129 



it's fairest and most majestic forms in the banana 

 and the palm-tree. He who is awake to the 

 charms of nature finds in this delicious island re- 

 medies still more potent than the climate. No 

 abode appeared to me more fitted to dissipate 

 melancholy, and restore peace to the perturbed 

 mind, than that of Teneriffe, or Madeira. These 

 advantages are the effect not of the beauty of 

 the site and the purity of the air alone ; the mo- 

 ral feeling is no longer harrowed up by the view 

 of slavery, the appearance of which is so revolt- 

 ing in the West Indies, and in every other place, 

 whither European planters have conveyed what 

 they call their civilization, and their industry. 



In winter the climate of Laguna is extremely 

 foggy, and the inhabitants often complain of the 

 cold. A fall of snow however has never been 

 seen, which may seem to indicate, that the mean 

 temperature of this town must be above 18*7° 

 (15° R.) that is to say, exceeding that of Naples. 

 I do not lay this down as a rigorous conclusion; 

 for in winter, the refrigeration of the clouds does 

 not depend so much on the mean temperature 

 of the whole vear, as on the instantaneous dimi- 

 nution of heat, to which a district is exposed by 

 it's local situation. The mean temperature of 

 the capital of Mexico, for instance, is only 16*8° 

 (13-5° R.), nevertheless, in the space of a hundred 

 years, snow has fallen only once, while in the 

 south of Europe, and in Africa, it snows in 



VOL. I. K 



