40 



CLIMATE OF TENERIFFE, 



r>e8truc- 

 rion of the 

 native:!. 



Population. 



CHAP. III. sulijugation. The residue of that unhappy people 

 perished by a terrible pestilence in 1494, which was 

 supposed to have originated from the bodies left exposed 

 by the Spaniards after the battle of Laguna. At the 

 present day, no individual of pure blood exists in these 

 islands, where all that remains of the aborigines are 

 certain mummies, reduced to an extraordinary de- 

 gree of desiccation, and found in the sepulchral caverns 

 which are cut in the rock on the eastern slope of the 

 Peak. These skeletons contain remains of aromatic 

 plants, especially the Chenopodium ambrosioides, and are 

 often decorated with small laces, to which are suspended 

 little cakes of baked earth. 



The people who succeeded the Guanches were de- 

 scended from the Spaniards and Normans. The present 

 inhabitants are described by our author as being of a 

 moral and religious character, but of a roving and 

 enterprising disposition, and less industrious at home 

 than abroad. The population in 1790 was 174,000. 

 The produce of the several islands consists chiefly of 

 wheat, barley, maize, potatoes, wine, a great variety of 

 fruits, sugar, and other articles of food ; but the lower 

 orders are frequently obliged to have recourse to the 

 roots of a species of fern. The principal ol)jects of 

 commerce are wine, brandy, archil (a kind of lichen 

 used as a dye), and soda. 



TeneritfV- has been praised for the salubrity of its 

 climate. The ground of the Canary Islands rises gra- 

 dually to a great heiglit, and presents, on a small scale, 

 the temperature of every zune, from the intense heat of 

 Africa to the cold of the Alpine regions ; so that a 

 person may have the benefit of whatever climate' best 

 suits his temperament or disease, A similar variety 

 exists as to the vegetation ; and no country seemed to 

 our traveik-rs more fitted to dissipate nn lancholy, and 

 restore j)eHce to an agitated mind, than Teneriffe and 

 Madeira, where the natural l)eauty of the situation, and 

 the salubrity of the air, conspire to quiet the anxieties 

 ji tlie spirit and invigorate the body, while the feelings 



