VOYAGE TO THE 



chap, tify the detention of the ship ; and we were obliged 



i. 



to console ourselves with the hope that we should 

 W25 shortly visit places less known, and where our time, 

 consequently, would be more usefully employed. 



Teneriffe is an island which lies in the track of 

 all outward-bound ships from Europe, and most 

 voyagers have touched at it : being the first object 

 of interest they meet, their zeal is naturally more 

 excited there, than at any subsequent period of 

 their voyage : it is consequently better described 

 than almost any other island in the Atlantic, and 

 nothing is now left for a casual visiter, but to go over 

 the ground of his predecessors for his own gratifica- 

 tion or improvement. My observations for the de- 

 termination of the latitude and longitude of the place, 

 &c. were made in the Saluting Battery, but they 

 are omitted here, as I purpose, throughout these vo- 

 lumes, to avoid, as far as possible, the insertion of 

 figures and calculations, which, by the majority of 

 readers, are considered interruptions to the narrative, 

 and are interesting only to a few. On the 3rd, His 

 Majesty's ship Wellesley sailed for Rio Janeiro with 

 His Excellency Sir Charles Stuart ; and on the 5th, 

 having procured what supplies we required, we 

 weighed, and shaped a course for the same place. 



From our anchorage we had been daily tantalized 

 with a glimpse only of the very summit of the 

 Peak, peeping over a nearer range of mountains, and 

 the hazy state of the weather on the day of our de- 

 parture made us fearful we should pass on without 

 beholding any more of it ; but towards sunset, 

 when we had reached some miles from the coast, we 

 were most agreeably disappointed by a fair view of 

 this gigantic cone. The sun set behind it ; and as 



