74 NUTRITIVE PLANTS. 



six years, sparkle like old hock, and are as racy as the finest 

 Canary. 



There is scarce a coltage in all the colonies without a vineyard; 

 and there are few settlers who do not produce from their own vine- 

 yards a plentiful provision of wine for themselves and families. 



Though the wine of Canaria, or the Canary IslandsJs good, 

 it hath not such a body as that of Teneriffe, and is therefore less fit 

 for exportation, yet many pipes of it are annually sent to the Spa- 

 nish West Indies. 



" If we were to judge/' says Captain Cook, " from the appear- 

 ance of the country in the neighbourhood of Santa Crug, it might 

 be concluded that the island of Teneriffe is a barren spot, insuffi- 

 cient to maintain its own inhabitants ; however, the ample supplies 

 which we received convinced us that they had enough to spare for 

 visitors." In the month of August, when our navigator touched 

 here, he found grapes, figs, pears, mulberries, and musk melons : 

 and the island produces a variety of other fruit which was not at that 

 time in season. These advantages led Captain Cook to recommend 

 the island of Teneriffe as a more eligible place than Madeira, for 

 ships bound on long voyages to touch at, notwithstanding the supe- 

 rior excellence of the wine at the latter island ; but then the differ, 

 cnce of price is in proportion, for the best Teneriffe wine sells for 

 twelve pounds a pipe, whilst a pipe [of the best Madeira costs con- 

 siderably more than double that sum. Formerly there was made 

 at TenerirFe a great quantity of Canary sack, which the French call 

 Vin de Malvesia, and we, corruptly after them, Malmsey (from 

 Malvesia, a town in the Morea, famous for such luscious wine). In 

 the last century, and still later, much of this wine was imported into 

 England ; but not more than fifty pipes of this sort of wine were 

 made, on the island when Mr. Glass was there, and he says the 

 natives gathered the grapes when green, and made a dry, hard wine 

 of them, fit for hot climates. Of this sort forty thousand pipes are 

 annually made, the greatest part of which is either consumed on 

 the island, or made into brandy and sent to the Spanish West 

 Indies. About six thousand pipes were exported every year to 

 North America, while the trade thither was uninterrupted ; 

 in return for which the. Americans sent corn, the growth of 

 which on the island is not sufficient to maintain its inhabitants. 

 The Teneriffe wine, when about two or three years old, can hardly 



