110 A VOYAGE TO AUG. 



I am inclined to believe that this is owing to their 

 being shaded. 



" The city of Santa Cruz, though not large, is 

 tolerably well built. The churches are not magnifi- 

 cent without ; but within are decent, and indiffer- 

 ently ornamented. They are inferior to some of the 

 churches at Madeira ; but, I imagine, this rather 

 arises from the different disposition of the people, 

 than from their inability to support them better. For 

 the private houses, and dress of the Spanish inhabi- 

 tants of Santa Cruz, are far preferable to those of the 

 Portuguese at Madeira ; who, perhaps, are willing 

 to strip themselves, that they may adorn their 

 churches. 



" Almost facing the stone pier at the landing-place, 

 is a handsome marble column lately put up, orna- 

 mented with some human figures, that do no dis- 

 credit to the artist ; with an inscription in Spanish, 

 to commemorate the occasion of the erection, and 

 the date. 



" In the afternoon of the 2d, four of us hired mules 

 to ride to the city of Laguna # , so called from an ad- 

 joining lake, about four miles from Santa Cruz. We 

 arrived there between five and six in the evening ; 

 but found a sight of it very unable to compensate for 

 our trouble, as the road was very bad, and the mules 

 but indifferent. The place is, indeed, pretty exten- 

 sive, but scarcely deserves to be dignified with the 

 name of city. The disposition of its streets is very 

 irregular; yet some of them are of a tolerable breadth, 

 and have some good houses. In general, however, 

 Laguna is inferior in appearance to Santa Cruz, 

 though the latter is but small, if compared with the 

 former. We were informed, likewise, that Laguna 



* Its extended name is St. Christobal de la Laguna ; and it 

 used to be reckoned the capital of the island, the gentry and 

 lawyers living there ; though the Governor-General of the Canary 

 Islands resides at Santa Cruz, as being the centre of their trade, 

 both with Europe and America. See Glas's Hist, p. 248. 



