TO RIO DE. JANEIRO. 



3 



sunny clearness. Towards the evening, we came close up to the north-west side 

 of Fortaventura, a long island, exhibiting a rugged tumulous combination of 

 peaks and mountains, rising irregularly one over another, of the most barren 

 and cheerless aspect. In vain the sun extended his genial rays over its sterile 

 wastes, where no salutary plant appeared to take root, or the least verdure to 

 quicken. With the assistance of the glass, I could not discover one single hut 

 or human being along the whole face of it. There is a small port on the op- 

 posite side, where the produce, as well as that of Lanzarote, is barilla. The 

 wind having changed, a passage could not be accomplished round either end of 

 this island. The signal of " about ship" was given, and we stood for some 

 hours to the northward. Pursuing a southerly course again next day, we 

 came, at noon, close up with land, which, during the morning, a thick haze 

 had obscured. The sun now bursting forth, presented to our view the island of 

 Grand Canary, with its town of Palmas, furnishing a contrast of a very pleasing 

 nature to the island already mentioned. Its romantic and commanding peaks 

 of immense altitude had their tops concealed in clouds, which the lustre of the 

 sun seemed unable to dispel. Its amphitheatre of mountains, adorned with 

 lively patches of green from their very summits, fertilized by increasing cultiva- 

 tion, and in the most luxuriant verdure, down to the verge of the sea, concurred, 

 with the town of Palmas, and a large village extending some distance along the 

 parterre, with detached houses in the same direction of an elegant appearance, 

 to render the scene peculiarly animating and lovely. The town of Palmas, 

 which does not appear large, and the harbour, which is capacious and safe, are 

 commanded by batteries, stationed along a range of mountains to the north of 

 the town. Teneriffe and most of the other islands draw their supplies of corn 

 and cattle from Grand Canary. As we proceeded along its shores, and before 

 the close of the evening, we perceived that its cultivation was not general. The 

 next day, the Peak of Teneriffe was indistinctly seen through the clouds that 

 hung upon the horizon ; the height, for which it is so celebrated, is apparently 

 diminished by the elevation of the circumjacent mountains. A north-east trade 

 wind now wafted us forward with considerable rapidity, rendered more agree- 

 able by the delicious weather and salubrious atmosphere diffused around. The 

 familiar and accustomed possession of the prime bounties of nature must be 

 always gratifying to those whose senses and whose imagination are even in 

 tolerable vigour ; but to an Englishman, blest with a sound constitution, and over 

 whom the vicissitudes of life had not, as is too often the case, cast a mantle of 

 despondency, to deaden present pleasure and darken future prospects, and who 



