32 AccoiaU of a Journey to the 



with almost all the species of strata which enter into the 

 composition of the globe, including rock salt, bitumen, and 

 sulphur. In the last place, I had conceived an idea of some 

 of those memorable epochs when Nature exercised the ener- 

 getic power she formerlv possessed of creating and destroy- 

 inff, of raising or depressing, in order to bring our planet to 

 its present state. It remained for me to go to one of those 

 sanctuaries to which she in some measure retired after fniish- 

 iug her labour, where her activity is irorn time to time 

 awakened, and gives proofs of existence which are sufficient 

 to occasion terror and desolation among us. Do you not 

 agree with me in opinion, that it is there only that one can 

 ke able to conceive by analogy the kind and the energy of 

 the means which she must have displayed in the earliest pe- 

 riods ? The hope of acquiring some ideas in regard to the 

 Atlantide fixed my determination. And, indeed, could I 

 venture to form conjectures respecting the existence of that 

 country so celebrated and so pioblematical, but on the peak 

 of Teneriffe ? 



We left Cadiz on the 4th of April, and had a pleasant 

 passage : a shark, two tortoises, and a kind of spermaceti 

 whale, were the only living objects we met with. I made 

 some researches, but without success, in regard to those 

 phosphorescent bubbles which appear in the sea water during 

 the dark. On the 1 1th I traversed with eagerness a soil al- 

 most unknown to the naturalist. I beheld with pleasure 

 the palm tree, the cotton shrub, the cactus, the coffee, and 

 the banana tree, amidst a yariety of others with which I 

 was entirely unacquainted. The olive tree of Madeira, olea 

 madeirensis ; the tree which produces dragon's blood, dra~ 

 ceita draco ; the Ligmim rhodium, and convohmlus flor'idus 

 which produces the rose wood so valuable, and an immense 

 quantity of large euphorbias, among which were the eii- 

 plwrhlq canariensis and the euphorbia mauritaiiica, attracted 

 my attention as much as the broad triangular faces and yel- 

 low complexion of the inhabitants of the country. It is 

 easily perceived that their blood is mixed with that of the 

 antient islanders. I have since thought that it might be a 

 punishment of nature, who took advantage of the inconti- 

 nence of the conquerors to preserve the remembrance of 

 their ferocity, by imprinting on the figure of their descend- 

 ants the features of the Guanchcs, whom they cruelly de- 

 stroyed, and with so little advantage. 



On the 1 3th I was on the northern coast of the island : 

 my instruments were repaired at nine in the morning, and 

 I had reaiovcd the obstaclqs which ill-fuuudcd opinion had 

 • • opposed 



