96 



We endeavoured to get out of this bay by the 

 pass which separates Alegranza from Montana 

 Clara, and through which we had easily entered, 

 to land at the northern point of Graciosa. The 

 wind having fallen, the currents drove us very 

 near a rock, on which the sea broke with vio- 

 lence, and which is noted in the old charts under 

 the name of Hell, or Infierno. As we examined 

 this rock at the distance of two cables length, 

 we found that it was a mass of lava three or four 

 fathoms high, full of cavities, and covered with 

 scoriae resembling coke. We may presume that 

 this rock # , which modern charts call the West 

 Rock (Roca del Oeste), was raised by volcanic 

 fire ; and it might heretofore have been much 

 higher ; for the new island of the Azores, which 

 rose from the sea, at successive periods, in 1638 

 and 1719, had reached 354 feet ffr when it totally 

 disappeared in 1723, to the depth of 480 feet. 

 This opinion on the origin of the basaltic mass 



* Borda, Voyage de la Flore, vol. i, p. 386. Bory St. 

 Vincent, Essai sur les Isles Fortunees, p. 20. I must here 

 observe, that this rock is already noted on the celebrated Ve- 

 netian chart of Andrea Bianco, but that the name of Infierno 

 is given, as in the most ancient chart of Picigano, made in 

 1367, to Teneriffe, without doubt because the Guanches con- 

 sidered the peak as the entrance into Hell. In the same la- 

 titudes an island made it's reappearance in 1811. 



f In 1720, this island was visible at seven or eight leagues 

 distance. Mem. de 1' Academic, 1722, p. 12. Fleurieu, Voy- 

 age de l'Isis, vol. i, p. 565/ 



