FROM CORUNNA TO PUERTO CABELLO. 261 



on capitally with Bonpland. We have already experienced at 

 Teneriffe something of the hospitable feeling that reigns in 

 colonial settlements. We are invited everywhere, with or with- 

 out introduction, merely for the sake of hearing the latest news 

 from Europe ; and the royal passport works wonders. At Santa 

 Cruz we stayed with General Armiaga ; and here at Puerto 

 Orotava we are the guests of an English merchant, John Colle- 

 gan, at whose house Cook, Banks, and Lord Macartney had 

 formerly received hospitable entertainment. I was greatly 

 surprised by the cultivated tastes and ease of manner dis- 

 played by the ladies of these households.' 

 He further proceeds : 



' June 23 : Evening. 



4 1 returned last night from an excursion up the Peak. What 

 an amazing scene ! what a gratification ! We descended some 

 way into the crater, perhaps farther than any previous scientific 

 traveller. No one except Borda and Mason has been even 

 beyond the last cone. There is little danger in the ascent, only 

 fatigue from the trying effects of heat and cold ; for the sul- 

 phurous vapour in the crater burnt holes in our clothes while 

 our hands were numb in a temperature of 36. 



' What a remarkable spectacle was presented to us at this 

 height of 11,500 feet! The dark blue vault of heaven over- 

 head ; former streams of lava at our feet ; on either side this 

 scene of devastation ; three square miles of pumice-stone, 

 bordered by groves of laurel, beyond which vineyards inter- 

 spersed with bananas stretched down to the sea ; pretty villages 

 dotted along the coast, the ocean with all the seven islands, 

 among which Palma and Grand Canary are distinguished by 

 lofty volcanoes spread out beTore us like a map. 



6 The crater into which we descended emits only sulphurous 

 vapour ; the temperature of the ground is 190. The lava 

 streams break out at the sides of the mountain, where small 

 craters are formed similar to those by which two years ago the 

 whole island was illuminated. On that occasion, a subterra- 

 neous noise was heard for two months like the firing of cannon, 

 and stones of the size of a house were hurled into the air to 

 the height of 4,000 feet. I have made some important mine- 

 ralogical observations here. The Peak is composed of basalt a 



