TENERIFFE. 
fected superiority, or to a parsimonious saving of gunpowder, 
I cannot pretend to determine. Sir Erasmus Gower, know- 
ing it to be the case, sent an officer on shore, conformably to 
his instructions, to make an olfer of the compHment on the 
ground of reciprocation, which the Governor, however, with 
great pohteness, dechned ; observing that his orders would 
not allow him to make any return ; and intimating, at the 
same time, that it would be more agreeable if the usual cus- 
tom w as dispensed with of firing the morning and evening 
guns. When the wishes of a friendly power could be acceded 
to on such moderate terms, a refusal would have indicated 
more of pride than policy. From Sir Erasmus Gower the 
desire of the Governor met with a ready compliance. There 
was a Frenchman, however, commanding a frigat^ at anchor 
in the bay, who, in the true spirit of Gallic liberty, disdain- 
ing the restraint of orders and port regulations, saluted and 
fired his morning and evening guns, in defiance of the rules 
laid down by the Spanish government. Like a true Gascon 
he had boasted, as Ave afterwards heard, that, concluding 
from the sight of our squadron war must have broken out 
l^etween England and France, he had prepared to receive us 
with one broadside at least, in order to do all the mischief he 
could, pour rhonneur de la Gi^ande Nation, before he struck 
his colours. Yet these are the people who are loudest in 
complaining of the tyranny of the English in exercising the 
sovereignty of the seas ; but, were the exercise of that so- 
vereignty placed, unluckily for the world, in the hands of the 
French, their conduct on the continent is a sufficient test to 
evince with what degree of moderation they would hold the 
dominion of the ocean. 
