22 INHABITANTS OF TENERIFFE. 
fortress ; and, as soon as she perceived our in- 
tention, made all possible haste to avoid us. 
It was really laughable enough, but it was 
also vexatious, that such peaceful people as we 
were should be considered so terrible. I sent a 
bullet after the ship, to induce her to stop; she 
then hoisted the English flag, but never slack- 
ened her speed ; so that finding we could get no 
satisfaction, we thought it advisable to take ad- 
vantage of the fresh trade-wind, to bear away 
from Teneriffe as quickly as possible. On the 
following morning we could still see the Peak, 
a hundred miles off, among the clouds; and 
we called to mind, as we gazed upon it, 
the mysterious accounts of its aborigines, of 
whom it was said, from the resemblance: of 
their teeth to those of grazing animals, that 
they could only live on vegetables. They 
embalmed corpses in the manner of the an- 
cient Egyptians, and preserved them in grot- 
toes in the rocks, where they are still to be 
found. he Spaniards, the first discoverers 
and appropriators of the island, have described 
in high terms the state of civilization, methods 
