TENERIEFE- 
29 
quence is, that the people are sunk to the very lowest 
state of depravity. The town swarms with houseless 
mendicants of both sexes; the aged dying in the 
streets from utter filthiness and starvation, while the 
youth are horribly deformed, or afflicted with the most 
unsightly diseases. Indeed nothing can exceed the 
deplorable state of these wretched beings, who are only 
heeded by those in authority when their emaciated and 
lifeless bodies are actually obstructing the public 
streets, and corrupting the atmosphere. Their only 
means of subsistence appear to be in theft, and in this 
they are said to outrival even the nimble-fingered 
islanders of the South Seas, no manner of precaution 
being proof against their ingenuity or their despera- 
tion. It would, however, be difficult to determine 
whether are the more numerous, the more cunning, 
and the more shameless, the thieves themselves, or 
their plunderers, the monks; for these latter literally 
swarm in the streets in the cool of evening, and must 
be the objects of mingled pity and abhorrence to all 
foreigners, while they openly practise their imposi- 
tions, nor blush to prove themselves as abandoned as 
their dupes. 
Escape we then from these obnoxious dens of 
human infamy and woe. Upon the opposite coast 
to Santa Cruz ; that is, on the north-west side of the 
island, stands the port of Oratava, which, without 
examining too closely, we call a pretty town. It rests 
upon a rounded declivity at the foot of a high conical 
d 3 
