries very distinctly. By the relation of one +of the most antient of this island, they had a particular Tribe that had +this art onely among themselves, and kept it as a thing sacred and not +to be communicated to the Vulgar. These mixt not themselves with the +rest of the Inhabitants, nor marry'd out of their own Tribe, and were +also their Priests and Ministers of Religion. But when the +_Spaniards_ conquer'd the place, most of them were destroy'd and +the art perisht with them, onely they held some Traditions yet of a few +Ingredients that were us'd in this business; they took Butter (some say +they mixed Bear's-grease with it) which they kept for that purpose in +the Skins; wherein they boyl'd certain Herbs, first a kind of wild +Lavender, which grows there in great quantities upon the Rocks; +secondly, an Herb call'd _Lara_, of a very gummy and glutinous +consistence, which now grows there under the tops of the Mountains; +thirdly, a kind of _cyclamen_, or sow-bread; fourthly, wild Sage, +which grows plentifully upon this island. These with others, bruised and +boyl'd up into Butter, rendered it a perfect Balsom. This prepar'd, they +first unbowel the Corps (and in the poorer sort, to save Charges, took +out the Brain behind): after the Body was thus order'd, they had in +readiness a _lixivium_ made of the Bark of Pine-Trees, wherewith +they washt the Body, drying it in the Sun in Summer and in the Winter in +a Stove, repeating this very often: Afterward they began their unction +both without and within, drying it as before; this they continu'd till +the Balsom had penetrated into the whole Habit, and the Muscle in all +parts appear'd through the contracted Skin, and the Body became +exceeding light: then they sew'd them up in Goat-skins. The Antients +say, that they have above twenty Caves of their Kings and great +Personages with their whole Families, yet unknown to any but themselves, +and which they will never discover.' Lastly, the 'physitian' declares +that 'bodies are found in the caves of the _Grand Canaries_, in +Sacks, quite consumed, and not as these in Teneriff.' + +This assertion is somewhat doubtful; apparently the practice was common +to the archipelago. It at once suggests Egypt; and, possibly, at one +time, extended clean across the Dark Continent. So Dr. Barth [Footnote: +_Travels_, &c., vol. iv. pp. 426-7.] tells us that when the chief +Sonni Ali died in Grurma, 'his sons, who accompanied him on the +expedition, took out his entrails and filled his inside with honey, in +order that it might be preserved from putrefaction.' Many tribes in +South America and New Zealand, as well as in Africa, preserved the +corpse or portions of it by baking, and similar rude devices. According +to some authorities, the Gruanche _menceys_ (kinglets or chiefs) +were boxed, Egyptian fashion, in coffins; but few are found, because the +superstitious Christian islanders destroy the contents of every +catacomb. + +In the Casilda collection I observed the hard features, broad brows, +square faces, and _flavos crines_ described by old writers. Two +showed traces of tongue and eyes (which often were blue), proving that +the softer and more perishable parts were not removed. There were +specimens of the dry and liquid balsam. Of the twenty-six skulls six +were from Grand Canary. All were markedly of the type called Caucasian, +and some belonged to exceptionally tall men. The shape was +dolichocephalic, with sides rather flat than rounded; the perceptive +region was well developed, and the reflective, as usual amongst savages +and barbarians, was comparatively poor. The facial region appeared +unusually large. + +The industrial implements were coarse needles and fish-hooks of +sheep-bone. The domestic _supellex_ consisted of wooden ladles +coarsely cut, and of rude pottery, red and yellow, generally without +handles, round-shaped and adorned with scratches. None of these +_ganigos_, or crocks, were painted like those of Grand Canary. They +used also small basaltic querns of two pieces to grind the _gofio_, +[Footnote: The _gofio_ was composed of ripe barley, toasted, +pounded, and kneaded to a kind of porridge in leathern bags like Turkish +tobacco-pouches. The object was to save the teeth, of which the Guanches +were particularly careful.] or parched grain. The articles of dress were +grass-cloth, thick as matting, and _tamarcos_, or smock-frocks, of +poorly tanned goatskins. They had also rough cords of palm-fibre, and +they seem to have preferred plaiting to weaving; yet New Zealand flax +and aloes grow abundantly. Their _mahones_ correspond with Indian +moccasins, and they made sugar-loaf caps of skins. The bases of shells, +ground down to the thickness of a crown-piece, and showing spiral +depressions, were probably the _viongwa_, necklaces still worn in +the Lake Regions of Central Africa. The beads were of many kinds; some +horn cylinders bulging in the centre, and measuring 1.25 inch long; +others of flattened clay like the American wampum or the ornaments of +the Fernando Po tribes; and others flattened discs, also baked, almost +identical with those found upon African mummies--in Peru they were used +to record dates and events. A few were of reddish agate, a material not +found in the island; these resembled bits of thick pipe-stem, varying +from half an inch to an inch in length. Perhaps they were copies of the +mysterious Popo-bead found upon the Slave Coast and in inner Africa. + +The Gruanches were doomed never to reach the age of metal. Their +civilisation corresponded with that of the Chinese in the days of +Fo-hi. [Footnote: Abel Rémusat tells us that of the two hundred +primitive Chinese 'hieroglyphs' none showed a knowledge of metal.] The +chief weapons were small triangles of close-grained basalt and +_iztli_ (obsidian flakes) for _tabonas,_ or knives, both being +without handles. They carried rude clubs and _banot,_ or barbed +spears of pine-wood with fire-charred points. The _garrotes_ +(pikes) had heads like two flattened semicircles, a shape preserved +amongst negroes to the present day. Our old author tells us that the +people would 'leap from rock to rock, sometimes making ten Fathoms deep +at one Leap, in this manner: First they _tertiate_ their Lances, +which are about the bigness of a Half-Pike, and aim with the Point at +any piece of a Rock upon which they intend to light, sometimes not half +a Foot broad; in leaping off they clap their Feet close to the Lance, +and so carry their bodies in the Air: the Point of the Lance comes first +to the place, which breaks the force of their fall; then they slide +gently down by the Staff and pitch with their Feet on the very place +they first design'd; and so from Rock to Rock till they come to the +bottom: but their Novices sometimes break their necks in the learning.' + +I observed more civilisation in articles from the other islands, +especially from the eastern, nearer the African continent. In 1834 +Fuerteventura yielded, from a depth of six feet, a dwarfish image of a +woman with prominent bosom and dressed in the native way: it appeared +almost Chinese. A pot of black clay from Palmas showed superior +construction. Here, too, in 1762 a cavern produced a basalt plate, upon +which are circular scrawls, which support the assertions of old writers +as regards the islanders not being wholly ignorant of letters. I could +trace no similarity to the peculiar Berber characters, and held them to +be mere ornamentation. The so-called 'Seals of the Kings' were dark +stones, probably used for painting the skin; they bore parallelograms +enclosed within one another, diaper-work and gridirons of raised +lines. In fact, the Guanches of Tenerife were unalphabetic. + +Hierro (Ferro), the Barranco de los Balos (Grand Canary), Fuerteventura, +and other items of the Fortunates have produced some undoubted +inscriptions. They are compared by M. Berthelot with the signs engraved +upon the cave-entrance of La Piedra Escrita in the Sierra Morena of +Andalusia; with those printed by General Faidherbe in his work on the +Numidic or Lybian epigraphs; with the 'Thugga inscription,' Tunis; and +with the rock-gravings of the Sahará, attributed to the ancient Tawárik +or Tifinegs. Dr. Gran-Bassas (El Museo Canario), who finds a notable +likeness between them and the 'Egyptian characters (cursive or demotic), +Phenician and Hebrew,' notes that they are engraved in vertical series. +Dr. Verneau, of the Academy, Paris, suggests that some of these epigraphs +are alphabetic, while others are hieroglyphic. [Footnote: _El Museo +Canario_, No. 40, Oct. 22, 1881.] Colonel H. W. Keays-Young kindly copied +for me, with great care, a painting in the Tacoronte museum. It +represents a couple of Guanche inscriptions, apparently hieroglyphic, +found (1762) in the cave of Belmaco, Isle of Palma, by the ancients called +Benahoave. They are inscribed upon two basaltic stones. + +[Illustration: THE NOMIDIO INSCRIPTIONS OF HIEBRO.] + +[Illustration] + +I also inspected the collection of a well-known lawyer, Dr. Francisco +Maria de Leon. Of the three Guanche skulls one was of African solidity, +with the sutures almost obliterated: it was the model of a soldier's +head, thick and heavy. The mass of mummy-balsam had been tested, without +other result than finding a large proportion of dragon's blood. In the +fourteenth century Grand Canary sent to Europe at one venture two +hundred doubloons' worth of this drug. + +By the kindness of the Governor I was permitted to inspect four Guanche +mummies, discovered (June 1862) in the jurisdiction of Candelaria. +Awaiting exportation to Spain, they had been temporarily +coffined upon a damp ground-floor, where the cockroaches respected +nothing, not even a Guanehe. I was accompanied by Dr. Angel +M. Yzquierdo, of Cadiz, physician to the hospital, and we jotted down as +follows:-- + +No. 1, a male of moderate size, wanted the head and upper limbs, while +the trunk was reduced to a skeleton. The characteristic signs were +Caucasian and not negro; nor was there any appearance of the Jewish +rite. The lower right leg, foot, and toe-nails were well preserved; the +left was a mere bone, wanting tarsus and metatarsus. The stomach was +full of dried fragments of herbs (_Ohenopodium_, &c.), and the +epidermis was easily reduced to powder. In this case, as in the other +three, the mortuary skins were coarsely sewn with the hair inside: it is +a mistake to say that the work was 'like that of a glove.' + +No. 2 was large-statured and complete; the framework and the form of the +pelvis were masculine. The skin adhered to the cranium except behind, +where the bone protruded, probably the effect of long resting upon the +ground. Near the right temporal was another break in the skin, which +here appeared much decayed. All the teeth were present, but they were +not particularly white nor good. The left forearm and hand were wanting, +and the right was imperfect; the lower limbs were well preserved even to +the toe-nails. + +No. 3, also of large size, resembled No. 2; the upper limbs were +complete, and the lower wanted only the toes of the left foot. The lower +jaw was absent, and the upper had no teeth. An oval depression, about an +inch in its greater diameter, lay above the right orbit. If this be a +bullet-mark, the mummy may date from before the final conquest and +submission in A.D. 1496. But it may also have resulted from some +accident, like a fall, or from the blow of a stone, a weapon which the +Guanches used most skilfully. Mr. Sprat, confirmed by Glas, affirms that +they 'throw Stones with a force almost as great as that of a Bullet, and +now use Stones in all their fights as they did antiently.' + +No. 4, much smaller than the two former, was the best preserved. The +shape of the skull and pelvis suggested a female; the arms also were +crossed in front over the body, whereas in the male mummy they were laid +straight. The legs were covered with skin; the hands were remarkably +well preserved, and the nails were darker than other parts. The tongue, +in all four, was absent, having probably decayed. + +These crania were distinctly oval. The facial angle, well opened, and +ranging from 80° to 85°, counterbalanced the great development of the +face, which showed an animal type. A little hair remained, coloured +ruddy-chestnut and straight, not woolly. The entrails had disappeared, +and the abdominal walls not existing, it was impossible to detect the +incisions by which the tanno-balsamic substances, noted by Bory de +Saint-Vincent and many others, were introduced. The method appears +uncertain. It is generally believed that after removing the entrails +through an irregular cut made with the _tabona_, or obsidian +(knife), the operators, who, as in Egypt, were of the lowest caste, +injected a corrosive fluid. They then filled the cavities with the +balsam described above; dried the corpse; and, after, fifteen to twenty +days, sewed it up in tanned goatskins. Such appears to have been the +case with the mummies under consideration. + +The catacombs, inviolable except to the sacrilegious, were numerous in +the rockiest and least accessible parts of the island. Mr. Addison found +them in the Cañádas del Pico, 7,700 feet above sea-level. [Footnote: +Tenerife: 'An Ascent of the Peak and Sketch of the Island,' by Robert +Edward Alison. _Quarterly Journal of Science_, Jan. 1806.] Hence it +has been remarked of the Guanches that, after a century of fighting, +nothing remained of them but their mummies. The sharp saying is rather +terse than true. + +The Guanches were barbarians, not savages. De Béthencourt's two +chaplains, speaking in their chronicle of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, +tell us 'there are many villages and houses, with numerous inhabitants.' +The ruins still found in the Isles are called 'casas hondas' ("deep +houses"); because a central excavation was surrounded by a low wall. The +castle of Zonzamas was built of large stones without lime. In Port +Arguineguin (Grand Canary) the explorers sent by Alfonso IV. (1341) came +upon 300 to 400 tenements roofed with valuable wood, and so clean inside +that they seemed stuccoed. They encircled a larger building, probably +the residence of the chief. But the Tenerifans used only caves. + +The want of canoes and other navigating appliances in Guanche-land by no +means proves that the emigration took place when the Canaries formed +part of the Continent. The same was the case with the Australians, the +Tasmanians, and the New Zealanders. The Guanches, at the same time, were +admirable swimmers, easily able to cross the strait, nine miles wide, +separating Lanzarote from La Graciosa. They could even kill fish with +sticks when in the water. The fattening of girls before marriage was, +and is still, a Moroccan, not an Arab custom. The rude feudalism much +resembled that of the Bedawi chiefs. George Glas, [Footnote: _The +History of the Discovery and Conquest of the Canary Islands_, +&c. 4to. London, 1764. I have given some notices of the unfortunate +'master mariner' in _Wanderings in West Africa_, vol. i. p. 79] or +rather Abreu Galindo, his author, says of their marriages, 'None of the +Canarians had more than one wife, and the wife one husband, contrary to +what misinformed authors affirm.' The general belief is that at the time +of the conquest polyandry prevailed amongst the tribes. It may have +originated from their rude community of goods, and probably it became a +local practice in order to limit population. Possibly, too, it was +confined to the noble and the priestly orders. + +Humboldt remarks, [Footnote: _Personal Narrative_, chap, i. p. 32, +Bohn's ed. London, 1852.] 'We find no example of this polyandry except +amongst the people of Thibet.' Yet he must have heard of the Nayr of +Malabar, if not of the Todas on the Nilagiri Hills. D. Agustin Millares +[Footnote: _Historia de la Gran Canaria_. Published at Las Palmas.] +explains the custom by 'men and women being born in almost equal +proportions,' the reverse being the fact. Equal proportions induce the +monogamic relation. + +Learned M. d'Avezac derives 'Guanche' from Guansheri or Guanseri, a +Berber tribe described by El-Idrisi and Leo Africanus. This is better +than finding it in the Keltic _gwuwrn, gwen_, white. Older +authorities hold it a corruption of 'Vinchune,' the indigenous name of +the Nivarian race. Again, 'the inhabitants of Tenerife called themselves +Guan (the Berber Wan), one person, Chinet or Chinerf, Tenerife; so that +_Guanchinet_ meant a man of Tenerife, and was easily corrupted to +Guanche. Thus, too, Glas's 'Captain Artemis' was Guan-arteme, the one or +chief ruler. Vieira derives 'Tenerf' or'Chenerf' from the last king; and +old MSS. have 'Chenerife.' The popular voice says it is composed of +'Tener,' mountain or snow, and of 'ryfe,' snow or mountain. Pritchard +[Footnote: _Researches into the Physical History of Mankind_, book +iii. chap. ii.] applied the term Guanche to all the Canarian races, and +he is reproached for error by M. de Macedo, [Footnote: 'Ethnological +Remarks,' &c., by J. J. de Costa de Macedo, of Lisbon, _Royal +Geographical Society's Journal_, vol. ii. p. 172. _Wanderings in +West Africa_, i. 116, contains my objections to his theory.] who +would limit it to the Tenerifans. The same occurs in the Rev. Mr. Delany +[Footnote: _Notes of a Residence in the Canary Islands_, +&c. London, 1861.] and in Professor Piazzi Smyth, [Footnote: _An +Astronomer's Experiment_, p. 190. L. Reeve, London, 1868.] who speaks +of the 'Guanches of Grand Canary and Teneriffe.' According to popular +usage all were right, 'Guanche' being the local and general term for the +aborigines of the whole archipelago. But the scientific object that it +includes under the same name several different races. + +The language is also a point of dispute: some opine that all the +islanders had one tongue, others that they were mutually unintelligible; +many that it was Berber (Numidian, Getulian, and Garamantan), a few that +it was less distinctly Semitic. The two chaplains of De Béthencourt +[Footnote: Bontier and Le Verrier, _Histoire de la première Découverte +e Conquête des Canaries_. Bergeron, Paris, 1630.] noted its +resemblance with that of the 'Moors' of Barbary. Glas, who knew +something of Shilha, or Western Berber, made the same observation. But +the Genoese pilot Niccoloso di Recco during the expedition of A.D. 1344 +collected the numerals, and two of these, _satti_ (7) and +_tamatti_ (8), are less near the original than the Berberan +_set_ and _tem_. + +The catalogue of Abreu Galindo, who lived here in 1591 and printed his +history in 1632, preserves 122 words; Vieira only 107, and Bory de +Saint-Vincent [Footnote: _Essai sur les Iles fortunées_. Humboldt +has only five.] 148. Webb and Berthelot give 909. Of these 200 are +nouns, including 22 names of plants; 467 are placenames, and 242 are +proper names. Many are questionable. For instance, _sabor_ +(council-place) is derived from _cabocer_, 'expression par laquelle +les nègres de la Sénégambie dénotent la réunion de leurs chefs.' +[Footnote: Vol. i. part i. p. 223.] As all know, it is the corrupted +Portuguese _caboceiro_, a headman. + +Continuing our way from Tacoronte we reached Sauzal, beyond which the +coach did not then run; the old road was out of condition, and the new +not in working order. We offered a dollar each for carrying our light +gear to sturdy men who were loitering and lying about the premises. They +shook their heads, wrapped their old blanket-cloaks around them, and +stretched themselves in the sun like dogs after a cold walk. I could +hardly wonder. What wants have they? A covering for warmth, porridge for +food, and, above all, the bright sun and pure air, higher luxuries and +better eudaemonics than purple and fine linen. At last some passing +muleteers relieved us of the difficulty. + +The way was crowded with Laguneros, conspicuous in straw-hats; cloth +jackets, red waistcoats embroidered at the back; bright crimson sashes; +white knickerbockers, with black velveteen overalls, looking as if +'pointed' before and behind; brown hose or long leather gaiters +ornamented with colours, and untanned shoes. Despite the heat many wore +the Guanche cloak, a blanket (English) with a running string round the +neck. The women covered their graceful heads with a half-square of white +stuff, and deformed the coiffure by a hideous black billycock, an +unpleasant memory of Wales. Some hundreds of men, women, and children +were working on the road, and we were surprised by the beauty of the +race, its classical outlines, oval contours, straight profiles, +magnificent hair, and blue-grey eyes with black lashes. This is not the +result of Guanche blood, as a town on the south-western part of the +island presently showed me. Also an orderly of Guanche breed from the +parts about Arico, who had served for years at the palace, was pointed +out as a type. He stood six feet four, with proportional breadth; his +face was somewhat lozenge-shaped, his hair straight, black like a +Hindu's, and his tawny skin looked only a little darker than that of +Portuguese Algarves. The beauty of the islanders results from a mixture +of Irish blood. During the Catholic persecution before 1823 many fled +the Emerald Isle to Tenerife, and especially to Orotava. The women's +figures in youth are charming, tall, straight, and pliant as their own +pine-trees. All remark their graceful gait. + +We passed through places famed in the days of the conquest--La Matanza, +the native Orantapata, where De Lugo's force was nearly annihilated. Now +it is the half-way station to Orotava; and here the _coche_ stops +for dinner, prices being regulated by Government. The single inn shows +the Pike, but not the subjacent valley. Then to Acentejo, the local +Roncesvalles, where the invaders were saved only by St. Michael; and +next to La Vitoria, where they avenged themselves. At Santa Ursula we +first saw the slopes of Orotava, the Guanche Tavro or Atanpalata; and on +the Cuesta de la Villa we were shown near its mark, a date-palm, the +cave that sheltered the patriot chief, unfortunate Bencomo. As the +fashionables came forth to walk and drive we passed the _calvario_ +and the _place_ leading to the Villa Orotava, and found quarters in +the _fonda_ of D. José Gobea. The _sala_, or chief room, some +30 feet long, wanted only an Eastern divan round the walls; it was +easily converted into a tolerable place of bivouac, and here we resolved +to try country life for a while. + +The first aspect of the Orotava Tempe was disappointing after Humboldt's +dictum, 'Voici ce qu'il y a de plus délicieux au monde.' But our +disappointment was the natural reaction of judgment from fancy to +reality, which often leads to a higher appreciation. At last we learned +why the Elysian [Footnote: In Arabic El-Lizzat, the Delight, or from the +old Egyptian _Aahlu_,] Fields, the Fortunate Islands, the Garden of +the Hesperides--where the sea is no longer navigable, and where Atlas +supports the firmament on a mountain conical as a cylinder; the land of +evening, of sunset, where Helios sinks into the sea, and where Night +bore the guardians of the golden apples--were such favourites with the +poets. And we came to love every feature of the place, from the snowy +Pike of Teyde flushing pink in the morning sun behind his lofty rampart, +to the Puerto, or lower town, whose three several reef-gates are outlaid +by creamy surf, and whose every shift of form and hue stands distinct in +the transparent and perfumed air. The intermediate slopes are clothed +with a vegetation partly African, partly European; and here Humboldt, at +the end of the last century, proposed to naturalise the chinchona. + +La Villa lies some two miles and a half from and about 1,140 feet above +the Puerto; and the streets are paved and precipitous as any part of +Funchal. The population varied from 7,000 to 8,000 souls, whereas the +lower town had only 3,500. It contains a few fine houses with huge +hanging balconies and interior _patios_ (courts) which would +accommodate a regiment. They date from the 'gente muy caballerosa' +(knightly folk) of three centuries ago. The feminine population appeared +excessive, the reason being that some five per cent. of the youths go to +Havannah and after a few years return 'Indianos,' or 'Indios,' our old +'nabobs.' + +At the Puerto we were most kindly received by the late British +Vice-Consul, Mr. Goodall, who died about the normal age, seventy-seven: +if this be safely passed man in Tenerife becomes a macrobian. All was +done for our comfort by the late Mr. Carpenter, who figures in the +'Astronomer's Experiment' as 'the interpreter.' Amongst the scanty +public diversions was the Opera. The Villa theatre occupied an ancient +church: the length of the building formed pit, boxes, and gallery; and +'La Sonnambula' descended exactly where the high altar had been. At the +Puerto an old monastery was chosen for 'La Traviata:' the latter was +realistic as Crabbe's poetry; even in bed the unfortunate 'Misled' one +could not do without a certain truncated cylinder of acajou. I sighed +for the Iberian 'Zarzuela,' that most charming _opera buffa_ which +takes its name from a 'pleasaunce' in the Pardo Palace near Madrid. + +The hotel diet was peculiarly Spanish; already the stews and 'pilaffs' +(_puláos_) of the East begin in embryo. The staple dish was the +_puchero_, or _cocido_, which antiquated travellers still call +'olla podrida' (pot-pourri). This _lesso_ or _bouilli_ consists +of soup, beef, bacon, and _garbanzos_ (chick-peas, or _Cicer +arietinium_) in one plate, and boiled potatoes and small gourds +(_bubangos_) in another. The condiments are mostly garlic +and saffron, preferred to mustard and chillies. The pastry, they tell +me, is excellent. + +In those days the Great Dragon Tree had not yet lost its upper cone by +the dreadful storm of January 3, 1868; thus it had survived by two +centuries and a half the Garoe Laurel, or Arbol Santo, the miraculous +tree of Hierro (Ferro). It stood in the garden of the Marquez de Sauzal, +who would willingly have preserved it. But every traveller had his own +infallible recipe, and the proprietor contented himself with propping up +the lower limbs by poles. It stood upon a raised bank of masonry-work, +and the north-east side showed a huge cavity which had been stopped with +stone and lime. About half a century ago one-third came down, and in +1819 an arm was torn off and sent, I believe, to Kew. When we saw the +fragment it looked mostly like tinder, or touchwood, 'eld-gamall,' +stone-old, as the Icelanders say. Near it stood a pair of tall +cypresses, and at some distance a venerable palm-tree, which 'relates to +it,' according to Count Gabriel de Belcastel, + +[Footnote: I quote from the Spanish translation, _Las Islas Canarias y +el Valle Orotava,_ a highly popular work contrasting wonderfully with +some of ours. The courteous Frenchman even promised that Morocco would +be the Algeria of the Canaries. His observations for temperature, +pressure, variation, hygrometry, and psychrometry of the Orotavan +climate, which he chose for health, are valuable. He starts with a +theory of the three conditions of salubrity--heat-and-cold, humidity, +and atmospheric change. The average annual mean of Orotava is 66.34 +degrees (F.), that of Southern France in September; it never falls below +54.5 degrees nor rises above 73.88 degrees, nor exceeds 13.88 degrees in +variation.] + +'in the murmurs of the breeze the legends of races long disappeared.' + +Naturalists modestly assigned to the old Dragon 5,000 to 10,000 years, +thus giving birth to fine reflections about its witnessing revolutions +which our planet underwent prior to the advent of man. So Adamson made +his calabash a contemporary of the Noachian Deluge, if that partial +cataclysm [Footnote: The ancient Egyptians, who ignored the Babylonian +Deluge, well knew that all cataclysms are local, not general, +catastrophes.] ever reached Africa. The Orotava relic certainly was an +old tree, prophetic withal, [Footnote: It was supposed infallibly to +predict weather and to regulate sowing-time. Thus if the southern side +flowered first drought was to be expected, and vice versa. Now the +peasant refers to San Isidro, patron of Orotava: he has only changed the +form of his superstition.] when De Lugo and the _conquistadores_ +entered the valley in 1493 and said mass in its hollow. But that event +was only four centuries ago, and dates are ticklish things when derived +from the rings and wrinkles of little-studied vegetation. Already +Mr. Diston, in a letter to Professor Piazzi Smyth, [Footnote: +'Astronomical Experiment on the Peak of Tenerife,' _Philosoph. +Trans._, part ii. for 1858.] declared that a young 'dragon,' +which he had planted in 1818, became in 38 years so tall that +a ladder was required to reach the head. And let us observe that Nature, +though forbidden such style of progression by her _savans_, +sometimes does make a local _saltus_, especially in the change of +climates. Centuries ago, when the fires about Teyde were still alight, +and the lava-fields about Orotava were still burning, the rate of +draconian increase, under the influence of heat and moisture, might have +been treble or quadruple what it would now be. + +[Footnote: The patriarch was no 'giant of the forest.' Its stature did +not exceed 60 feet. Humboldt made it only 45 French feet(= 47 ft. ll +ins. English) round the base. Dr. Wilde (_Narrative_, p. 40) blames +the measurer and gives about the same measurement, Professor Piazzi +Smyth, who in 1856 reproduced it in an abominable photo-stenograph, +reckons 48.5 feet at the level of the southern foot, 35.6 feet at 6 feet +above the ground, and 28.8 feet at 14.5 feet, where branches spring from +the rapidly narrowing conical trunk. The same are said to have been its +proportions in the days of the conquest. In 1866 Mr. Addison made it 60 +feet tall, 35.5 feet at 6 feet from the ground, and 49.5 in +circumference at the base which he cleared. Mr. Barker Webb's sketch in +1830 was the best; but the tree afterwards greatly changed. +Mr. J. J. Williams made a neat drawing in boarding-school +style, with a background apparently borrowed from Richmond Hill.] + +The Jardin de Aclimatacion, or Botanical Garden, mentioned by Humboldt + +[Footnote: Page 59. It is regretable that his forecasts have +failed. Neither of the ohinohonas (_C. tanoifolia_ and _C. +oblongifolia_) has been naturalised in Southern Europe. Nor has +the Hill of Duragno yet sent us the 'protea, the psidium, the jambos, +the chirimoya of Peru, the sensitive plant, the heliconia, and several +beautiful species of glyoine from New Holland.'] + +as far back as 1799, still flourishes. It was founded in 1788-95 by an +able _savan_, the Marquis de Villanueva del Pardo (D. Alonso de +Nava y Grimon), who to a Government grant of 1,000_l_. added +4,000_l_. of his own, besides 400_l_. a year for an average +generation. The place is well chosen, for the Happy Valley combines the +flora of the north and the south, with a Nivaria of snow-land above it +and a semi-tropical temperature on the shores of the 'Chronian Sea.' + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE ROUTINE ASCENT OF MOUNT ATLAS, THE 'PIKE' OF TENERIFE. + +The trip was so far routine that we followed in the steps of all +previous travellers, and so far not routine that we made it in March, +when, according to all, the Mal Pais is impassable, and when furious +winds threaten to sweep away intruders like dry leaves. + +[Footnote: The usual months are July and August. Captain Baudin, not +favourably mentioned by Humboldt, ascended in December 1797 with M. Le +Gros and the naturalists Advenier, Mauger, and Riedlé. He rolled down +from half-way on the cone to the bottom of La Rambleta, and was stopped +only by a snow-covered lava-heap. Mr. Addison chose February, when he +'suffered more from enormous radiation than from cold.' He justifies his +choice (p. 22) by observing that 'the seasons above are much earlier +than they are below, consequently the latter part of the spring is the +best season to visit the Peak.' In October, at an elevation of 10,700 +feet, he found the cold greater than it was in February. In July 1863 I +rode round the island, to the Cumbre pumice-plains, and by no means +enjoyed the southern ride. A place near Guimar showed me thirty-six +_barrancos_ (deep ravines) to be crossed within three leagues.] + +The good folk of the Villa, indeed, declared that the Ingleza could +never reach even the Estancia de los Inglezes. + +Our train was modest--a pair of nags with their attendants, and two +excellent sumpter-mules carrying provisions and blankets. The guide was +Manoel Reyes, who has already appeared in the 'Specialities of a +Residence Above the Clouds.' He is a small, wizen-faced man, quiet, +self-contained, and fond--exceedingly fond--of having his own way. By +dint of hard work we left the Fonda Gobea at 9 A.M. on March 23, with +loud cries of 'Mulo!' and 'Anda, caballo!' and 'So-o-o!' when the +bât-beasts indulged in a free fight. + +Morning smiled upon our incept. Nothing could be lovelier than the +weather as we crossed the deluging Martinianez Fiumara; struck the +coast-road westward, and then, bending to the south-west, made for the +'Gate of Taoro,' a gap in the Cañáda-wall. From the higher level truly +charming was the aspect of Orotava: it was Funchal many times +improved. Beyond the terraced foreground of rich deep yellow clay, +growing potatoes, wheat, and the favourite _chochos_ (lupines), +with apple and chestnut trees, the latter of two kinds, and the lower +fields marked out by huge agaves, lay the Happy Valley. Its contrast of +vivid greens, of white _quintas_, of the two extinct volcanos +overlooking Orotava, and of the picturesque townlets facing the misty +blue sea, fringed with a ceaseless silvery surf by the _brisa_, or +north-east trade, the lord of these latitudes, had not a symptom of the +Madeiran monotony of verdure. Behind us towered high the snowy Pilon +(Sugar-loaf), whose every wave and fold were picked out by golden +sunlight, azure half-light, and purple shade. + +As we advanced up the Camiño de Chasna, a road only by name, the +_quintas_ were succeeded by brown-thatched huts, single or in +clumps. On the left, 3,400 feet above sea-level, stood the Pino del +Dornajito ('of the Little Trough'), one of the few survivors in this +once wealthy pine-ground. The magnificent old tree, which was full grown +in the days of the conquest, and which in the seventeenth century was a +favourite halting-point, suffered severely from the waterspout of +November 7, 1826; but still measured 130 feet long by 29 in girth. The +vegetation now changed. We began brushing through the arbutus +(_callicarpa_), the wild olive (_Olea excelsa_), the Canarian +oak, the daphne, the myrtle entwined with indigenous ivy (_Hedera +canariensis_); the cytisus, the bright green hypericum of three +species, thyme, gallworts, and arborescent and other ferns in numbers, +especially the hare's-foot and the peculiar _Asplenium canariense_, +the _Trichomanes canariensis_, and the _Davallia canariensis_; +the _brezo_ (_Erica aborea_ and _E. scoparia_), a heath +whose small white bells scented the air; and the luxuriant blackberry, +used to fortify the drystone walls. The dew-cloud now began to float +upwards from the sea in scarf-shape, only a few hundred feet thick; it +had hangings and fringes where it was caught by the rugged hill-flanks; +and above us globular masses, white as cotton bales, rolled over one +another. As in the drier regions of Africa the hardly risen sun made +itself felt. + +At 10.20 A.M. we had passed out of the cultivated region to the Montijo, +or Monte Verde, the laurel-region. The 'wood' is the remains of a fine +forest accidentally fired by charcoal-burners; it is now a copse of +arborescent heath-worts, ilex (_I. Perado_), and _Faya_ +(_Myrica Faya_), called the 'Portugal laurel,' some growing ten +feet high. We then entered upon rough ground, El Juradillo ('the +Hollow'); this small edition of the Mal Pais, leading to the Canadas, is +a mass of lava-beds and dry _barrancos_ (ravines) grooved and +sheeted by rushing torrents. The latter show the anatomy of the +land--tufas, lavas, conglomerates, trachytes, trachydolerites, and +basalts of various kinds. Most of the rocks are highly magnetic, and are +separated by thin layers of humus with carbonised plant-roots. Around +El Juradillo rises a scatter of _montanetas_, shaped like +half-buried eggs: originally parasitic cones, they evidently connect +with the main vent. About 1 P.M., after four hours' ride, we dismounted +at the Estancia de la Sierra (6,500 feet); it is a pumice-floor a few +feet broad, dotted with bush and almost surrounded by rocks that keep +off a wind now blowing cold and keen. Consequently, as broken pots and +bottles show, it is a favourite resting-place. + +After halting an hour we rode up a slope whose obtuser talus showed that +we were reaching the far-famed platform, called Las Cañádas del +Pico. The word, here meaning level ground, not, as usual, a canefield, +applies especially to the narrow outer rim of the hollow plain; a +bristling fortification of bluffs, pointing inwards, and often tilted to +quoins 300 feet high, with an extreme of 1,000. Trachyte and basalt, +with dykes like Cyclopean walls, are cut to jagged needles by the +furious north-easter. Around the foot, where it is not encumbered with +_débris_ like the base of an iceberg, a broad line of comminuted +pumice produces vegetation like a wady-growth in Somali Land. The +central bed allows no short cut across: it is a series of rubbish-heaps, +parasitic cones, walls, and lumps of red-black lavas, trachytes, and +phonolites reposing upon a deluge of frozen volcanic froth ejected by +early eruptions. The aspect was rejoicing as the Arabian desert: I would +willingly have spent six months in the purest of pure air. + +These flats of pumice, 'stones of emptiness,' loose incoherent matter, +are the site of the first great crater. Tenerife is the type of a +three-storied volcano, as Stromboli is of one and Vesuvius of two +stages. The enormous diameter of this ancient feature is eight by seven +miles, with a circumference of twenty-three--greater even than +Hawaii--and here one feels that our earth was once a far sublimer +scene. Such forms belong to the earlier volcanic world, and astronomers +still suspect them in the moon. [Footnote: Las Cañádas was shown to be a +volcanic crater in 1803 by Professor Cordier, the first scientific +visitor in modern days (_Lettre à Devilliers fils_), and in 1810 by +D. Francisco Escobar (_Estadistica_). They make the old vent ten +leagues round.] The altitude is 6,900 feet, nearly double the height of +Vesuvius (3,890 feet); and the lines sweep upwards towards the Pilon, +where they reach 8,950 feet. + +The tints of Las Cañádas, seen from above, are the tenderest yellow and +a brownish red, like the lightest coat of vegetation turning ruddy in +the sun. Where level, Las Cañádas is a floor of rapilli and +pumice-fragments, none larger than a walnut, but growing bigger as they +approach the Pike. The colours are dun (_barriga de monja_), +golden-yellow, and brown burnt red like autumnal leaves. There is +marvellous colouring upon the bluffs and ridges of the rim--lamp-black +and brown-black, purple (light and dark), vermilion-red, and sombre hues +superficially stained ruddy by air-oxygen. The picture is made brighter +by the leek-green vegetation and by the overarching vault of glaring +blue. Nor are the forms less note-worthy. Long centuries of weathering +have worked the material into strange shapes--here a ruined wall, there +an old man with a Jesuit's cap; now a bear, then a giant python. It is +the oldest lava we have yet seen, except the bed of the Orotava +valley. The submarine origin is denoted by fossils found in the flank; +they are of Miocene age, like those common in Madeira, and they were +known as early as the days of Clavijo (1772). + +Las Canadas is not wholly a 'dead creation;' the birds were more +numerous than on the plains. A powerful raptor, apparently an eagle with +black-barred wings, hung high in air amongst the swallows winging their +way northwards, and the Madeiran sparrow-hawk was never out of sight; +ravens, unscared by stone-throwing boys, flew over us unconcernedly, +while the bushes sheltered many blackbirds, the Canary-bird +(_Fringilla canaria_) showed its green belly and grey back and +wings, singing a note unknown to us; and an indigenous linnet +(_F. teydensis_), small and green-robed, hopped over the ground +tame as a wren. We saw nothing of the red-legged partridge or the +Tetraonidae, reported to be common. + +The scattered growths were composed of the broomy _Codeso_ and +_Retama_. The former (_Adenocarpus frankenoides_), a leguminous +plant, showed only dense light-green leaves without flower, +and consequently without their heavy, cloying perfume. The woody stem +acts in these regions as the _doornboom_ of South Africa, the wild +sage of the western prairies, and the _shih_ (_absinthium_) of +the Arabian desert. The Arabic _Retama_, or Alpine broom +(_Cytisus fragrans_, Lam.; _Cyt. nubigenus_, Decan.; _Spartium +nubigenum_, Alton and Von Buch), is said to be peculiar +to Tenerife, where it is not found under one vertical mile of +height. Some travellers divide it into two species, _Spartium +monospermum_ and _S. nubigenum_. The bush, 9 to 10 feet tall by 7 to +15 inches diameter, is easily distinguished from the _Codeso_ by +its denser and deeper green. This pretty rounded growth, with its short +brown stem throwing out lateral branches which trail on the ground, +flavours meat, and might be naturalised in Europe. From June till August +it is covered with a profusion of white blossoms, making Las Canadas a +Hymettus, an apiarian heaven. It extends as far as the second cone, but +there it shrinks to a foot in height. We did not see the tree growing, +but we met a party of Chasna men, [Footnote: A romantic tale is told of +the origin of Chasna. In 1496, before the wars ended, one Pedro de +Bracamonte, a captain under De Lugo, captured a 'belle sauvage,' who +made her escape after a few days. He went about continually repeating, +'Vi la flor del valle' (I saw the valley flower), and died after three +months. His soldiers buried him and priests said masses for the soul of +this 'hot amorist.'] driving asses like onagers, laden with the gummy +wood of the _Tea_ or _Tiya_ pine (_P. canariensis_). The +valuable material, which resists damp and decay for centuries, and which +Decandolle declares would grow in Scotland, is rapidly disappearing from +the Pinals. The travellers carried cochineal-seed, for which their +village is famous, and a hive which might have been Abyssinian. It was a +hollow cylinder of palm-bole, closed with board at either end; in July +and August it is carried up the mountain, where the bees cannot destroy +the grapes. We searched in vain for M. Broussonet's white violet +(_V. teydensis_), [Footnote: Humboldt's five zones of vegetation on +the Pike are vines, laurels, pines, broom, and grasses (p. 116). +Mr. Addison modifies this scale to vines, laurels, pines and +junipers, mountain-brooms and pumice-plains, I should distribute the +heights as growing cochineal, potatoes, and cereals, chestnuts, pines, +heaths, grasses, and bare rock.] and for the lilac-coloured _Viola +cheiranthifolia_, akin to _V. decumbens_. + +The average annual temperature of Las Canadas is that of N. latitude 53 +degrees, Holland and Hanover; in fact, here it is the Pyrenees, and +below it Africa. The sun blazed from a desert of blue, and the waving +heat-reek rose trembling and quivering from the tawny sides of the +foregrounds. The clouds, whose volumes were disposed like the leaves of +a camellia, lay far down to the north-east, as if unable to face the +fires of day. And now the great trachytic dome, towering in the +translucent air, was the marking feature. Its angle, 35 to 42 degrees, +or double that of the lower levels, suggests distant doubts as to its +practicability, nor could we believe that it rises 3,243 feet above its +western base, Las Cañádas. The summit, not including the terminal +Pilon--a comparatively dwarf cone [Footnote: There is a very bad sketch +of the Pike in Mr. Scrope's popular work on _Volcanoes_ (p. 5); the +eruptive chimney is far too regularly conical.]--is ribboned with +clinker, and streaked at this season with snow-lines radiating, like +wheel-spokes from a common centre. Here and there hang, at an impossible +angle, black lava-streams which were powerless to reach the plain: they +resembled nothing so much as the gutterings of a candle hardening on the +outside of its upright shaft. Evidently they had flowed down the slope +in a half fluid state, and had been broken by contraction when +cooling. In places, too, the surface was streaked with light yellow +patches, probably of sun-gilt _tosa_ or pumice. + +On our right, or to the north-north-east of the Pike, rose La Fortaleza, +_alias_ the Golliada del Cedro. The abrupt wall had salient and +re-entering angles, not unlike the Palisades of the Hudson River, with +intercalated strata and a smooth glacis at the base, except between the +east and north-west, where the periphery has been destroyed. It is +apparently basalt, as we may expect in the lower levels before reaching +the trachytic region. The other notable features were Monte Tigayga, +with its vertical cliff, trending northwards to the sea; the gap through +which the Orotava lava-bed burst the crater-margin; the Llano de Maja +('Manja' in Berthelot), a strip of Las Canadas, and the horizontally +striated Peak of Guajara (8,903 feet). + +Riding over the 'pumice-beach of a once fiery sea,' whose glare and +other accidents suggested the desert between Cairo and Suez, we made our +way towards the Rastrojito. This 'Little Stubble' is a rounded heap of +pumice, a southern offset of the main mountain. On the left rose the +Montana Negra (Black Mountain) and the Lomo de la Nieve ('Snow Ridge),' +a dark mass of ribbed and broken lavas (8,970 feet), in which +summer-snow is stored. A little black kid, half wild, was skipping over +the rocks. Our men pursued it with the _garrotes_ (alpenstocks), +loudly shouting,' Tio Jose!': 'Uncle Joseph,' however, escaped, running +like a Guanche. Here it is allowed to shoot the animals on condition of +leaving a shilling with the skin. The latter is used in preparing the +national _gofio,_ the Guanche _ahoren,_ the _kuskusu_ of +north-western Africa, the _polenta,_ or daily bread, of the +Neo-Latins. + +Climbing the Rastrojito slopes, we sighted the Pedras Negras: these are +huge travelled rocks of basalt, jet-black, breaking with a conchoidal +fracture, and showing debris like onion-coats about their base. The +aspect was fantastic, resembling nothing so much as skulls 10 to 15 feet +high. They are doubtless the produce of the upper slopes, which by slow +degrees gravitated to the present pumice-beds. + +The first step of the Pike is Las Canadas, whose glacis forms the +_Cumbre_, or pumice-plains (6,500 feet), the long dorsum, which +shows far out at sea. Bending abruptly to the east, we began to breast +the red pumice-bed leading to the Estancia de Abajo or de los +Inglezes. 'El es Inglez porque subio al Pico' ('he is English, because +he climbed the Pike'), say the people. This ramp, whose extreme angle is +26 degrees, bordered by thick bands of detached lava-rocks, is doubtless +the foundation-matter of the Pike. Hence the latter is picturesquely +termed 'Hijo de las Canadas.' [Footnote: Especially by D. Benigno +Carballo Wanguement in his work, _Las Afortunadas_ (Madrid, 1862), +a happy title borrowed from D. Francisco Escobar. Heyley +(_Cosmography_), quoted by Glas and Mrs. Murray, tells us of an +English ambassador who, deeming his own land the 'Fortunate Islands,' +protested against Pope Clement VI. so entitling the Canaries in a deed +of gift to D. Luis de la Cerda, the 'Disinherited' Conde de +Claramonte. The latter was deprived of the Crown of Castile by his +uncle, Sancho IV., and became the founder of the Medina Celi house.] + +After a total climb and ride of six hours, we reached the 'English +station.' M. Eden (Aug. 13, 1715) [Footnote: Trans. Royal Soc. of +London, 1714-16.] calls it simply Stancha, and M. Borda 'Station des +Rochers.' Pere Feutree, a Frenchman who ascended in 1524, and wrote the +earliest scientific account, had baptised it Station de St. Francois de +Paul, and set up a cross. It is a shelf in the pumice-slope, 9,930 feet +high, and protected against the cold night-winds of the +north-north-east, the lower or polar current, by huge boulders of +obsidian, like gigantic sodawater-bottles. The routine traveller sleeps +upon this level a few hundred yards square, because the guides store +their fuel in an adjacent bed of black rocks. Humboldt miscalls the +station 'a kind of cavern;' and a little above it he nearly fell on the +slippery surface of the 'compact short-swarded turf' which he had left +4,000 feet below him. + +The bât-mules were unpacked and fed; and a rough bed was made up under +the lea of the tallest rock, where a small _curral_ of dry stone +kept off the snow. This, as we noticed in Madeira, is not in flakes, nor +in hail-like globes: it consists of angular frozen lumps, and the +selvage becomes the hardest ice. Some have compared it with the Swiss +'firn,' snow stripped of fine crystals and granulated by time and +exposure. In March the greatest depth we saw in the gullies radiating +from the mountain-top was about three feet. But in the cold season all +must be white as a bride-cake; and fatal accidents occur in the Canada +drifts. Professor Piazzi Smyth characterises the elevated region as cold +enough at night, and stormy beyond measure in winter, when the +south-wester, or equatorial upper current, produces a fearful +climate. Yet the Pike summit lies some 300 feet below the snow-line +(12,500 feet). + +The view was remarkable: we were in sight of eighty craters. At sunset +the haze cleared away from the horizon, which showed a straight +grey-blue line against a blushing sky of orange, carmine, pale pink, and +tender lilac, passing through faint green into the deep dark blue of the +zenith. In this _cumbre_, or upper region, the stars did not +surprise us by their brightness. At 6 P.M. the thermometer showed 32 +degrees F.; the air was delightfully still and pure, [Footnote: We had +no opportunity of noticing what Mr. Addison remarks, the air becoming +sonorous and the sound of the sea changing from grave to acute after +sunset and during the night. He attributes this increased intensity to +additional moisture and an equability of temperature in the atmospheric +strata. Perhaps the silence of night may tend to exaggerate the +impression.] and Death mummifies, but does not decay. + +A bright fire secured us against the piercing dry night-cold; and the +_arrieros_ began to sing like _capirotes_ [Footnote: The +_Capirote_ or _Tinto Negro_, a grey bird with black head +(_Sylvia atricapilla_), is also found in Madeira, and much +resembles the Eastern bulbul or Persian nightingale. It must be caged +when young, otherwise it refuses to sing, and fed upon potatos and bread +with milk, not grain. An enthusiast, following Humboldt (p. 87), +describes the 'joyous and melodious notes' of the bird as 'the purest +incense that can ascend to heaven.'] (bulbuls), sundry _seguidillas_, +and _El Tajaraste_. The music may be heard everywhere between Morocco +and Sind. It starts with the highest possible falsetto and gradually +falls like a wail, all in the minor _clef_. + +We rose next morning with nipped feet and hands, which a cup of hot +coffee, 'with,' speedily corrected, and were _en route_ at 4.30 +A.M. Formerly animals were left at the lower _estancia_; now they +are readily taken on to Alta Vista. My wife rode a sure-footed black +nag, I a mule which was perfect whilst the foot-long lever acting curb +lay loose on its neck. Returning, we were amazed at the places they had +passed during the moonless night. + +Our path skirted the Estancia de los Alemanos, about 300 yards higher +than the English, and zig-zagged sharply up the pumice-slope. The talus +now narrowed; the side-walls of dark trachytic blocks pinching it in. At +this grisly hour they showed the quaintest figures--towers and +pinnacles, needles and tree-trunks, veiled nuns and monstrous +beasts. Amongst them were huge bombs of obsidian, and masses with +translucent, vitreous edges that cut like glass. Most of them contained +crystals of felspar and pyroxene. + +After half an hour we reached the dwarf platform of Alta Vista, 700 feet +above the Estancia and 10,730, in round numbers, above sea-level. The +little shelf, measuring about 100 to 300 yards, at the head of the fork +where the north-eastern and the south-western lava-streams part, is +divided by a medial ledge. Here we saw the parent rock of the pumice +fragments, an outcrop of yellowish brown stone, like fractured and +hardened clay. The four-footed animals were sent back: one rides up but +not down such places. + +Passing in the lower section the shell of a house where the Astronomer's + +[Footnote: The author came out in 1856 to make experiments in +astronomical observations. Scientific men have usually a contempt for +language: we find the same in _Our Inheritanse_, &c. (Dalby & Co., +London, 1877), where the poor modern hierogrammats are not highly +appreciated. But it is a serious blemish to find 'Montana Blanco,' +'Malpays,' 'Chahzorra' (for Chajorra), and 'Tiro del Guanches.' The +author also is wholly in error about Guanche mummification. He derides +(p. 329) the shivering and shaking of his Canarian guide under a cloudy +sky of 40°F., when the sailor enjoyed it in their 'glorious strength of +Saxon (?) constitution.' But when the latter were oppressed and +discouraged by dry heat and vivid radiation, Manoel was active as a +chamois. Why should enduring cold and not heat be held as a test of +manliness?] + +experiment had been tried, Guide Manoel pointed out the place where +stood the _tormentos_, as he called the instruments. Thence we +toiled afoot up the Mal Pais. This 'bad country' is contradictorily +described by travellers. Glas (A.D. 1761) makes it a sheet of rock +cracked cross-wise into cubes. Humboldt (1799) says, 'The lava, broken +into sharp pieces, leaves hollows in which we risked falling up to our +waists.' Von Buch (1815) mentions 'the sharp edges of glassy obsidian, +as dangerous as the blades of knives.' Wilde (1857) tamely paints the +scene as a 'magnified rough-cast.' Prof. Piazzi Smyth is, as usual, +exact, but he suggests more difficulty than the traveller finds. I saw +nothing beyond a succession of ridge-backs and shrinkage-crevasses, +disposed upon an acute angle. These ragged, angular, and mostly cuboidal +blocks, resembling the ice-pack of St. Lawrence River, have apparently +been borne down by subsequent lava-currents, which, however, lacked +impetus to reach the lower levels of Las Cañádas. + +Springing from boulder to boulder, an exhilarating exercise for a time, +over a 'surface of horrible roughness,' as Prof. Dana says of Hawaii, we +halted to examine the Cueva de Hielo, whose cross has long succumbed to +the wintry winds. The 'ice-house' in a region of fire occupies a little +platform like the ruined base of a Pompey's Pillar. This is the table +upon which the _neveros_ pack their stores of snow. The cave, a +mere hole in the trachytic lava, opens to the east with an entrance some +four feet wide. The general appearance was that of a large bubble in a +baked loaf. Inside we saw a low ceiling spiky with stalactites, possibly +icicles, and a coating of greenish ice upon the floor. A gutter leads +from the mouth, showing signs of water-wear, and the blocks of trachyte +are so loaded with glossy white felspar that I attempted to dust them +before sitting down. + +Local tradition connects this ice-cave with the famous burial-cavern +near Ycod, on the northern coast; this would give a tunnel 8 miles long +and 11,040 feet high. Many declare that the meltings ebb and flow with +the sea-tide, and others recount that lead and lines of many fathoms +failed to touch bottom. We are told about the normal dog which fell in +and found its way to the shore through the cave of Ycod de los Vinos. In +the latter a M. Auber spent four hours without making much way; in parts +he came upon scatters of Guanche bones. Mr. Robert Edwards, of Santa +Cruz, recounted another native tradition--that before the eruption of +A.D. 1705 there was a run of water but no cave. Mr. Addison was let down +into it, and found three branches or lanes, the longest measuring 60-70 +feet. What the _neveros_ call _el hombre de nieve_ (the +snow-man) proved to be a honeycombed mass of lava revetted with +ice-drippings. He judged the cave to be a crater of emission; and did +not see the smoke or steam issuing from it as reported by the +ice-collectors. + +Professor P. Smyth goes, I think, a little too far in making this +contemptible feature compose such a quarrel as that between the English +eruptionist and the Continental upheavalist. Deciding a disputed point, +that elevation is a force and a method in nature, he explains the cave +by the explosion of gases, which blew off the surface of the dome, 'when +the heavy sections of the lava-roof, unsupported from below, fell +downward again, wedging into and against each other, so as nearly to +reform their previous figure.' But the unshattered state of the stones +and the rounded surfaces of the sides show no sign of explosion. The +upper _Piton_ is unfitted for retaining water, which must percolate +through its cinders, pumices, and loose matter into many a reservoir +formed by blowing-holes. Snow must also be drifted in and retain, the +cold. Moisture would be kept in the cavern by the low conducting power +of its walls; so Lyell found, on Etna, a bed of solid ice under a +lava-current. Possibly also this cave has a frozen substratum, like many +of the ice-pools in North America. + +We then toiled up to another little _estancia_, a sheltered, +rock-girt hollow. The floor of snow, or rather frozen rain, was +sprinkled with red dust, and fronts the wind, with sharp icy points +rising at an angle of 45°. Here, despite the penetrating cold, we +gravely seated ourselves to enjoy at ease the hardly won pleasures of +the sunrise. The pallid white gleam of dawn had grown redder, brighter +and richer. An orange flush, the first breaking of the beams faintly +reflected from above, made the sky, before a deep and velvety +black-blue, look like a gilt canopy based upon a rim of azure mist. The +brilliancy waxed golden and more golden still; the blending of the +colours became indescribably beautiful; and, lastly, the sun's upper +limb rose in brightest saffron above the dimmed and spurious horizon of +north-east cloud. The panorama below us emerged dimly and darkly from a +torrent of haze, whose waving convex lines, moving with a majestic calm, +wore the aspect of a deluge whelming the visible world. Martin the Great +might have borrowed an idea from this waste of waters, as it seemed to +be, heaving and breaking, surging and sweeping over the highest +mountain-tops. We saw nothing of the immense triangular gnomon projected +by the Pilon as far as Gomera Island, [Footnote: At sunset of July 10, +1863, I could trace it extending to Grand Canary, darkening the southern +half and leaving the northern in bright sunshine: the right limb was +better defined than the left.] and gradually contracting as the lamp of +day rises. Item, we saw nothing of the archipelago like a map in relief; +the latter, however, is rarely visible in its entirety. Disappointment! + +During the descent we had a fair prospect of the Canarian +Triquetra. Somewhat like Madeira, it has a longitudinal spine of +mountains, generically called Las Cañádas; but, whilst the volcanic +ridge of the Isle of Wood runs in a latitudinal line, the Junonian +Cordillera has a whorl, the ancient as well as the modern seat of +eruption. Around the island appeared to be a rim, as if the sea-horizon +formed a raised saucer--a common optical delusion at these altitudes. + +As we advanced the Mal Pais became more broken: the 'bad step' was ugly +climbing, and we often envied our men, who wore heelless shoes of soft +untanned leather with soles almost as broad as they were long. The +roughness of the trachytic blocks, however, rendered a slip +impossible. At 6.45 we reached the second floor of this three-storied +volcano, here 11,721 feet high. The guides call it the _Pico del +Pilon_, because it is the ancient Peak-Crater, and strangers the +Rambleta (not Rembleta) Volcano, which strewed Las Cañádas with fiery +pumice, and which shot up the terminal head 'conical as a cylinder.' It +has now become an irregular and slightly convex plain a mile in +diameter, whose centre is the terminal chimney. Its main peculiarity is +in the fumaroles, or escapes of steam, and _mofetti_, mephitic +emanations of limpid water and sulphur-vapour. Of these we counted five +narices within as many hundred yards. Their temperature greatly varies, +109° and 158° Fahr. being, perhaps, the extremes; my thermometer showed +130°. These _soupiraux_ or _respiradouros_ are easily explained. +The percolations from above are heated to steam by stones +rich in 'grough brimstone.' Here it was that Humboldt saw apparent +lateral shiftings and perpendicular oscillations of fixed stars; and our +Admiralty, not wishing to be behind him, directed Professor P. Smyth's +attention to 'scintillations in general.' Only the youngest of +travellers would use such a place as an observatory; and only the +youngest of observers would have considered this _libration of the +stars_ an extraordinary phenomenon. + +Directed by a regular line of steam-puffs, we attacked _El Pilon_, +the third story, the most modern cone of eruption, the dwarf chimney +which looks like a thimble from the sea. The lower third was of loose +crumbling pumice, more finely comminuted than we had yet seen; this is +what Humboldt calls 'ash-cones.' There was also a strew of porphyritic +lava-chips covered with a red (ochreous?) crust. Presently we reached a +radiating rib of lately ejected lava, possibly the ridge of a dyke, +brown below and gradually whitening with sulphuric acid as it rose +towards the crater-walls. The resting took longer than the walking up +the steep talus; and at 7.45: after a total of nine hours and a +morning's work of two hours and a half, which occupied two in +descending, we stood upon the corona or lip of 'Teyde.' + +The height of the Tenerife Pike, once held the loftiest in the world, is +12,198 feet, in round numbers 12,200. Thus it stands nearly at the +altitude of Mont Blanc (15,784 feet) above the Chamounix valley, a +figure of 12,284 feet. The slope from the base is 1 in 4.6. The direct +distance from Orotava on the map measures 10.5 miles; along the road 18, +according to the guides. The terminal chimney and outlet for vapours +which would erupt elsewhere, rises 520 feet from its pedestal, the +central Rambleta, and its ascent generally occupies an hour. One visitor +has reduced this _montagne pelée_ to 60-70 feet, and compares it +with the dome of a glass-house. From below it resembles nothing so much +as a cone of dirty brown _cassonade_, and travellers are justified +in calling it a sugarloaf. I can hardly rest satisfied with Von Buch's +description. 'Teyde is a pointed tower surrounded by a ditch and a +circular chain of bastions.' + +The word Teyde is supposed to be a corruption of Echeyde, meaning Hades: +hence the title Isla Infierno, found in a map of A.D. 1367. The Guanches +also called it Ayadyrma, and here placed their pandemonium, under +Guayota, the head-fiend. The country-folk still term the crater-ring 'la +caldera de los diablos en que se cuecen todas las provisiones del +Infierno' (the Devil's caldron, wherein are cooked all the rations of +the infernals). Seen by moonlight, or on a star-lit night, the scenery +would be weird and ghostly enough to suggest such fancies, which remind +us of Etna and Lipari. + +I had been prepared by descriptions for a huge chasm-like crater or +craters like those on Theon Ochéma, Camerones Peak. I found a +spoon-shaped hollow, with a gradual slope to the centre, 100 × 150 feet +deep, the greater length of the oval running north-east, where the side +is higher, to south-west, where there is also a tilt of the cup. The +floor was a surface of burning marl and whitish earthy dough-like paste, +the effect of sulphurous acid vapours upon the argile of the lava. This +stratum was in places more than 80 feet thick; and fumes rose fetid with +sulphuric acid, and sulphates of soda, alumina, and ammonia from the +dead white, purple red, vivid green, and brilliant yellow surface of the +solfatara. Hence the puffs of vapour seen from below against the +sparkling blue sky, and disappearing like huge birds upon the wings of +the wind: hence, too, the tradition of the mast and the lateen sail. A +dig with the Guanche _magada_ or _lanza_, the island alpen-stock, +either outside or inside the crater, will turn up, under the +moist white clay, lovely trimetric crystals of sulphur, with the +palest straw tint, deepening to orange, and beautifully disposed in +acicular shapes. The acid eats paper, and the colours fade before they +leave the cone. + +[Footnote: Dr. Wilde (1837) analysed the sulphur as follows: Silica, +81·13; water, 8·87; and a trace of lime. Others have obtained from the +mineral, when condensed upon a cold surface, minute crystals of +alum. Mr. Addison found in the 'splendid crystals of octahedral sulphur' +a glistening white substance of crystalline structure, yet somewhat like +opal. When analysed it proved to contain 91 per cent. silex and the rest +water.] + +When sitting down it is advisable to choose a block upon which dew-drops +pearl. A few minutes of rest upon a certain block of marl, whose genial +warmth is most grateful, squatting in the sharp cold air, neatly removes +all cloth in contact with the surface. More than one excursionist has +shown himself in that Humphrey Clinker condition which excited the wrath +of Count Tabitha. It is evident that Teyde is by no means exhausted, and +possibly it may return to the state of persistent eruption described by +the eye-witness Ca da Mosto, who landed on the Canaries in A.D. 1505. + +Not at all impressed with the grandeur of the Inferno, we walked round +the narrow rim of the crater-cirque, and were shown a small breach in +the wall of porphyritic lava facing west. Mrs. Murray's authorities +describe the _Caldera_ as being 'without any opening:' if this be +the case the gap has lately formed. The cold had driven away the lively +little colony of bees, birds, and butterflies which have been seen +disporting themselves about the bright white cauldron. There was not a +breath of the threatened wind. Manoel pointed out Mount Bermeja as the +source of the lateral lava-stream whose 'infernal avalanche,' on May 5, +1706, [Footnote: Preceding Ca da Mosto's day another eruption (1492) was +noted by Columbus, shortly before his discovery of the Antilles. +Garachico was the only port in Tenerife, with a breakwater of +rocky isle and water so deep that the yardarms of men-of-war could +almost touch the vineyards. Its quays were bordered by large +provision-stores, it had five convents, and its slopes were dotted with +villas. After an earthquake during the night a lava-stream from several +cones destroyed the village Del Tanque at 3:30 A.M., and at 9 +P.M. another flood entered Garachico at seven points, drove off the sea, +ruined the mole, and filled the port. It was followed by a cascade of +fire at 8 A.M. on the 13th of the same month, and the lava remained +incandescent for forty days.] overwhelmed 'Grarachico, pueblo rico,' + +[Footnote: Alluding to the curse of the Franciscan Friar, who devoted +the town to destruction in these words:-- + + 'Garachico, pueblo rico, + Gastadero de dinero, + Mal risco te caiga encima!'] + +and spared Guimar, which it enclosed between two fiery streams. Despite +the white and woolly mists, the panorama of elevations, craters and +castellated eminences, separated by deep gashes and by _currals_ +like those of Madeira, but verdure-bare, was stupendous. I have +preserved, however, little beyond names and heights. We did not suffer +from _puna_, or mountain sickness, which Bishop Sprat, of +Rochester, mentions in 1650, and which Mr. Darwin--alas that we must +write the late!--cured by botanising. I believe that it mostly results +from disordered liver, and, not unfrequently, in young Alpinists, from +indigestion. + +The descent of the Teyde _Piton_, in Vesuvian fashion, occupied ten +minutes. Our guides now whistled to their comrades below, who had +remained in charge of the animals. Old authors tell us that the Guanche +whistle could be heard for two leagues, and an English traveller +declares that after an experiment close to his ear he did not quite +recover its use for a fortnight. The return home was wholly without +interest, except the prospects of cloud-land, grander than those of +Folkestone, which seemed to open another world beneath our feet. Near +the Santa Clara village all turned out to prospect two faces which must +have suggested only raw beef-steaks. It was Sunday, and + +(Garachico, wealthy town; wasteful of thy wealth, may an ill rock fall +upon thy head!) + +both sexes were in their 'braws.' The men wore clean blanket-mantles, +the women coloured corsets laced in front, gowns of black serge or +cotton, dark blue shawls hardly reaching to their waist, and the usual +white kerchief, the Arab _kufiyah_, under the broad-brimmed straw +or felt hat, whose crown was decorated with the broadest and gayest +ribbons. But even this unpicturesque coiffure, almost worthy of Sierra +Leone, failed to conceal the nobility of face and figure, the +well-turned limbs, the fine hands and feet, and the _meneo_, or +swimming walk, of this Guanchinesque race, which everywhere forced +itself upon the sight. The proverb says-- + + De Tenerife los hombres; + Las mugeres de Canária. + +It is curious to compare the realistic accounts of the nineteenth +century with those of the _vulcanio_ two centuries ago. Ogilby +(1670) tells us that the Moors called it El-Bard (Cold), and we the +'Pike of Teneriff, thought not to have its equal in the world for +height, because it spires with its top so high into the clouds that in +clear weather it may be seen sixty _Dutch_ miles off at sea.' His +illustration of the 'Piek-Bergh op het Eilant Teneriffe' shows an almost +perpendicular tower of natural masonry rising from a low sow-back whose +end is the 'Punt Tenago' (Anaga Point). The 'considerable merchants and +persons of credit,' whose ascent furnished material for the Royal +Society, set out from Orotava. 'In the ascent of one mile some of our +Company grew very faint and sick, disorder'd by Fluxes, Vomitings, and +Aguish Distempers; our Horses' Hair standing upright like Bristles.' +Higher up 'their Strong waters had lost their Virtue, and were almost +insipid, while their Wine was more spirituous and brisk than before.' In +those days also iron and copper, silver and gold, were found in the +calcined rocks of the Katakaumenon. It is strange to note how much more +was seen by ancient travellers than by us moderns. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE SPANISH ACCOUNT OF THE REPULSE OF NELSON FROM SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE. + +[Footnote: From the _Relacion circumstanciada de la Defensa que hizo +la Plaza de Santa Cruz_, by M. Monteverde. Published in Madrid, 1798.] + +The following pages afford a circumstantial and, I believe, a fairly +true account of an incident much glossed over by our naval +historians. The subject is peculiarly interesting. At Santa Cruz, as at +Fontenoy, the Irish, whom harsh measures at home drove for protection to +more friendly lands, took ample share in the fighting which defeated +England's greatest sailor. Again, the short-sighted policy which sent to +the Crimea 20,000 British soldiers to play second instrument in concert +with 40,000 Frenchmen, thus lowering us in the eyes of Europe, made +Nelson oppose his 960 hands to more than eight times their number. The +day may come when the attack shall be repeated. Now that steam has +rendered fleets independent of south-west winds, it is to be hoped the +assailant will prefer day to night, so that his divisions can +communicate; that he will not land in the 'raging surf' of the ebb-tide, +and that he will attack the almost defenceless south instead of the +well-fortified north of the city. + +Already the heroic Island had inflicted partial or total defeat upon +three English admirals. [Footnote: Grand Canary also did her duty by +beating off, in October 1795, Drake's strong squadron.] In April 1657 +the Roundhead 'general at sea,' Admiral Sir Robert Blake, of +Bridgewater, attempted to cut out the Spanish galleons freighted with +Mexican gold and with the silver of Peru. Of these the principal were +the _Santo-Cristo_, the _Jesus-Maria_, the _Santo Sacramento_, +_La Concepcion_, the _San Juan_, the _Virgen de la Solitud_, +and the _Nuestra Señora del Buen Socorro_. This 'silver fleet' +was moored under the guns of the 'chief castle,' San Cristobal, +the mean work at the root of the mole. The English were +preparing to board, when the Captain-General, D. Diego de Egues, whom +our histories call 'Diagues,' ordered the fleet to be fired, after all +the treasure had been housed in the fort. A steady fight lasted three +hours, during which the wife of the brave Governor, D. Estevan de la +Guerra, distinguished herself. 'I shall not be useless here,' she +exclaimed when invited to leave the batteries; and this 'maid of +Tenerife' continued to animate the garrison till the end. As was the +case with his great successor, Roundhead Blake's failure proved to him +far better than a success. For his _francesada_, or _coup de +tête_, Nelson expected to lose his commission, instead of which some +popular freak flung to him honour and honours. So Protector Cromwell +sent a valuable diamond ring to his 'general at sea,' in token of esteem +on his part and that of his Parliament. Our histories, relying on the +fact that a few weak batteries were silenced, claim for the Admiral a +positive victory, despite his losses--fifty killed and 500 wounded. + +[Footnote: The late Mr. Hepworth Dixon (_Life of Blake_, p. 346) +describes the open roadstead of Santa Cruz as a 'harbour shaped like a +horse-shoe, and defended at the north side of the entrance by a regular +castle.' In p. 350 we also read of the bay and its entrance. Any +hydrographic chart would have set him right.] + +In 1706, during the Spanish war of succession, Admiral Jennings sailed +into Santa Cruz bay--the old Bay of Anaga or Anago--and lay off San +Cristobal + +[Footnote: This work still remains. It is a parallelogram with four +bastions in star-shape, fronting the sea, and an embrasured wall facing +the town. It began as a chapel, set up by De Lugo to N. S. de la +Consolacion, and a tower was added in 1493. It was destroyed by the +Guanches and rebuilt by Charles Quint: the present building assumed its +shape in 1579. The main square, inland of San Cristobal, shows by a +marble cross where the conqueror planted with one hand a large affair of +wood--hence Santa Cruz. The original is, or was till lately, in the +Civil Hospital.] + +with twelve ships of the line. The Plaza was commanded, in the absence +of the Captain-General, by the Corregidor, D. Antonio de Ayala, who +assembled all the nobles in the castle's lower rooms and swore them to +loyalty. The English attempted to disembark, and were beaten back; +whereupon, as under Nelson, they sent a parliamentary and summoned the +island to surrender to the Archduke Charles of Austria. The envoy +informed the Governor, who is described by Dampier as sitting in a low, +dark, uncarpeted room, adorned only with muskets and pikes, that Philip +V. had lost Gibraltar, that Cadiz and Minorca had nearly fallen, and +that the American galleons in the port of Vigo had been burnt or +captured by the English, whose army, entering Castile, had overrun +Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia. The brave reply was, 'If Philip, our +king, had lost his all in the Peninsula, these islands would still +remain faithful to him.' And the castle guns did such damage that the +Jennings squadron sailed away on the same evening. + +The third expedition, detached by Admiral Sir John Jervis, afterwards +Earl St. Vincent, to 'cut out a richly freighted Manilla ship,' also +resulted in a tremendous failure. Captain Brenton, to gratify national +complacency, grossly exaggerates in his 'Naval History' the difficulty +of the enterprise. 'Of all places which ever came under our inspection +none, we conceive, is more invulnerable to attack or more easily +defended than Teneriffe.' He forgets to mention its principal guard, the +valour of the inhabitants. And now to my translation. + +'At dawn on July 2, [Footnote: James (_Naval History_, +vol. ii. p. 56) more correctly says July 20. So the _Despatches, &c., +of Lord Nelson_, Sir H. Nicholas, vol. ii. p. 429. The thanksgiving +for the victory took place on July 27, the fête of SS. Iago and +Cristobal.] 1797, the squadron [Footnote: The squadron was composed as +follows:--1. _Theseus_ (74), Captain Ralph Willett Miller, carried +the Rear-Admiral's flag; 2. _Culloden_ (74), Commodore and Captain +Thos. Troubridge; 3. _Zealous_ (74), Captain Sam. Hood; +4. _Leander_ (50), Captain Thos. Boulden Thomson, which joined on +the day before the attack. There were three frigates:--1. _Seahorse_ +(38), Captain Thos. Francis Fremantle; 2. _Emerald_ (36), Captain +John Waller; and 3. _Terpsichore_ (32), Captain Richard Bowen; also +the _Fox_ (cutter), Lieut. Commander John Gibson, and a mortar-boat +or a bomb-ketch, probably a ship's launch with a shell-gun.] of +Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson, K.B., composed of nine ships, and +carrying a total of 393 guns, appeared off Santa Cruz, the port +of Tenerife, Canarian archipelago. The enemy at once manned and +put off his boats. One division of sixteen occupied our front; the +other twenty-three took the direction of the Bufadero valley, a wild +gap two or three miles to the north of the harbour. + +'An alarm signal was immediately made in the town, when the enemy +returned to his ships, and made his troops prepare to disembark. At ten +A.M. the three frigates, towed by their boats, cast anchor out of +cannon-shot, near the Bufadero; whilst the other vessels plied to +windward, [Footnote: At the time the weather was calm in the town, but a +violent levante, or east wind, prevented vessels from approaching the +bay, where the lee shore is very dangerous.] and disembarked about 1,200 +men on the beach of Valle Seco, between the town and the valley. This +party occupied the nearest hill before it could be attacked; its +movements showed an intention to seize the steep rocky scarp commanding +the Paso Alto--the furthest to the north of the town. [Footnote: +Nelson's rough sketch, vol. ii. p. 434, shows that it had 26 guns. San +Cristobal de Paso Alto commands the large ravine called by the Guanches +'Tahoide' or 'Tejode,' which is now defended by San Miguel. This is a +small rockwork carrying six guns in two tiers, the upper _en +barbette_ and the lower casemated.] Thus the enemy would have been +enabled to land fresh troops during the night; and, after gaining the +heights and roads leading to the town, to attack us in flank as well as +in front. + +'Light troops were detached to annoy the invader, and they soon occupied +the passes with praiseworthy celerity and boldness. One party was led by +the Capitaine de Frégate Citizen Ponné [Footnote: James calls him Zavier +Pommier. He commanded the French brig _Mutine_ (14), of 349 tons, +with a crew of 135. As he landed at Santa Cruz with 22 of his men on May +28, 1797, the frigates _Lively_, Captain Benjamin Hallowell, and +the _Minerva_, Captain George Cockburn, descried the hostile +craft. Lieutenant Hardy, of the _Minerva_, supported by six +officers and their respective boats' crews, boarded her as she lay at +anchor. Despite the fire of the garrison and of a large ship in the +roads, he carried her, after an hour's work, safe out of gunshot. Only +15 men were wounded, including Lieutenant Hardy. This officer was at +once put in command of the _Mutine_, which he had so gallantly +won.] and by the Lieutenant de Vaisseau Citizen Faust. Both officers, +who had been exchanged and restored at the same port, showed much +presence of mind on this occasion, and on July 25 they applied to be +posted at a dangerous point of attack--the beach to the south of the +town, near Puerto Caballas, beyond where the Lazaretto now lies. When +the enemy purposed assaulting a more central post, they came up at the +moment of the affair, ending in our victory. + +'A second party was composed of the Infantry Battalion of the Canaries, +[Footnote: This battalion afterwards distinguished itself highly in the +Peninsular war.] under Sub-Lieutenant Don Juan Sanchez. A third, +composed of 70 recruits from the Banderas [Footnote: _Bandera_ is a +flag, a depôt, also a levy made by officers of Government.] of Havana +and Cuba, was led by Second Lieutenant Don Pedro Castillo; a fourth +numbered seventeen artillerymen and two officers, Lieutenant Don Josef +Feo and Sub-Lieutenant Don Francisco Dugi. A fifth, and the last, was of +twenty-five free chasseurs belonging to the town, and commanded by +Captains Don Felipe Viña and Don Luis Roman. + +'Our Commandant-General, H. E. Señor Don Juan Antonio Gutierrez, +[Footnote: Not Gutteri, as James has it, nor 'Gutienez,' as Mrs. Murray +prefers.] was residing in the principal castle of San Cristobal. His +staff consisted of the commandants of the Royal Corps of Artillery and +Engineers, Don Marcelo Estranio and Don Luis Margueli; of the Auditor of +War (an old office, the legal military adviser and judge), Don Vicente +Patiño; of Lieutenant-Colonel Don Juan Creagh (locally pronounced +Cré-ah); of the Secretary of Inspection Captain Don Juan Creagh; of the +Secretary to Government and Captain of Militia Don Guillermo de los +Reyes; of the Captain of Infantry Don Josef Victor Dominguez; of +Lieutenants Don Vicente Siera and Don Josef Calzadilla, +Town-Adjutant--the latter three acting as aides-de-camp to his +Excellency--and of the first officers of the Tobacco and Postal Bureaux, +Don Juan Fernandez Uriarte and Don Gaspar de Fuentes. + +'The five parties before alluded to, numbering a total of 191, were, at +his own request, placed under Lieutenant-Colonel the Marquess de la +Fuente de las Palmas, commanding the division of chasseurs. The first to +mount the hill nearest the enemy, he saw the increased force of the +attacker, who had placed a 4-pounder in position; whereupon he sent for +reinforcements and some pieces of cannon. Our Commandant-General, on +receipt of the message, ordered up four guns (3- and 4-pounders) with +fifty men under a captain of the Infantry Battalion of the +Canaries. Universal admiration was excited by the agility and +intrepidity with which twenty militiamen of the Laguna Regiment, under +the chief of that corps, Florencio Gonsalez, scaled the cliffs, carrying +on their shoulders, besides their own arms and ammunition, the four guns +and their appurtenances. + +'Meanwhile our troops replied bravely to the enemy's deliberate fire of +musketry and field-pieces. As he sallied out to a spring in the Valle +Seco, two of his men were killed by the French party and the levies of +Havana and Cuba, whilst a third died of suffocation whilst scaling the +heights. At the same time Lieutenant-Colonel Don Juan Creagh, commanding +the Infantry Battalion, accompanied by a volunteer, Don Vicente Siera, +Lieutenant of the local corps (_fixo_) of Cuba, led thirty of his +men and fifty Rozadores [Footnote: The insular name of an irregular +corps, now done away with. Literally taken, the word means sicklemen.] +belonging to the city of La Laguna. They proceeded across country in +order to reconnoitre the enemy's rear. Before nightfall they succeeded +in occupying high ground in the same valley opposite the heights held by +the English, and in manning the defiles through which the latter must +pass on their way to the town. + +'As soon as the enemy saw these troops, he formed in five companies near +his field-gun. Lieutenant-Colonel Creagh was joined by some 500 men of +the Laguna militia, and their lieutenant, Don Nicholas Quintin Garcia, +followed by the peasantry of the adjoining districts, under the Alcalde +or Mayor of Taganana. These and all the other troops were liberally +supplied with provisions by the _Ayuntamiento_ (municipality) of +the Island. + +'On the next morning (July 23) our scouts being sent down to the valley, +found that the enemy had disappeared during the night. Notwithstanding +which, the Marquess de las Palmas ordered a deliberate fire to be kept +up in case of surprise. Our General, when informed of the event, +recalled the troops. The Marquess, who unfortunately received a fall +which kept him _hors de combat_ for many days, [Footnote: I find +pencilled in the original volume, 'Que caida tam oportuna!' (What a +lucky fall!)] obeyed with his command at 5 P.M., leaving behind him +thirty men under Don Felix Uriundo, second lieutenant of the Battalion +of Canaries. Don Juan Creagh did the same with his men. But as the +French commandant reported that some of the enemy were still lurking +about the place, our General-in-Chief directed Captain Don Santiago +Madan, second adjutant of the same corps, to reconnoitre once more the +Valle Seco with 120 Rozadores. This duty was well performed, despite the +roughness of the paths and the excessive heat of the sun. + +'The enemy's squadron now seemed inclined to desist from its attempt. At +6 A.M. of July 23 Rear-Admiral Nelson's flagship, which, with the other +ships of the line, had kept in the offing, drew near, and signalled the +frigates to sheer off from the point and to rejoin the rest of the +squadron. These, however, at 3 P.M., allowed themselves to drop down the +coast towards the dangerous southern reaches between Barranco Hondo, +beyond the Quarantine-house and the village of Candelaria, distant a +day's march from Santa Cruz. To prevent their landing men, Captain Don +Antonio Eduardo, and the special engineer, Don Manuel Madera, +reconnoitred the shore about Puerto Caballas, to see if artillery could +be brought there. Meanwhile Sub-Lieutenant Don Cristobal Trinidad, of +the Guimar Regiment, watched, with fifty of his men, the coast near San +Isidro, [Footnote: Here the landing is easiest.] which is not far from +Barranco Hondo. The squadron, however, retired to such a distance that +it could hardly be discerned from the town, as it bore S.E. 1/4 E.: +notwithstanding which, all preparations were made to give the enemy a +warm reception. + +'At daylight on July 24 the squadron again appeared, crowding on all +sail to gain the weather-side. The look-out at Anaga Point, north of the +island, signalled three ships from that direction, and two to the south, +where we could distinguish only one of fifteen guns, which was presently +joined by the rest. At 6 P.M. the enemy anchored with his whole force on +the same ground which the frigates chose on the 22nd, and feinted to +attack Paso Alto Fort. Our General and chiefs were not deceived. +Foreseeing that we should be assaulted in front, and to the +right or south, [Footnote: The town of Santa Cruz runs due north and +south in a right line; the bay affords no shelter to shipping, and the +beach is rocky.] they made their dispositions accordingly, without, +however, neglecting to protect the left. + +'At 6 P.M. a frigate and the bomb-ketch approached Paso Alto, and the +latter opened fire upon the fort and the heights behind it. These +positions were occupied by 56 men of the Battalion of the Canaries, 40 +Rozadores, under Second Lieutenant Don Felix Uriundo, and 16 +artillerymen, commanded by Sub-Lieutenant of Militia Artillery Don Josef +Cambreleng. [Footnote: A Flemish name, I believe: the family is still in +the island.] Of 43 shells, however, only one fell in the fort, bursting +in a place where straw for soldiers' beds had been stored, and this, +like the others, did no damage. [Footnote: A fragment of this shell is +preserved in the Fort Chapel for the edification of strangers.] Paso +Alto, commanded by the Captain of the Royal Corps of Artillery, Don +Vicente Rosique, replied firmly. At the same time Don Juan del Castillo, +sub-lieutenant of militia, with 16 men, reconnoitred, by H. E. the +Governor's orders, the Valle Seco. The operation was boldly performed, +despite the darkness of night and other dangers; and our soldiers +returned with a prisoner, an Irish sailor of the _Fox_ cutter, who +had swum off from his ship. + +'The enemy now prepared his force for the attack. One thousand five +hundred men, [Footnote: James numbers 200 seamen and marines from each +of the three line-of-battle ships, and 100 from each of the three +frigates, besides officers, servants, and a small detachment of Royal +Artillery. This made a total of 1,000 to 1,060 men, commanded by +Captain, afterwards Admiral, Sir Thomas Troubridge, Bart. Nelson +(_Despatches_, vol. ii. p. 43) says 600 to 700 men in the squadron +boats, 180 on board the _Fox_, and about 70 or 80 in a captured +boat; total, at most, 960.] as we were afterwards informed, well armed +with guns, pistols, pikes, swords, saws, and hatchets, and led by their +best officers, among whom was the Rear-Admiral, embarked in their +boats. At 2.15 A.M. (July 25) they put off in the deepest silence. The +frigate of the Philippine Islands Company, anchored outside the shipping +in the bay, discovered them when close alongside. Almost at the same +moment the Paso Alto Fort, under Lieutenant-Colonel Don Pedro de +Higueras, and the Captain of Artillery Don Vicente Rosique, gave the +signal to the (saluting) battery of San Antonio [Footnote: This old +work, _à fleur d'eau_, still remains; and near it are the ruins of +the Bateria de los Melones, on land bought by the Davidson family.] in +the town, held by the Captain of Militia Artillery Don Patricio +Madan. They alarmed the citizens by their fire, and the enemy attacked +with rare intrepidity. + +'The defence was gallantly kept up by the battery of San Miguel, under +Sub-Lieutenant of Artillery Don Josef Marrero; by the Castle of San +Pedro, [Footnote: The San Pedro battery dated from 1797. It defended the +southern town with six embrasures and three guns _en barbette_. For +many years huge mortars and old guns lay outside this work.] under the +Captain of Artillery Don Francisco Tolosa; by the Provisional Battery de +los Melones, [Footnote: Now destroyed. It was, I have said, near the new +casemates north of the town.] under the Sergeant of Militia Juan +Evangelista; by the Mole-battery, under Lieutenant of the Royal Corps of +Artillery Don Joaquim Ruiz and Sub-Lieutenant of Militia Don Francisco +Dugi; by the Castle of San Cristobal, under the Captain of the Royal +Regiment of Artillery and Brigade-Major Don Antonio Eduardo, who +commanded the central and right batteries, and Lieutenant of Militia +Artillery Don Francisco Grandi, to whom were entrusted the defences on +our left; by the battery of La Concepcion, [Footnote: Where the Custom +House now is, in the middle of the town.] under Captain of the Royal +Regiment of Artillery Don Clemente Falcon; and by that of San Telmo, +[Footnote: Near the dirty little square south of the Custom House. The +word is thus written throughout the Canary Islands; in Italy, Sant' +Elmo.] under the Captain of Militia Artillery Don Sebastian Yanez. + +'The rest of our line did not fire, because the enemy's boats had not +passed the Barranco, or stony watercourse, which divides the southern +from the northern town. In the Castle of San Juan, + +[Footnote: It is the southernmost work, afterwards used as a +powder-magazine. To the south of the town are also the Bateria de la +Rosa, near the coal-sheds, and the Santa Isabel work. The latter had 22 +fine brass guns, each of 13 centimètres, made at Seville, once a famous +manufactory.] + +however, Captain Don Diego Fernandez Calderia trained four guns to bear +upon the beach, which was protected by the Laguna militia regiment, +under Lieutenant-Colonel Juan de Castro. + +'So hot and well-directed was our fire, that almost all the boats were +driven back, and the _Fox_ cutter, with her commander and 382 of +the landing party--others said 450--also carrying a reserve store of +arms and ammunition, was sunk. [Footnote: Nelson, _loc. cit._, says +180 men were in the _Fox_, and of these 97 were lost. So Captain +Brenton, _Naval History_, says 97. In vol. ii. p. 84, speaking of +Trafalgar, he informs us that the French ship _Indomptable_ (84), +M. Hubart, was wrecked off Rota, where her crew, said to be 1,500 men, +_all perished_. Add, 'except M. Maffiote, of Tenerife, and about +143 others.'] Rear-Admiral Nelson lost his right arm before he could +touch ground, and was compelled to return to his flag-ship, with the +other officers of his boat all badly wounded. [Footnote: The grape-shot +was fired from the Castle of San Pedro; others opine from San Cristobal; +and the Canarese say that a splinter of stone did the work. According to +most authorities, Nelson was half-way up the mole. James declares that +Nelson's elbow was struck by a shot as he was drawing his sword and +stepping out of his boat. In Nelson's _Despatches, loc. cit._, we +read that the 'mole was instantly stormed and carried, although defended +by 400 or 500 men, and the guns--six 24-pounders--were spiked; but such +a heavy fire of musketry and grape-shot was kept up from the citadel and +houses at the head of the mole that we could not advance, and nearly all +were killed.'] The brave Captain Bowen was killed on the first step of +the Mole, a volley of grape tearing away his stomach. [Footnote: This +officer is said to have caused the expedition, by describing it to +Admiral Jervis and the British Government as an easy exploit. He had +previously cut out of this bay a Philippine Island frigate, _El +Principe Fernando_; and he had with him, as guide, a Chinese +prisoner, taken in that vessel. The guide was also killed. Captain +Bowen's family made some exertions to recover certain small articles +which he carried about him--watch, pistols, &c.--and failed. One pistol +was lost, and for the other its possessor modestly demanded 14_l_.] +Nineteen other Englishmen were struck down by a discharge of grape. The +gun which fired it had, on that same night, been placed by the governor +of the Castle of San Cristobal, Don Josef Monteverde, [Footnote: There +is a note in my volume, 'Father of the adopted son, Miguelito Morales.'] +at a new embrasure which he caused to be opened in the flank of the +bastion. [Footnote: This part of the castle has now been altered, and +mounted with brass 80-pounders.] Thus it commanded the landing-place, +where before there was dead ground. The enemy afterwards confessed that +the injury thus done was the first cause of his misfortunes. + +'Notwithstanding the Rear-Admiral's wound and the enemy's loss in men +and chief officers, a single boat, carrying Captain and Commodore +Troubridge, covered by the smoke and the darkness, landed at the Caleta +[Footnote: 'Caleta' means literally a _cul de sac_. At Santa Cruz +it is applied to a rocky tract near the Custom-house Battery: in those +days it was the place where goods were disembarked.] beach. At the same +time the main body of the English, who had escaped the grape of the +Castle of San Cristobal and the batteries La Concepcion and San Telmo, +disembarked a little further south, at the Barranquillo del Aceyte, +[Footnote: This ditch is now built over and converted into a drain. It +runs a little above the present omnibus stables.] at the Butcheries, and +at the Barranco Santo. [Footnote: Also called de la Cassona--'of the +Dog-fish'--that animal being often caught in a _charco_, or pool, +in the broad watercourse. So those baptised in the parish church are +popularly said to have been 'dipped in the waters of the Dog-fish +Pool.'] The levies of Havana and Cuba, posted in the Butcheries under +Second Lieutenant Don Pedro de Castilla, being unable to repulse the +enemy's superior force, retreated upon the Battalion of Infantry of the +Canaries, consisting of 260 men and officers, including the +militia. This corps, supported by two field-guns, [Footnote: In the +original 'canones violentos,' _i.e._ 4-pounders, 6-pounders, or +8-pounders.] ably and energetically worked by the pilots, Nicolas Franco +and Josef Garcia, did such damage that the English were in turn +compelled to fall back upon the beaches of the Barranco and the +Butcheries. + +'These were the only places where the enemy was able to gain a footing +in the town. He marched in two columns, one, with drums beating, by the +little square of the parish church (La Concepcion) to the convent of +Santo Domingo, [Footnote: Afterwards pulled down to make room for a +theatre and a market-place.] and the other to the Plaza [Footnote: Plaza +here means the square behind the castle. In other places it applies to +the fortified part of the town.] of the San Cristobal castle. His plan +of attack was to occupy the latter post, but he was driven back from the +portcullis after losing one officer by the hot fire of the +militia-Captain Don Esteban Benitez de Lugo. Thus driven back to the +Caleta, the invaders marched along the street called "de las Tiendas." +[Footnote: It is now the 'Cruz Verde.' In those days it was the +principal street; the Galle del Castello (holding at present that rank) +then showed only scattered houses.] They then drew up at the head of the +square, maintaining a silence which was not broken by nine guns +discharged at them by the Captain of Laguna Chasseurs Don Fernando del +Hoyo, nor by the aspect of the two field-pieces ranged in front of them +by the Mayor, who was present at all the most important points in the +centre of the line. The cause was discovered in an order afterwards +found in the pocket of Lieut. Robinson, R.M. It ran to this +effect:--[Footnote: This and other official documents are translated +into English from the Spanish. According to our naval despatches and +histories the senior marine officer who commanded the whole detachment +was Captain Thomas Oldfleld, R.M. The 'Relacion circumstanciada' +declares that the original is in the hands of Don Bernardo Cologan y +Fablon, another Irish-Spanish gentleman who united valour and +patriotism. He was seen traversing, sabre in hand, the most dangerous +places, encouraging the men and attending to the wounded so zealously +that he parted even with his shirt for bandaging their hurts.] + +'July 24, night. + +'SIR,--You will repair with the party under your command +to H.M.S. _Zealous_, where you will receive final +instructions. Care must be taken to keep silence in the +ranks, and the only countersign which you and your men +are to use is that of "The _Leander_." + +'I am, Sir, &c. &c., + '(Signed) T. THOMPSON. + +'Lieutenant Robinson, R.M. + +'Standing at the head of the square, the enemy could observe that not +far from them was a provision-store, guarded by Don Juan Casalon and Don +Antonio Power, [Footnote: The original has it 'Pouver,' a misprint. The +Irish-Spanish family of Power is well known in the Canaries.] the two +"deputies of Abastos." [Footnote: Now called _regidores_--officers +who are charged with distributing rations.] The English seized it, +wounding Dons Patricio Power and Casalon, who, after receiving two blows +with an axe, escaped. They then obliged, under parole, the deputy Power +and Don Luis Fonspertius to conduct into the Castle a sergeant sent to +parly. Our Commandant-General, when summoned to surrender the town +within two minutes, under pain of its being burned, returned an answer +worthy of his honour and gallantry. "Such a proposal," he remarked, +"requires no reply," and in proof thereof he ordered the party to be +detained. [Footnote: According to James, who follows Troubridge's +report, the sergeant was shot in the streets and no answer was +received.] + +'Meanwhile our militiamen harassed the first column of the enemy, +compelling it, by street-fighting, to form up in the little squares of +Santo Domingo and of the parish church. Our Commandant-General was +startled when he found that this position cut off direct communication +between San Cristobal and the Battalion of the Canaries, whose fire, +like that of the militiamen on the right, suddenly ceased. But he was +assured that the battalion was unbroken, and all the central posts +except the Mole were supported, by the report of Lieutenant Don Vicente +Siera: this officer had just attacked with 30 men of that battalion the +enemy's boats as they lay grounded at the mouth of the Barranco Santo, +dislodging the defenders, who had taken shelter behind them, and making +five prisoners. The English were stopped at the narrow way near the base +of the pier by the hot fire of the troops under Captain and Adjutant of +Chasseurs Don Luis Roman, the nine militiamen under Don Francisco Jorva, +the sergeant of the guard Domingo Mendez, and a recruit of the Havana +levy; these made forty-four prisoners, including six officers, whilst +twelve were wounded. Our Commandant-General was presently put out of all +doubt by Don Josef Monteverde. This governor of San Cristobal, when +informed that 2,000 Englishmen had entered the town, intending probably +to attack the Castle with the scaling-ladders brought from their boats, +resolved himself to inspect the whole esplanade, and accordingly +reconnoitred the front and flank of the Citadel. + +'All our advantages were well-nigh lost by a report which spread through +the garrison when our firing ceased. A cry arose that our chief was +killed, and that as the English who had taken the town were marching +upon La Laguna, they must be intercepted at the _cuesta_, or hill, +behind Santa Cruz. It is easy to conceive what a panic such rumours +would cause among badly armed and half-drilled militia. The report arose +thus:--Our Commandant-General seeing the defenders of the battery at the +foot of the Mole retreating, and hearing them cry, "Que nos cortan!" (We +are cut off!), sallied out with Don Juan Creagh and other officers, the +Port Captain, the Town Adjutant, and the chief collector of the +tobacco-tax. After ordering the corps of Chasseurs, 89 men and 9 +officers, to fire, our chief returned, leaning upon the arm of Don Juan +Creagh, and some inconsiderate person thought that he was +wounded. Fortunately this indiscretion went no further than the Chasseur +Battalion of the Canaries and the militiamen on our right. + +'When this battalion was not wanted in its former position it was +ordered to the square behind the Citadel. The movement was effected +about daybreak by Don Manuel Salcedo, Lieutenant of the King. +[Footnote: An old title (now changed) given to the military governor of +Santa Cruz and the second highest authority in the archipelago. Marshal +O'Donnell was Teniente del Rey at Tenerife, and he was born in a house +facing the cross in the main square of Santa Cruz.] That officer had +never left his corps, patrolling with it along the beaches where the +enemy disembarked, and he had sent to the barracks twenty-six prisoners, +besides three whom he captured at San Cristobal. When the battalion was +formed up and no enemy appeared, the Adjutant-Major enquired about them +in a loud voice. Meanwhile the Laguna militia, who in two divisions, +each of 120 men, under Lieut.-Col. Don Juan Baptista de Castro, had been +posted from San Telmo to the Grariton, [Footnote: Meaning a large +_garita_, or sentry-box. It is a place near the windmills to the +south of the town.] were also ordered to the main square. In two +separate parties they marched, one in direct line, the other by upper +streets, to cut off the enemy's retreat and place him between two +fires. As the latter, however, entered the little square of Santo +Domingo, their commander, Lieut.-Col. de Castro, hearing a confusion of +tongues, mistook for Spaniards and Frenchmen the English who were +holding it. Thereupon the enemy fired a volley, which killed him and a +militiaman and wounded many, whilst several were taken prisoners. + +'The attackers presently manned the windows of Santo Domingo, and kept +up a hot fire against our militiamen. They then determined to send an +officer of marines to our Commandant-General, once more demanding the +surrender of the town under the threat of burning it. At the order of +Lieut.-Col. Don Juan Guinther the parliamentary was conducted to the +Citadel by Captain Don Santiago Madan. Our chief replied only that the +city had still powder, ball, and fighting men. + +'Thereupon the affair recommenced. One battalion came up with two +field-guns to support its friends, and several militiamen died +honourably, exposing themselves to the fire of an entrenched enemy. Our +position was further reinforced by the militia-pickets that had been +skirmishing in the streets, and by the greater part of those who, +deceived by a false report, had retired to the slopes of La Laguna. + +'Already it was morning, when a squadron of five armed boats was seen +making for our right. Our brave artillerymen had not the patience to let +them approach, but at once directed at them a hot fire, especially from +the Mole battery, under Don Francisco Grandi. That officer, accompanied +by the second constable, Manuel Troncos, had just passed from the +Citadel [Footnote: La Ciudadela, to the north of the mole, is not built, +as we read in Colburn (_U. S. Magazine_, January 1864), on an +artificial wall. It has a moat, casemates, loopholes, and twelve +_bouches à feu_ for plunging fire. The lines will connect with La +Laguna and complete the defences of the capital.] to the battery in +question, and had removed the spikes driven into the guns by Citoyen +François Martiney when he saw them abandoned. [Footnote: The English +diary shows that the Spaniards had spiked the guns.] The principal +Castle and the Mole batteries, supported by that of La Concepcion, +rained a shower of grape at a long range with such precision that three +boats were sunk and the two others fell back upon the squadron. At the +same time the Port Captain and Flag Officer of the frigate ordered his +men to knock out the bottoms of eighteen boats which the enemy after his +attack had left on the beach. + +'The English posted in the convent, seeing the destruction of their +reinforcements, lost heart and persuaded the prior, Fray Carlos de Lugo, +and the master, Fray Juan de Iriarte, to bear another message to our +chief. The officer commanding the enemy's troops declared himself ready +to respect the lives and property of those about him provided that the +Royal Treasury and that of the Philippine Company were surrendered, +otherwise that he could not answer for the consequences. + +'This deputation received the same laconic reply as those preceding +it. Seeing the firmness of our Commandant-General and the crowds of +peasantry gathering from all parts, the enemy's courage was damped, and +his second in command, Captain Samuel Hood, came out to parley. This +officer, perceiving that the Militiamen who had joined the Chasseurs +were preparing to attack, signalled with a white flag a cessation of +hostilities, and our men were restrained by the orders of Don Fernando +del Hoyo. Both parties advanced to the middle of the bridge, where they +were met by Lieutenant-Colonel Don Juan Guinther, commanding the +Battalion of the Canaries, who could speak many languages, and by the +Adjutant-Major, Don Juan Battaler. These officers also withheld their +men, who were opening fire as they turned the corner of the street in +which, a little before, Don Rafael Fernandez, a sub-lieutenant of the +same corps, had fallen, shot through the body, whilst heading an attack +upon the enemy. + +'With a white flag and drums beating, the English officer, accompanied +by those who had already parleyed with our Commandant-General, marched +to the citadel. At the bridge of the street "de las Tiendas" he was met +by the Lieutenant of the King, by the Sergeant-Major of the town, by +Lieutenant-Colonel Creagh, by Captain Madan, carrying the flag of truce, +and by the Town Adjutant, who conducted him with eyes bandaged to the +presence of our chief. Captain Hood did not hesitate again to demand +surrender, which was curtly refused. This decision, and the chances of +destruction in case of hostilities continuing, made him alter his +tone. At length both chiefs came to terms. The instrument was written by +Captain Hood, and was at once ratified by Captain Thomas Troubridge, +commanding H.B.M.'s troops. The following is a copy of the _'Terms +agreed upon with the Governor of the Canary Islands._ + +[Footnote: The original is in the _Nelson Papers_. It is written by +Captain Hood, and signed by him, Captain Troubridge, and the Spanish +Governor.] + +'Santa Cruz: July 25,1797. + +'That the troops, &c., belonging to his Britannick +Majesty shall embark with their arms of every kind, and +take their boats off, if saved, and be provided with such +others as may be wanting; in consideration of which it is +engaged on their part that the ships of the British squadron, +now before it, shall in no way molest the town in any +manner, or any of the islands in the Canaries, and prisoners +shall be given up on both sides. + +'Given under my hand and word of honour. + +'SAML. HOOD. + +'_Ratified by_ + +'T. TROUBRIDGE, Commander of the British Troops; +'JN. ANTONIO GUTIERREZ, Com'te.-Gen. de las Islas de Canaria. + +'This done, Captain Samuel Hood was escorted back to his men by those +who had conducted him to the Citadel. + +'At this moment a new incident occurred at sea. The squadron, convinced +of the failure of its attempt, began to get under way: already H.B.M.'s +ship _Theseus_, carrying the Rear-Admiral's flag, and one of the +frigates had been swept by the current to opposite the valley of San +Andres. [Footnote: A gorge lying to the north of the town, like the +'Valle Seco' and the Bufadero.] From its martello-tower the Lieutenant +of Artillery Don Josef Feo fired upon them with such accuracy that +almost every shot told, the _Theseus_ losing a yardarm and a cable, +She replied with sundry broadsides, whilst the bomb-ketch, which had got +into position, discharged some ten shells, and yet was so maltreated, +one man being killed and another wounded, that she was either crippled +or hoisted on board by the enemy. + +'When the terms of truce were settled, the English troops marched in +column out of the convent; and, reaching the bridge of the Barranquillo +del Aceyte, fired their pieces in the air. Then with shouldered arms and +drums beating they made for the Mole, passing in front of our troops and +of the French auxiliaries, who had formed an oblong square in the great +plaza behind the Citadel, from whose terrace our chief watched them. + +'When Captain Hood suddenly sighted his implacable enemies the French, +he gave way to an outbreak of rage and violent exclamations, and he even +made a proposal which might have renewed hostilities had he failed to +give prompt satisfaction. He presently confessed to having gone too far +and renewed his protestations to keep the conditions of peace. + +'Boats and two brigantines (island craft) were got ready to receive the +British troops at the Mole. Meanwhile our Commandant-General ordered all +of them to be supplied with copious refreshments of bread and wine, a +generous act which astonished them not less than the kindness shown to +their wounded by the officials of the hospital. They hardly knew how to +express their sense of a treatment so different from what they had +expected. During their cruise from Cadiz their officers, hoping to make +them fight the better, told them that the Canarians were a ferocious +race who never gave quarter to the conquered. + +'Our chief invited the British officers to dine with him that day. They +excused themselves on the plea that they must look after their men, upon +whom the wine had taken a strong effect, and deferred it till the +morrow. They also offered to be the bearers of the tidings announcing +our success and to carry to Spain all letters entrusted to their +care. Our chief did not hesitate to commit to their charge, under +parole, his official despatches to the Crown; and all the correspondence +was couched in terms so ingenuous that even the enemy could not but +admire so much moderation. + +'During the course of the day the English re-embarked, bearing with a +guard of honour the corpses of Captain Bowen and of another officer of +rank. [Footnote: This is fabulous. Captain Richard Bowen, 'than whom a +more enterprising, able, and gallant officer does not grace H.M.'s naval +service,' was the only loss of any consequence. All the rest were +lieutenants.] They (who?) had stripped off his laced coat when he +expired in a cell of the Santo Domingo convent, [Footnote: In Spanish +two saints claim the title 'Santo,' viz. Domingo and Thomas: all the +rest are 'San.'] disfigured his face, and dressed him as a sailor. The +wounded, twenty-two in number, did not leave the hospital till next day: +among them was Lieutenant Robinson in the agonies of death. + +'Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson hearing the politeness, the generosity, +and the magnanimity with which our Commandant-General followed up his +success, and feeling his own noble heart warm with grateful sentiments, +dictated to him an official letter, which he signed for the first time +with his left hand. [Footnote: The original of this peculiarly +interesting document, written on official paper, was kept in a tin box +under lock at the Captain-General's office, Santa Cruz, and in 1864 it +was transferred to the archives of Madrid. The writing is that of a +secretary, who put by mistake 1796 for 1797. A copy of it, published in +Harrison's _Life of Nelson_ (vol. i. p. 215), was thence +transferred to Nicolas's _Despatches and Letters_. It is _bonâ +fide_ the first appearance of Nelson's signature with his left hand, +despite the number of 'first signatures' owned by the curious of +England.] + +'_To His Excellency Don Antonio Gutierrez, Commandant-General +of the Canary Islands._ + +'His Majesty's ship _Theseus_, opposite Santa Cruz de Teneriffe: +July 26, 1796. + +'Sir,--I cannot take my departure from this Island +without returning your Excellency my sincerest thanks for +your attention towards me, by your humanity in favour of +our wounded men in your power or under your care, and +for your generosity towards all our people who were +disembarked, which I shall not fail to represent to my +Sovereign; hoping also, at a proper time, to assure your +Excellency in person how truly I am, Sir, your most +obedient humble Servant, + +'(Signed) HORATIO NELSON. + +'P.S. I trust your Excellency will do me the honour +to accept of a cask of English beer and a cheese. + +'To Señor Don Antonio Gutierrez, Commandant-General, +Canary Islands. + +'Having received with due appreciation this honourable letter, our +chief replied as follows:-- + +'Muy Señor mio de mi mayor attencion! [Footnote: This +courteous Castilian phrase would lose too much by +translation.]--I have received with the greatest pleasure +your estimable communication, the proof of your generosity +and kindly feeling. My belief is that the man who follows +only the dictates of humanity can claim no laurels, and to +this may be reduced all that has been done for the wounded +and for those who disembarked: I must consider them my +brethren the moment hostilities terminate. + +'If, sir, in the state to which the ever uncertain fortunes +of war have reduced you, either I or anything which this +island produces could afford assistance or relief, it would +afford me a real pleasure. I hope that you will accept two +demijohns of wine which is, I believe, not the worst of our +produce. + +'It would be most satisfactory to me if I could personally +discuss, when circumstances permit, a subject upon which +you, sir, display such high and worthy gifts. In the +meantime I pray that God may preserve your life for many and +happy years. + +'I am, Sir, + +'Your most obedient and attentive Servant, + +'(Signed) Don ANTONIO GUTIERREZ. + +'Santa Cruz de Tenerife: July 26, 1797. + +'P.S. I have received and duly appreciated the beer and +the cheese with which you have been pleased to favour me. + +'PP.S. I recommend to your care, sir, the petition +of the French, which Commodore Troubridge will have +reported to you in my name. + +'To Admiral Don Horatio Nelson. + + +'Such was the end of an event which will ever be memorable in the annals +of the Canarian Islands. When we know that on our side hardly 500 men +armed with firelocks entered into action, and that the 97 cannon used on +this occasion, and requiring 532 artillery-men, were served by only 320 +gunners, of whom but 43 were veterans and the rest militia; [Footnote: +According to James, who follows the report of Captain Troubridge +(vol. ii. p. 427), there were 8,000 Spaniards and 100 Frenchmen under +arms. Unfortunate Clio!] when we remember that we took from the enemy a +field-gun, a flag, [Footnote: This was the ensign of the _Fox_ +cutter, sunk at the place where the African steamships now anchor.] two +drums, a number of guns, pikes, swords, pistols, hand-ladders, +ammunition, &c. &c., with a loss on our part of only 23 killed +[Footnote: Two officers--viz. Don Juan Bautista de Castro, before +alluded to; Don Rafael Fernandez, also mentioned--and 21 noncommissioned +officers, 5 soldiers of the Canarian battalion, 2 chasseurs, 4 +militiamen, 1 militia artilleryman, 4 French auxiliaries, and 5 +civilians.] and 28 wounded, [Footnote: Namely, 3 officers--Don Simon de +Lara, severely wounded at the narrow part of the Mole, Don Dionisio +Navarro, sub-lieutenant of the Provincial Regiment of La Laguna, and Don +Josef Dugi, cadet of the Canarian battalion--25 noncommissioned +officers, 5 men of the same battalion, 1 chasseur, 1 sergeant, 11 +militiamen, 1 soldier of the Havana depôt, 1 ditto of Cuban ditto, 1 +militia artilleryman, and 5 French auxiliaries. This, however, does not +include those suffering from contusions, amongst whom was Don Juan +Rosel, sub-lieutenant of the Provincial Regiment of Orotava.] whereas +the enemy lost 22 officers and 576 men [Footnote: Nelson +(_Despatches_, vol. ii. p. 424) says 28 seamen, 16 marines killed +(total 44); 90 seamen, 15 marines wounded; 97 seamen and marines +drowned; 5 seamen and marines missing. Total killed, 141; wounded, 105; +and grand total, 246 _hors de combat_. The total of 251 casualties +nearly equals that of the great victory at Cape St. Vincent.]--when, I +say, we take into consideration all these circumstances, we cannot but +consider our defence wonderful and our triumph most glorious. + +'We must not forget the gallant part taken in this affair by the two +divisions of the Rozadores irregulars, who were provided with sickles, +knives, and other weapons by the armoury of La Laguna. One division of +forty peasants was placed under the Marquess del Prado and the Viscount +de Buenpaso, who both, though not military men, hastened to the town +when the attack was no longer doubtful. The other body of thirty-five +men was committed to Don Simon de Lara, already mentioned amongst the +wounded. In the heat of the affair and the darkness of night the first +division was somewhat scattered as it entered the streets leading to the +Barranco Santo (watercourse), where the Canarian battalion was attacking +the English as they landed. The Marquess, after escaping the enemy, who +for half an hour surrounded without recognising him, and expecting +instant death, attempted to cross the small square of Santo Domingo to +the Plaza of the Citadel. He was prevented from so doing by the voices +of the attacking party posted in the little place. He therefore retired +to the upper part of the town, and took post on the Convent-flank. The +Viscount marched his men to the square of the Citadel, where they were +detained by Lieutenant Jorva to reinforce the post and to withdraw a +field-gun that had been dangerously placed in the street of San Josef. + +'Equally well deserving of their country's gratitude were sundry others, +especially Diego Correa, first chief of the Provincial Regiment of +Guimar, who, forgetting his illness, sprang from his bed at the +trumpet's sound, boldly met the foe with sword and pistol, and took +eleven prisoners to the Citadel. Don Josef de Guesala, not satisfied +with doing the mounted duties required of him, followed the enemy with +not less courage than Diego Correa, at the head of certain militiamen +who had lost their way in the streets. + +'Good service was also done by the Alcalde and the deputies [Footnote: +The local aldermen.] of the district. In charge of the four parties, +composed of tradesmen and burghers, they patrolled the streets and +guarded against danger from fire. They also issued to all those on duty +rations of bread and wine punctually and abundantly from the night of +the 22nd till that of the 25th of July. + +'No circumstantial account of our remarkable success would be complete +without recording, in the highest and the most grateful terms, the zeal +with which the very noble the Municipality (_ayuntamiento_) of +Tenerife took part in winning our laurels. Since July 22, when the first +alarm-signal was made at Santa Cruz, Don Josef de Castilla, the Chief +Magistrate (_Corregidor_), with the nobility and men at arms +(_armas-tomar_) assembled in force on the main square of La Laguna +(_Plaza del Adelantado_). The Mayor (_Alcalde Mayor_), Don +Vicente Ortiz de Rivera, presided over the court (_cabildo_), at +which were present all those members (_ regidores _) who were not +personally serving against the enemy. These were the town deputies, Don +Lopo de la Guerra, Don Josef Saviñon, Don Antonio Riquel, Don Cayetano +Pereza, Don Francisco Fernandez Bello, Don Miguel de Laisequilla, and +Don Juan Fernandez Calderin, with the Deputy Syndic-General, Don Filipe +Carillo. Their meetings were also attended by other gentlemen and +under-officers (_ curiales _), who were told off to their +respective duties according to the order laid down for defending the +Island. After making a careful survey of the bread and provisions in the +market, also of the wheat and flour in the bakeries and of the reserve +stores, they promptly supplied the country-people who crowded into the +city. Wind being at this season wanting for the mills, we were greatly +assisted by a cargo of 3,000 barrels of flour taken before Madeira from +an Anglo-American prize by the Buonaparte, a French privateer, who +brought her to our port. This supply sufficed for the militia stationed +on the heights of Taganana, in the Valle Seco, near the streams of the +Punta del Hidalgo, Texina, Baxamar, the Valley of San Andrés, and lastly +the line of Santa Cruz, Guadamogete, and Candelaria, whose posts cover +more than twenty-four miles of coast between the north-west and the +south of the island. + +'Equally well rationed were the peasants who passed by La Laguna _en +route_ to Santa Cruz and other parts; they consumed about 16,000 +lbs. of bread, 300 lbs. of biscuit, seven and a half pipes of wine; +rice, meat, cheese, and other comestibles. Meanwhile, at the application +of the Municipality to the venerable Vicar Ecclesiastic, and to the +parish priests and superiors of the community (_prelados_), prayers +were offered up in the churches, and certain of the clergy collected +from the neighbouring houses lint and bandages for the wounded. The +soldiers in the Paso Alto and Valle Seco received 100 pairs of slippers, +for which our Commandant-General had indented. Many peasants who had +applied for and obtained guns, knives, and other weapons from the Laguna +armoury were sent off to defend the northern part of the island. On the +main road descending to Santa Cruz the Chief Magistrate planted a +provisional battery with two field-pieces belonging to the Court of +Aldermen. When thus engaged an unfortunate fall from his horse compelled +him to retire. + +'That patriotic body the Municipality of Santa Cruz sat permanently in +the Mansion House, engaged in the most important matters from the dawn +of July 22 to noon on the 25th; nor was its firmness shaken even by the +sinister reports to which others lent ear. When on the morning of the +latter day our chief communicated to them the glowing success of our +arms and the disastrous repulse of the enemy, they hastened to appoint +July 27 for a solemn Te Deum. It is the day on which the island of +Tenerife was conquered exactly three centuries before, and thus it +became the annual festival of San Cristobal, its patron. + +'The secular religious and the regular monastic communities performed +this function with pomp and singular apparatus in the parish church of +Our Lady of the Conception. The Town-court carried the banner which had +waved in the days of the Conquest, escorted by a company of the Canarian +battalion and its band. These stood during the office at the church +door, and saluted with three volleys the elevation of the host. Master +Fray Antonio Raymond, of the Order of St. Augustine, preached upon the +grateful theme to a sympathising congregation. The court, retiring with +equal ceremony, gave a brilliant banquet to the officers of the +battalion, to the chiefs of the provincial regiments of La Laguna and +Guimar, and to all their illustrious compatriots who had taken part in +the contest. Volleys and band performances saluted the three loyal and +patriotic toasts--"the King," "the Commandant-General," and "the +Defenders of the Country." The town, in sign of jubilee, was illuminated +for several successive nights. + +'A Te Deum was also sung in the parish church of Los Remedios at La +Laguna, with sermon and high mass performed at the expense of Don Josef +Bartolomé de Mesa, Treasurer-General of the Royal Exchequer. Our +harbour settlement obtained from the King the title of "very noble, +loyal, and invict town, [Footnote: _Villa_, town, not city.] port +and fort of Santa Cruz de Santiago." [Footnote: Holy Cross of +St. James.] Recognising the evident protection of St. James, patron +saint of Spain, on whose festival the enemy had been defeated, a +magnificent procession was consecrated to him on July 30. His image was +borne through the streets by the four captains of the several corps, +whilst six other officers, followed by a picket of garrison troops and a +crowd of townspeople, carried the colours taken from the English. + +'On the next day were celebrated the obsequies of those who had fallen +honourably in defence of their beloved country. The ceremony took place +in the parish church of Santa Cruz, and was repeated in the cathedral of +Grand Canary and in the churches and convents of the other islands. The +Ecclesiastical Court of Tenerife ordered the Chapter of Music to sing a +solemn Te Deum, at which the municipal body attended. On the next day a +mass of thanksgiving was said, with exposition of the Holy Sacrament +throughout the day, and a sermon was preached by the canon superior, Don +Josef Icaza Cabrexas. Lastly, a very solemn funeral function, with +magnificent display, did due honour to their memory who for their +country's good had laid down their lives.' Mrs. Elizabeth Murray, wife +of H.B.M.'s Consul for Tenerife and author of an amusing book, +[Footnote: _Sixteen Years of an Artist's Life in Morocco_, +&c. Hurst and Blackett, 1859. I quote from vol. i. chap. iv.] adds +certain local details concerning Nelson's ill-fated attack. It is boldly +stated that during the rash affair the Commandant-General and his staff +remained safely inside the Castle of San Cristobal, and that when the +English forces captured the monastery the Spanish authorities resolved +to surrender. This step was opposed by a sergeant, Manoel Cuera, who, +'with more familiarity than is usual when soldiers are separated so far +by their respective ranks, placed his hand upon the shoulder of his +commanding officer and said, "No, your Excellency, you shall not give up +the Plaza; we are not yet reduced to such a strait as that."' Whereupon +the General, 'assuming his usual courage, followed his sergeant's +advice, and continued the engagement till it was brought to a +termination equally honourable to Englishmen and Spaniards.' + +Mrs. Murray also declares that Captain Troubridge, when invested in the +monastery by superior numbers, placed before his men a line of +prisoners, and that these being persons of influence, the assailants +fired high; moreover that Colonel M(onteverde?), the commander of the +island troops, was an Italian who spoke bad Spanish, and kept shouting +to his men, 'Condanate vois a matar a la Santisima Trinitate!' The +officer sent to parley (Captain Hood) was, we are told, accompanied to +the citadel by a gentleman named Murphy, whom the English had taken +prisoner. A panic (before mentioned) came from three militia officers, +who, mounting a single animal, rode off to La Laguna, assuring the +_cabildo_ and the townspeople that Santa Cruz had fallen. One of +this 'valiant triumvirate' had succeeded to a large property on +condition of never disgracing his name, and after the flight he had the +grace to offer it to a younger brother who had distinguished himself in +South America. The junior told him not to be a fool, and the property +was left to the proprietor's children, 'his grandson being in possession +of it at the present day.' + +The chapter ends with the fate of one O'Rooney, a merchant's clerk who +cast his lot with the Spaniards, and whom General Gutierrez sent with an +order to the commandant of Paso Alto Fort. Being in liquor, he took the +Marina, or shortest road; and, when questioned by the enemy, at once +told his errand. 'In those days and in such circumstances,' writes the +lively lady, 'soldiers were very speedy in their decisions, and the +marine who had challenged O'Rooney at once bayonetted him, while his +comrade rifled his pockets and appropriated his clothes.' + +Remains only to state that the colours of the unfortunate cutter +_Fox_ and her boats are still in the chapel of Sant' Iago, on the +left side of the Santa Cruz parish church, La Concepcion. Planted +against the wall flanking the cross, in long coffin-like cases with +glass fronts, they have been the object of marked attention on the part +of sundry British middies. And the baser sort of town-folk never fail to +show by their freedom, or rather impudence of face and deportment, that +they have not forgotten the old story, and that they still glory in +having repulsed the best sailor in Europe. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +TO GRAND CANARY--LAS PALMAS, THE CAPITAL. + +At noon (January 10) the British and African s.s. _Senegal_ weighed +for Grand Canary, which stood in unusually distinct relief to the east, +and which, this time, was not moated by a tumbling sea. Usually it is; +moreover, it lies hidden by a bank of French-grey clouds, here and there +sun-gilt and wind-bleached. We saw the 'Pike' bury itself under the blue +horizon, at first cloaked in its wintry ermines and then capped with +fleecy white nimbus, which confused itself with the snows. + +I had now a good opportunity of observing my fellow-passengers bound +down south. They consisted of the usual four classes--naval, military, +colonial officials, and commercials. The latter I noted narrowly as the +quondam good Shepherd of the so-called 'Palm-oil Lambs.' All were young +fellows without a sign of the old trader, and well-mannered enough. When +returning homewards, however, their society was by no means so pleasant; +it was noisy, and 'larky,' besides being addicted to the dullest +practical jokes, such as peppering beds. On board _Senegal_ each +sat at meat with his glass of Adam's ale by his plate-side, looking +prim, and grave, and precise as persons at a christening who are not in +the habit of frequenting christenings. Captain Keene took the earliest +opportunity of assuring me that since my time--indeed, since the last +ten years--the Bights and the Bightsmen had greatly changed; that +spirit-drinking was utterly unknown, and that ten-o'clock-go-to-bed life +was the general rule. But this unnatural state of things did not last +long. Wine, beer, and even Martell (three stars) presently reappeared; +and I noted that the evening-chorus had preserved all its peculiar +_verve_. The fact is that West Africa has been subjected to the +hateful espionage, that prying into private affairs, which dates in +Western India from the days of a certain nameless governor. Every +attempt at jollification was reported to the houses at home, and often +an evil rumour against a man went to Liverpool and returned to 'the +Coast' before it was known to himself and his friends in the same +river. May all such dismal attempts to make Jack and Jill dull boys and +girls fail as utterly! + +Early in the afternoon we steamed past Galdar and La Guia, rival +villages famed for cheeses on the north-western coast of lumpy Grand +Canary, sheets of habitation gleaming white at the feet of their +respective brown _montañetas_. The former was celebrated in local +story; its Guanche _guanarteme_, or great chief, as opposed to the +subordinate _mencey_, being one of the two potentates in 'Tameran,' +the self-styled 'Island of Braves.' This, too, was the site of the +Tahoro, or Tagoror, temple and senate-house of the ancients. The +principal interest of these wild people is the mysterious foreknowledge +of their fate that seems to have come to them by a manner of intuition, +of uninspired prophecy. [Footnote: So in Candelaria of Tenerife the +Virgin appeared in effigy to the shepherds of Chimisay in 1392, a +century before the Norman Conquest, and dwelt fifty-four years amongst +the Gentiles of Chinguaro. At least so say DD. Juan Nuñez de la Peña +(_Conquista i Antiguidades de la Gran Canaria_, &c., Madrid, 1676); +Antonio Viana (_Antiguidades de las Islas Afortunadas_, &c., +Seville, 1604) in his heroic poem, and Fray Alonzo de Espinosa +(_Historia de la Aparicion y Milagres de la Imagem de N.S. de +Candelaria_). The learned and unprejudiced Canon Viera y Clavijo +(_Noticias de la Historia geral de las Islas de Canaria_, 3 vols.) +bravely doubts whether reason and sane criticism had flourished together +in those times.] + +In the clear winter-air we could distinctly trace the bold contour of +the upper heights tipped by the central haystack, El Nublo, a giant +trachytic monolith. We passed Confital Bay, whose 'comfits' are galettes +of stone, and gave a wide berth to the Isleta and its Sphinx's +head. This rocky peninsula, projecting sharply from the north-eastern +chord of the circle, is outlined by a dangerous reef, and drops suddenly +into 130 fathoms. Supported on the north by great columns of basalt, it +is the terminus of a secondary chain, trending north-east--south-west, +and meeting the _Cumbre_, or highest ground, whose strike is +north-west--south-east. Like the knuckle-bone of the Tenerife ham it is +a contorted mass of red and black lavas and scoriae, with sharp slides +and stone-floods still distinctly traceable. Of its five eruptive cones +the highest, which supports the Atalaya Vieja, or old look-out, now the +signal-station, rises to 1,200 feet. A fine lighthouse, with detached +quarters for the men, crowns another crater-top to the north. The grim +block wants water at this season, when the thinnest coat of green +clothes its black-red forms. La Isleta appears to have been a +burial-ground of the indigenes, who, instead of stowing away their +mummies in caves, built detached sepulchres and raised tumuli of scoriae +over their embalmed dead. As at Peruvian Arica, many remains have been +exposed by modern earthquakes and landslips. + +Rounding the Islet, and accompanied by curious canoes like paper-boats, +and by fishing-craft which bounded over the waves like dolphins, we spun +by the Puerto de la Luz, a line of flat-topped whitewashed houses, the +only remarkable feature being the large and unused Lazaretto. A few +barques still lie off the landing-place, where I have been compelled +more than once to take refuge. In my day it was proposed to cut a +ship-canal through the low neck of barren sand, which bears nothing but +a 'chapparal' of tamarisk. During the last twenty years, however, the +isthmus has been connected with the mainland by a fine causeway, paved +with concrete, and by an excellent highroad. The sand of the neck, +thrown by the winds high up the cliffs which back the city, evidently +dates from the days when La Isleta was an island. It contrasts sharply +with the grey basaltic shingle that faces the capital and forms the +ship-building yard. + +We coasted along the yellow lowland, with its tormented background of +tall cones, bluffs, and _falaises_; and we anchored, at 4 P.M., in +the roadstead of Las Palmas, north of the spot where our +s.s. _Senegal_ whilom broke her back. The capital, fronting east, +like Santa Cruz, lies at the foot of a high sea-wall, whose straight and +sloping lines betray their submarine origin: in places it is caverned +for quarries and for the homes of the troglodyte artisans; and up its +flanks straggle whitewashed boxes towards the local necropolis. The +dryness of the atmosphere destroys aerial perspective; and the view +looks flat as a scene-painting. The terraced roofs suggest to Britishers +that the top-floor has been blown off. Las Palmas is divided into two +halves, northern and southern, by a grim black wady, like the Madeiran +_ribeiras_, [Footnote: According to the usual law of the neo-Latin +languages, 'ribeiro' (masc.) is a small cleft, 'ribeira' (fem.) is a +large ravine.] the 'Giniguada,' or Barranco de la Ciudad, the normal +grisly gashes in the background curtain. The eye-striking buildings are +the whitewashed Castillo del Rey, a flat fort of antique structure +crowning the western heights and connected by a broken wall with the +Casa Mata, or platform half-way down: it is backed by a larger and +stronger work, the Castillo de Sant' Ana. The next notability is the new +theatre, large enough for any European capital. Lastly, an immense and +gloomy pile, the Cathedral rises conspicuously from the white sheet of +city, all cubes and windows. Clad in a suit of sombrest brown patched +with plaster, with its domelet and its two towers of basalt very far +apart. This fane is unhappily fronted westward, the high altar facing +Jerusalem. And thus it turns its back upon the world of voyagers. + +In former days, when winds and waves were high, we landed on the sands +near the dark grey Castillo de la Luz, in the Port of Light. Thence we +had to walk, ride, or drive--when a carriage was to be hired--over the +four kilomètres which separated us from the city. We passed the Castles +of San Fernando and La Catalina to the villas and the gardens planted +with thin trees that outlie the north; and we entered the capital by a +neat bridge thrown over the Barranco de la Mata, where a wall from the +upper castle once kept out the doughty aborigines. Thence we fell into +the northern quarter, La Triana, and found shabby rooms and shocking +fare either at the British Hotel (Mrs. Bishop) or the Hôtel Monson--both +no more. Now we land conveniently, thanks to Dons Santiago Verdugo and +Juan Leon y Castilhos, at a spur of the new pier with the red light, to +the north of the city, and find ourselves at once in the streets. For +many years this comfortable mole excited the strongest opposition: it +was wasting money, and the stones, carelessly thrown in, would at once +be carried off by the sea and increase the drenching breakers which +outlie the beach. Time has, as usual, settled the dispute. It is now +being prolonged eastwards; but again they say that the work is swept +away as soon as done; that the water is too deep, and even that sinking +a ship loaded with stones would not resist the strong arm of Eurus, who +buries everything in surf. The mole is provided with the normal +_Sanidad_, or health office, with solid magazines, and with a +civilised tramway used to transport the huge cubes of concrete. At the +tongue-root is a neat little garden, wanting only shade: two +dragon-trees here attract the eye. Thence we pass at once into the main +line, La Triana, which bisects the commercial town. This reminiscence of +the Seville suburb begins rather like a road than a street, but it ends +with the inevitable cobble-stones. The _trottoirs_, we remark, are +of flags disposed lengthways; in the rival Island they lie +crosswise. The thoroughfares are scrupulously named, after Spanish +fashion; in Fernando Po they labelled even the bush-roads. The +substantial houses with green balconies are white, bound in brown +edgings of trachyte, basalt, and lava: here and there a single story of +rude construction stands like a dwarf by the side of its giant +neighbour. + +The huge and still unfinished cathedral is well worth a visit. It is +called after Santa Ana, a personage in this island. When Grand Canary +had been attacked successively and to scant purpose by De Béthencourt +(1402), by Diego de Herrera (1464), and by Diego de Silva, the Catholic +Queen and King sent, on January 24, 1474, Don Juan Rejon to finish the +work. This _Conquistador_, a morose and violent man, was marching +upon the west of the island, where his reception would have been of the +warmest, when he was met at the site of the present Ermita de San +Antonio by an old fisherman, who advised him of his danger. He took +warning, fortified his camp, which occupied the site of the present +city, beat off the enemy, and defeated, at the battle of Giniguada, a +league of chiefs headed by the valiant and obstinate Doramas. The +fisherman having suddenly disappeared, incontinently became a miraculous +apparition of the Virgin's mother. Rejon founded the cathedral in her +honour; but he was not destined to rest in it. He was recalled to +Spain. He attacked Grand Canary three times, and as often failed; at +last he left it, and after all his campaigns he was killed and buried at +Gomera. Nor, despite Saint Anne, did the stout islanders yield to Pedro +de Vera (1480-83) till they had fought an eighty years' fight for +independence. + +The cathedral, which Mr. P. Barker Webb compares with the Church of +St. Sulpice, is built of poor schiste and bad sandstone-rubble, revetted +with good lava and basalt. The latter material here takes in age a fine +mellow creamy coat, as in the 'giant cities' of the Hauran, the absurd +title of Mr. Porter. The order is Ionic below, Corinthian above, and the +pile sadly wants a dome instead of a pepper-caster domelet. One of the +towers was finished only forty-five years ago, and a Scotch merchant +added, much to his disgust, a weather-cock. In the interior green, blue, +and yellow glass tempers the austerity of the whitewashed walls and the +gloom of the grey basaltic columns, bindings, and ceiling-ribbings. +Concerning the ceiling, which prettily imitates an archwork +of trees, they tell the following tale. The Bishop and Chapter, +having resolved in 1500 to repair the work of Don Diego Montaude, +entrusted the work to Don Diego Nicholas Eduardo, of Laguna, an +Hispano-Hibernian--according to the English. This young architect built +with so light a hand that the masons struck work till he encouraged them +by sitting beneath his own creation. The same, they say, was done at +Belem, Lisbon. The interior is Gothic, unlike all others in the islands; +and the piers, lofty and elegant, imitate palm-fronds, a delicate +flattery to 'Las Palmas' and a good specimen of local invention. There +are a nave and two aisles: four noble transversal columns sustaining the +choir-vault adorn the walls. The pulpit and high altar are admirable as +the choir; the only eyesores are the diminutive organ and the eleven +side-chapels with their caricatures of high art. The large and +heavily-railed choir in mid-nave, so common in the mother country, +breaks the unity of the place and dwarfs its grand proportions. After +the manner of Spanish churches, which love to concentrate dazzling +colour at the upper end, the high altar is hung with crimson velvet +curtains; and its massive silver lamps (one Italian, presented by +Cardinal Ximenes), salvers, altar-facings, and other fixings are said to +have cost over 24,000 francs. The lectern is supposed to have been +preserved from the older cathedral. + +There are other curiosities in this building. The sacristy, supported by +side-walls on the arch principle, and ceilinged with stone instead of +wood, is shown as a minor miracle. The vestry contains gigantic +wardrobes, full of ladies' delights--marvellous vestments, weighted with +massive braidings of gold and silver, most delicate handwork in every +imaginable colour and form. There are magnificent donations of +crucifixes and candlesticks, cups, goblets, and other vessels required +by the church services--all the result of private piety. In the Chapel +of St. Catherine, built at his own expense, lies buried Cairasco, the +bard whom Cervantes recognised as his master in style. His epitaph, +dating A.D. 1610, reads-- + + Lyricen et vates, toto celebratus in orbe, + Hic jacet inclusus, nomine ad astra volans. + +A statue to him was erected opposite the old 'Cairasco Theatre' in +1876. Under the grand altar, with other dignitaries of the cathedral, +are the remains of the learned and amiable historian of the isles, Canon +José de Viera y Clavigo, born at Lanzarote, poet, 'elegant translator' +of Buffon, lexicographer, and honest man. + +Directly facing the cathedral-façade is the square, headed by the +_Ayuntamiento_, an Ionic building which would make a first-rate +hotel. Satirical Britishers declare that it was copied from one of Day +and Martin's labels. The old townhall was burnt in 1842, and of its +valuable documents nothing was saved. On the right of the plaza is an +humble building, the episcopal palace, founded in 1578 by Bishop +Cristobal de la Vega. It was rebuilt by his successor, Cristobal de la +Camara, who forbade the pretty housekeeper, prohibited his priests from +entering nunneries, and prescribed public confessionals--a measure still +much to be desired. But he must have been a man of extreme views, for he +actually proscribed gossip. This was some thirty years after Admiral van +der Does and his Dutchmen fired upon the city and were beaten off with a +loss of 2,000 men. + +South of the cathedral, and in Colegio Street (so called from the +Augustine college, [Footnote: There is still a college of that name +where meteorological observations are regularly made.] now converted +into a tribunal), we find a small old house with heavily barred +windows--the ex-Inquisition. This also has been desecrated into +utility. The Holy Office began in 1504, and became a free tribunal in +1567. Its palace was here founded in 1659 by Don José Balderan, and +restored in 1787 by Don Diego Nicholas Eduardo, whose fine fronting +staircase has been much admired. The Holy Tribunal broke up in 1820, +when, the Constitution proving too strong for St. Dominic, the +college-students mounted the belfry; and, amid the stupefaction of the +shuddering multitude, joyously tolled its death-knell. All the material +was sold, even the large leather chairs with gilt nails used for +ecclesiastical sitting. 'God defend us from its resurrection,' mutters +the civil old huissier, as he leads us to the dungeons below through the +mean court with its poor verandah propped on wooden posts. Part of it +facing the magistrates' chapel was turned into a prison for petty +malefactors; and the two upper _salas_ were converted into a +provisional _Audiencia_, or supreme court, large halls hung with +the portraits of the old governors. The new _Audiencia_ at the +bottom of Colegio Street, built by M. Botta at an expense of 20,000 +dollars, has a fine court with covered cloisters above and an open +gallery below, supported by thin pillars of basalt. + +Resuming our walk down La Triana southwards, we note the grand new +theatre, not unlike that of Dresden: it wants only opening and a +company. Then we cross the Giniguada wady by a bridge with a wooden +floor, iron railings, and stone piers, and enter the _Viñeta_, or +official, as opposed to the commercial, town. On the south side is the +fish-market, new, pretty, and gingerbread. It adjoins the general +market, a fine, solid old building like that of Santa Cruz, containing +bakers' and butchers' stalls, and all things wanted by the +housekeeper. A little beyond it the Triana ends in an archway leading to +a square court, under whose shaded sides mules and asses are +tethered. We turn to the right and gain Balcones Street, where stands +the comfortable hotel of Don Ramon Lopez. Most soothing to the eye is +the cool green-grown _patio_ after the prospect of the hot and +barren highlands which back the Palm-City. + +Walking up the right flank of the Giniguada Ribeira, we cross the old +stone bridge with three arches and marble statues of the four +seasons. It places us in the Plazuela, the irregular space which leads +to the Mayor de Triana, the square of the old theatre. The western side +is occupied by a huge yellow building, the old Church and Convent of San +Francisco, now turned into barracks. In parts it is battlemented; and +its belfry, a wall of basalt pierced with a lancet-arch to hang bells, +hints at earthquakes. An inscription upon the old theatre, the usual +neat building of white and grey-brown basalt, informs us that it was +built in 1852, _ad honorem_ of two deputies. But Santa Cruz, the +modern capital, has provided herself with a larger and a better house; +_ergo_ Las Palmas, the old capital, must fain do the same. The +metropolis of Grand Canary, moreover, claims to count more noses than +that of Tenerife. To the west of the older theatre, in the same block, +is the casino, club, and ball-room, with two French billiard-tables and +smoking-rooms. The old hotel attached to the theatre has now ceased to +exist. + +On the opposite side of the square lies the little Alameda promenade, +the grounds once belonging to St. Francis. The raised walk, shaded by a +pretty arch-way of palm-trees, is planted with myrtles, dahlias, and +bignonias. It has all the requisites of its kind--band-stand, +green-posted oil-lamps, and scrolled seats of brown basalt. Round this +square rise the best houses, mostly new; as in the Peninsula, however, +as well as in both archipelagos, all have shops below. We are beginning +to imitate this excellent practice of utilising the unwholesome +ground-floor in the big new hotels of London. Two large houses are, or +were, painted to mimic brick, things as hideous as anything further +north. + +In this part of the Triana lived the colony of English merchants, once +so numerous that they had their own club and gymnasium. All had taken +the local colouring, and were more Spanish than the Spaniards. A +celebrated case of barratry was going on in 1863, the date of my first +visit, when Lloyds sent out a detective and my friend Capt. Heathcote, +I.N., to conduct the legal proceedings. I innocently asked why the +British vice-consul was not sufficient, and was assured that no resident +could interfere, _alias_ dared do his duty, under pain of social +ostracism and a host of enmities. In those days a man who gained his +lawsuit went about weaponed and escorted, as in modern Ireland, by a +troop of armed servants. Landlord-potting also was by no means unknown; +and the murder of the Marquess de las Palmas caused memorable sensation. + +Indescribable was the want of hospitality which characterised the +Hispano-Englishmen of Las Palmas. I have called twice upon a +fellow-countryman without his dreaming of asking me upstairs. Such +shyness may be understood in foreigners, who often entertain wild ideas +concerning what an Englishman expects. But these people were wealthy; +nor were they wholly expatriated. Finally, it was with the utmost +difficulty that I obtained from one of them a pound of home-grown +arrowroot for the sick child of a friend. + +On the other hand, I have ever met with the greatest civility from the +Spanish Canarians. I am especially indebted to Don J. B. Carlo, the +packet-agent, who gave me copies of 'El Museo Canario, Revista de la +Sociedad del mismo nombre' (Las Palmas)--the transactions published by +the Museum of Las Palmas. Two mummies of Canarian origin have lately +been added to the collection, and the library has become +respectable. The steamers are now so hurried that I had no time to +inspect it, nor to call upon Don Gregorio Chil y Naranjo, President of +the Anthropological Society. This savant, whose name has become well +known in Paris, is printing at Las Palmas his 'Estudios Historicos,' +&c., the outcome of a life's labour. Don Agustin Millares is also +publishing 'La Historia de las Islas Canarias,' in three volumes, each +of 400 to 450 pages. + +I made three short excursions in Grand Canary to Telde, to the Caldera, +and to Doramas, which showed me the formation of the island. My notes +taken at the time must now be quoted. _En route_ for the former, we +drove past the large city-hospital: here in old times was another strong +wall, defending the southern part, and corresponding with the northern +or Barranco line. The road running to the south-south-west was +peculiarly good; the tunnel through the hill-spur suggested classical +and romantic Posilippo. It was well parapeted near the sea, and it had +heavy cuttings in the white _tosca_, a rock somewhat resembling the +_calcaire grossier_ of the Paris basin. This light pumice-like +stone, occasionally forming a conglomerate or pudding, and slightly +effervescing with acids, is fertile where soft, and where hard quite +sterile. Hereabouts lay Gando, one of the earliest forts built by the +_Conquistadores_. We then bent inland, or westward, crossed barren +stony ground, red and black, and entered the pretty and fertile valley +with its scatter of houses known as La Vega de Ginamar. + +I obtained a guide, and struck up the proper right of a modern lava-bed +which does not reach the sea. The path wound around rough hills, here +and there scattered with fig-trees and vines, with lupines, euphorbias, +and other wild growths. From the summit of the southern front we sighted +the Cima de Ginamar, popularly called El Pozo (the Well). It is a +volcanic blowing-hole of oval shape, about fifty feet in long diameter, +and the elliptical mouth discharged to the north the lava-bed before +seen. Apparently it is connected with the Bandana Peak, further +west. Here the aborigines martyred sundry friars before the +_Conquistadores_ 'divided land and water' amongst them. The guide +declared that the hole must reach the sea, which lies at least 1,200 +feet below; that the sound of water is often to be heard in it, and that +men, let down to recover the corpses of cattle, had been frightened away +by strange sights and sounds. He threw in stones, explaining that they +must be large, otherwise they lodge upon the ledges. I heard them dash, +dash, dash from side to side, at various intervals of different depths, +till the pom-om-m subsided into silence. The crevasses showed no sign of +the rock-pigeon (_Columba livia_), a bird once abounding. Nothing +could be weirder than the effect of the scene in clear moonlight: the +contrast of snowy beams and sable ground perfectly suited the uncanny +look and the weird legends of the site. + +Beyond the Cima we made the gay little town of Telde, which lodges some +4,000 souls, entering it by a wide _fiumara_, over which a bridge +was then building. The streets were mere lines of scattered houses, and +the prominent buildings were the white dome of San Pedro and San Juan +with its two steeples of the normal grey basalt. Near the latter lay the +little Alameda, beggar-haunted as usual. On the north side of the +Barranco rose a caverned rock inhabited by the poor. We shall see this +troglodytic feature better developed elsewhere. + +To visit the Caldera de Bandana, three miles from the city, we hired a +carriage with the normal row of three lean rats, which managed, however, +to canter or gallop the greater part of the way. The boy-driver, +Agustin, was a fair specimen of his race, obstinate as a Berber or a +mule. As it was Sunday he wanted to halt at every _venta_ (pub), +_curioseando_--that is, admiring the opposite sex. Some of the +younger girls are undoubtedly pretty, yet they show unmistakable signs +of Guanche blood. The toilette is not becoming: here the shawl takes the +place of the mantilla, and the head-covering, as in Tenerife, is capped +by the hideous billycock. To all my remonstrances Don Agustin curtly +replied with the usual island formula, 'Am I a slave?' This class has a +surly, grumbling way, utterly wanting the dignity of the lower-order +Spaniard and the Moor; and it is to be managed only by threatening to +withhold the _propinas_ (tip). But the jarvey, like the bath-man, +the barber, and generally the body-servant and the menial classes which +wait upon man's person, are not always models of civility. + +We again passed the hospital and ascended the new zigzag to the right of +the Giniguada. The torrent-bed, now bright green with arum and pepper, +grows vegetables, maize, and cactus. Its banks bear large plantations of +the dates from which Las Palmas borrows her pretty Eastern names. In +most places they are mere brabs, and, like the olive, they fail to +fruit. The larger growths are barbarously docked, as in Catholic +countries generally; and the fronds are reduced to mere brooms and +rats'-tails. The people are not fond of palms; the shade and the roots, +they say, injure their crops, and the tree is barely worth one dollar +per annum. + +At the top of the Cuesta de San Roque, which reminded me of its namesake +near Gibraltar, I found a barren ridge growing only euphorbia. The +Barranco Seco, on the top, showed in the sole a conspicuously big house +which has no other view but the sides of a barren trough. This was the +'folly' of an eccentric nobleman, who preferred the absence to the +company of his friends. + +Half an hour's cold, bleak drive placed us at the Tafira village. Here +the land yields four crops a year, two of maize and two of +potatoes. Formerly worth $100 per acre, the annual value had been raised +by cochineal to $500. All, however, depends upon water, which is +enormously dear. The yelping curs have mostly bushy tails, like those +which support the arms of the Canary Islands. The grey and green finches +represent our 'domestic warbler' (_Fringilla canaria_), which +reached England about 1500, when a ship with a few birds on board had +been wrecked off Elba. + +[Footnote: The canary bird builds, on tall bushes rather than trees, a +nest of moss, roots, feathers and rubbish, where it lays from four to +six pale-blue eggs. It moults in August and September; pairs in +February, and sometimes hatches six times in a season. The natives +declare that the wild birds rarely survive the second year of captivity; +yet they do not seem to suffer from it, as they begin to sing at once +when caged. Mr. Addison describes the note as 'between that of the +skylark and the nightingale,' and was surprised to find that each flock +has a different song--an observation confirmed by the people and noted +by Humboldt (p. 87).] + +The country folk were habited in shirts, drawers derived from the Moors, +and tasseled caps of blue stuff, big enough for carpet-bags. The vine +still covered every possible slope of black soil, and the aloes, crowned +with flowers, seemed to lord it over the tamarisks, the hemlocks, and +the nightshades. + +Upon this _monte_, or wooded height, most of the gentry have +country-houses, the climate being 12 degrees (Fahr.) cooler than by the +sea. La Brigida commands a fine view of the Isleta, with its black sand +and white foam, leek-green waters upon the reefs, and deep offing of +steely blue. + +Leaving the carriage at the forking road, I mounted, after a bad +descent, a rough hill, and saw to the left the Pico de Bandana, a fine +regular cone 1,850 feet high. A group of a few houses, El Pueblo de la +Caldera, leads to the famous Cauldron, which Sir Charles Lyell visited +by mistake for that of Palma. Travellers compare it with the lakes of +Nemi and Albano: I found it tame after the cup of Fernando Po with its +beautiful lining of hanging woods. It has only the merit of +regularity. The unbroken upper rim measures about half a mile in +diameter, and the lower funnel 3,000 feet in circumference. The sides of +_piedra pomez_ (pumice) are lined and ribbed with rows of +scoriaceous rock as regular as amphitheatre-seats, full 1,000 feet deep, +and slope easily into a flat sole, which some are said to have reached +on horseback. A copious fountain, springing from the once fiery inside, +is collected below for the use of the farm-house, El Fondo de la +Caldera. The fields have the effect of a little Alpine tarn of bright +green. Here wild pigeons are sometimes caught at night, and rabbits and +partridges are or were not extinct. I ascended Bandana Peak to the +north-north-east, the _piton_ of this long extinct volcano, and +enjoyed the prospect of the luxuriant vegetation, the turquoise sea, and +the golden sands about Maspalomas, the southernmost extremity of Grand +Canary. + +Returning to the road-fork, I mounted a hill on the right hand and +sighted the Atalaya, another local lion. Here a perpendicular face of +calcareous rock fronts a deep valley, backed by a rounded hill, with the +blue chine of El Cumbre in the distance: this is the highest of the +ridge, measuring 8,500 feet. The wall is pierced, like the torrent-side +of Mar Saba (Jerusalem), with caves that shelter a troglodyte population +numbering some 2,000 souls. True to their Berber origin, they seek +refuge in the best of savage lodgings from heat, cold, and wind. The +site rises some 2,000 feet above sea-level, and the strong wester twists +the trees. Grand Canary preserves more of these settlements than +Tenerife; they are found in many parts of the island, and even close to +the capital. Madeira, on the other hand, affects them but little. We +must not forget that they still exist at St. Come, within two hours' +rail of Paris, where my learned and lamented friend Dr. Broca had a +country-house. + +Descending a rough, steep slope, I entered the upper tier of the +settlement, where the boxes were built up with whitewashed fronts. The +caves are mostly divided by matting into 'buts' and 'bens.' Heaps of +pots, antiquated in shape and somewhat like the Etruscan, showed the +trade of the place, and hillocks of potatoes the staff of life. The +side-walls were hollowed for shelves, and a few prints of the Virgin and +other sacred subjects formed the decoration. Settles and rude tables +completed the list of movables; and many had the huge bed affected by +the Canarian cottager, which must be ascended with a run and a jump. The +predatory birds, gypsies and others, flocked down from their nests, +clamouring for _cuartitos_ and taking no refusal. + +It occupies a week to ride round the island, whose circumference +measures about 120 miles. I contented myself with a last excursion to +Doramas, which then supplied meat, cheese, and grain to Tenerife. My +guide was old Antonio Martinez, who assured me that he was the 'most +classical man' in the island; and with two decent hill-ponies we struck +to the north-west. There is little to describe in the tour. The Cuesta +Blanca showed us the regular cones of Arúcas. Beyond Tenoya town I +inspected a crateriform ravine, and Monte Cardones boasted a honeycomb +of caves like the Atalaya. The fine rich _vega_ of Arúcas, a long +white settlement before whose doors rose drying heaps of maize and black +cochineal, was a pleasant, smiling scene. All the country settlements +are built pretty much upon the same plan: each has its Campo Santo with +white walls and high grey gate, through which the coffin is escorted by +Gaucho-like riders, who dismount to enter. Doramas proved to be a fine +_monte_, with tree-stumps, especially chestnuts, somewhat +surprising in a region of ferns and furze. Near the little village of +Friga I tasted an _agua agria_, a natural sodawater, which the +people hold to be of sovereign value for beast as well as man. It +increases digestion and makes happy mothers, like the fountain of +Villaflor on the Tenerifan 'Pike '-slope. I found it resembling an +_eau gazeuse_ left in the open all night. We then pushed on to +Teror, famous for turkeys, traversed the high and forested northern +plateau, visited Galdar and Guia of the cheeses, and rode back by +Bañaderos Bay and the Cuesta da Silva, renowned in olden island story. + +These three days gave me a fair general view of Grand Canary. The +Cumbre, or central plateau, whose apex is Los Pexos (6,400 feet), well +wooded with pines and Alpines, collects moisture in abundance. From this +plateau _barrancos_, or ravine-valleys, said to number 103, radiate +quaquaversally. Their bottoms, becoming more and more level as they near +the sea, are enriched by gushing founts, and are unrivalled for +fertility, while the high and stony intervening ridges are barren as +Arabia Deserta. Even sun and rain cannot fertilise the dividing walls of +the rich and riant _vegas_. Here, as at Madeira, and showing even a +better likeness, the _tierra caliente_ is Egypt, the _mediania_ +(middle-heights) are Italy, and the upper _mesetas_, the cloud-compelling +table-lands, are the bleak north of Europe plus a quasi-tropical sun. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE COCHINEAL--THE 'GALLO'--CANARY 'SACK'--ADIEU TO THE CANARIES. + +I must not leave the Jezirát el-Bard (of Gold), or Jezirát el-Khálidát +(Happy Islands), without some notice of their peculiar institutions, the +cochineal, the _gallo_, and Canary 'sack.' + +The nopal or tunal plant (_Opuntia Tuna_ or _Cactus +cochinellifera_) is indigenous on these islands as well as on the +mainland of Africa. But the native growth is woody and lean-leaved; and +its cooling fruit, which we clumsily term a 'prickly pear' or 'fig,' is +everywhere a favourite in hot climates. There are now sundry claimants +to the honour of having here fathered the modern industry. Some say that +in 1823 a retired intendant introduced from Mexico the true +_terciopelo_, or velvet-leaf, together with the Mexican cochineal, +the _coccus cacti_ hemipter, [Footnote: The male insect is winged +for flight. The female never stirs from the spot where she begins to +feed: she lays her eggs, which are innumerable and microscopic, and she +leaves them in the membrane or hardened envelope which she has +secreted.] so called from the old Greek _KÓKKOS_, a berry, or the +neo-Greek _KOKKIVOS_, red, scarlet. It is certain that Don Santiago +de la Cruz brought both plant and 'bug' from Guatemala or Honduras in +1835; and that an Englishman, who has advanced a right even in writing, +labours under a not uncommon hallucination. + +But the early half of the present century was the palmy day of the +vine. The people resisted the cactus-innovation as the English labourer +did the introduction of machinery, and tore up the plants. Enough, +however, remained in the south of Tenerife for the hour of +need. Travellers in search of the picturesque still lament that the ugly +stranger has ousted the trellised vine and the wild, free myrtles. But +public opinion changed when fortunes were made by selling the +insect. Greedy as the agriculturist in general, the people would refuse +the value of a full crop of potatoes or maize if they suspected that the +offerer intended to grow cochineal. No dye was prepared on the islands, +and the peasants looked upon it as a manner of mystery. + +The best _tuneras_ (cochineal-plantations) lay in Grand Canary, +where they could be most watered. Wherever maize thrives, producing a +good dark leaf and grain in plenty, there cochineal also succeeds. The +soil is technically called _mina de tosca_, a whitish, pumice-like +stone, often forming a gravel conglomerate under a rocky stratum: +hardening by exposure, it is good for building. Immense labour is +required to prepare such ground for the cactus. The earth must be taken +from below the surface-rock, as at Malta; spread in terraced beds, and +cleared of loose stones, which are built up in walls or in +_molleras_, cubes or pyramids. Such ground sold for $150 per acre; +$600 were paid for mètre-deep soil unencumbered by stone. Where the +chalk predominates, it must be mixed with the volcanic sand locally +called _zahorra_. In all cases the nopals are set at distances of +half a yard, in trenches at least three feet deep. The 'streets,' or +intervals, must measure nearly two yards, so that water may flow freely +and sunshine may not be arrested. Good ground, if irrigated in winter +and kept clear of weeds by the _haçada_ (hoe), produces a cactus +capable of being 'seeded' after the second year; if poor, a third is +required. The plant lasts, with manure to defend it from exhaustion, a +full decade. [Footnote: The compost was formerly natural, dry or liquid +as in Switzerland; but for some years the costly guano and chemicals +have been introduced. Formerly also potatoes were set between the stems; +and well-watered lands gave an annual grain-crop as well as a green +crop.] + +I now translate the memoir sent in MS. to me by my kind friend +Dundas. It is the work of Don Abel de Aguilar, Consul Impérial de +Russie, a considerable producer of the 'bug.' + +The _semillado_, or cochineal-sowing, is divided into three +_cosechas_ (crops), according to the several localities in the +islands. + +The _abuelas_ (grandmothers) are those planted in +October-November. Their seed gives a new growth set in February-March, +and called _madres_ (mothers). Thirdly, those planted in June-July, +gathered in September-October, and serving to begin with the +_abuelas_, are called _la cosecha_ (the crop). The first and +second may be planted on the seaboard; the last is confined to the +midlands and uplands, on account of the heat and the hot winds, +especially the souther and the south-south-easter, which asphyxiate the +insect. + +And now of the _abuelas_, as cultivated in the maritime regions +of Santa Cruz, Tenerife. + +Every cochineal-plantation must have a house with windows facing the +south, and freely admitting the light--an indispensable condition. The +_cuarto del semillado_ (breeding-room) should be heated by stoves +to a regular temperature of 30°-32° (R.). At this season the proportion +of seed is calculated at 30 boxes of 40 lbs. each, or a total of 1,200 +lbs. per _fanega_, the latter being equivalent to a half-hectare. +The cochineal is placed in large wooden trays lined with +cloth, and containing about 15 lbs. of the recently gathered seed. When +filled without crowding, the trays are covered with squares of +cotton-cloth (raw muslin), measuring 12-16 inches. Usually the +_fanega_ requires 20-30 quintals (128 lbs., or a cwt.), each +costing $15 to $17. The newly born insects (_hijuelos_) adhere to +the cochineal-rags, and these are carried to the _tunera_, in +covered baskets. + +The operation is repeated with fresh rags till the parturition is +completed. The last born, after 12-15 days, are the weakest. They are +known by their dark colour, the earlier seed being grey-white, like +cigar-ashes. The cochineal which has produced all its insects is known +in the markets as 'zacatillas.' It commanded higher prices, because the +watery parts had disappeared and only the colouring matter remained. Now +its value is that of the white or _cosecha_. + +The cochineal-rags are then carried by women and girls to the +_tunera_, and are attached to the cactus-leaves by passing the +cloths round them and by pinning them on with the thorns. This +operation, requires great care, judgment, and experience. The good +results of the crop depend upon the judicious distribution of the +'bugs;' and error is easy when making allowance for their loss by wind, +rain, or change of temperature. The insects walk over the whole leaf, +and choose their places sheltered as much as possible, although still +covered by the rags. After 8-10 days they insert the proboscis into the +cactus, and never stir till gathered. At the end of three and a half to +four months they become 'grains of cochineal,' not unlike wheat, but +smaller, rounder, and thicker. The sign of maturity is the appearance of +new insects upon the leaf. The rags are taken off, as they were put on, +by women and girls, and the cochineal is swept into baskets with brushes +of palm-frond. As the _abuelas_ grow in winter there is great loss +of life. For each pound sown the cultivator gets only two to two and a +half, innumerable insects being lost either in the house or out of +doors. + +The crop thus gathered produces the _madres_ (mothers): the latter +are sown in February-March, and are gathered in May-June. The only +difference of treatment is that the rags are removed when the weather is +safe and the free draught benefits the insects. The produce is +greater--three and a half to four pounds for one. + +The _cosecha_ of the _madres_ produces most abundantly, on +account of the settled weather. The cochineal breeds better in the +house, where there is more light and a higher temperature. The result is +that 8 to 10 lbs. become 100. It is cheaper too: as a lesser proportion +of rag is wanted for the field, and it is kept on only till the insect +adheres. Thus a small quantity goes a long way. At this season there is +no need of the _cuarto_, and bags of pierced paper or of +_rengue_ (loose gauze), measuring 10 inches long by 2 broad, are +preferred. A spoonful of grain, about 4 ounces, is put into each bag and +is hung to the leaves: the young ones crawl through the holes or meshes +till the plant is sufficiently populated. In hot weather they may be +changed eight times a day with great economy of labour. This is the most +favourable form; the insects go straight to the leaves, and it is easy +to estimate the proportions. + +So far Don Abel. He concludes with saying that cochineal, which in other +days made the fortune of his native islands, will soon be completely +abandoned. Let us hope not. + +The _cosecha_-insects, shell-like in form, grey-coloured, of light +weight, but all colouring matter, are either sold for breeding +_abuelas_ or are placed upon trays and killed in stoves by a heat +of 150°-160° (Fahr.). The drying process is managed by reducing the +temperature to 140°. The time varies from twenty-four to forty-eight +hours: when hurried it injures the crop. Ninety full-grown insects weigh +some forty-eight grains, and there is a great reduction by drying; some +27,000 yield one pound of the prepared cochineal. The shiny black +cochineal, which looks like small beetles, is produced by sun-drying, +and by shaking the insect in a linen bag or in a small 'merry-go-round,' +so as to remove the white powder. [Footnote: Mr. H. Vizetelly (p. 210) +says that black metallic sand is used to give it brilliancy.] The form, +however, must be preserved. It sells 6_d_. per lb. higher than the +_cochinilla de plata_, or silver cochineal. Lastly, the dried crop +is packed in bags, covered with mats, and is then ready for exportation. + +The traffic began about 1835 with an export of only 1,275 lbs.; and +between 1850 and 1860 the lb. was worth at least ten francs. Admiral +Robinson [Footnote: _Sea-drift_, a volume published by subscription. +Pitman, London, 1852.] in 1852 makes the export one million of +lbs. at one dollar each, or a total of 250,000_l_. During the +rage of the oïdium the cultivation was profitable and raised +the Canaries high in the scale of material prosperity. In 1862 +the islands exported 10,000 quintals, or hundred-weights, the +total value being still one million of dollars. In 1877-78 +the produce was contained in 20,000 to 25,000 bags, each +averaging 175 lbs., at a value of half a crown per lb.: it was then +stated that, owing to the increased expense of irrigation and of guano +or chemical manures, nothing under two shillings would repay the +cultivator. In 1878-79 the total export amounted to 5,045,007 lbs. In +1879-80 this figure had fallen off to 4,036,871 lbs., a decrease of +5,482 bags, or 1,008,136 lbs.; moreover the prices, which had been +forced up by speculation, declined from 2_s_. 6_d_.-3_s_. 4_d_. +to 1_s_. 8_d_. and 1_s_. 10_d_. [Footnote: These figures are taken +from the able Consular Report of Mr. Consul Dundas, printed in Part +viii., 1881.] When I last visited Las Palmas (April 1880), cochineal, +under the influence of _magenta_ and _mineral_ dyes, was selling at +1_s_. 4_d_. instead of one to two dollars. + +It is to be feared that the palmy days of cochineal are over, and that +its chief office, besides staining liqueurs and tooth-powders, will be +to keep down the price of the chemicals. With regret I see this handsome +and harmless colour being gradually superseded by the economical +anilines, whose poisonous properties have not yet been fully recognised +by the public. The change is a pregnant commentary upon the good and +homely old English saying, 'Cheap and nasty.' + +The fall of cochineal throughout the Canaries brought many successors +into the field, but none can boast of great success. Silk, woven and +spun, was tried; unfortunately, the worms were fed on _tartago_ (a +_ricinus_), instead of the plentiful red and white mulberries. The +harvest was abundant, but not admired by manufacturers. In fact, the +moderns have failed where their predecessors treated the stuff so well +that Levantines imported silks to resell them in Italy. Formerly +Tenerife contained a manufactory whose lasting and brilliant produce was +highly appreciated in Spain as in Havana. At Palma crimson waist-sashes +used to sell for an ounce of gold. + +Tobacco-growing was patronised by Government in 1878, probably with the +view of mixing it in their monopoly-manufactories with the growths of +Cuba and Manilla. But on this favour being withdrawn the next year's +harvest fell to one-fourth (354,640 lbs. to 36,978). The best sites were +in Hierro (Ferro) and Adejo, in the south of Tenerife. The chief +obstacles to success are imperfect cultivation, the expense of skilled +labour, and deficiency of water to irrigate the deep black soil. Both +Virginia and Havana leaves were grown, and good brands sold from eight +to sixteen dollars per 100 lbs. The customers in order of quantity are +Germany, England, France, South America, and the West Coast of Africa, +where the cigars are now common. One brand (Republicanos) is so good +that I should not wish to smoke better. At home they sell for twelve +dollars per 1,000; a price which rises, I am told, in England to one +shilling each. They are to be procured through Messieurs Davidson, of +Santa Cruz. + +The Canarians now talk of sugar-growing; but the cane will inevitably +fare worse for want of water than either silk or tobacco. + +Next to cochineal in the Canary Islands, especially in Tenerife, ranks +the _gallo_, or fighting-cock. Cockfighting' amongst ourselves is +redolent of foul tobacco, bad beer, and ruffianism in low places. This +is not the case in Spain and her colonies, where the classical sport of +Greece and Rome still holds its ground. I have pleasant reminiscences of +the good _Padre_ in the Argentine Republic who after mass repaired +regularly to the pit, wearing his huge canoe-like hat and carrying under +his arm a well-bred bird instead of a breviary. Here too I was told that +the famous Derby breed of the twelfth Earl had extended in past times +throughout the length and breadth of the land; and the next visit to +Knowsley convinced me that the legend was based on fact. As regards +cruelty, all popular sports, fox-hunting and pigeon-shooting, are +cruel. Grallus, however, has gained since the days of Cock-Mondays and +Cock-Fridays, when he was staked down to be killed by 'cock-sticks' or +was whipped to his death by blindfolded carters. He leads the life of a +friar; he is tended carefully as any babe; he is permitted to indulge +his pugnacity, which it would be harsh to restrain, and at worst he dies +fighting like a gentleman. A Tenerifan would shudder at the horror of +our fashionable sport, where ruffians gouge or blind the pigeon with a +pin, squeeze it to torture, wrench out its tail, and thrust the upper +through the lower mandible. + +The bird in Tenerife surpasses those of the other Canary Islands, and +more than once has carried off the prizes at Seville. A moderately +well-bred specimen may be bought for two dollars, but first-rate cocks +belonging to private fanciers have no price. + +Many proprietors, as at Hyderabad, in the Dakhan, will not part with +even the eggs. The shape of the Canarian bird is rather that of a +pheasant than a 'rooster.' The coat varies; it is black and red with +yellow shanks, black and yellow, white and gold, and a grey, hen-like +colour, our 'duck-wing,' locally called _gallinho_. Here, as in +many other places, the 'white feather' is no sign of bad blood. The +toilet is peculiar. Comb and wattles are 'dubbed' (clean shaven), and +the circumvental region is depilated or clipped with scissors, leaving +only the long tail-feathers springing from a naked surface. The skin is +daily rubbed, after negro fashion, with lemon-juice, inducing a fiery +red hue: this is done for cleanliness, and is supposed also to harden +the cuticle. Altogether the appearance is coquet, sportsmanlike, and +decidedly appropriate. + +The game-chicks are sent to the country, like town-born babes in France +or the sons of Arabian cities to the Bedawin's black tents. The cockerel +begins fighting in his second, and is not a 'stale bird' till his fifth +or sixth, year. In early spring aspirants to the honours of the arena +are brought to the towns for education and for training, which lasts +some six weeks. I was invited to visit a walk belonging to a wealthy +proprietor at Orotava, who obligingly answered all my questions. Some +fifty birds occupied the largest room of a deserted barrack, which +proclaimed its later use at the distance of half a mile. The gladiators +were disposed in four long, parallel rows of cages, open cane-work, +measuring three feet square. Each had a short wooden trestle placed +outside during the day and serving by night as a perch. They were fed +and watered at 2 P.M. The fattening maize was first given, and then +wheat, with an occasional cram of bread-crumb and water by way of +physic. The _masálá_ and multifarious spices of the Hindostani +trainer are here ignored. + +The birds are not allowed, as in India, to become so fierce that they +attack men: this is supposed to render them too hot and headstrong in +combat. Every third day there is a _Pecha_, or spurring-match, +which proves the likeliest lot. The pit for exercise is a matted circle +about 6 feet in diameter. A well-hodded bird is placed in it, and the +assistant holds up a second, waving it to and fro and provoking No. 1 to +take his exercise by springing to the attack. The Indian style of +galloping the cock by showing a hen at either end of the walk is looked +upon with disfavour, because the sight of the sex is supposed to cause +disease during high condition. The elaborate Eastern shampooing for +hours has apparently never been heard of. After ten minutes' hard +running and springing the bird is sponged with Jamaica rum and water, to +prevent chafing; the lotion is applied to the head and hind quarters, to +the tender and dangerous parts under the wings, and especially to the +leg-joints. The lower mandible is then held firmly between the left +thumb and forefinger, and a few drops are poured into the beak. Every +alternate day the cage is placed on loose ground in sun and wind; and +once a week there is a longer sparring-bout with thick leather hods, or +spur-pads. + +Cock-fighting takes place once a year, when the birds are in fittest +feather; it begins on Easter Sunday and ends with the following +Wednesday. + + The bird that warned Peter of his fall + +has then, if victorious, a pleasant, easy twelve months of life before +him. He has won many a gold ounce for his owner: I have heard of a man +pouching 400_l_. in a contest between Orotava and La Laguna, which +has a well-merited celebrity for these exhibitions. The Canarians ignore +all such refinements as rounds or Welsh mains; the birds are fairly +matched in pairs. _Navajas_, or spurs, either of silver or steel, +are unused, if not unknown. The natural weapon is sharpened to a +needle-like point, and then blood and condition win. The cock-pit, +somewhat larger than the training-pit, is in the Casa de la Galera; +there is a ring for betters, and the spectators are ranged on upper +seats. + +Lastly of the wine Canary, now unknown to the English market, where it +had a local habitation and a name as early as madeira and sherry, all +claiming 'Shakespearean recognition.' The Elizabethans constantly allude +to cups of cool Canary, and Mr. Vizetelly quotes Howell's 'Familiar +Letters,' wherein he applies to this far-famed sack the dictum 'Good +wine sendeth a man to heaven.' But I cannot agree with the learned +oenologist, or with the 'tradition of Tenerife,' when told that 'the +original canary was a sweet and not a dry wine, as those who derive +"sack" from the French word "sec" would have us believe.' 'Sherris sack' +(_jerez seco_) was a harsh, dry wine, which was sugared as we +sweeten tea. Hence Poins addresses Falstaff as 'Sir John Sack and +Sugar;' and the latter remarks, 'If sack and sugar be a fault, God help +the wicked!' And the island probably had two growths--the saccharine +_Malvasia_, [Footnote: As we find in Leake (p. 197 _Researches in +Greece_) and Henderson (_History of Wines_) 'Malvasia' is an +Italian corruption of 'Monemvasia' ([Greek: _monae embasia_]--a +single entrance), the neo-Greek name for the Minoa promontory or island +connected by a bridge with the Laconian Coast. Hence the French +Malvoisie and our Malmsey. Prof. Azevedo (_loc. cit._) opines that +the date of the wine's introduction disproves the legend of that +'maudlin Clarence in his Malmsey butt.'] whose black grape was almost a +raisin, and a harsh produce like that of the modern _Gual_, with +great volume and alcoholic strength, but requiring time to make it +palatable. + +The Canaries mostly grew white wines; that is, the liquors were +fermented without skins and stalks. Thus they did not contain all the +constituents of the fruit, and they were inferior in remedial and +restorative virtues to red wines. Indeed, a modern authority tells us +that none but the latter deserve the name, and that white wines are +rather grape-ciders than real wines. + +The best Tenerife brands were produced on the northern slopes from +Sauzal and La Victoria to Garachico and Ycod de los Vinos. The latter, +famed for its malmsey, has lost its vines and kept its name. The +cultivation extended some 1,500 feet above the sea, and the plant was +treated after the fashion of Madeira and Carniola (S. Austria). The +_latadas_, or trellises, varied in height, some being so low that +the peasant had to creep under them. All, however, had the same defect: +the fruit got the shade and the leaves the sun, unless trimmed away by +the cultivator, who was unwilling to remove these lungs in too great +quantities. The French style, the pruned plant supported by a stake, was +used only for the old and worn-out, and none dreamt of the galvanised +wires along which Mr. Leacock, of Funchal, trains his vines. In Grand +Canary I have seen the grape-plant thrown over swathes of black stone, +like those which, bare of fruit, stretch for miles across the fertile +wastes of the Syrian Haurán. By heat and evaporation the grapes become +raisins; and, as in Dalmatia, one pipe required as much fruit as +sufficed for three or four of ordinary. + +The favourite of the Canaries is, or was, the _vidonia_, a juicy +berry, mostly white, seldom black: the same is the case with the +muscadels. The _Malvasia_ is rarely cultivated, as it suffered +inordinately from the vine-disease. The valuable _Verdelho_, +preferred at Madeira, is, or was, a favourite; and there are, or were, +half a dozen others. The _vendange_ usually began in the lowlands +about the end of August, and in the uplands a fortnight or three weeks +later. The grape was carried in large baskets by men, women, and +children, to the _lagar_, or wooden press, and was there trodden +down, as in Madeira, Austria, and Italy. The Canarians, like other +neo-Latins an unmechanical race, care little for economising labour. The +vinification resembled that of the Isle of Wood, with one important +exception--the stove. This artificial heating to hasten maturity seems +to have been soon abandoned. + +Mr. Vizetelly is of opinion that the pure juice was apt to grow harsh, +or become ropy, with age. They remedied the former defect by adding a +little _gloria_, a thin, sweet wine kept in store from the +preceding _vendange_; this was done in April or in May, when the +vintage was received at headquarters. Ropiness was cured by repeated +rackings and by brandying, eight gallons per pipe being the normal +ratio. That distinguished connoisseur found in an old malmsey of 1859 +all the aroma and lusciousness of a good liqueur; the 'London +particular' of 1865 tasted remarkably soft, with a superior nose; an +1871-72, made for the Russian market, had an oily richness with a +considerable aroma; an 1872 was mellow and aromatic, and an 1875 had a +good vinous flavour. + +'Canary' possessed its own especial charác-ter, as Jonathan says. If it +developed none of the highest qualities of its successful rivals, it +became, after eight to twelve years' keeping, a tolerable wine, which +many in England have drunk, paying for good madeira. The shorter period +sufficed to mature it, and it was usually shipped when three to four +years old. It kept to advantage in wood for a quarter of a century, and +in bottle it improved faster. My belief is that the properest use of +Tenerife was to 'lengthen out' the finer growths. I found Canary bearing +the same relation to madeira as marsala bears to sherry: the best +specimens almost equalled the second- or third-rate madeiras. Moreover, +these wines are even more heady and spirituous than those of the +northern island; and there will be greater difficulty in converting them +to the category _vino de pasto_, a light dinner-wine. + +Before 1810 Tenerife exported her wines not from Santa Cruz, but from +Orotava, the centre of commerce. Here, since the days of Charles II., +there was an English Factory with thirty to forty British subjects, +Protestants, under the protection of the Captain-General; and their +cemetery lay at the west end of El Puerto, whose palmy days were in +1812-15. The trade was then transferred to the modern capital, where +there are, and have been for years, only two English wine-shipping +firms, Messieurs Hamilton and Messieurs Davidson. The seniors of both +families have all passed away; but their sons and grandsons still +inhabit the picturesque old houses on the 'Marina.' In 1812-15 the +annual export of wine was 8,000 to 11,000 pipes. The Peace of 1815 was a +severe blow to the trade. Between 1830 and 1840, however, the vintage of +the seven chief islands averaged upwards of 46,000; of these Tenerife +supplied between 4,000 and 5,000, equivalent to the total produce since +the days of the oïdium. In 1852 Admiral Robinson reduced the number of +pipes to 20,000, worth 200,000_l_. In 1860-65 I saw the grape in a +piteous plight: the huge bunches were composed of dwarfed and wilted +berries, furred and cobwebbed with the foul mycelium. The produce fell +to 100-150 pipes, and at present only some 200 to 300 are exported. The +Peninsula and the West African coast take the bulk; England and Germany +ranking next, and lastly Spain, which used the import largely in +making-up wines. The islanders now mostly drink the harsh, coarse +Catalonians; they still, however, make for home consumption a cheap +white wine, which improves with age. It is regretable that fears of the +oïdium and the phylloxera prevent the revival of the industry, for which +the Islands are admirably fitted. Potatoes and other produce have also +suffered; but that is no obstacle to their being replanted. + +I left Santa Cruz and Las Palmas, after two short visits, with the +conviction that both are on the highway of progress, and much edified by +their contrast with Funchal. The difference is that of a free port and a +closed port. In the former there is commercial, industrial, and literary +activity: Las Palmas can support two museums. In the latter there is +neither this, that, nor the other. Madeira also suffers from repressed +emigration. The Canaries wisely allow their sons to make gold ounces +abroad for spending at home. + +Spain also, a few years ago so backward in the race, is fast regaining +her place amongst the nations. She is now reaping the benefit of her +truly liberal (not Liberal) policy. Such were the abolition of the +_morgado_ (primogeniture) in 1834, the closing of the 1,800 +convents in 1836-37, and the _disamortizacion_, or suppression of +Church property and granting liberty of belief, in 1855. Finally, the +vigour infused by a short--which will lead to a longer--trial of +democracy and of republican institutions have given her a new life. She +is no longer the Gallio of the Western world. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE RUINED RIVER-PORT AND THE TATTERED FLAG. + +On the night of January 10 we steamed out of Las Palmas to cover the +long line of 940 miles between Grand Canary and Bathurst. The +A. S. S. generously abandons the monopoly of the Gambia to its rival, +the B. and A., receiving in exchange the poor profits of the Isles de +Los. Consequently the old Company's ships, when homeward-bound, run +directly from Sierra Leone to Grand Canary, a week's work of 1,430 +knots. + +Hardly had we lost sight of the brown and barren island and Las Palmas +in her magpie suit, than we ran out of the Brisa Parda, or grey +north-east Trade, into calm and cool Harmatan [Footnote: The word is of +disputed origin. _Ahalabata_, or _ahalalata_, on the Gold Coast +is a foreign term denoting the dry norther or north-easter that blows +from January to March or April (Zimmerman). Christalier makes +_haramata_, 'Spanish _harmatan_, an Arabic word.'] weather. We +begrudged the voyage this lovely season, which should have been kept for +the journey. After the damp warmth of Madeira the still and windless air +felt dry, but not too dry; cold, but not too cold; decidedly fresh in +early morning, and never warm except at 3 P.M. The sun was pale and +shorn, as in England, seldom showing a fiery face before 10 A.M. or +after 5 P.M. The sea at night appeared slightly milky, like the white +waters so often seen off the western coast of India. Every traveller +describes the Harmatan, and most travellers transcribe the errors +touching the infusoria and their coats which Ehrenberg found at sea in +the impalpable powder near the Cape Verde islands. The dry cold blast is +purely local, not cosmical. There is a fine reddish-yellow sand in the +lower air-strata; we see it, we feel it, and we know that it comes from +the desert-tracts of northern Africa. The air rises _en masse_ from +the Great Sahara; the vacuum is speedily filled by the heavier and +cooler indraught from the north or south, and the higher strata form the +upper current flowing from the Equator to the Poles. But 'siliceous +dust' will not wholly account for the veiling of the sun and the +opaqueness of the higher atmosphere. This arises simply from the want of +humidity; the air is denser, and there is no vapour to refract and +reflect the light-rays. Hence the haze which even in England appears to +overhang the landscape when there is unusually droughty weather; and +hence, conversely, as all know, the view is clearest before and after +heavy showers, when the atmosphere is saturated or supersaturated. + +On my return in early April we caught the northeast Trades shortly after +turning Cape Palmas, and kept them till close upon Grand Canary. They +were a complete contrast with the Harmatan, the firmament looking +exceptionally high, and the sun shining hot, while a crisp, steady gale +made the 'herds of Proteus' gambol and disport themselves over the long +ridges thrown up by the cool plain of bright cerulean. The horizon, when +clear, had a pinkish hue, and near coast and islands puffy folds of +dazzling white, nearly 5,000 feet high, were based upon dark-grey +streaks of cloudland simulating continents and archipelagoes. Within the +tropics the heavens appear lower, and we never sight blue or purple +water save after a tornado. The normal colour is a dirty, brassy +yellow-brown, here and there transparent, but ever unsightly in the +extreme. It must depend upon some unexplained atmospheric conditions; +and the water-aspect is often at its ugliest when the skies are +clearest. I have often seen the same tints when approaching Liverpool. + +Through the Harmatan-haze we failed to sight Cape Juby, opposite +Fuerteventura; and at Santa Cruz I missed Mr. Mackenzie, the energetic +flooder of the Sahará. He has, they say, given up this impossibility and +opened a _comptoir_: its presence is very unpleasant to the French +monopolists, who seem to 'monopole' more every year. South of Juby comes +historic Cape Bojador, the 'Gorbellied,' and Cabo Blanco, which is to +northern what Cabo Negro is to southern Africa. The sole remarkable +events in its life are, firstly, its being named by Ptolemy Granaria +Extrema, whence the Canarii peoples south-west of the Moroccan Atlas and +our corrupted 'Canaries;' and, secondly, its rediscovery by one Gonçalez +Baldeza in 1440. + +On the afternoon of Saturday (January 14) we sighted in the offing the +two paps of Ovedec, or Cabo Verde, the Hesperou Keras, the Hesperium or +Arsenarium Promontorium of Pliny, the _trouvaille_ of Diniz +Fernandez in 1446. The name is _sub judice_. Some would derive it +from the grassy green slope clad with baobabs (_Adansonia +digitata_), megatherium-like monsters, topping the precipitous +sea-wall which falls upon patches of yellow sand. Others would borrow it +from the _Sargasso (baccifera), Golfão_, or Gulf-weed, which here +becomes a notable feature. Cape Verde, the Prasum Promontorium of West +Africa, is the 'Trafalgar,' the westernmost projection, of the Dark +Continent 'fiery yet gloomy;' measuring 17° 3' from the meridian of +Greenwich. The coast is exceedingly dangerous; consequently shipwrecks +are rare. The owners, as their national wont is, have done their best to +make it safe. Two lighthouses to the north of the true Cape mark and +define a long shoal with a heavy break, the Almadies rocks, a ledge +mostly sunk, but here and there rising above the foam in wicked-looking +_diabolitos_ (devilings), or black fangs, of which the largest is +die-shaped. A third pharos, also brilliantly whitewashed, crowns the +Cape, and by its side is a lower sea-facing building, the sanatorium; +finally, there is a light at the mole-end of Dakar. + +Steaming past the Madeleine rocks, here and there capped with green and +whitened by sea-fowl, we sight, through an opening in the curtain of +coast, the red citadel and the subject town of Goree, the Gibraltar of +western Africa, and the harbour of St. Louis, capital of Senegambia. The +island is now the only port, the headquarters having suffered from the +sand-bar at the mouth of the Senegal. Here our quondam rivals have made +the splendid harbour of Dakar, whose jetties accommodate 180,000 tons of +shipping at the same time. This powerful and warlike colony, distant +only twelve hours' steaming from Bathurst, has her fleet of steamers for +river navigation; her Tirailleurs du Sénégal, and her large force of +fighting native troops. Fortified stations defend the course of the +river, even above the falls, from the hostile and treacherous Moors. The +subject and protected territories exceed Algeria in extent, and the +position will link the French possessions in the Mediterranean with the +rich mineral lands proposed for conquest in the south. + +We English hug to ourselves the idea that the French are bad colonists: +if so, France, like China and India, is improving at a pace which +promises trouble. Algeria, Senegambia, and Siam should considerably +modify the old judgment. Our neighbours have, and honestly own to, two +grand faults--an excessive bureaucracy and a military, or rather a +martinet, discipline, which interferes with civil life and which governs +too much. On the other side England rules too little. She is at present +between the two proverbial stools. She has lost the norm of honour, +Aristocracy; and she has lost it for ever. But she has not yet acquired +the full strength of democracy. This is part secret of that +disorganisation which is causing such wonder upon the continent of +Europe. Moreover, Colonial England has caught the disease of +non-interference and the infection of economy, the spawn of Liberalism; +while her savings, made by starving her establishments, are of the +category popularly described as penny-wise and pound-foolish. France has +adopted the contrary policy. She spends her money freely in making ports +and roads and in opening communication through adjacent countries. She +lately sent a cruiser to Madeira, proposing to connect Dakar by +telegraph with the Cape Verde islands. She is assiduous in forming +friendly, or rather peaceable, relations with the people. She begins on +the right principle by officering her colonies with her best men, naval +and military. In England anyone is good enough for West Africa. She +impresses the natives, before beginning to treat, by an overwhelming +display of force; and, if necessary, by hard knocks. She educates the +children of the chiefs, and compels all her lieges, under a penalty, to +learn, and if possible to speak, French. So far from practising +non-interference, she allows no one to fight but herself. This +imperious, warlike, imperial attitude is what Africa wants. It reverses +our Quaker-like 'fad' for peace. We allow native wars to rage _ad +libitum_ even at Porto Loko, almost within cannon-shot of Sierra +Leone. On the Gambia River the natives have sneeringly declared that +they will submit to the French, who are men, but not to us, who are +------. Later still, the chiefs of Futa-Jalon went, not to London, but +to Paris. + +In 1854 France commenced a new and systematic course of colonial +policy. She first beat the Pulos (Fulahs), once so bold, and then she +organised and gave flags to them. She checked, with a strong hand, the +attacks of the Moors upon the gum-gatherers of the Sahará. And now, +after drawing away from us the Gambia trade, she has begun a railway +intended to connect the Senegal with the Niger and completely to +outflank us. This line will annex the native regions behind our +settlements, and make Bathurst and Sierra Leone insignificant +dependencies upon the continent of Gallic rule. The total distance is at +least 820 miles, and the whole will be guarded by a line of forts. It +begins with a section of 260 kilometres, which will transport valuable +goods now injured by ass and camel-carriage. The natives, wearied with +incessant petty wars, are ready to welcome the new comers. The western +Súdán, or Niger-basin, has a population estimated at forty millions, +ready, if a market be opened, to flock to it with agricultural and +industrial products, including iron, copper, and gold. Meanwhile the +Joliba (Black Water), with the Benuwe and other tributaries, offers a +ready-made waterway for thousands of miles. Sierra Leone lies only 400 +miles, less than half, from the Niger; but what would the Colonial +Office say if a similar military line were proposed? Nor can we console +ourselves by the feeble excuse that Senegal has a climate superior to +that of our 'pest-houses.' On the contrary, she suffers severely from +yellow fever, which has never yet visited the British Gold Coast. Her +mortality is excessive, but she simply replaces her slain. She has none +of that mawkish, hysterical humanitarianism which of late years has +become a salient feature in our campaigning. During the Ashanti affair +the main object seems to have been, not the destruction of the enemy, +but to save as many privates as possible from ague and fever, sunstroke +and dysentery. + +Ninety miles beyond Cape Verde placed us in the Gambia waters, off the +lands of the Guinea region. I will not again attempt a history of the +disputed word which Barbot derives from Ginahoa, the first negro region +visited by the Portuguese; others from Ghana, the modern Kano; from the +Jenneh or Jinne of Mungo Park; from Jenna, a coast-town once of note, +governed by an officer under the 'King' of Gambia-land, and, in fine, +from the Italian Genoa. + +The s.s. _Senegal_ spent the night of the 14th on the soft and +slippery mud, awaiting the dawn. What can the Hydrographic Department of +the Admiralty be doing? What is the use of the three cruisers that still +represent the old 'Coffin Squadron'? This coast has not had a survey +since 1830, yet it changes more or less every year, and half a century +makes every map and plan obsolete. But perhaps it would be wrong to risk +seamen's lives by exposure in open boats to 'insolation,' showers, and +surf. + +From sunrise the sea had changed its Harmatan-grey for a dull, muddy, +dirty green; and the leadsman, who is now too civilised to 'sing out' in +the good old style, calmly announced that the channel was +shallowing. 'Gambia,' or 'Gambi,' the Gamboa and Gambic of Barbot +(Chapter VII.), is said to mean clear water, here a perfect misnomer; it +is miry as the Mersey. The 'molten gold of the Gambia River' is only the +fine phrase of some poetic traveller. Low land loomed on both sides, +with rooty and tufted mangroves, apparently based upon the waves, +showing that we approached an estuary, which soon narrowed from thirty +miles to seven and to two. Three buoys, the outermost red, then the +'fairway' with chequers and cage, and lastly white without cage, all at +a considerable distance off the land, marked the river-bar, and +presently a black pilot came on board from his cutter. We made some +easting running along shore, and gave a wide berth to the Horseshoe Bank +and St. Mary's shoal portwards, to African Knoll and Middle Ground +starboardwards, and to a crowd of other pleasant patches, where the +water was dancing a breakdown in the liveliest way. + +As we drew in shore the now burning sun shone with a sickly African heat +through the scirocco-clouds and the thick yellow swamp-reek. 'It will be +worse when we land,' said the normal Job's comforter. Six knots to +starboard, (west), on high and healthy Cape St. Mary, rose a whitewashed +building from a dwarf red cliff. To port on the river's proper right +bank (east) lay Fort Bullen, an outpost upon a land-tongue, dead-green +as paint, embosomed in tall bentangs, or bombax-trees (_Pullom +Ceiba_). This 'silk-cotton-tree' differs greatly in shape from its +congener in Eastern Africa. The bole bears sharp, broad-based thorns; +the wings or flying buttresses are larger; several trunks rarely +anastomose; the branches seldom stand out horizontally, nor are the +leaves disposed in distinct festoons. It is, however, a noble growth, +useful for shade and supplying a soft wood for canoes and stuffing for +pillows. Fort Bullen, about one hour's row from Bathurst, formerly +lodged a garrison of seventeen men under the 'Commandant and Governor of +the Queen's Possessions in the Barra Country.' Now the unwholesome site +has been abandoned. + +The island and station of St. Mary, Bathurst, of old a graveyard, now +start up to starboard. The site was chosen apparently for its superior +development of mud and mangrove, miasma and malaria. It is an island +within an island. St. Mary the Greater is the northernmost of that mass +of riverine holms and continental islands which, formed by the Cachéo +and other great drains, extends south to the Rio Grande. Measuring some +twenty miles from north to south, by six from east to west, it is +embraced by the two arms of the Gambia delta, and is marked in old maps +as the Combo, Forni, and Felúp country. St. Mary the Less, upon which +stands the settlement facing east, is bounded eastward by the main mouth +and westward by Oyster Creek, a lagoon-like branch: it is a mere +sand-patch of twenty-one square miles, clothed by potent heats and +flooding rains with a vivid and violent vegetation. Water is found +everywhere three feet below the surface, but it is bad and +brackish. There is hardly any versant or shed; in places the land sinks +below the water-level; and, despite the excellent brick sewers, the +showers prefer to sop and sod the soil. And, lest the island should be +bodily carried away by man, there is a penalty for removing even a +pailful of sand from the beach. + +Bathurst was unknown in the days of Mungo Park, when traders ran up +stream to Jilifri, nearly opposite Fort James, and to Pisania, the end +of river-navigation. St. Mary's Island, together with British Combo, +Albreda, and the land called the 'Ceded,' or 'English Mile,' were bought +from the Mandenga chief of the Combo province. First christened +St. Leopold, and then Bathurst, after the minister of that name, the +actual town owes its existence to an order issued by Sir Charles +Macarthy. That ill-starred Governor of Sierra Leone (1814-24) is still +remembered in Ashanti and on the Gold Coast: he is immortalised by a +pestiferous island in the Upper Gambia well described by Winwood +Reade. The settlement, designed for the use of liberated Africans, was +built in 1816 by Lieutenant-Colonel Brereton and by Captain Alexander +Grant. In 1821 it was made, like the Gold Coast, a dependency of Sierra +Leone, whose jurisdiction, after the African Company was abolished in +1820, + +[Footnote: The first African Company was established by Queen Elizabeth, +and in 1688 was allowed to trade with Guinea. The Royal African Company, +or Guinea Company of Royal Adventurers of England trading to Africa, was +incorporated under Charles II. on January 20, 1663. A third was patented +on September 27, 1672. The 'African Company' (1722-24) was not allowed +to interfere with 'interlopers.' On May 7,1820, it was abolished, after +bankruptcy, and its possessions passed over to the Crown.] + +extended from N. lat. 20° to S. lat. 20°. I found it an independent +government, one of four, in 1860 to 1865. In 1866 it again passed under +the rule of Sierra Leone; in 1874 this ill-advised measure was +withdrawn, and the Gambia was placed under an Administrator and a +Legislative Council, the former subject to the Governor-in-Chief of +Sierra Leone. A score of years ago it was garrisoned by some 300 men of +the West African Corps. Now it is reduced to 100 armed policemen: the +Gambia militia, composed of the Combo and Macarthy's Island forces, is +never called out. The population of the twenty-one square miles is given +by Whittaker for 1881 as 14,150, including 105 whites. The Wesleyans +here, as everywhere, preponderating on the Coast, number 1,405 souls; +the Catholics 500, and the Episcopalians 200. + +Another half-hour placed before us Bathurst in full view. The first +salient point is the graveyard, where the station began and where the +stationed end. Wags declare that the first question is, 'Have you seen +our burial-ground?' A few tomb-stones, mostly without inscriptions, are +scattered so near the shore that corpses and coffins have been washed +away by the waves. If New Orleans be a normal 'wet grave,' this +everywhere save near the sea is dry with a witness, the depth and +looseness of the sand making the excavation a crumbling hole. Four +governors, a list greatly to be prolonged, 'lie here interred.' But +matters of climate are becoming too serious for over-attention to such +places or subjects. + +The first aspect of this pest-house from afar is not unpleasant. A long +line of scattered houses leads to the mass of the settlement, faced by +its Marine Parade, and the tall trees give it a home-look; some have +compared the site with 'parts of the park at Cheltenham.' At a nearer +view the town of some 5,000 head suggests the idea of a small European +watering-place. The execrable position has none of those undulations +which make heaps of men's homes picturesque; everything is low, flat, +and straight-lined as a yard of pump-water. The houses might be those of +Byculla, Bombay; in fact, they date from the same epoch. They are +excellent of their kind, large uncompact piles of masonry, +glistening-white or dull-yellow, with blistered paint, and slates, +tiles, or shingles, which last curl up in the sun like feathers. A +nearer glance shows the house-walls stained and gangrened with rot and +mildew, the river-floods often shaking hands with the rains in the +ground-floors. The European ends in beehive native huts, rising from the +swamp and sand; and these gradually fine off and end up-stream, becoming +small by degrees and hideously less. + +Bathurst has one compensating feature, the uncommon merit of an +esplanade; the noble line of silk-cotton trees separating houses from +river is apparently the only flourishing item. We remark that while some +of these giants are clad in their old leaves others are bright green +with new foliage, while others are bare and broomy as English woods in +midwinter. They are backed by a truly portentous vegetation of red and +white mangroves, palms, plantains, and baobabs, rank guinea-grass +filling up every gap with stalks and blades ten feet tall. + +Nor was the scene in the river-harbour at all more lively. The old +_Albert_, of Nigerian fame, has returned to mother Earth; but we +still note H.M.S. _Dover_, a venerable caricature, with funnel long +and thin, which steams up stream when not impotent--her chronic +condition. There are two large Frenchmen loading ground-nuts, but ne'er +an Englishman. The foreshore is defaced by seven miserable wharves, +shaky mangrove-piles, black with age and white with oystershells, driven +into the sand and loosely planked over. There is an eighth, the +gunpowder pier, on the north face of the island; and we know by its +dilapidation that it is Government property. These stages are intended +not for landing--oh, no!--but only for loading ships; stairs are +wanting, and passengers must be carried ashore 'pick-a-back.' The +labourers are mainly, if not wholly, 'Golah' women of British Combo, +whose mates live upon the proceeds of their labours. To-day being +Sunday, the juvenile piscators of Bathurst muster strong upon the piers, +and no policeman bids them move on. + +When the mail-bags were ready, we received a visit from the black +health-officer, and we reflected severely on the exceeding 'cheek' of +inspecting, as a rule, new comers from old England at this yellow Home +of Pestilence. But in the healthy time of the year we rarely see the +listless, emaciated whites with skins stained by unoxygenised carbon, of +whom travellers tell. Despite the sun, all the Bathurstians save the +Government officials--now few, too few--flocked on board. Mail-days are +here, as in other places down-coast, high days and holidays. But times +are changed, and the ruined river-port can no longer afford the old +traditional hospitality. + +Cameron and I landed under Brown's Wharf, the southernmost pier opposite +the red roof and the congeries of buildings belonging to the late +proprietor. We then walked up the High Street, or esplanade, which is +open to the river except where the shore is cumbered with boats, hides, +lumber, and beach-negroes. This is a kind of open-air market where men +and women sit in the shade, spinning, weaving, and selling fruits and +vegetables with one incessant flux of tongue. Here, too, amongst the +heaps, and intimately mixed with the naked infantry, stray small goats, +pretty and deer-shaped, and gaunt pigs, sharp-snouted and long-legged as +the worst Irisher. + +Several thoroughfares, upper and lower, run parallel with the river; all +are connected, like a chess-board, by cross-lanes at right angles, and +their grass-grown centres are lined by open drains of masonry, now +bone-dry. The pavement is composed of stone and dust, which during the +rains becomes mud; the _trottoirs_ are in some places of brick, in +others of asphalte, in others of cracked slabs. Mostly, however, we walk +on sand and gravel, which fills our boots with something harder than +unboiled peas. The multiplicity of useless walls, the tree-clumps, and +the green sward faintly suggested memories of a semi-deserted +single-company station in Western India; and the decayed, tumble-down +look of all around was a deadly-lively illustration of the Hebrew +Ichabod. + +I passed, with a sense of profound sadness, the old Commissariat +quarters, now degraded to a custom-house. The roomy, substantial edifice +of stone and lime, with large, open verandahs, here called piazzas, +lofty apartments, galleries, terraced roofs, and, in fact, everything an +African house should have, still stood there; but all shut up, as if the +antique _domus_ were in mourning for the past. What Homeric feeds, +what _noctes coenoeque deorum_, we have had there in joyous past +times! But now that most hospitable of West-Coasters, Commissary Blanc, +has been laid in the sandy cemetery; and where, oh! where are the rest +of the jovial crew, Martin and Sherwood? I found only one relic of the +bygone--and a well-favoured relic he is--Mr. W. N. Corrie, with whom to +exchange condolences and to wail over the ruins. + +Passing the post-office and the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and +American consulates, poor copies of the dear old Commissariat, we halted +outside at Mr. Goddard's, and obtained from Mr. R. E. Cole a copy of his +lecture, 'The River Gambia,' read at York, September 1881. It gave me +pleasure to find in it, 'The man that is wanted throughout the West +Coast of Africa is not the negro, but the Chinaman; and should he ever +turn his steps in its direction he will find an extensive and +remunerating field for the exercise of his industry and intelligence.' + +We then turned our attention from the town to the townspeople. They have +not improved in demeanour during the last twenty years. Even then the +'liberateds' and 'recaptives,' chiefly Akus and Ibos, had begun the +'high jinks,' which we shall find at their highest in Sierra Leone. They +had organised 'Companies,' the worst of trade-unions, elected headmen, +indulged in strikes, and more than once had come into serious collision +with the military. The Mandengas, whom Mungo Park calls Mandingoes and +characterises as a 'wild, sociable, and obliging people,' soon waxed +turbulent and unruly. This is to be expected; a race of warriors must be +governed by the sword. They would prefer for themselves military law to +all the blessings of a constitution or a plébiscite. But philanthropy +wills otherwise, and in these days the English authorities do not keep +up that state whose show secures the respect of barbarians. Where the +Governor walks about escortless, like a private individual, he must +expect to be 'treated as such.' + +There is no difficulty in distinguishing at first sight Moslem from +Kafir. Besides the gypsy-like Pulo, the 'brown race,' our older Fúlahs +and Fellalahs, whose tongue is said to be a congener of the Nubian; and +the wild, half-naked pagan Jolu, the principal tribes, are two, the +Mandengas and the Wólofs. The former, whom Europeans divide into the +Marabút, who does not drink, and the Soninki, who does, inhabit a +triangle, its base being the line from the south of the Senegal to the +Gambia River, and its apex the Niger; it has even extended to near +Tin-Bukhtu (the Well of Bukhtu), our Timbuctoo. In old Mohammedan works +their territory is called Wángara. This race of warmen and horsemen +surprisingly resembles the Somal, who hold the same parallels of +latitude in Eastern Africa, as to small heads, semi-Caucasian features, +Asiatic above the nose-tip and African below; tall lithe figures, high +shoulders, and long limbs, especially the forearm. + +There is the usual Negro-land variety in the picturesque toilette; no +two men are habited alike. A Phrygian bonnet, Glengarry or Liberty-cap +of dark, indigo-dyed cotton, and sometimes a Kan-top or ear-calotte of +India and Hausa-land, surmount their clean-shaven heads. For this they +substitute, when travelling, 'country umbrellas,' thatches of plaited +palm-leaves in umbrella-shape; further down coast we shall find the +regular sun-hat of Madeira, with an addition of loose straw-ends which +would commend itself to Ophelia. The decent body-garb is a _kamís_, +a nightgown of long-cloth, and wide, short drawers; the whole is covered +with a sleeveless _abá_, or burnous, and sometimes with a +half-sleeved caftan--here termed 'tobe'--garnished with a huge +breast-pocket. It is generally indigo-stained, with marblings or +broad-narrow stripes of lighter tint than the groundwork. An essential +article, hung round the neck or slung to the body, is the grigri, +_ta'awíz_, or talisman, a Koranic verse or a magic diagram enclosed +in a leathern roll or in a flat square. Of these prophylactics, which +answer to European medals and similar fetish, a 'serious person' will +wear dozens; and they are held to be such 'strong medicine' that even +pagans will barter or pay for them. Blacksmiths, weavers, and spinners +work out of doors. Contrary to the general Moslem rule, these Mandengas +honour workers in iron and leather, and the king's blacksmith and +cobbler are royal councillors. + +Some of the motley crowd sit reading what the incurious stranger tells +you is 'the Alcoran;' they are perusing extracts and prayers written in +the square, semi-Cufic Maghrabi character, which would take a learned +Meccan a week to decipher. Others, polluted by a license which calls +itself liberty, squat gambling shamelessly with pegs stuck in the +ground. Now and then fighting-looking fellows ride past us, with the +Arabic ring-bit and the heavy Mandenga demi-pique. The nags are ponies +some ten hands high, ragged and angular, but hardy and sure-footed. As +most of the equines in this part of Africa, they are, when well fed, +intensely vicious and quarrelsome. Like the Syrians, they have only +three paces, the walk, the lazy loping canter, and the brisk hard +gallop; the trot is a provisional passage from slow to fast. Yet with +all their shortcomings I should prefer them to the stunted bastard barb, +locally called an Arab and priced between 20_l_. and 40_l_. +The latter generally dies early from chills and checked +perspiration, which bring on 'loin-disease,' paralysis of the +hind-quarters, or from a fatal swelling of the stomach, the result of +bad forage. Most of the men carried knives, daggers, and crooked swords +in curious leather scabbards. This practice should never be permitted in +Africa. Natives entering a station should be compelled to leave their +weapons with the policeman at the nearest guard-house. + +The Wólofs, a name formerly written Joloff, also dwell in Senegambia, +between the Senegal and the Gambia, and their habitat is divided into +sundry petty kingdoms. As early as 1446 they were known to the +Portuguese, and one Bemoy, of princely house, soon afterwards visited +Lisbon, was baptised, and did homage to D. João II. More like the +Abyssinians than their Mandenga neighbours, they are remarkable for good +looks, pendent ringlets, and tasteful dress and decorations. 'Black but +comely,' with long, oval faces, finely formed features, straight noses +and glossy jetty skins, in character they are brave and dignified, and +they are distinctly negroids, not negroes. This small maritime tribe, +who make excellent sailors, is interesting and civilisable; many have +been Christianised, especially by the Roman Catholic missioners. The +only native tongue spoken by European residents at Bathurst is the +Wólof. As M. Dard remarks in his 'Grammaire Wolof,' the [Footnote: He +was Instituteur de l'École Wolof-Française du Sénégal, and published in +1826. It is still said that no one will speak Wolof like him, the result +of the new _régíme_ of compulsory French instruction. I printed 226 +of his proverbs in _Wit and Wisdom from West Africa_ (London, +Tinsleys, 1865). It is curious to compare them with those of the pagan +negroes further south.] + +language is widely spread: Mungo Park often uses expressions which he +deems Mandenga, but which belong to the 'Jews of West Africa,' as the +Wólofs are sometimes called, their extensive commercial dealings between +the coast and the western Sudan being the only point of likeness. For +instance, in the tale of 'poor Nealee' the cry 'Kang-tegi!' ('Cut her +throat!') is the Wólof 'Kung-akateke!' ('Let her head be cut off!'), and +'Nealee affeeleeata!' ('Nealee is lost!') appears equally corrupted by +author or printer from 'Nealu afeyleata!' ('Nealee breathes no more!') + +Pursuing our peregrinations, we reach No. 1 Fort, at the northern angle +of the town, north-eastern corner of the islet St. Mary the Less. This +old round battery is surmounted by three 32-pounders, _en +barbette_, with iron carriages and traversing platforms, but without +racers: a single 7-inch shell would smash the whole affair. Thence we +bent westward and passed the once neat 'Albert Market' with its metal +roof, built in 1854-56 by Governor Luke O'Connor and Isaac Bage. We did +not enter; the place swarms with both sexes in blue: African indigo +yields a charming purple, but one soon learns to prefer white +clothing. Nor need I describe the stuff exposed for sale: there will be +a greater variety at Sierra Leone. + +Passing the market we come upon the engineer's yard, which a hand-bill +sternly forbids us to enter. It contains a chapel, where the +Rev. Mr. Nicol officiates: this loose box is more hideous than anything +I have yet seen, a perfect study of architectural deformity. The +cracked bell and the nasal chant, at times rising to a howl as of +anguish, were completely in character. As the service ended issued a +stream of worshippers, mostly women, attired in costumes which will be +noticed further on; most of them led negrolings suggesting the dancing +dog. Meanwhile the police, armed only with side-arms, sword-bayonets, +and looking more like Sierra Leone convicts reformed and uniformed, +followed a band composed of drums, cymbals, and a haughty black +sergeant, a mulatto noncommissioned, bringing up the rear. They went +round and round the barrack square, a vast space occupied chiefly by +grass and drains; in the back-ground is the large jaundiced building +upon whose clock-tower floated, or rather depended, the flag of +St. George. The white building by its side is the Colonial Hospital: it +has also seen 'better days.' + +We resolved to call upon Mr. Administrator V. S. Goulsbury, M.D. and +C.M.G. He had lately been subjected to an attack, of course anonymous, +in the 'African Times;' an attack the more ungentlemanly and cowardly +because it reflected upon his private not public life; and consequently +he could neither notice it nor answer it, nor bring an action for +libel. This scandalous print, which has revived the old 'Satirist' in +its most infamous phase, habitually inserts any tissue of falsehoods +suggested to proceed from a 'native,' an 'African,' a 'negro,' and +carefully writes down to the lowest level of its readers. It attracts +attention by the cant of charity, and shows its devotion to 'the Bible, +and nothing but the Bible,' by proving that the earth, having 'four +corners,' is flat, and that the sun, which once 'stood still,' must move +round its parasite. The manner of this pestilence is right worthy of its +matter, and the style would be scouted in a decent housekeeper's +room. All well-meaning men, of either colony, declare that it has done +more harm in West Africa than the grossest abuse yet written. Its tactic +is to set black against white, to pander for the public love of scandal, +and systematically to abuse all the employés of Government. And the sole +object of this vile politic, loudly proclaimed to be philanthropic and +negrophile, has been low lucre--in fact, an attempt to butter its bread +with 'black brother.' + +We inspected the second or western fort, a similar battery of six +32-pounders, with two 10-inch mortars, fit only to pound 'fúfú,' or +banana-paste; add a single brass field-piece, useful as a morning and +evening gun for this highly military station. Then we came to Government +House, apparently deserted, flying a frayed and tattered white and blue +flag, which might have been used on board H.M.S. _Dover_, but which +ought to have been supplanted on shore by a Union Jack. After waiting a +quarter of an hour, we managed, with the assistance of a sentinel, whose +feet were in slippers and whose artillery carbine was top-heavy with a +fixed sword-bayonet, to arouse a negro servant, by whom we sent in our +cards to H.E. the Administrator. An old traveller on the Gold Coast, and +lately returned from a long expedition into the interior, [Footnote: +_Gambia: Expedition to the Upper Gambia_. London: Eyre and +Spottiswoode, 1882.] he had much to tell us. His knowledge of +Ashanti-land, however, induced him to place the Kong Mountains in that +meridian too far north; he held the distance from the seaboard to be at +least 500 miles. But he quite agreed with us about the necessity of +importing Chinese coolies. Here no free man works. The people say, 'When +a slave gets his liberty he will drink rainwater'--rather than draw it +from a well. The chief cargo of the S.S. _Senegal_ was Chinese +rice, when almost every acre of the lower Gambia would produce a cereal +superior in flavour and bolder in grain. Hands, however, are wanting; +and all the women are employed in loading and unloading ships. + +The Residency is a fine large building in an advanced stage of +decomposition; the glorious vegetation around it--cotton-trees, +caoutchouc-figs, and magnificent oleanders--making the pile look grimmer +and grislier. And here we realised, to the fullest extent, how +thoroughly ruined is the hapless settlement. The annual income is about +24,500_l_., the expenditure is 20,000_l_. in round numbers, +and the economies are said to reach 25,000_l_. This sum is +forwarded to the colonial chest, instead of being expended in local +improvements; and, practically, when some petty war-storm breaks it is +wasted like water. The local officials are not to be blamed for this +miserable system, this niggardly colonial policy of the modern +economical school, which contrasts so poorly with the lavish republican +expenditure in French Senegambia. They have, to their honour be it said, +often protested against the taxes raised from struggling merchants and a +starveling population, poor as Hindûs, being expended upon an 'imperial +policy.' But economy is the order of the day at home, and an +Administrator inclined to parsimony gladly seizes the opportunity of +pleasing his 'office.' The result is truly melancholy. I complained in +1862 that the 'civil establishment' at Bathurst cost 7,075_l_. I +now complain that it has been reduced to 2,600_l_. [Footnote: +Administrator = 1,300_l_;.; Chief Magistrate = 600_l_.; +Collector and Treasurer = 700_l_. Thus there is no Colonial +Secretary, and, curious to say, no Colonial Chaplain. I formerly +recommended the establishment to be reduced by at least one-half, and +that half to be far better paid (_Wanderings in West Africa_, +i. 182).] The whole establishment is starved; decay appears in every +office, public and private; and ruin is writ large upon the whole +station. An Englishman who loves his country must blush when he walks +through Bathurst. Even John Bull would be justified in wishing that he +had been born a Frenchman in West Africa. + +We returned to the s.s. _Senegal_ anything but edified; and there +another displeasure awaited us. Our gallant captain must have known that +he could not load and depart that day. Yet, diplomatically mysterious, +he would not say so. Consequently we missed a visit to Cape St. Mary, +the breezy cliff of which I retain the most agreeable memory. The +scenery had appeared to me positively beautiful after the foul swamps of +St. Mary's Island;--stubbles of Guinea-corn, loved by quails; a velvety +expanse of green grass sloping inland, with here and there a goodly +palmyra grander than the columns of Ba'albek; palms necklaced with +wine-calabashes, and a grove of baobab and other forest trees cabled +with the most picturesque llianas, where birds of gorgeous plume sit and +sing. We could easily have hired hammocks or horses, or, these failing, +have walked the distance, six or seven miles. True, Oyster Creek, the +shallow western outlet of the Gambia, has still a ferry: a bridge was +lately built, but it fell before it was finished. It would, however, +have been pleasurable to pass a night away from the fever-haunts of +Bathurst. + +During one of my many visits to Bathurst I resolved to inspect old Fort +James: one thirsts for a bit of antiquity in these African lands, so +bare of all but modern ruins. Like Bance Island, further south, it is +the parent of the modern settlement; and so far it has the 'charm of +origin.' My companion was Captain Philippi, then well known at Lagos: +the last time we met was unexpectedly at Solingen. A boat with four +Krumen was easily found; but our friends warned us that the +_ascensus_ would be easy and the _descensus_ the reverse; the +latter has sometimes taken a day and a night. + +The Gambia River here opens its mouth directly to the north; and, after +a great elbow, assumes its normal east-west course. We ran before a +nine-knot breeze, and shortly before noon, after two hours' southing, we +were off the half-way house, reef-girt Dog Island, and Dog Point, in the +Barra country. The dull green stream sparkled in the sun, and the fringe +of mangroves appeared deciduous: some trees were bare, as if dead; +others were clothed with bright foliage. Presently we passed British +Albreda, where our territory now ends. This small place has made a fuss +in its day. It was founded by the French in 1700 as a dependency of +Goree, and it carried on a slave-trade highly detrimental to English +interests. In 1783 the owners had abandoned all right to its occupation, +and in 1858 they ceded it to their English rivals. The landing is bad, +especially when the miry ebb-tide is out. The old village of the French +company was reduced when we visited it to a few huts and two whitewashed +and red-roofed houses, occupied by a Frenchwoman in native dress and by +an English subject, Mr. Hughes. The latter did the honours of the place +and showed us the only 'punkah' at that time known to the West African +coast. + +From Dog Island we bent to the east and passed the Jilifri or Grilofre +village, in the Badibu country, a place well known during the days of +Park. Then bending south-east, after a total of four hours, covering +seventeen to eighteen knots, we landed upon James Island, the site of +Fort James. The scrap of ground has a history. First the Portuguese here +built a factory: Captain Jobson found this fact to his cost when (1621) +he sailed up in search of gold to Satico, then the last point of +navigation. A few words in the native dialects--'alcalde,' for +instance--preserve the memory of the earliest owners. It passed +alternately into the hands of the Dutch, French, and English, who +exchanged some shrewd blows upon the matter of possession. In 1695 it +was destroyed by M. de Gennes, and was rebuilt by the Royal African +Company, which had monopolised the traffic. It fell again in 1702 to +Capitaine de la Roque, and cost the conqueror his life. In 1709 it was +attacked for the third time by M. Parent, commanding four privateering +frigates. About 1730 we have from Mr. Superintendent Francis Moore a +notice of it amongst the Company's establishments on the Gambia +River. The island is described as being situated in mid-stream, here +three to four miles broad, thirty miles from the mouth: the extent was +200 yards long by fifty broad. The factory had a governor and a +deputy-governor, two officers, eight factors, thirteen writers, two +inferior attendants, and thirty-two negro servants. The force consisted +of a company of soldiers, besides armed sloops and shallops. Compare the +same with our starved establishment at the Ruined River-port! In other +parts of the Gambia valley eight subordinate comptoirs, including +Jilifri or Gilofre, traded for hides and bees'-wax, ivory, slaves, and +gold. When Mungo Park travelled (1795-97) the opening of the European +trade had reduced its exports to a gross value of 20,000_l_., in +three ships voyaging annually. After the African Company was abolished +(1820) it passed over to the Crown, and the station was transferred to +its graveyard, Sainte-Marie de Bathurst. Barbot [Footnote: +Lib. i. chap. vii., _A Description of the Coasts of North and South +Guinea, &c., in 1700_. Printed in Churchill's Collection. Also his +Supplement, _ibid._ pp. 426-26.] tells us that Fort James was +founded (1664), under the names of the Duke of York and the Royal +African Company, by Commodore Holmes when expeditioning against the +Hollanders in North and South Guinea. It was the head-centre of trade +and its principal defence. But, he says, the occupants were obliged to +fetch fresh water from either bank. Had the cistern and the +powder-magazine been bomb-proof, and drink as well as meat stored +_quant. suff._, the fort would have been 'in a manner impregnable, +if well defended by a suitable garrison.' The latter in his day +consisted of sixty to seventy whites, besides 'Gromettoes,' free black +sepoys. + +This quasi-venerable site is a little holm a hundred yards in diameter, +somewhat larger than the many which line the river's western bank. We +found its stony shingle glazed with a light-green sediment, which +forbade bathing and which suggested fever. The material is conglomerate, +fine and coarse, in an iron-reddened matrix; hence old writers call it a +'sort of gravelly rock, a little above water.' Salsolaceæ tapestry the +shore, and fig-trees and young calabashes spring from the stone: the +ground is strewn with white shells, tiles, bricks and iridescent +bottles--the invariable concomitants and memorials of civilisation. The +masonry, lime and ashlar, is excellent, but time and the portentous +growth of the tropics have cracked and fissured the walls. Masses of +masonry are fallen, and others are assuming the needle-shape. The great +quadrangle had lozenge-shaped bastions at each end, then lined with good +brick-work: the outliers, which run round the river-holm, were three +horseshoe redoubts 'with batteries along the palisades from one to +another.' Four old iron guns remained out of a total of sixty to seventy +pieces. The features were those of the ancient slave-barracoon +--dwelling-houses, tanks and cisterns, magazines, stores, +and powder-room, all broken by the treasure-hunter. + +The return to Bathurst was a bitter draught. We had wind and water +against us, and the thick mist prevented our taking bearings. Hungry, +thirsty, weary, cross, and cramped, we reached the steamer at 5 A.M., +and slept spitefully as long as we could. + +The last displeasure of my latest visit to Bathurst was the crowd of +native passengers, daddy, mammy, and piccaninny, embarking for Sierra +Leone, and the host of friends that came to bid them good-bye. They did +not fail to abscond with M. Colonna's pet terrier and with the steward's +potatoes: no surveillance can keep this long-fingered lot from picking +and stealing. It is a political as well as a social mistake to take +negro first-class passengers. A ruling race cannot be too particular in +such matters, and the white man's position on the Coast would be +improved were the black man kept in his proper place. A kind of +first-class second-class might be invented for them. Nothing less +pleasant than their society. The stewards have neglected to serve soup +to some negro, who at every meal has edged himself higher up the table, +and whose conversation consists of whispering into the ear of a black +neighbour, with an occasional guffaw like that of the 'laughing +jackass.' + +'I say, daddee, I want _my_ soop. All de passenger he drink 'im +soop; _me_ no drink _my_ soop. What he mean dis palaver?' + +The sentence ends in a scream; the steward smiles, and the +first-class resumes-- + +'Ah, you larf. And what for you larf? I no larf, I no drinkee soop!' + +Here the dialogue ends, and men confess by their looks that travelling +sometimes _does_ throw us into the strangest society. + +Even in Sierra Leone, where the negro claims to be civilised, a dusky +belle, after dropping her napkin at a Government House dinner, has been +heard to say to her neighbour, 'Please, Mr. Officer-man, pick up my +towel.' The other day a dark dame who missed her parasol thus addressed +H.E.: 'Grovernah! me come ere wid _my_ umbrellah. Where he be, +_my_ umbrellah Give me _my_ umbrelláh: no go widout _my_ +umbrelláh.' + +For our black and brown passengers, fore and aft, there is a graduated +and descending scale of terminology: 1. European, that is, brought up in +England; 2. Civilised man; 3. African; 4. Man of colour, the 'cullered +pussun' of the United States; 5. Negro; 6. Darkey; and 7. Nigger, which +here means slave. All are altogether out of their _assiettes_. At +home they will eat perforce cankey, fufu, kiki, and bad fish, washing +them down with _mimbo_, bamboo-wine, and _pitto_, hopless beer, +the _pombe_ of the East Coast. Here they abuse the best of roast +meat, openly sigh for 'palaver-sauce' and 'palm-oil chop,' and find +fault with the claret and champagne. _Chez eux_ they wear +breech-cloths and nature's stockings--_eoco tutto_. Here both men +and women must dress like Europeans, and a portentous spectacle it +is. The horror reaches its height at Sierra Leone, where the pulpit as +well as the press should deprecate human beings making such caricatures +of themselves, + +In West Africa we see three styles of dress. The first, or semi-nude, is +that of the Kru-races, a scanty _pagne_, or waist-wrapper, the dark +skin appearing perfectly decent. The second is the ample flowing robe, +at once becoming and picturesque, with the _shalwar_, or wide +drawers, of the Moslems from Morocco to the Equator. The third is the +hideous Frank attire affected by Sierra Leone converts and 'white +blackmen,' as their fellow-darkies call them. + +Many of the costumes that made the decks of the s.s. _Senegal_ +hideous are _de fantaisie_, as if the wearers had stripped pegs in +East London with the view of appearing at a fancy-ball. The general +effect was that of 'perambulating rainbows _en petit_ surmounted by +sable thunder-clouds.' One youth, whose complexion unmistakably wore the +shadowed livery of the burnished sun, crowned his wool with a scarlet +smoking-cap, round which he had wound a white gauze veil. The light of +day was not intense, but his skin was doubtless of most delicate +texture. Another paraded the deck in a flowing cotton-velvet +dressing-gown with huge sleeves, and in _bottines_ of sky-blue +cloth. Even an Aku Moslem, who read his Koran, printed in Leipzig, and +who should have known better, had mimicked Europeans in this most +unbecoming fashion. + +Men of substance sported superfine Saxony with the broadest of +silk-velvet collars; but the fit suggested second-hand finery. Other +elongated cocoa-nuts bore jauntily a black felt of 'pork-pie' order, +leek-green billycocks, and anything gaudy, but not neat, in the +'tile'-line. Their bright azure ribbons and rainbow neckties and scarves +vied in splendour with the loudest of thunder-and-lightning waistcoats +from the land of Moses and Sons. Pants were worn tight, to show the +grand thickness of knee, the delicate leanness of calf, the manly +purchase of heel, and the waving line of beauty which here distinguishes +shin-bones. There were monstrous studs upon a glorious expanse of +'biled' shirt; a small investment of cheap, tawdry rings set off the +chimpanzee-like fingers; and, often enough, gloves invested the hands, +whose horny, reticulated skin reminded me of the black fowl, or the +scaly feet of African cranes pacing at ease over the burning sands. Each +dandy had his _badine_ upon whose nice conduct he prided himself; +the toothpick was as omnipresent as the crutch, nor was the +'quizzing-glass' quite absent. Lower extremities, of the same category +as the hands, but slightly superior in point of proportional size, were +crammed into patent-leather boots, the latter looking as if they had +been stuffed with some inanimate substance--say the halves of a calf's +head. Why cannot these men adopt some modification of the Chinese +costume, felt hat and white shoes, drawers, and upper raiment +half-shirt, half-doublet? It has more common sense than any other in the +world. + +It is hardly fair to deride a man's ugliness, but the ugly is fair game +when self-obtruded into notice by personal vanity and conceit. Moreover, +this form of negro folly is not to be destroyed by gentle raillery; it +wants hard words, even as certain tumours require the knife. Such aping +of Europeans extends from the physical to the moral man, and in general +only the bad habits, gambling, drinking, and debauching, are aped. + +The worst and not the least hideous were the mulattos, of whom the +negroes say they are silver and copper, not gold. It is strange, passing +strange, that English blood, both in Africa and in India, mixes so badly +for body and mind (brain) with the native. It is not so with the +neo-Latin nations of Southern Europe and the Portuguese of the +Brazil. For instance, compare the pretty little coloured girls of +Pondicherry and Mahé with their sister half-castes the Chichis of Bengal +and Bombay. + +As for the section conventionally called 'fair,' and unpolitely termed +by Cato the 'chattering, finery-loving, ungovernable sex,' I despair to +depict it. When returning north in the A.S.S. _Winnebah_, we +carried on board a dark novice of the Lyons sisterhood. She looked +perfectly ladylike in her long black dress and the white wimple which +bound her hair under the sable mantilla. But the feminines on board the +_Senegal_ bound for Sierra Leone outrage all our sense of fitness +by their frightful semi-European gowns of striped cottons and chintzes; +by their harlequin shawls and scarves thrown over jackets which show +more than neck and bare arms to the light of day, and by the head-gear +which looks like devils seen in dreams after a heavy supper of underdone +pork. Africa lurks in the basis: the harsh and wiry hair is gathered +into lumps, which to the new comer suggest only bears' ears, and into +chignons resembling curled up hedge-hogs. Around it is twisted a +kerchief of arsenic-green, of sanguineous-crimson, or of sulphur-yellow; +and this would be unobjectionable if it covered the whole head, like +the turban of the Mina negress in Brazilian Bahia. But it must be capped +with a hat or bonnet of straw, velvet, satin, or other stuff, shabby in +the extreme, and profusely adorned with old and tattered ribbons and +feathers, with beads and bugles, with flowers and fruits. The _tout +ensemble _would scare any crow, however bold. + +I am aware that the sex generally is somewhat persistent in its ideas of +personal decoration, and that there is truth in the African proverb, 'If +your head is not torn off you will wear a head-dress,' corresponding +with our common saying, 'Better out of the world than out of the +fashion.' But this nuisance, I repeat, should be abated with a strong +hand by the preacher as well as by the pressman. The women and the +children are well enough as Nature made them: they make themselves mere +caricatures, figures o' fun, guys, frights. If this fact were brought +home to them by those whose opinions they value, they might learn a +little common sense and good taste. And yet--wait a moment--may they not +sometimes say the same of us? But our monstrosities are original, theirs +are borrowed. + +The 'mammies' at once grouped themselves upon the main-hatch, as near +the quarter-deck and officers' cabins as possible. I can hardly +understand how Englishmen take a pleasure in 'chaffing' these grotesque +beings, who usually reply with some gross, outrageous insolence. At the +best they utter impertinences which, issuing from a big and barbarous +mouth in a peculiar _patois_, pass for pleasantry amongst those who +are not over-nice about the quality of that article. The tone of voice +is peculiar; it is pitched in the usual savage key, modified by the +twang of the chapel and by the cantilene of the Yankee--originally +Puritan Lancashire. Hence a 'new chum' may hear the women talking for +several days before he finds out that they are talking English. And they +speak two different dialects. The first, used with strangers, is +'blackman's English,'intelligible enough despite the liberties it takes +with pronunciation, grammar, and syntax. The second is a kind of 'pidgin +English,' spoken amongst themselves, like Bolognese or Venetians when +they have some reason for not talking Italian. One of the Gospels was +printed in it; I need hardly say with what effect. The first verse runs, +'Lo vo famili va Jesus Christus, pikien. (piccaninny) va David, dissi da +pikien va Abraham.' [Footnote: _Da Njoe Testament_, &c. Translated +into the negro-English language by the missionaries of the Unitas +Fratrum, &c. Printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society. London: +W. McDowall, Pemberton Row, 1829.] + +This 'pidgin English' runs down West Africa, except the Gold Coast and +about Accra, where the natives have learnt something better. The +principal affirmation is 'Enh,' pronounced nanny-goat fashion, and they +always answer 'Yes' to a negative question: _e.g._ Q. 'Didn't you +go then?' A. 'Yes' (_sub-audi_, I did not), thus meaning 'No.' +'Na,' apparently an interrogative in origin, is used pleonastically on +all occasions: 'You na go na steamer?' 'Enty' means indeed; 'too much,' +very; 'one time,' once; and the sign of the vocative, as in the Southern +States of the Union, follows the, word:' Daddy, oh!' 'Mammy, oh!' +'Puss,' or 'tittle,' is a girl, perhaps a pretty girl; 'babboh,' a +boy. 'Hear' is to obey or understand; 'look,' to see; 'catch,' to have; +'lib,' to live, to be, to be found, or to enjoy good health: it is +applied equally to inanimates. 'Done lib' means die; 'sabby' +(Portuguese) is to know; 'chop,' to eat; 'cut the cry,' to end a wake; +'jam head,' or 'go for jam head,' to take counsel; 'palaver (Port.) +set,' to end a dispute; to 'cut yamgah' is to withhold payment, and to +'make nyanga' is to junket. 'Yam' is food; 'tummach' (Port.) is the +metaphorical heart; 'cockerapeak' is early dawn, when the cock speaks; +all writing, as well as printing, is a 'book;' a quarrel is a 'bob;' and +all presents are a 'dash,' 'dassy' in Barbot, and 'dashs' in Ogilby. All +bulls are cows, and when you would specify sex you say 'man-cow' or +'woman-cow.' [Footnote: For amusing specimens of amatory epistles the +reader will consult Mrs. Melville and the _Ten Years' Wanderings among +the Ethiopians_ (p. 19), by my old colleague, Mr. Consul Hutchinson.] + +These peculiarities, especially the grammatical, are not mere +corruptions: they literally translate the African dialects now utterly +forgotten by the people. And they are more interesting than would at +first appear. Pure English, as a language, is too difficult in all +points to spread far and wide. 'Pidgin English' is not. Already the +Chinese have produced a regular _lingua franca_, and the Japanese +have reduced it to a system of grammar. If we want only a medium of +conversation, a tongue can be reduced to its simplest expression and +withal remain intelligible. Thus 'me' may serve for I, me, my. Verbs +want no modal change to be understood. 'Done go' and 'done eat' +perfectly express went and ate. Something of the kind is still wanted, +and must be supplied if we would see our language become that of the +commercial world in the East as it is fast becoming in the West. + +We left Bathurst more than ever convinced that the sooner we got rid of +the wretched station, miscalled a colony, the better. It still supplies +hides from the upper country, ivory, bees'-wax, and a little gold. The +precious metal is found, they say, in the red clay hills near Macarthy's +Island; but the quality is not pure, nor is the quantity sufficient to +pay labour. The Mandengas, locally called 'gold strangers,' manage the +traffic with the interior, probably the still mysterious range called +the 'Kong Mountains.' They are armed with knives, sabres, and muskets; +and for viaticum they carry rude rings of pure gold, which, I am told, +are considered more valuable than the dust. + +But the staple export from Bathurst--in fact, nine-tenths of the +total--consists of the arachide, pistache, pea-nut, or ground-nut +(_Arachis hypogœa_). It is the best quality known to West Africa; +and, beginning some half a century ago, large quantities are shipped for +Marseilles, to assist in making salad-oil. Why this 'olive-oil' has not +been largely manufactured in England I cannot say. Thus the French have +monopolised the traffic of the Gambia; they have five houses, and the +three English, Messrs. Brown, Goddard, and Topp, export their purchases +in French bottoms to French ports. + +Moreover, the treaty of 1845, binding the 'high contracting Powers' to +refrain from territorial aggrandisement (much like forbidding a growing +boy to grow), expired in 1855. Since that time, whilst we have refrained +even from abating the nuisance of native wars, our very lively +neighbours have annexed the Casamansa River, with the fine coffee-lands +extending from the Nunez southwards to the Ponga River, and have made a +doughty attempt to absorb Matacong, lying a few miles north of Sierra +Leone. + +Whilst English Gambia is monopolised by the French, French Gaboon is, or +rather was, in English hands. For a score of years men of sense have +asked, 'Why not exchange the two?' When nations so decidedly rivalistic +meet, assuredly it is better to separate _à l'aimable_. Moreover, +so long as our economical and free-trade 'fads' endure, it is highly +advisable to avoid the neighbourhood of France and invidious comparisons +between its policy and our non-policy, or rather impolicy. + +According to the best authorities, the whole of the West African coast +north of Sierra Leone might be ceded with advantage to the French on +condition of our occupying the Gaboon and the regions, coast and +islands, south of it, except where the land belongs to the Portuguese +and the Spaniards. Some years ago an energetic effort was made to effect +the exchange, but it was frustrated by missionary and sentimental +considerations. Those who opposed the idea shuddered at the thought of +making over to a Romanist Power (?) the poor converts of Protestantism; +the peoples who had been peaceful and happy so long under the protecting +aegis of Great Britain; the races whom we were bound, by an unwritten +contract, not only to defend, but to civilise, to advance in the paths +of progress. The colonists feared to part with the old effete +possession, lest the French should oppose, as they have done in Senegal, +all foreign industry--in fact, 'seal up' the Gambia. A highly +respectable merchant, the late Mr. Brown, contributed not a little, by +his persuasive pen, to defeat the proposed measure. And now it is to be +feared that we have heard the last of this matter; our rivals have found +out the high value of their once despised equatorial colony. If ever the +exchange comes again to be discussed, I hope that we shall secure by +treaty or purchase an exclusively British occupation of Grand Bassam and +the Assini valley, mere prolongations of our Protectorate on the Gold +Coast. A future page will show the reason why our imperial policy +requires the measure. At present both stations are occupied by French +houses or companies, who will claim indemnification, and who can in +justice demand it. + +We steamed out of the Ruined River-port, and left 'this old sandbank in +Africa they call St. Mary's Isle,' at 11 A.M. on January 16, with a last +glance at the Commissariat-buildings. Accompanied by a mosquito-fleet of +canoes, each carrying two sails, we stood over the bar, sighting the +heavy breakers which defend the island's northern face, and passed Cape +St. Mary, gradually dimming in the distance. After Bald Cape, some sixty +miles south, we ran along the long low shore, distinguished only by the +mouths and islands of the Casamansa and the Cachéo rivers. Our course +then led us by the huge and hideous archipelago off the delta of Jeba +and the Bolola, the latter being the 'Rio Grande' of Camoens, which +Portuguese editors will print with small initials, and which translators +mistranslate accordingly. [Footnote: _The Lusiads_, v. 12. I have +noticed this error in _Camoens: his Life and his Lusiads_ +(vol. i. p. 896. London: Quaritch, 1881). It was probably called Grande +because it was generally believed to be the southern outlet of the +Niger.] These islands are the Bijougas, or Bissagos, the older +'Biziguiches,' inhabited by the most ferocious negroes on the coast, who +massacred the Portuguese and who murder all castaways. They are said to +shoot one another as Malays 'run amok,' and some of their tribal customs +are peculiar to themselves. + +Here, about 350 miles north of Sierra Leone, was established the +unfortunate Bulama colony. Its first and last governor, the redoubtable +Captain Philip Beaver, R.N., has left the queerest description of the +place and its people. [Footnote: _African Memoranda_. Baldwin, London, +1805.] Within eighteen months only six remained of 269 souls, including +women and children. In 1792 the island was abandoned, despite its wealth +of ground-nuts. After long 'palavering' it was again occupied by +Mr. Budge, manager of Waterloo Station, Sierra Leone; but he was not a +fixture there. It is now, I believe, once more deserted. + +Early next morning we were off the Isles de Los, properly Dos Idolos (of +the Idols). On my return northwards I had an opportunity of a nearer +view. The triad of parallel rock-lumps, sixty miles north of Sierra +Leone, is called Tama, or Footabar, to the west; Ruma, or Crawford, a +central and smaller block of some elevation; and Factory Island, the +largest, five or six miles long by one broad, and nearest the +shore. Their aspect is not unpleasant: the features are those of the +Sierra Leone peninsula, black rocks, reefs, and outliers, underlying +ridges of red soil; and the land is feathered to the summit with palms, +rising from stubbly grass, here and there patched black by the +bush-fire. A number of small villages, with thatched huts like beehives, +are scattered along the shore. The census of 1880 gives the total +figures at 1,300 to 1,400, and of these 800 inhabit Factory +Island. Mr. J. M. Metzger, the civil and intelligent sub-collector and +custom-house officer, a Sierra Leone man, reduced the number to 600, +half of them occupying the easternmost of the three. He had never heard +of the golden treasures said to have been buried here by Roberts the +pirate, the Captain (Will.) Kidd of these regions. + +In our older and more energetic colonial days we had a garrison on the +Isles de Los. They found the climate inferior to the Banana group, off +Cape Shilling. Factory Island still deserves its name. Here M. Verminck, +of Marseille, the successor of King Heddle, has a factory on the eastern +side, an establishment managed by an agent and six clerks, with large +white dwellings, store-houses, surf-boats, and a hulk to receive his +palm-oil. The latter produces the finest prize-cockroaches I have yet +seen. + +My lack of strength did not allow me to inspect the volcanic craters +said to exist in these strips, or to visit any of the 'devil-houses.' +Mr. G. Neville, agent of the steamers at Lagos, gave me an account of +his trip. Landing near the French factory, he walked across the island +in fifteen minutes, followed the western coast-line, turned to the +south-west, descended a hollow, and found the place of sacrifice. Large +boulders, that looked as if shaken down by an earthquake, stood near one +another. There were neither idols nor signs of paganism, except that the +floor, which resembled the dripstone of Tenerife, was smoothed by the +feet of the old worshippers. When steaming round the south-western point +we saw--at least so it was said--the famous 'devil-house' which gave the +islands their Portuguese name. + +Factory is divided by a narrow strait from Tumbo Island, and the latter +faces the lands occupied by the Susus. These equestrian tribes, +inhabiting a grassy plain, were originally Mandengas, who migrated south +to the Mellikuri, Furikaria, and Sumbuyah countries, and who +intermarried with the aboriginal Bulloms, Tonko-Limbas, and Baggas. All +are Moslems, and their superior organisation enabled them to prevail +against the pagan Timnis, who in 1858-59 applied to the Government of +Sierra Leone for help, and received it. Of late years the chances of war +have changed, and the heathenry are said to have gained the upper +hand. The Susus are an industrious tribe, and they trade with our colony +in gum, ground-nuts, and _benni_, or sesamum-seed. + +It is uncommonly pleasant to leave these hotbeds and once more to +breathe the cool, keen breath of the Trades, laden with the health of +the broad Atlantic. + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +SIERRA LEONE: THE CHANGE FOR THE BETTER. + +After a pleasant run, _not_ in a 'sultry and tedious Pacific,' +covering 490 miles from Bathurst, we sighted a heavy cloud banking up +the southern horizon. As we approached it resolved itself into its three +component parts, the airy, the earthy, and the watery; and it turned out +to be our destination. The old frowze of warm, water-laden nimbus was +there; everything looked damp and dank, lacking sweetness and +sightliness; the air wanted clearing, the ground cleaning, and the sea +washing. Such on January 17, 1882, was the first appearance of the +redoubtable Sierra Leone. It was a contrast to the description by the +learned and painstaking Winterbottom. [Footnote: _An Account of the +Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, etc._ London, +Hatchard, 1803.] 'On a nearer approach the face of the country assumes a +more beautiful aspect. The rugged appearance of these mountains is +softened by the lively verdure with which they are constantly crowned +(?); their majestic forms (?), irregularly advancing and receding, +occasion huge masses of light and shade to be projected from their +sides, which add a degree of picturesque grandeur to the scene.' + +And first of the name. Pedro de Cintra (1480), following Soeiro da Costa +(1462-63), is said to have applied 'Sierra Leone' to the mountain-block +in exchange for the 'Romarong' of its Timni owners. He did nothing of +the kind: our English term is a mere confusion of two neo-Latin tongues, +'Sierra' being Spanish and 'Leone' Italian. The Portuguese called it +Serra da Leôa (of the Lioness), not 'Lion Hill.' [Footnote: So the late +Keith Johnston, _Africa_, who assigns to the apex a height of 2,500 +feet.] Hence Milton is hardly worse than his neighbours when he writes-- + + Notus and Afer, black with thund'rous clouds + From Serraliona; + +and the old French 'Serrelionne' was the most correct translation. The +reason is disputed; some invoke the presence of the Queen of the Cats, +others the leonine rumbling of the re-echoed thunder. The latter +suggested the Montes Claros of the Portuguese. Cà da Mosto in 1505 tells +us that the explorers 'gave the name of Sierra Leone to the mountain on +account of the roaring of thunder heard from the top, which is always +buried in clouds.' But the traveller, entering the roadstead, may see in +the outline of Leicester Cone a fashion of maneless lion or lioness +couchant with averted head, the dexter paw protruding in the shape of a +ground-bulge and the contour of the back and crupper tapering off +north-eastwards. At any rate, it is as fair a resemblance as the French +lion of Bastia and the British lion of 'Gib.' Meanwhile those marvellous +beings the 'mammies' call 'the city' 'Sillyown,' and the pretty, naughty +mulatto lady married to the Missing Link termed it 'Sa Leone.' I shall +therefore cleave to the latter, despite 'Mammy Gumbo's' box inscribed +'Sa leone.' + +Presently the lighthouse, four to five miles distant from the anchorage, +was seen nestling at the base of old Cabo Ledo, the 'Glad Head,' the +Timni 'Miyinga,' now Cape 'Sa Leone.' Round this western point the sea +and the discharge of two rivers run like a mill-race. According to +Barbot (ii. 1) 'the natives call Cabo Ledo (not Liedo) or Tagrin (Cape +Sa Leone) 'Hesperi Cornu,' the adjoining peoples (who are lamp-black) +Leucsethiopes, and the mountain up the country Eyssadius Mons.' All the +merest conjecture! Mr. Secretary Griffith, of whom more presently, here +finds the terminus of the Periplus of Hanno, the Carthaginian, in the +sixth century B.C., and the far-famed gorilla-land. [Footnote: This I +emphatically deny. Hanno describes an eruption, not a bush-fire, and Sa +Leone never had a volcano within historic times. There is no range fit +to be called Theôn Ochema (Vehicle of the Gods), which Ptolemy places on +the site of Camarones Peak, and there is no Notou Keras, or Horn of the +South. Lastly, there is no island that could support the gorilla: we +must go further south for one, to Camarones and Corisoo in the Bight of +Benin.] + +Formerly the red-tipped lantern-tower had attached to it a bungalow, +where invalids resorted for fresh air; it has now fallen to pieces, and +two iron seats have taken its place. Over this western end of the +peninsula's northern face the play of the sea-breeze is strong and +regular; and the wester and north-wester blow, as at Freetown, fifty +days out of sixty. The run-in from this point is picturesque in clear +weather, and it must have been beautiful before the luxuriant forest was +felled for fuel, and the land was burnt for plantations which were never +planted. A few noble trees linger beside and behind the lighthouse, +filling one with regret for the wanton destruction of their +kind. Lighthouse Hillock, which commands the approach to the port, and +which would sweep the waters as far as the Sá Leone River, will be +provided with powerful batteries before the next maritime war. And we +must not forget that Sá Leone is our only harbour of refuge, where a +fleet can water and refit, between the Gambia and the Cape of Good Hope. + +The northern face of the Sá Leone peninsula is fretted with little +creeks and inlets, bights and lagoons, which were charming in a state of +nature. Pirate's Bay, the second after the lighthouse, is a fairy scene +under a fine sky; with its truly African tricolor, its blue waters +reflecting air, its dwarf cliffs of laterite bespread with vivid +leek-green, and its arc of golden yellow sand, upon which the feathery +tops of the cocoa-palms look like pins planted in the ground. To the +travelled man the view suggests many a nook in the Pacific islands. The +bathing is here excellent: natural breakwaters of black rock exclude the +shark. The place derives its gruesome name from olden days, when the +smooth waters and the abundant fish and fruit tempted the fiery +filibusters to a relache. It was given in 1726 by Mr. Smith, surveyor to +the Royal African Company, after Roberts the pirate, who buried 'his +loot' in the Isles de Los, had burned an English ship. There is also a +tradition that Drake chose it for anchoring. + +Beyond Pirate's Bay, and separated by a bushy and wooded point, lies +Aberdeen Creek, a long reach extending far into the interior, and +making, after heavy rains, this portion of the country + + Both land and island twice a day. + +The whole site of Sa Leone is quasi-insular. Bunce or Bunch River to the +north, and Calamart or Calmont, usually called Campbell's Creek, from +the south, are said to meet at times behind the mountain-mass; and at +all seasons a portage of a mile enables canoes to paddle round the +hill-curtain behind Freetown. This conversion of peninsula into islet is +by no means rare in the alluvial formations further south. + +Aberdeen Creek abounds in sunken rocks, which do not, however, prevent a +ferry-boat crossing it. Governor Rowe began a causeway to connect it +with the next village, and about a third of the length has already been +done by convict labour. Aberdeen village is a spread of low thatched +huts, lining half-cleared roads by courtesy called streets. Murray Town +and Congo Town bring us to King Tom's Point. Here is the old Wesleyan +College, a large whitewashed bungalow with shingled roof, upper +_jalousies,_ and lower arches; the band of verdure in front being +defended from the waves by a dwarf sea-wall and a few trees still +lingering around it. The position is excellent: the committee, however, +sold it because the distance was too great for the boys to walk, and +bought a fitter place near Battery Point. Thus it became one of the many +Government stores. A deep indentation now shows Upper Town or Kru Town, +heaps of little thatched hovels divided by remnants of bush. It is, +despite its brook, one of the impurest sites in the colony: nothing can +teach a Kruman cleanliness; a Slav village is neatness itself compared +with his. This foul colony settled early in Sá Leone, and in 1816 an +ordinance was passed enabling it to buy its bit of land. The present +chief is 'King' Tom Peter, who is also a first-class police-constable +under the Colonial Grovernment; and his subjects hold themselves far +superior to their brethren in the old home down coast. 'We men work for +cash-money; you men work for waist-cloth.' Again 'pig-iron and tenpenny +nails!' + +Beyond this point, at a bend of the bight, we anchor a few hundred feet +from the shore, and we command a front view of roadstead and 'city.' +St. George's Bay, the older 'Baie de France,' would be impossible but +for the Middle Ground, the Scarcies Bank, and other huge shoals of sand +pinned down by rocks which defend the roadstead from the heavy send of +the sea. It is supplied with a tide-rip by the Tagrin, Mitomba, Rokel, +or Rokelle, the Sá Leone River, which Barbot makes the ancients term Nia +(N_ia_), and which the Timni tribe call Robung Dakell, or Stream of +Scales. Hence some identify it with Pliny's 'flumen Bambotum crocodilis +et hippopotamis refertum.' Its northern bank is the low Bullom shore, a +long flat line of mud and mangrove, on which all the fevers, Tertiana, +Quartana, and Co., hold their court. The sea-facing dot is Leopard, +anciently Leopold, Island, where it is said a leopard was once seen: it +is, however, a headland connected by a sandspit with the leeward-most +point of the coast. The Bullom country takes a name after its tribe. A +score of years ago I was told they were wild as wild can be: now the +chief, Alimami (El-Imám) Sanúsi, hospitably receives white faces at his +capital, Callamondia. Moreover, a weekly post passes through Natunu to +Kaikonki _via_ Yongro, Proboh, and Bolloh. + +Inland (east) of the Bulloms, or lowlanders, dwell the Timnis, who drove +to seaward the quondam lords of the land. Kissy, Sherbro, and Casamansa +are all named from their 'Reguli.' They retain a few traditional words, +such as 'potu,' meaning a European: similarly in Central Africa the King +of Portugal is entitled Mueneputo. Butter is also 'Mantinka,' the +Lusitanian _Mantêiga_, and a candle is _Kandirr_. Although 'the +religion of Islam seems likely to diffuse itself peaceably over the +whole district in which the colony (Sá Leone) is situated, carrying with +it those advantages which seem ever to have attended its victory over +negro superstition,' [Footnote: _Report of Directors of Sierra Leone +Company to the House of Commons_, quoted by Winterbottom and the +Rev. Mr. Macbriar.] the tribe has remained pagan. + +Buttressing the southern shore of the Rokel's _débouchure_ is a dwarf +Ghaut, a broken line of sea-subtending highlands, stretching +south-south-east some eighteen miles from Cape Sá Leone to Cape +Shilling. Inland of these heights the ground is low. The breadth of the +peninsula is about twelve miles, which would give it an area of 300 +square miles, larger than the Isle of Wight. There are, besides it, the +Kwiah (Quiah) country, British Sherbro, an important annexation dated +1862; the Isles de Los, the Bananas, and a strip of land on the Bullom +shore,--additions which more than treble the old extent. + +The peninsula is distinctly volcanic, and subject to earthquakes: the +seismic movement of 1858 extended to the Gold Coast, and was a precursor +of the ruins of 1862. [Footnote: For the older earthquakes see +Winterbottom, i, 34-5.] Its appearance, however, is rather that of a +sandstone region, the effect of the laterite or volcanic mud which, in +long past ages, has been poured over the plutonic ejections; and the +softly rounded contours, with here and there a lumpy cone, a tongue of +land, and a gentle depression, show the long-continued action of water +and weather. This high background, which arrests the noxious vapours of +the lowlands and of the Bullom shore, and which forbids a thorough +draught, is the fons malorum, the grand cause of the fevers and malaria +for which the land has an eternal ill fame. The 'Sultan' of the Ghauts +is Regent Mountain, or Sugarloaf Peak, a kind of lumpy 'parrot's beak' +which rises nearly 3,000 feet above sea-level: one rarely sees even its +base. The trip to the summit occupies two days; and here wild coffee is +said to flourish, as it does at Kwiah and other parts of the +lowland. The 'Wazir' is Wilberforce, which supports sundry hamlets set +in dense bush; and Leicester Cone, the lioness-hill, ranks third. The +few reclaimed patches, set in natural shrubbery, are widely scattered: +the pure, unsophisticated African is ever ashamed of putting hand to hoe +or plough; and, where the virgin soil would grow almost everything, we +cannot see a farm and nothing is rarer than a field. Firing the bush +also has been unwisely allowed: hence the destruction of much valuable +timber and produce; for instance, tallow-trees and saponaceous +nut-trees, especially the _Pentadesma butyracea_, and the noble +forest which once clothed the land from Sá Leone to the Niger. + +Looking towards the Rokel River, we see the Fourah Bay and College, a +large and handsome building, now terribly out of repair. This +establishment, the 'Farran's House' of old maps, is well known to +readers of propagandist works; it opened on February 18, 1828, with six +pupils, one of whom was the 'boy Ajai,' now Bishop Crowther of the Niger +territory. The Church Missionary Society has spent upon it a small +treasury of money; at present it ranks as a manner of university, having +been affiliated in May 1876 to that of Durham. Sealed papers are sent +out from England, but perhaps the local examiners are easy distributors +of B.A.s and so forth to the golden youth of Sá Leone. It is free to +all, irrespective of religious denomination, a liberal concession which +does it high honour. The academical twelve-month has three terms; and +there are three scholarships, each worth 40_l._ per annum, open for +competition every year. Not bad for a maximum of sixteen students, whose +total is steadily diminishing. College evening-classes are held for the +benefit of those who must work by day; and charges are exceedingly +moderate, the admission fee being 10_s._ 6_d._ The Society +proposes, they say, to give it up. It may be wanted half a century +hence. [Footnote: An annual report is published. Those curious on the +subject will consult it.] + +West of Fourah College, and separated, _longo intervallo,_ by an +apparently unbroken bush, is Bishop's Court, where the Right Reverend +lives as long as he can or will. Nearer the 'city' lies the deep little +bight called Susan or Sawpit Bay. It is also known as Destruction Bay--a +gloomy name--where ships caught carrying 'bales,' or 'dry goods,' or +'blackbirds,' were broken up. Twenty years ago traces of their ruins +were still seen. Susan is now provided with a large factory: here +'factories' do _not_ manufacture. A host of boats and dug-outs, a +swarm of natives like black ants, a long wooden jetty, and some very +tall houses denote the place where Messrs. Randall and Fisher store and +sell their Kola-nuts. This astringent, the Gora of old writers +(_Sterculia acuminata_), acts in Africa like the Brazilian Guaraná, +the Kát (_Catha edulis_) of southern Arabia, the Betel-nut of +Hindostan, and the opium of China, against which certain bigots, with +all the presumption of utter ignorance, have been, and still are, waging +an absurd war. Sá Leone exported 3,445_l_. worth of Kola-nuts in +1860; in 1870 10,400_l_.; and, in 1880, 24,422_l_. The demand +therefore increases and will increase. [Footnote: Mr. Griffith says, +'The Mohammedans of Africa have a singular belief that if they die with +a portion of this nut in their stomach their everlasting happiness is +secured.' This must be some fanciful Christian tale. Amongst them, +however, the red Kola, when sent to the stranger, denotes war, the white +Kola peace.] + +In Susan Bay there is a good coal-shed with a small supply for the use +of the colonial steamer. A store of compressed coal is on the town-front +and heaps used to lie about King Tom's Point. A hulk was proposed and +refused. It is now intended to increase the quantity, for the benefit of +future companies, especially the 'Castle Line,' which talks of sending +their steamers to Sá Leone. I hope they will so do; more competition is +much wanted. But the coal-depôt may prove dangerous. The mineral in the +tropics produces by its exhalations fatal fevers, especially that +exaggerated form of bilious-remittent popularly known as 'Yellow Jack.' +It is certain that in places like West Indian St. Thomas the +neighbourhood of the coal-sheds is more unhealthy, without apparent +reason, than the sites removed from it. + +And now we reach Freetown proper, which may be called Cathedral-Town or +Jail-Town. At a distance the 'Liverpool' or 'London of West Africa,' as +the lieges wildly entitle it, is not unpicturesque; but the style of +beauty is that of a baronial castle on the Rhine with an unpensioned +proprietor, ruinous and tumbledown. After Las Palmas and Santa Cruz it +looks like a dingy belle who has seen better and younger days; and who, +moreover, has forgotten her paint. She has suffered severely from the +abolition of the export slave-trade, in whose palmy times she supplied +many a squadron, and she will not be comforted for the loss. + +The colours of the houses are various; plain white is rare, and the +prevailing tints are the light-brick of the fresh laterite and the dark +rusty ochre of the old. But all are the same in one point, the mildewed, +cankered, gangrened aspect, contrasting so unfavourably with the +whitewashed port-towns of the Arabs. The upper stories of wood-work +based on masonry, the fronting piazzas or galleries, the huge +plank-balconies, and the general use of shingle roofs--in fact, the +quantity of tinder-timber, reminding one of olden Cairo, are real risks: +some of the best houses have been destroyed by fire; and, as in +Valparaiso and the flue-warmed castles of England, it is only a question +of time when the inmates will be houseless. Thanks to the form of +ground, the townlet is well laid out, with a gradual rake towards the +bay. But there is no marine parade, and the remarkably uneven +habitations crowd towards the water-front, like those of Eastern ports, +thinning off and losing style inland. The best are placed to catch the +'Doctor,' or sea-breeze: here, as at Zanzibar, the temperature out of +the wind becomes unendurable. + +Freetown lies upon a gentle declivity, a slope of laterite and diluvium +washed down from the higher levels. The ground is good for drainage, but +the soft and friable soil readily absorbs the deluging torrents of rain, +and as readily returns them to the air in the shape of noxious +vapours. The shape is triangular. The apex is 'Tower Hill,' so named +from a ruined martello, supposed to have been built by the Dutch, and +till lately used for stores. The barracks, which lodge one of the West +India regiments, are six large blocks crowning the hill-crest and girt +with a low and loopholed wall. In winter, or rather in the December +summer, the slopes are clad in fine golden stubbles, the only spectacle +of the kind which this part of the coast affords. Though not more than +four hundred feet or so above sea-level, the barracks are free from +yellow fever; and in the years when the harbour-town has been almost +depopulated the only fatal cases were those brought up from +below. Moreover, the disease did not spread. The officers' quarters, +with cool and lofty rooms, twenty feet high, are surrounded by shady and +airy piazzas or verandahs, where the wind, when there is any, must find +its way. For many years they had _jalousies_ and half-windows +instead of glass, which forced the inmates to sit in outer darkness +during tornadoes and the Rains. The garrison, like the town, owes an +eternal debt of gratitude to Governor J. Pope Henessy. Seeing the main +want of Sá Leone, he canalised in 1872, with the good aid of +Mr. Engineer Jenkins, a fine fountain rising below 'Heddle's Farm,' +enabling the barracks to have a swimming-bath and the townsfolk to lay +on, through smaller pipes, a fair supply of filtered water. For this +alone he amply deserves a statue; but colonies, like republics, are +rarely grateful. + +The sea-front of the triangle, whose lowest houses are sprinkled by the +wave-spray, is bounded on the east by Battery Point. It is a grassy flat +with a few fine trees, and benches ever black with the native +lounger. Here the regimental band plays on Wednesdays; an occasional +circus pitches its tents, and 'beauty and fashion' flock to see and be +seen. The many are on foot; the few use Bath-chairs or _machilas_, +--_fautenils_ hung to a pole. The only carriage in the place +belongs to the Governor, and he lost no time in losing one of +his horses. Riding is apparently unknown. + +The Battery is the old Fort Falconbridge. A worm-eaten gun or two, far +more dangerous to those in rear than to those in front, rises _en +barbette._ The affair would fall in half an hour before the mildest +of gunboats. Yet by fortifying three points at an expense of some 6,000£ +to 8,000£ Sá Leone might be decently defended. The first is Lighthouse +Point, along which ships entering and leaving perforce must run; the +second would be King Tom's Point, flanking the harbour-front; and the +third would be Johnson's Battery, where salutes are now fired, a work +lying above Government House upon a spur of Barrack Hill. Needless to +say all three would want the heaviest guns. + +Running the eye west of the Battery, a few wooden houses or sheds, some +of them overhanging the dwarf cliff, the black rocks, and the red-yellow +sands, lead to Taylor's warehouses, a huge pile of laterite still +unfinished. Here the traditional 'man and boy' may sometimes be seen +working in the cooler and more comfortable hours. Beyond it, on a level +with the water, stands the new camber, where we shall land. Then comes +the huge block built by Mr. Charles Heddle, of Hoy, who by grace of a +large fortune, honourably made at Freetown, has become proprietor of a +noble château and broad lands in France. It has now been converted into +the Crown commissariat-store. The sea-frontage has a clear fall of +eighty feet, whereas, from the street behind the wooden upper story, it +appears below the average height. Very mean are the custom-house and +adjoining coal-shed. Governor 'Dangan's Wharf,' a contemptible jetty, +and its puny lighthouse have at length made way for a quay, along which +ships, despite sunken rocks, were expected to lie; but the sea soon +broke down the perpendicular wall, and now it is being rebuilt with a +'batter.' A hollow square behind it shows the workmen blasting the +material, a fine-grained grey granite, which seems here, as at Axim, to +be the floor-rock of the land. No wonder that the new harbour-works have +cost already 70,000_l_., of which 50,637_l_. are still owed, +and that the preposterous wharfage-duty is 10_s_. per ton. To avoid +this and the harbour-dues, ships anchor, whenever they safely can, in +the offing, where the shoals are Nature's breakwaters. West of the +quarry-hollow, in my day a little grassy square, are the old +Commissariat-quarters, now a bonded warehouse. This building is also a +long low cottage viewed from inland, and a tall, grim structure seen +from the sea. On a higher level stands St. George's, once a church, but +years ago promoted to a cathedral-dignity, making Freetown proud as +Barchester Towers. We shall presently pass it and its caricature, the +pert little Wesleyan church to its east. The extreme west of the +triangle-base is occupied by the gaol. No longer a 'barn-like structure +faced by a black wall,' it is a lengthy scatter of detached buildings, +large enough to accommodate half the population, and distinguished by +its colour, a light ashen grey. Behind this projecting site lies King +Jimmy's Bridge, a causeway through whose central arch a stream of +sparkling water winds its way seawards. + +Below King Jimmy's Bridge is the only antiquity which Sá Leone +knows. Here, according to some, Sir Francis Drake, the discoverer of +California and her gold, the gallant knight of whom the Virgin Queen +said that 'his actions did him more honour than his title,' left his +name upon the buttress of primitive rock. Others have (correctly?) +attributed the inscription to Sir John Hawkins, the old naval worthy +whose name still blossoms in the dust at Sá Leone as the 'first slaver.' +The waters and the tramp of negro feet have obliterated the epigraph, +which was, they say, legible forty years ago. The rock is covered with +griffonages; and here some well-cut square letters easily read-- + + M. A. RVITER. + VICE-AMIRALL- + VAN-HOLLANT. + +Near this 'written rock' is King James's Well, a pure stream which in +former times supplied the shipping. + +The scene in the harbour is by no means lively, although the three or +four dismantled merchant-craft, dreary as the settlement, have now +disappeared. A little white-painted colonial steamer, a dwarf +paddle-wheeler, the _Prince of Wales,_ lies moping and solitary off +foul Krutown Bay. At times a single gunboat puts in an appearance. There +may be a French steamer with a blue anchor on a white flag bound for +Sherbro, or the Isles de Los; and a queer Noah's Ark kind of craft, +belonging to Mr. Broadhurst, a partner in Randall and Fisher's, runs to +the river Scarcies and others. These are the grandees of the waters. The +middle class is composed of Porto Loko [Footnote: Porto Loko--not +Locco--derives its name from a locust-tree, whose fruit is an ingredient +in 'palaver sauce;' and Winterbottom (I.4), who calls it Logo, derives +the word from the land of that name.] boats, which affect the streams +and estuaries. Originally canoes, they were improved to the +felucca-type of the Portuguese, and the hulls reminded Cameron and +myself of the Zanzibarian 'Mtepe.' A strong standing-awning of wood +occupies the sternward third; the masts number two or three, with a +short jib, and there are six oars on each side, worked by men on foot, +who alternately push and pull--a thoroughly novel process in rowing. +The Sá Leone boats which carry passengers on shore are carefully named, +but apparently never washed: they want the sunshades of the Bathurst +craft. The commonalty of the sea is the host of dug-outs, in which the +sable fisherman, indolently thrown back, props his feet upon the +gunwales and attaches a line to each big toe. These men land little more +than enough for their own subsistence, and the market-supply is +infinitesimal compared with what industry and proper appliances might +produce. + +The background of the 'city' is a green curtain of grass and +fruit-trees, amongst which predominate the breadfruit, an early +introduction; the prim dark mango, somewhat like an orange multiplied by +two, or three, and palms, ever present in equinoctial lowlands. On the +heights above the settlement there is room for cool country-seats, where +European exiles might live comparatively safe from fever and the more +deadly dysentery. A white lodge peeping from a densely wooded +mountain-flank, originally Carnes's Farm and now Heddle's Farm, was +called Mount Oriel (Oriole?) by Mrs. Melville, the wife of a pensioned +judge of the Mixed Customs Court, who lived here seven years. Her sketch +of a sojourn upon the Lioness Range is not tempting: young gentlemen who +intend leading brides to the deadly peninsula should hide the book from +their fair intendeds. I cannot, however, but admire the 'word-painting' +of the scenery and the fidelity of those descriptions concerning which I +have a right to form an opinion. The book [Footnote: A Residence in +Sierra Leone. By a Lady. London: Murray, 1849.] was edited by the late +Mrs. Caroline Norton. + +Though not more than 550 feet above sea-level, the climate of Heddle's +Farm is said to be wholly different from that of the lower town. The +property was bought by Government for a song, and now it occasionally +lodges a sick governor or a convalescent officer. During my last visit +the Sa Leonites spoke of building a sanatorium at Wilberforce village, +alias Signal Hill, where a flag announces the approach of vessels. The +tenement rose to nearly the first story, when it stopped short for want +of funds. Now they talk of a white regiment being stationed at the +'White Man's Grave,' and propose barracks high up the hills beyond sight +of the town-frontage. The site was pointed out to me where the +artillery-range now is, and beyond where a dwarf thatch shows the +musketry-ground of the West India regiment. We shall sight from afar, +when steaming out southwards, the three white dots which represent +quarters on Leicester Cone; now they are hidden in frowsy +fog-clouds. But all these heights have one and the same +disadvantage. You live in a Scotch mist, you breathe as much water as +air, and you exchange fever and dysentery for rheumatism, and lumbago, +and all that dire cohort. + +Presently the health-officer with his blue flag gave us pratique, and +the fort-adjutant with his red flag carried off our only soldier. The +latter, with a hospitality rare, it is to be hoped, in British +regiments, would hardly recognise his quondam shipmates. We were duly +interviewed, in most civilised style, by a youth who does this work for +Mr. George A. Freeman, manager of the 'West African Reporter.' Then the +s.s. _Senegal_ was attacked and captured by a host of sable +visitors, some coming to greet their friends, other to do a little +business in the washing and the shoreboat lines. + +The washerwoman lost no time in showing up, although her charges have +been greatly reduced. She formerly demanded nearly treble as much as in +London; now, however, she makes only sixteen to twenty shillings a +month, not bad pay in a place where living costs threepence, and +comfortable living sixpence, a day. These nymphs of the wash-tub are +painfully familiar and plain. The dress is a bright cotton foulard bound +on like the anatomy of a turban and garnished, as were our grandmothers' +nightcaps, with huge front bows. Gaudy shawls cover white cotton +jackets; and skirts of bright, showy longcloth suggest the parrot or the +cockatoo. The ornaments are large gold earrings and necklaces of beads +or coral. I could not but remark the difference of tone. There was none +of the extreme 'bumptiousness' and pugnacious impudence of twenty years +ago; indeed, the beach-boys, nowhere a promising class, were rather +civil than otherwise. Not a single allusion to the contrast of 'white +niggahs and black gen'lemen.' Nor did the unruly, disorderly African +character ever show itself, as formerly it often did, by fisticuffing, +hair-pulling, and cursing, with a mixture of English and Dark-Continent +ideas and phraseology, whose _tout ensemble_ was really portentous. + +The popular voice ascribes this immense change for the better to the +energetic action of Governor S. Rowe (1876); and if so his statue +deserves to stand beside that of Pope Henessy. We could not fairly +complain of the inordinate noise, which would have been the death of +a sick traveller. Niger cannot speak without bawling. The charge for +landing was only threepence; _en revanche_ the poor fellows +stole every little thing they could, including my best meerschaum. + +Cameron and I went ashore to hire Krumen for the Gold Coast, and herein +we notably failed. We disembarked at the camber, a huge pile of masonry, +whose weight upon an insecure foundation has already split the sea-wall +in more than one place. The interior also is silting up so fast that it +will constantly require dredging to admit boats. In fact, the colony +must deeply repent not having patronised Mr. Jenkins's project of a +T-headed pier, on one side of which landing would have been practicable +in all weathers. + +The sun, despite the mist, seemed to burn our backs, and the glare from +the red clay soil roasted our eyes as we toiled up the ramp, bad as +those of 'Gib.,' which leads to Water Street, the lower line subtending +the shore. Here we could inspect St. George's Cathedral, built, they +say, at a cost of 10,000_l._ to 15,000_l._, which would be +reduced to 5,000_l._ in England--contracts in such 'colonies' cost +more than stone and slate. The general aspect is that of its Bombay +brother, and the order is called, I believe, neo-Gothic, the last insult +to ecclesiastical architecture. A single rusty tower, with +toy-battlements, pins down along ridge-back, evidently borrowed from a +barn; the light yellow-wash is mildewed and weather-stained, and the +windows show unseemly holes. Surely Bishop Cheetham could have afforded +a few panes of glass when exchanging his diocese for a rectory in +England. Let me here note that the Catholic bishop at Goa and elsewhere +is expected to die at his post, and that there is an over-worldly look +in this Protestant form of the 'nolo episcopari.' East of the cathedral, +and uncompromisingly 'Oriented' to the north, stands the unfinished +shell of a Wesleyan chapel, suggesting that caricature which has +intruded itself into the shadow of York Minster. Some 5,000_l._ +were spent upon this article by the locals; but the home committee +wisely determined that it should not be finished, and now they propose +to pull it down for building-material. + +We then entered the fruit and vegetable market, a neat and well-paved +bazar, surmounted by a flying roof and pierced for glass windows. The +dead arches in the long walls are externally stone and internally +brick. The building was full of fat middle-aged negresses, sitting at +squat before their 'blyes,' or round baskets, which contained a variety +and confusion of heterogeneous articles. The following is a list almost +as disorderly as the collection itself. + +There were pins and needles, yarn and thread, that have taken the place +of the wilder thorn and fibre; all kinds of small hardware; +looking-glasses in lacquered frames; beads of sorts, cowries and reels +of cotton; pots of odorous pomatum and shea-butter nuts; feathers of the +plantain-bird and country snuff-boxes of a chestnut-like fruit (a +strychnine?) from which the powder is inhaled, _more majorum_, +through a quill; physic-nuts (_tiglium_, or croton), a favourite +but painful native remedy; horns of the goat and antelope, possibly +intended for fetish 'medicine;' blue-stone, colcothar and other +drugs. Amongst the edibles appeared huge achatinae, which make an +excellent soup, equal to that of the French snail; ground-nuts; very +poor rice of four varieties, large and small, red and dark; cheap +ginger, of which the streets are at times redolent, and which makes good +home-brewed 'pop;' the Kolá-nut, here worth a halfpenny and at Bathurst +a penny each; the bitter Kolá, a very different article from the +esculent; skewered _rôts_ of ground-hog, a rodent that can climb, +destroy vegetables, and bite hard if necessary; dried bats and rats, +which the African as well as the Chinese loves, and fish _cuits au +soleil_, preferred when 'high,' to use the mildest adjective. From +the walls hung dry goods, red woollen nightcaps and comforters, +leopards' and monkeys' skins, and the pelt of an animal which might have +been a gazelle. + +Upon the long counters or tables were displayed the fruits and +vegetables. The former were the custard-apple or sweet-sop (_Annona +squamosa_), the sour-sop (_A. muricata_), the Madeiran +_chirimoya_, (_A. cherimolia_), citrons, sweet and sour limes, +and oranges, sweet and bitter, grown in the mountains; bananas +(_M. paradisiaca_), the staff of life on the Gold Coast, and +plantains (_M. sapientum_), the horse-plantains of India; +[Footnote: The West Indian plantain is apparently unknown or unused] +pine-apples more than half wild; mangoes terribly turpentiney unless the +trunk be gashed to let out the gum; 'monkey-plums' or 'apples' and +'governor's plums.' The common guavas are rank and harsh, but the +'strawberry guava,' as it is locally called, has a delicate, subacid +flavour not easily equalled. The _aguacáte_, or alligator-pear +(_Persea gratissima_), which was _not_ 'introduced by the +Basel missionaries from the West Indies,' is inferior to the +Mexican. Connoisseurs compare its nutty flavour with that of the +filbert, and eat it with pepper, salt, and the sauce of Worcester, whose +fortune was made by the nice conduct of garlic. The papaw [Footnote: The +leaves are rubbed on meat to make it tender, and a drop of milk from the +young fruit acts as a vermifuge.] should be cooked as a vegetable and +stuffed with forced meat; the flesh of the granadilla, which resembles +it, is neglected, while the seeds and their surroundings are flavoured +with sherry and sugar. There is an abundance of the _Eriobotrya +Japonica,_ in Madeira called the loquat and elsewhere the Japanese +medlar: it grows wild in the Brazil, where the people distil from +it. [Footnote: I cannot yet decide whether its birthplace is Japan or +South America, whose plants have now invaded Western India and greatly +altered the vegetation.] + +The chief vegetables were the watercress, grown in private gardens; +onions, large and mild as the Spanish; _calavances_, or beans; +_okras_ or _gumbos_, the _bhendi_ of India (_Hibiscus +esculentus_), the best thickening for soup; _bengwas_, or +egg-plants; yams (_Dioscorea bulbifera_) of sorts; bitter Cassada +(_Jatropha manihot_) and the sweet variety (_Jatropha +janipha_); garlic; kokos (_Colocasia esculenta_); potatoes, +which the steamers are beginning to bring from England, not from +Madeira; tomatoes like musket-balls, but very sweet and wholesome; and +the _batata_, (_Convolvulus patatus_, or sweet potato), which +whilom made 'kissing comfits.' The edibles consisted of' fufu' +(plantain-paste); of 'cankey,' a sour pudding of maize-flour; of +ginger-cake; of cassava-balls finely levigated, and of sweetened +'agadi,' native bread in lumps, wrapped up in plantain-leaves. Toddy was +the usual drink offered for sale. + +The butchers' yard, near the market, is no longer a 'ragged and +uncleanly strip of ground.' The long-horned cattle, small, mostly +humpless, and resembling the brindled and dun Alderney cow, are driven +in from the Pulo (Fulah) country. I have described the beef as tasting +not unlike what one imagines a knacker's establishment to produce, and +since that time I have found but scant improvement. It is sold on +alternate days with mutton, the former costing 6_d_., the latter +9_d_. a pound. Veal, so bad in England and so good in Southern +Europe, is unknown. The long, lean, hairy black-and-white sheep do not +supply an excellent article. Goats and kids are plentiful, and the flesh +would be good if it had any taste. Hogs abound, as in Ireland; but no +one eats pork, for the best of reasons. The poultry-list comprises +small tough fowls (l0_d_. to 2_s_.), partridges, ducks (2_s_. +6_d_.), geese, especially the spur-winged from Sherbro, +and the Muscovy or Manilla duck--a hard-fleshed, insipid bird, whose old +home was South American Paraguay--turkeys (10_s_. to 15_s_.), +and the _arripiada_, or frizzly chicken, whose feathers stand on +end. Milk is scarce and dear. Englishmen raw in the tropics object to +milch-goats and often put up with milch-pigs, which are said to be here +kept for the purpose. I need not tell all the old tale, 'Goat he go die; +pig he go for bush,' &c. Butter (1_s_. 8_d_. in 2-lb. tins) is +oily and rancid, with the general look of cartgrease, in this tropical +temperature. It is curious that the Danish and Irish dairies cannot +supply the West African public with a more toothsome article. + +Near the meat-market is the double row of houses with shops upon the +ground-floor, not unlike a Banyan's street in outer Bombay, but smaller, +dirtier, meaner far. Here the stranger can buy dry goods and a few +curiosities of Mandenga manufacture--grigris (teraphim or charms), bows, +spears, and saddles and bridles like those of the Somal, both perfectly +useless to white men. The leather, however, is excellent as the +Moroccan, and the work dates from the days when the Saracens pushed +southwards from the Mediterranean to the Niger-valley. Wild animals are +at times offered for sale, but Darkey has heard exaggerated accounts of +prices paid in England for grey parrots, palm-birds, monkeys, +bush-antelopes, mongooses, ground-pigs, and other 'small deer' brought +from the rivulets behind Freetown. Sundry snakes were offered for sale, +the Mandenga, 4 to 5 feet long, with black marks upon a yellow ground, +and the spitting serpent, between 5 and 6 feet long, with a long head, +also dark above and silvery grey below. I doubted the fact of its +ejecting saliva till assured by the Rev. John Milum that two +missionaries at Lagos, Messieurs J. B. Wood and David, had suffered +severely from inflamed eyes after the contemptuous ophine +_crachat_. All along the coast is a cerastes (horned snake), whose +armature is upon the snout and whose short fat form suggests the +puff-adder. The worst is a venomous-looking cobra, or hooded viper, with +flat, cordate head, broad like all the more ferocious species. It is the +only thanatophid whose bite I will not undertake to cure. We carried on +the A.S.S. _Winnebah_, for the benefit of Mr. Cross, of Liverpool, +a big black ape, which the Sá Leonites called a 'black chimpanzee.' +Though badly wounded she had cost 27_l_., and died after a few days +of the cage. The young chimpanzees were valued at 6_1_. + +I looked in vain for the old inn, the only thing in the place, a dirty +hovel, kept, in 1862, by a Liberian negro, inscribed 'Lunch-house' on a +sign-board flanked by the Union Jack and the U.S. 'oysters and +gridiron.' Nothing has succeeded to this 'American hotel,' and visitors +must depend upon the hospitality of acquaintances. A Frenchman lately +opened a _Gasthaus_, and lost no time in becoming bankrupt. There +is, however, a manner of boarding-house kept by a Mrs. King. + +Turning south from Water Street, we passed the Wilberforce, or rather +the 'Willyfoss,' memorial, a colossal scandal noticed by every visitor +at Sá Leone, a 'folly' which has cost 3,000_l_. Its condition is +exactly what it was two decads ago--a chapel-like shell of dingy, mouldy +laterite with six lancet-windows and metal pillars. Its case is a +complicated concern. The ecclesiastical authorities wanted it for their +purposes, and so did the secular civilians, and so did the military. At +last the Sá Leonites, hopeless of obtaining a Government grant, have set +on foot a subscription which reached 500_l_.--some say 700_l_. +There are, therefore, certain fitful signs of activity, and +bricks and fire-bricks now cumber the ground; but it is all a 'flash +in the pan.' The present purpose is to make it a library, in place of +the fine old collection which went to the dogs. It is also to serve as a +lecture-room. But who is there in the 'African Liverpool' that can +lecture? What is he to lecture about? Who will stand or sit out being +lectured? + +Immediately beyond this grim and grisly reminiscence are the neat +dwelling-house and the store of the Honourable Mr. Sybille Boyle, so +named from a ship and from her captain, R.N., who served in the +preventive squadron about 1824. He is an unofficial member of Council +and a marked exception to the rule of the 'Liberateds.' Everybody has a +good word to say of him. The establishment is the regular colonial, +where you can buy anything between a needle and a sheet-anchor. Bottled +ale is not wanting, and thus steamer-passengers learn to congregate in +the back parlour. + +We then walked to the top of Gloucester Street, expecting to see the +Duke of Edinburgh's memorial. I left it an arch of sticks and timber +spanning this main cross-line, which leads to Government House. The +temporary was to be supplanted by a permanent marble _arc de +triomphe_, commemorating the auspicious occasion when the black +colony first looked upon a live white Royal Highness. At once +700_l_. was subscribed, and only 800_l_. was wanting; but all +those interested in the matter died, and the 350_l_. which remained +in the chest was, I believe, transferred to the 'Willyfoss.' The august +day is still kept as a public holiday, for the people are, after their +fashion, loyal-mouthed in the extreme. But the memorial is clean +forgotten, and men stare if you ask about it. Half-way up the street is +the post-office, whose white chief is not a whit more civil than the +negro head in 1862. + +Upon this highly interesting spot we stood awhile to note the +peculiarities of the place and its position. The soil is a loose clay, +deep-red or brown, impregnated with iron and, where unclothed with +humus, cold and infertile, as the spontaneous aloe shows. The subsoil is +laterite, also highly ferruginous. Soft and working well with the axe +while it retains the quarry-water, it soon hardens by exposure; and, +thus weathered, it forms the best and ugliest of the local building +materials. Embedded in the earth's surface are blocks and boulders +apparently erratic, dislodged or washed down from the upper heights, +where similar masses are seen. Many are scattered, as if by an eruption; +others lie in slab or dome shape upon the shore. The shape is usually +spheroidal, and the material hypersthene (a hard and close-grained +bluish granite) or diorite, greenstone-trap blackened by sun and +rain. In the few cuttings of the higher levels I afterwards remarked +that detached 'hardheads' are puddinged into the friable laterite; but I +nowhere found the granitic floor-rock protruding above ground. The +boulders are treated by ditching and surrounding with a hot fire for +forty-eight hours; cold water, not vinegar, is then poured upon them, +and causes the heated material suddenly to contract and fracture, when +it can easily be removed. Magnetic iron also occurs, and specimens have +been sent to England; but veins have not yet been discovered. + +Our walk had furnished us with a tolerable idea of 'the city's' plan, +without referring to the printed affair. Fronting north with westing, it +is divided into squares, blocks, and insulae, after the fashion of a +chessboard. This is one of the oldest as well as the newest mode of +distributions. The temples of the classical gods, being centrally +situated, required for general view broad, straight approaches. From +Washington to Buenos Ayres the modern cities of the New World have +reverted to this ancient system without other reason but a love of +regularity and simplicity. Here the longer streets flank the sea and the +shorter run at right angles up the inner slopes. Both are bright red +lines worn in the vegetation between the houses. The ribbons of green +are the American or Bahama grass; fine, silky, and creeping along the +ground, it is used to stuff mattresses, and it forms a good substitute +for turf. When first imported it was neglected, cut away, and nearly +killed out; now it is encouraged, because its velvety plots relieve the +glaring red surface, it keeps off the 'bush,' and it clears the surface +of all other vegetation. Looking upon the city below, we were surprised +to see the dilapidation of the tenements. Some have tumbled down; others +were tumbling down; many of those standing were lumber or board shanties +called 'quarter-frames' and 'ground-floors;' sundry large piles rose +grisly and fire-charred, and the few good houses looked quite +modern. But what can be expected in a place where Europeans never expect +to outstay the second year, and where Africans, who never yet worked +without compulsion, cannot legally be compelled to work? + +We then walked up to Government House, the Fort Thornton of old charts, +whose roof, seen from the sea, barely tops the dense curtain of tree and +shrubbery that girds and hangs around it. Passing under a cool and shady +avenue of mangoes and figs, and the archway, guarded by a porter's lodge +and a detachment of the three hundred local police, we came in sight of +the large, rambling residence, built piecemeal, like many an English +country-house. There is little to recommend it save the fine view of the +sea and the surrounding shrubbery-ground. I can well understand how, +with the immense variety of flower and fruit suddenly presented to his +eyes, the gentleman fresh from England required six months to recover +the free and full use of all his senses and faculties. + +A policeman--no longer a Zouave of the West Indian corps--took in our +cards, and we introduced ourselves to Captain A. E. Havelock, +'Governor-in-Chief of Sierra Leone and the Gambia.' He is No. 47 since +Captain Day, R.N., first ruled in A.D. 1803. I had much to say to him +about sundry of his predecessors. Captain Havelock, who dates only from +1881, has the reputation of being slightly 'black.' The Neri and the +Bianchi factions here represent the Buffs and Blues of a land further +north. He is yet in the heyday of popularity, when, in the consecrated +phrase, the ruler 'gains golden opinions.' But colonial judgments are +fickle, and mostly in extremes. After this smiling season the weather +lowers, the storm breaks, and all is elemental rage, when from being a +manner of demigod the unhappy ruler gradually becomes one of the +'meanest and basest of men.' _Absit omen!_ + +We returned at sunset to Government House and spent a pleasant +evening. The 'smokes' had vanished, and with them the frowse and +homeliness of morning. The sun, with rays of lilac red, set over a +panorama of townlet, land, and sea, to which distance added many a +charm. Mingling afar with the misty horizon, the nearer waters threw +out, by their golden and silvery sheen, the headlands, capes, and +tongues stretching in long perspective below, while the Sugarloaf, +father of mountains, rose in solitary grandeur high above his subject +hills. On the nearer slope of Signal Hill we saw the first of the +destructive bush-burnings. They are like prairie-fires in these lands, +and sometimes they gird Freetown with a wall of flame. Complexion is all +in all to Sá Leone, and she showed for a few moments a truly beautiful +prospect. + +The Governor has had the courage to bring out Mrs. Havelock, and she has +had the courage to stand firm against a rainy season. The climate is +simply the worst on the West Coast, despite the active measures of +sanitation lately taken, the Department of Public Health, the ordinances +of the Colonial Government in 1879, and the excellent water with which +the station is now provided. On a clear sunny day the charnel-house, I +repeat, is lovely, _mais c'est la mort_; it is the terrible beauty +of death. Mrs. Melville says, with full truth, 'I felt amidst all the +glory of tropic sunlight and everlasting verdure a sort of ineffable +dread connected with the climate.' Even when leaving the 'pestilent +shore' she was 'haunted by the shadowy presence.' This is womanly, but a +little reflection must suggest it to man. + +Even half a century ago opinions differed concerning the climate of the +colony. Dr. Madden could obtain only contradictory accounts. [Footnote: +See _Wanderings in West Africa_, for details, vol. i. p. 275.] +There is a tradition of a Chief Justice applying to the Colonial Office +for information touching his pension, the clerks could not answer him, +and he presently found that none of his predecessors had lived to claim +it. Mr. Judge Rankin was of opinion that its ill-fame was maintained by +'policy on the one hand and by ignorance of truth on the other.' But +Mr. Judge died a few days after. So with Dr. Macpherson, of the African +Colonial Corps. It appears ill-omened to praise the place; and, after +repeated visits to it, I no longer wonder that the 'Medical Gazette' of +April 14, 1838, affirmed, 'No statistical writer has yet tried to give +the minutest fraction representing the chance of a surgeon's return from +Sierra Leone.' + +On the other hand, Mrs. Falconbridge, whose husband was sent out from +England on colonial business in 1791, and who wrote the first 'lady's +book' upon the Coast, pointed out at the beginning that sickness was due +quite as much to want of care as to the climate. In 1830 Mr. John +Cormack, merchant and resident since 1800, stated to a Committee of the +House of Commons that out of twenty-six Europeans in his service seven +had died, seven had remained in Africa, and of twelve who returned to +England all save two or three were in good health. We meet with a +medical opinion as early as 1836 that 'not one-fourth of the deaths +results merely from climate.' Cases of old residents are quoted--for +instance, Governor Kenneth Macaulay, a younger brother of Zachary +Macaulay, who resisted it for twenty years; Mr. Reffall for fifteen +years, and sundry other exceptions. + +In this section of the nineteenth century it is the custom to admit that +the climate is bad and dangerous; but that it has often been made the +scape-goat of European recklessness and that much of the sickness and +death might be avoided. The improvement is attributed to the use of +quinine, unknown to the early settlers, and much is expected from +sanatoria and from planting the blue gum (_Eucalyptus globulus_), +which failed, owing to the carelessness and ignorance of the planters. A +practical appreciation of the improvement is shown by the Star Life +Assurance Society, which has reduced to five per cent. its former very +heavy rates. Lastly, the bad health of foreigners is accounted for by +the fact that they leave their own country for a climate to which they +are not accustomed, where the social life and the habits of the people +are so different from their own, and yet that they continue doing all +things as in England. + +But how stand the facts at the white man's Red Grave? Mrs. Havelock and +the wife of the officer commanding the garrison are the only Europeans +in the colony, whereas a score of years ago I remember half a +dozen. Even the warmest apologisers for the climate will not expose +their wives to it, preferring to leave them at home or in +Madeira. During last March there were five deaths of white men--that is, +more than a third--out of a total of 163. What would the worst of +English colonies say to a mortality of 350 per thousand per annum? Of +course we are told that it is exceptional, and the case of the insurance +societies is quoted. But they forget to tell us the reason. A mail +steamer now calls at Freetown once a week, and the invalid is sent home +by the first opportunity. Similarly a silly East Indian statistician +proved, from the rare occurrence of fatal cases, Aden to be one of the +healthiest stations under 'the Company.' He ignored the fact that even a +scratch justified the surgeons in shipping a man off on sick leave. + +I quite agree with the view of Mr. Frederick Evans: [Footnotes: _The +Colonies and India_, Dec. 24, 1881.] 'Let anyone anxious to test the +nature of the climate go to Kew Gardens and sit for a week or two in one +of the tropical houses there; he may be assured that he will by no means +feel in robust health when he leaves.' The simile is perfect. Europeans +living in Africa like Europeans as regards clothing and diet are, I +believe, quite right. We tried grass-cloth, instead of broadcloth, in +Western India, when general rheumatism was the result. In the matter of +meat and drink the Englishman cannot do better than adhere to his old +mode of life as much as possible, with a few small modifications. Let +him return to the meal-times of Queen Elizabeth's day-- + + Sunrise breakfast, sun high dinner, + Sundown sup, makes a saint of a sinner-- + +and especially shun the 9 A.M. breakfast, which leads to a heavy tiffin +at 1 P.M., the hottest and most trying section of the day. With respect +to diet, if he drinks a bottle of claret in England let him reduce +himself in Africa to a pint 'cut' with, water; if he eats a pound of +meat he should be contented with eight ounces and an extra quantity of +fruit and vegetables. In medicine let him halve his cathartics and +double his dose of tonics. + +From its topographical as well as its geographical position the climate +of Freetown is oppressively hot, damp, and muggy. The annual mean is +79.5° Fahr.; the usual temperature of the dwellings is from 78° to 86° +Fahr. Its year is divided into two seasons, the Dries and the Rains. The +wet season begins in May and ends with November; for the last five years +the average downfall has been 155 inches, five times greater than in +rainy England. These five months are times of extreme discomfort. The +damp heat, despite charcoal fires in the houses and offices, mildews +everything--clothes, weapons, books, man himself. It seems to exhaust +all the positive electricity of the nervous system, and it makes the +patient feel utterly miserable. It also fills the air with noxious +vapours during the short bursts of sunshine perpendicularly rained down, +and breeds a hateful brood of what the Portuguese call immundicies--a +foul 'insect-youth.' Only the oldest residents prefer the wet to the dry +months. The Rains end in the sickliest season of the year, when the sun, +now getting the upper hand, sucks the miasmatic vapours from the soil +and distributes them to mankind in the shape of ague and fever, +dysentery, and a host of diseases. The Dries last from November to +April, often beginning with tornadoes and ending with the Harmatan, +smokes or scirocco. The climate is then not unlike Bombay, except that +it lacks the mild East Indian attempt at a winter, and that barometric +pressure hardly varies. + +During my last visit to Sá Leone I secured a boat, and, accompanied by +Dr. Lovegrove, of the A.S.S. _Armenian_, set out to inspect the +lower bed of the Rokel and the islands which it waters. Passing along +Fourah Bay, we remarked in the high background a fine brook, cold, +clear, and pure, affording a delicious bath; it is almost dry in the +Dries, and swells to a fiumara during the Rains. Its extent was then a +diminutive rivulet tumbling some hundreds of feet down a shelving bed +into Granville Bay, the break beyond Fourah. On the way we passed +several Timni boats, carrying a proportionately immense amount of +'muslin.' Of old the lords of the land, they still come down the river +with rice and cocoa-nuts from the Kwiah (Quiah) country, from Porto +Loko, from Waterloo, and other places up stream. They not unfrequently +console themselves for their losses by a little hard fighting; witness +their defence of the Modúka stockade in 1861, when four officers and +twenty-three of our men were wounded. [Footnote: _Wanderings in West +Africa_, vol. i pp. 246-47.] Some of the boats are heavy row-barges +with a framework of sticks for a stern-awning; an old Mandenga, with +cottony beard, sits at each helm. They row _simplices munditiis_. +At Sá Leone men are punished for not wearing overalls, and +thus the 'city' becomes a rag-fair. The Timni men are dark negroids +with the slightest infusion of Semitic blood; some had coated their +eyebrows and part of their faces with chalk for ophthalmia. They +appeared to be merry fellows enough; and they are certainly the only men +in the colony who ever pretend to work. A Government official harshly +says of them, 'I would willingly ascribe to the nearest of our +neighbours and their representatives in Freetown, of whom there are +many, some virtues if they possessed any; but, unfortunately, taken as a +people, they have been truly described by able and observant writers as +dishonest and depraved.' Mr. Secretary evidently forgets the +'civilising' and infectious example of Sá Leone, _versus_ the +culture of El-Islam. + +Arrived at Bishopscourt, we disembarked and visited the place. Here in +old days 'satisfaction' was given and taken; and a satirical medico +declared that forty years of _rencontres_ had not produced a single +casualty. He was more witty than wise; I heard of one gentleman who had +been 'paraded' and 'winged.' Old Granville Town, which named the bay, +has completely disappeared; the ruins of the last house are gone from +the broad grassy shelf upon which the first colonists built their homes. + +From Granville Bay the traveller may return by the 'Kissy Road.' Once it +was the pet promenade, the Corso, the show-walk of Freetown; now it has +become a Tottenham Court Road, to which Water, Oxford, and Westmoreland +Streets are preferred. The vegetation becomes splendid, running up to +the feet of the hills, which swell suddenly from the shelf-plain. The +approach to Sá Leone is heralded by a row of shops even smaller and +meaner than those near the market-place. There are whole streets of +these rabbit-hutches, whose contents 'mammy,' when day is done, carries +home in a 'bly'-basket upon her head, possibly leaving 'titty' to mount +guard upon the remnant. The stock in trade may represent a capital of +4_l_., and the profits 1_s_. a day. Yet 'daddy' styles himself +merchant, gets credit, and spends his evenings conversing and smoking +cigars--as a gentleman should--with his commercial friends. + +Passing the easternmost end of the peninsula, and sailing along the +Bullom ('lowland') shores, we verified Dr. Blyden's assertion that this +'home of fevers' shows no outward and visible sign of exceeding +unhealthiness. The soil is sandy, the bush is comparatively thin, and +the tall trees give it the aspect of a high and dry land. We then turned +north-east and skirted Tasso Island, a strip of river-holm girt with a +wall of mangroves. It had an old English fort, founded in 1695; the +factors traded with the Pulo (Fulah) country for slaves, ivory, and +gold. It was abandoned after being taken by Van Ruyter, when he restored +to the Dutch West Indian Company the conquests of Commodore Holmes. The +rich soil in 1800 supported a fine cotton plantation, and here +Mr. Heddle kept a 'factory.' The villagers turned out to gaze, not +habited like the Wolofs of Albreda, but clad in shady hats and seedy +pantaloons. + +After clearing Tasso we advanced merrily, and at the end of two hours' +and a half actual sailing and pulling we landed upon Bance, which some +call Bence's Island. A ruined jetty with two rusty guns, buried like +posts, projected from the sand-strip; and a battery, where nine cannon +still linger, defended the approach. There is a similar beach to the +north-east, with admirable bathing in the tepid, brackish waves and a +fine view of the long leonine Sierra. The outlying rocks, capped with +guano, look like moored boats and awnings. The sea-breeze was delicious; +the lapping, dazzling stream made sweet music, and the huge cotton-trees +with laminar buttresses gave most grateful shade. + +The island resembles Gambian James multiplied by four or five. Behind +the battery are the ruins of a huge building, like the palaces of old +Goa, vast rooms, magazines, barracoons, underground vaults, and all +manner of contrivances for the good comfort and entertainment of the +slaver and the slave. A fine promenade of laterite, which everywhere +about Sá Leone builds the best of roads, and a strip of jungle rich in +the _Guilandina Bonduc_, whose medicinal properties are well known +to the people, leads to the long-deserted graveyard. We pass an old well +with water thirty-five feet deep, and enter the _enceinte_, that +contains four tombs; the marble tablets, which would soon disappear in +India for the benefit of curry-stuffs, here remain intact. One long home +was tenanted by 'Thomas Knight, Esquire, born in the county of Surrey, +who acted eighteen years as agent for the proprietors of this island, +and who died on August 27 of 1785,' beloved, of course, by +everybody. Second came the 'honourable sea-Captain Hiort, born in 1746, +married in 1771 to the virtuous lady Catherine Schive, and died in 1783, +leaving two good-natured daughters, which his soul is in the hands of +God.' The third was Mr. John Tittle, who departed life in 1776; and the +last was Captain Josiah Dory, a 'man of upright character,' who +migrated to the many in 1765. + +Barbot (ii. 1) describes Bance's Island as defended by a small fort on a +steep rock of difficult access, ascended only by a sort of stairs cut in +the stone, and acting as the store-house of the Royal African +Company. The low walls of lime and ashlar had a round 'flanker' with +five guns, a curtain with embrasures for four large cannon, and a +platform just before it for six guns, all well mounted. The only good +buildings were the slave-booths. Winterbottom, who places it over +eighteen miles above St. George's Bay (_Baie de France_) and north +of Tasso Island, thus describes Bance: 'This is a small barren island +considerably elevated, with a dry, gravelly soil; but being placed as it +were in the midst of an archipelago of low marshy islands, the breeze, +from whatever quarter it blows, is impregnated with moisture and marsh +effluvia, which render it sickly. The air also is very much heated, and +the thermometer generally stands 4° or 5° higher on this island than it +does at Freetown.' + +We regained the steamer shortly after dark, delighted with our picnic +and resolved always to take the same advantage of all halts. In those +days the interior was most interesting. The rivers Scarcies, Nunez, and +Ponga were unknown; the equestrian Susu tribe had never been visited; +and, the Timbo country, the great centre whence arise the Niger, the +Rokel, and the Senegal, awaited exploration. + +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO THE GOLD COAST FOR GOLD *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. 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