62 CANARY ISLANDS. 



aluvion* of 1826, the tree severed, one half of which was 

 swept away, leaving the other half which stands at the 

 present day. Every year it bears flowers and fruit, and is 

 regarded, among organized beings, as one of the oldest 

 inhabitants of our globe, which sensibly recalls to mind 

 " that eternal youth of nature," the inexhaustible source 

 of motion and of life. This tree is not found indigenous 

 to any part of the world except the East Indies, which 

 proves, in a degree, that the Guanches had at some remote 

 period, communication with nations originally from Asia. 

 It was reverenced by them as the ash of Ephesus was by 

 the Greeks ; and the more ignorant classes of the natives 

 here at present, have many superstitious notions respect- 

 ing it. 



I have been recently informed of a man in this place 

 who has a profuse flow of milk from his breast. He is of 

 a middle age, a fisherman by occupation, and is strong, 

 healthy and robust. A similar phenomenon is mentioned 

 by Humboldt in Cumana, and another by Benedictus in 

 Syria. 



Port Orotava, Tuesday, ) 

 September 24, 1833." i 



* In the night of the 7th of November, 1826, these islands were visited by a tre- 

 mendous tempest of wind and rain, the fury of which was so violent at TenerifFe, 

 that it bore away almost everything that opposed its passage ; churches, convents, 

 houses to the number of three handred and eleven ; and drowned two hundred and 

 forty-three people, and one thousand and nine animals, besides doing great injury 

 to fields, vineyards, houses, etc. New ravines were formed in the mountains, and 

 stones and trees were swept from their summits to the ocean. 



