SANTA CRUZ OF TENERIFFE. 4] 
CHAPTER III. 
Island of Teneriffe. 
Santa Cruz—Villa de la Laguna—Guanches—Present Inhabitants 
of Teneriffe—Climate—Scenery of the Coast —Orotava—Dragon- 
tree—Ascent of the Peak—Its Geological Character—Eruptions 
—Zones of Vegetation—Fires of St John. 
Santa Cruz, the Anaja of the Guanches, which is 
a neat town with a population of 8000 persons, may 
be considered as a great caravansera situated on the 
road to America and India, and has consequently 
been often described. 'The recommendations of the 
court of Madrid procured for our travellers the most 
satisfactory reception in the Canaries. The cap- 
tain-general gave permission to examine the island, 
and Colonel Armiaga, who commanded a regiment 
of infantry, extended his hospitality to them, and 
showed the most polite attention. In his garden 
they admired the banana, the papaw, and other 
plants cultivated in the open air, which they had 
before seen only in hothouses. 
In the evening they made a botanical excursion 
towards the fort of Passo Alto, along the basaltic 
rocks which close the promontory of Naga, but had 
little success, as the drought and dust had in a man- 
ner destroyed the vegetation. The Cacalia kleinia, 
Euphorbia canariensis, and other succulent plants, 
