TENERIFFE. 3^ 
on board our respective ships. And as a journey of twenty 
miles is considered to be a great day's work, in a hilly coun- 
try, where the roads are not the best, nor the beasts of burden 
the strongest, we determined to start at break of day. On 
our landing, however, not a mule was in readiness at this 
early hour, nor could we collect more than nine in the whole 
place. We started with as many as wc could get, and, after 
jogging on for two hours at a slow rate, over a rocky road, 
mostly up hill and in some places very steep, we reached 
Laguna, which is about five miles distant from the port. 
This city is considered as the capital of the island ; but its size 
does not appear to entitle it to that distinction, being little, and 
perhaps not at all, more extensive than the town of Santa 
Cruz. The houses are in general built on a larger scale, and 
the streets are wider. There are two churches, five or six 
convents for nuns and friars, several hospitals, a large jail, 
a court of judicature, and many othei' buildings and ofiices 
of a public nature, appropriated for the civil and ecclesiastical 
departments of government ; but it appeared to us to be still 
more gloomy and desolate than Santa Cruz. A few jolly 
looking friars were the only persons who enlivened the streets, 
many of which were literally overgrown with grass. Here 
and there we observed a solitary figure, muffled up in a black 
hooded cloak, and gliding along as if afraid to be seen. Tlie 
jail was by far the most lively part of Laguna. It seemed to 
be crowded by disorderly females, who were laughing and 
singing at the iron gratings, and whose joyful countenances 
wore no indications of their suffering in confinement any very 
severe punishment for their offences, whatever the nature of 
them might have been. 
F 2 
