To the Gold Coast for Gold

R >> Richard F. Burton >> To the Gold Coast for Gold

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Springing from boulder to boulder, an exhilarating exercise for a time,
over a 'surface of horrible roughness,' as Prof. Dana says of Hawaii, we
halted to examine the Cueva de Hielo, whose cross has long succumbed to
the wintry winds. The 'ice-house' in a region of fire occupies a little
platform like the ruined base of a Pompey's Pillar. This is the table
upon which the _neveros_ pack their stores of snow. The cave, a
mere hole in the trachytic lava, opens to the east with an entrance some
four feet wide. The general appearance was that of a large bubble in a
baked loaf. Inside we saw a low ceiling spiky with stalactites, possibly
icicles, and a coating of greenish ice upon the floor. A gutter leads
from the mouth, showing signs of water-wear, and the blocks of trachyte
are so loaded with glossy white felspar that I attempted to dust them
before sitting down.

Local tradition connects this ice-cave with the famous burial-cavern
near Ycod, on the northern coast; this would give a tunnel 8 miles long
and 11,040 feet high. Many declare that the meltings ebb and flow with
the sea-tide, and others recount that lead and lines of many fathoms
failed to touch bottom. We are told about the normal dog which fell in
and found its way to the shore through the cave of Ycod de los Vinos. In
the latter a M. Auber spent four hours without making much way; in parts
he came upon scatters of Guanche bones. Mr. Robert Edwards, of Santa
Cruz, recounted another native tradition--that before the eruption of
A.D. 1705 there was a run of water but no cave. Mr. Addison was let down
into it, and found three branches or lanes, the longest measuring 60-70
feet. What the _neveros_ call _el hombre de nieve_ (the
snow-man) proved to be a honeycombed mass of lava revetted with
ice-drippings. He judged the cave to be a crater of emission; and did
not see the smoke or steam issuing from it as reported by the
ice-collectors.

Professor P. Smyth goes, I think, a little too far in making this
contemptible feature compose such a quarrel as that between the English
eruptionist and the Continental upheavalist. Deciding a disputed point,
that elevation is a force and a method in nature, he explains the cave
by the explosion of gases, which blew off the surface of the dome, 'when
the heavy sections of the lava-roof, unsupported from below, fell
downward again, wedging into and against each other, so as nearly to
reform their previous figure.' But the unshattered state of the stones
and the rounded surfaces of the sides show no sign of explosion. The
upper _Piton_ is unfitted for retaining water, which must percolate
through its cinders, pumices, and loose matter into many a reservoir
formed by blowing-holes. Snow must also be drifted in and retain, the
cold. Moisture would be kept in the cavern by the low conducting power
of its walls; so Lyell found, on Etna, a bed of solid ice under a
lava-current. Possibly also this cave has a frozen substratum, like many
of the ice-pools in North America.

We then toiled up to another little _estancia_, a sheltered,
rock-girt hollow. The floor of snow, or rather frozen rain, was
sprinkled with red dust, and fronts the wind, with sharp icy points
rising at an angle of 45 deg.. Here, despite the penetrating cold, we
gravely seated ourselves to enjoy at ease the hardly won pleasures of
the sunrise. The pallid white gleam of dawn had grown redder, brighter
and richer. An orange flush, the first breaking of the beams faintly
reflected from above, made the sky, before a deep and velvety
black-blue, look like a gilt canopy based upon a rim of azure mist. The
brilliancy waxed golden and more golden still; the blending of the
colours became indescribably beautiful; and, lastly, the sun's upper
limb rose in brightest saffron above the dimmed and spurious horizon of
north-east cloud. The panorama below us emerged dimly and darkly from a
torrent of haze, whose waving convex lines, moving with a majestic calm,
wore the aspect of a deluge whelming the visible world. Martin the Great
might have borrowed an idea from this waste of waters, as it seemed to
be, heaving and breaking, surging and sweeping over the highest
mountain-tops. We saw nothing of the immense triangular gnomon projected
by the Pilon as far as Gomera Island, [Footnote: At sunset of July 10,
1863, I could trace it extending to Grand Canary, darkening the southern
half and leaving the northern in bright sunshine: the right limb was
better defined than the left.] and gradually contracting as the lamp of
day rises. Item, we saw nothing of the archipelago like a map in relief;
the latter, however, is rarely visible in its entirety. Disappointment!

During the descent we had a fair prospect of the Canarian
Triquetra. Somewhat like Madeira, it has a longitudinal spine of
mountains, generically called Las Canadas; but, whilst the volcanic
ridge of the Isle of Wood runs in a latitudinal line, the Junonian
Cordillera has a whorl, the ancient as well as the modern seat of
eruption. Around the island appeared to be a rim, as if the sea-horizon
formed a raised saucer--a common optical delusion at these altitudes.

As we advanced the Mal Pais became more broken: the 'bad step' was ugly
climbing, and we often envied our men, who wore heelless shoes of soft
untanned leather with soles almost as broad as they were long. The
roughness of the trachytic blocks, however, rendered a slip
impossible. At 6.45 we reached the second floor of this three-storied
volcano, here 11,721 feet high. The guides call it the _Pico del
Pilon_, because it is the ancient Peak-Crater, and strangers the
Rambleta (not Rembleta) Volcano, which strewed Las Canadas with fiery
pumice, and which shot up the terminal head 'conical as a cylinder.' It
has now become an irregular and slightly convex plain a mile in
diameter, whose centre is the terminal chimney. Its main peculiarity is
in the fumaroles, or escapes of steam, and _mofetti_, mephitic
emanations of limpid water and sulphur-vapour. Of these we counted five
narices within as many hundred yards. Their temperature greatly varies,
109 deg. and 158 deg. Fahr. being, perhaps, the extremes; my thermometer showed
130 deg.. These _soupiraux_ or _respiradouros_ are easily explained.
The percolations from above are heated to steam by stones
rich in 'grough brimstone.' Here it was that Humboldt saw apparent
lateral shiftings and perpendicular oscillations of fixed stars; and our
Admiralty, not wishing to be behind him, directed Professor P. Smyth's
attention to 'scintillations in general.' Only the youngest of
travellers would use such a place as an observatory; and only the
youngest of observers would have considered this _libration of the
stars_ an extraordinary phenomenon.

Directed by a regular line of steam-puffs, we attacked _El Pilon_,
the third story, the most modern cone of eruption, the dwarf chimney
which looks like a thimble from the sea. The lower third was of loose
crumbling pumice, more finely comminuted than we had yet seen; this is
what Humboldt calls 'ash-cones.' There was also a strew of porphyritic
lava-chips covered with a red (ochreous?) crust. Presently we reached a
radiating rib of lately ejected lava, possibly the ridge of a dyke,
brown below and gradually whitening with sulphuric acid as it rose
towards the crater-walls. The resting took longer than the walking up
the steep talus; and at 7.45: after a total of nine hours and a
morning's work of two hours and a half, which occupied two in
descending, we stood upon the corona or lip of 'Teyde.'

The height of the Tenerife Pike, once held the loftiest in the world, is
12,198 feet, in round numbers 12,200. Thus it stands nearly at the
altitude of Mont Blanc (15,784 feet) above the Chamounix valley, a
figure of 12,284 feet. The slope from the base is 1 in 4.6. The direct
distance from Orotava on the map measures 10.5 miles; along the road 18,
according to the guides. The terminal chimney and outlet for vapours
which would erupt elsewhere, rises 520 feet from its pedestal, the
central Rambleta, and its ascent generally occupies an hour. One visitor
has reduced this _montagne pelee_ to 60-70 feet, and compares it
with the dome of a glass-house. From below it resembles nothing so much
as a cone of dirty brown _cassonade_, and travellers are justified
in calling it a sugarloaf. I can hardly rest satisfied with Von Buch's
description. 'Teyde is a pointed tower surrounded by a ditch and a
circular chain of bastions.'

The word Teyde is supposed to be a corruption of Echeyde, meaning Hades:
hence the title Isla Infierno, found in a map of A.D. 1367. The Guanches
also called it Ayadyrma, and here placed their pandemonium, under
Guayota, the head-fiend. The country-folk still term the crater-ring 'la
caldera de los diablos en que se cuecen todas las provisiones del
Infierno' (the Devil's caldron, wherein are cooked all the rations of
the infernals). Seen by moonlight, or on a star-lit night, the scenery
would be weird and ghostly enough to suggest such fancies, which remind
us of Etna and Lipari.

I had been prepared by descriptions for a huge chasm-like crater or
craters like those on Theon Ochema, Camerones Peak. I found a
spoon-shaped hollow, with a gradual slope to the centre, 100 x 150 feet
deep, the greater length of the oval running north-east, where the side
is higher, to south-west, where there is also a tilt of the cup. The
floor was a surface of burning marl and whitish earthy dough-like paste,
the effect of sulphurous acid vapours upon the argile of the lava. This
stratum was in places more than 80 feet thick; and fumes rose fetid with
sulphuric acid, and sulphates of soda, alumina, and ammonia from the
dead white, purple red, vivid green, and brilliant yellow surface of the
solfatara. Hence the puffs of vapour seen from below against the
sparkling blue sky, and disappearing like huge birds upon the wings of
the wind: hence, too, the tradition of the mast and the lateen sail. A
dig with the Guanche _magada_ or _lanza_, the island alpen-stock,
either outside or inside the crater, will turn up, under the
moist white clay, lovely trimetric crystals of sulphur, with the
palest straw tint, deepening to orange, and beautifully disposed in
acicular shapes. The acid eats paper, and the colours fade before they
leave the cone.

[Footnote: Dr. Wilde (1837) analysed the sulphur as follows: Silica,
81.13; water, 8.87; and a trace of lime. Others have obtained from the
mineral, when condensed upon a cold surface, minute crystals of
alum. Mr. Addison found in the 'splendid crystals of octahedral sulphur'
a glistening white substance of crystalline structure, yet somewhat like
opal. When analysed it proved to contain 91 per cent. silex and the rest
water.]

When sitting down it is advisable to choose a block upon which dew-drops
pearl. A few minutes of rest upon a certain block of marl, whose genial
warmth is most grateful, squatting in the sharp cold air, neatly removes
all cloth in contact with the surface. More than one excursionist has
shown himself in that Humphrey Clinker condition which excited the wrath
of Count Tabitha. It is evident that Teyde is by no means exhausted, and
possibly it may return to the state of persistent eruption described by
the eye-witness Ca da Mosto, who landed on the Canaries in A.D. 1505.

Not at all impressed with the grandeur of the Inferno, we walked round
the narrow rim of the crater-cirque, and were shown a small breach in
the wall of porphyritic lava facing west. Mrs. Murray's authorities
describe the _Caldera_ as being 'without any opening:' if this be
the case the gap has lately formed. The cold had driven away the lively
little colony of bees, birds, and butterflies which have been seen
disporting themselves about the bright white cauldron. There was not a
breath of the threatened wind. Manoel pointed out Mount Bermeja as the
source of the lateral lava-stream whose 'infernal avalanche,' on May 5,
1706, [Footnote: Preceding Ca da Mosto's day another eruption (1492) was
noted by Columbus, shortly before his discovery of the Antilles.
Garachico was the only port in Tenerife, with a breakwater of
rocky isle and water so deep that the yardarms of men-of-war could
almost touch the vineyards. Its quays were bordered by large
provision-stores, it had five convents, and its slopes were dotted with
villas. After an earthquake during the night a lava-stream from several
cones destroyed the village Del Tanque at 3:30 A.M., and at 9
P.M. another flood entered Garachico at seven points, drove off the sea,
ruined the mole, and filled the port. It was followed by a cascade of
fire at 8 A.M. on the 13th of the same month, and the lava remained
incandescent for forty days.] overwhelmed 'Grarachico, pueblo rico,'

[Footnote: Alluding to the curse of the Franciscan Friar, who devoted
the town to destruction in these words:--

'Garachico, pueblo rico,
Gastadero de dinero,
Mal risco te caiga encima!']

and spared Guimar, which it enclosed between two fiery streams. Despite
the white and woolly mists, the panorama of elevations, craters and
castellated eminences, separated by deep gashes and by _currals_
like those of Madeira, but verdure-bare, was stupendous. I have
preserved, however, little beyond names and heights. We did not suffer
from _puna_, or mountain sickness, which Bishop Sprat, of
Rochester, mentions in 1650, and which Mr. Darwin--alas that we must
write the late!--cured by botanising. I believe that it mostly results
from disordered liver, and, not unfrequently, in young Alpinists, from
indigestion.

The descent of the Teyde _Piton_, in Vesuvian fashion, occupied ten
minutes. Our guides now whistled to their comrades below, who had
remained in charge of the animals. Old authors tell us that the Guanche
whistle could be heard for two leagues, and an English traveller
declares that after an experiment close to his ear he did not quite
recover its use for a fortnight. The return home was wholly without
interest, except the prospects of cloud-land, grander than those of
Folkestone, which seemed to open another world beneath our feet. Near
the Santa Clara village all turned out to prospect two faces which must
have suggested only raw beef-steaks. It was Sunday, and

(Garachico, wealthy town; wasteful of thy wealth, may an ill rock fall
upon thy head!)

both sexes were in their 'braws.' The men wore clean blanket-mantles,
the women coloured corsets laced in front, gowns of black serge or
cotton, dark blue shawls hardly reaching to their waist, and the usual
white kerchief, the Arab _kufiyah_, under the broad-brimmed straw
or felt hat, whose crown was decorated with the broadest and gayest
ribbons. But even this unpicturesque coiffure, almost worthy of Sierra
Leone, failed to conceal the nobility of face and figure, the
well-turned limbs, the fine hands and feet, and the _meneo_, or
swimming walk, of this Guanchinesque race, which everywhere forced
itself upon the sight. The proverb says--

De Tenerife los hombres;
Las mugeres de Canaria.

It is curious to compare the realistic accounts of the nineteenth
century with those of the _vulcanio_ two centuries ago. Ogilby
(1670) tells us that the Moors called it El-Bard (Cold), and we the
'Pike of Teneriff, thought not to have its equal in the world for
height, because it spires with its top so high into the clouds that in
clear weather it may be seen sixty _Dutch_ miles off at sea.' His
illustration of the 'Piek-Bergh op het Eilant Teneriffe' shows an almost
perpendicular tower of natural masonry rising from a low sow-back whose
end is the 'Punt Tenago' (Anaga Point). The 'considerable merchants and
persons of credit,' whose ascent furnished material for the Royal
Society, set out from Orotava. 'In the ascent of one mile some of our
Company grew very faint and sick, disorder'd by Fluxes, Vomitings, and
Aguish Distempers; our Horses' Hair standing upright like Bristles.'
Higher up 'their Strong waters had lost their Virtue, and were almost
insipid, while their Wine was more spirituous and brisk than before.' In
those days also iron and copper, silver and gold, were found in the
calcined rocks of the Katakaumenon. It is strange to note how much more
was seen by ancient travellers than by us moderns.

CHAPTER VII.

THE SPANISH ACCOUNT OF THE REPULSE OF NELSON FROM SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE.

[Footnote: From the _Relacion circumstanciada de la Defensa que hizo
la Plaza de Santa Cruz_, by M. Monteverde. Published in Madrid, 1798.]

The following pages afford a circumstantial and, I believe, a fairly
true account of an incident much glossed over by our naval
historians. The subject is peculiarly interesting. At Santa Cruz, as at
Fontenoy, the Irish, whom harsh measures at home drove for protection to
more friendly lands, took ample share in the fighting which defeated
England's greatest sailor. Again, the short-sighted policy which sent to
the Crimea 20,000 British soldiers to play second instrument in concert
with 40,000 Frenchmen, thus lowering us in the eyes of Europe, made
Nelson oppose his 960 hands to more than eight times their number. The
day may come when the attack shall be repeated. Now that steam has
rendered fleets independent of south-west winds, it is to be hoped the
assailant will prefer day to night, so that his divisions can
communicate; that he will not land in the 'raging surf' of the ebb-tide,
and that he will attack the almost defenceless south instead of the
well-fortified north of the city.

Already the heroic Island had inflicted partial or total defeat upon
three English admirals. [Footnote: Grand Canary also did her duty by
beating off, in October 1795, Drake's strong squadron.] In April 1657
the Roundhead 'general at sea,' Admiral Sir Robert Blake, of
Bridgewater, attempted to cut out the Spanish galleons freighted with
Mexican gold and with the silver of Peru. Of these the principal were
the _Santo-Cristo_, the _Jesus-Maria_, the _Santo Sacramento_,
_La Concepcion_, the _San Juan_, the _Virgen de la Solitud_,
and the _Nuestra Senora del Buen Socorro_. This 'silver fleet'
was moored under the guns of the 'chief castle,' San Cristobal,
the mean work at the root of the mole. The English were
preparing to board, when the Captain-General, D. Diego de Egues, whom
our histories call 'Diagues,' ordered the fleet to be fired, after all
the treasure had been housed in the fort. A steady fight lasted three
hours, during which the wife of the brave Governor, D. Estevan de la
Guerra, distinguished herself. 'I shall not be useless here,' she
exclaimed when invited to leave the batteries; and this 'maid of
Tenerife' continued to animate the garrison till the end. As was the
case with his great successor, Roundhead Blake's failure proved to him
far better than a success. For his _francesada_, or _coup de
tete_, Nelson expected to lose his commission, instead of which some
popular freak flung to him honour and honours. So Protector Cromwell
sent a valuable diamond ring to his 'general at sea,' in token of esteem
on his part and that of his Parliament. Our histories, relying on the
fact that a few weak batteries were silenced, claim for the Admiral a
positive victory, despite his losses--fifty killed and 500 wounded.

[Footnote: The late Mr. Hepworth Dixon (_Life of Blake_, p. 346)
describes the open roadstead of Santa Cruz as a 'harbour shaped like a
horse-shoe, and defended at the north side of the entrance by a regular
castle.' In p. 350 we also read of the bay and its entrance. Any
hydrographic chart would have set him right.]

In 1706, during the Spanish war of succession, Admiral Jennings sailed
into Santa Cruz bay--the old Bay of Anaga or Anago--and lay off San
Cristobal

[Footnote: This work still remains. It is a parallelogram with four
bastions in star-shape, fronting the sea, and an embrasured wall facing
the town. It began as a chapel, set up by De Lugo to N. S. de la
Consolacion, and a tower was added in 1493. It was destroyed by the
Guanches and rebuilt by Charles Quint: the present building assumed its
shape in 1579. The main square, inland of San Cristobal, shows by a
marble cross where the conqueror planted with one hand a large affair of
wood--hence Santa Cruz. The original is, or was till lately, in the
Civil Hospital.]

with twelve ships of the line. The Plaza was commanded, in the absence
of the Captain-General, by the Corregidor, D. Antonio de Ayala, who
assembled all the nobles in the castle's lower rooms and swore them to
loyalty. The English attempted to disembark, and were beaten back;
whereupon, as under Nelson, they sent a parliamentary and summoned the
island to surrender to the Archduke Charles of Austria. The envoy
informed the Governor, who is described by Dampier as sitting in a low,
dark, uncarpeted room, adorned only with muskets and pikes, that Philip
V. had lost Gibraltar, that Cadiz and Minorca had nearly fallen, and
that the American galleons in the port of Vigo had been burnt or
captured by the English, whose army, entering Castile, had overrun
Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia. The braves reply was, 'If Philip, our
king, had lost his all in the Peninsula, these islands would still
remain faithful to him.' And the castle guns did such damage that the
Jennings squadron sailed away on the same evening.

The third expedition, detached by Admmiral Sir John Jervis, afterwards
Earl St. Vincent, to 'cut out a richly freighted Manilla ship,' also
resulted in a tremendous failure. Captain Brenton, to gratify national
complacency, grossly exaggerates in his 'Naval History' the difficulty
of the enterprise. 'Of all places which ever came under our inspection
none, we conceive, is more invulnerable to attack or more easily
defended than Teneriffe.' He forgets to mention its principal guard, the
valour of the inhabitants. And now to my translation.

'At dawn on July 2, [Footnote: James (_Naval History_,
vol. ii. p. 56) more correctly says July 20. So the _Despatches, &c.,
of Lord Nelson_, Sir H. Nicholas, vol. ii. p. 429. The thanksgiving
for the victory took place on July 27, the fete of SS. Iago and
Cristobal.] 1797, the squadron [Footnote: The squadron was composed as
follows:--1. _Theseus_ (74), Captain Ralph Willett Miller, carried
the Rear-Admiral's flag; 2. _Culloden_ (74), Commodore and Captain
Thos. Troubridge; 3. _Zealous_ (74), Captain Sam. Hood;
4. _Leander_ (50), Captain Thos. Boulden Thomson, which joined on
the day before the attack. There were three frigates:--1. _Seahorse_
(38), Captain Thos. Francis Fremantle; 2. _Emerald_ (36), Captain
John Waller; and 3. _Terpsichore_ (32), Captain Richard Bowen; also
the _Fox_ (cutter), Lieut. Commander John Gibson, and a mortar-boat
or a bomb-ketch, probably a ship's launch with a shell-gun.] of
Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson, K.B., composed of nine ships, and
carrying a total of 393 guns, appeared off Santa Cruz, the port
of Tenerife, Canarian archipelago. The enemy at once manned and
put off his boats. One division of sixteen occupied our front; the
other twenty-three took the direction of the Bufadero valley, a wild
gap two or three miles to the north of the harbour.

'An alarm signal was immediately made in the town, when the enemy
returned to his ships, and made his troops prepare to disembark. At ten
A.M. the three frigates, towed by their boats, cast anchor out of
cannon-shot, near the Bufadero; whilst the other vessels plied to
windward, [Footnote: At the time the weather was calm in the town, but a
violent levante, or east wind, prevented vessels from approaching the
bay, where the lee shore is very dangerous.] and disembarked about 1,200
men on the beach of Valle Seco, between the town and the valley. This
party occupied the nearest hill before it could be attacked; its
movements showed an intention to seize the steep rocky scarp commanding
the Paso Alto--the furthest to the north of the town. [Footnote:
Nelson's rough sketch, vol. ii. p. 434, shows that it had 26 guns. San
Cristobal de Paso Alto commands the large ravine called by the Guanches
'Tahoide' or 'Tejode,' which is now defended by San Miguel. This is a
small rockwork carrying six guns in two tiers, the upper _en
barbette_ and the lower casemated.] Thus the enemy would have been
enabled to land fresh troops during the night; and, after gaining the
heights and roads leading to the town, to attack us in flank as well as
in front.

'Light troops were detached to annoy the invader, and they soon occupied
the passes with praiseworthy celerity and boldness. One party was led by
the Capitaine de Fregate Citizen Ponne [Footnote: James calls him Zavier
Pommier. He commanded the French brig _Mutine_ (14), of 349 tons,
with a crew of 135. As he landed at Santa Cruz with 22 of his men on May
28, 1797, the frigates _Lively_, Captain Benjamin Hallowell, and
the _Minerva_, Captain George Cockburn, descried the hostile
craft. Lieutenant Hardy, of the _Minerva_, supported by six
officers and their respective boats' crews, boarded her as she lay at
anchor. Despite the fire of the garrison and of a large ship in the
roads, he carried her, after an hour's work, safe out of gunshot. Only
15 men were wounded, including Lieutenant Hardy. This officer was at
once put in command of the _Mutine_, which he had so gallantly
won.] and by the Lieutenant de Vaisseau Citizen Faust. Both officers,
who had been exchanged and restored at the same port, showed much
presence of mind on this occasion, and on July 25 they applied to be
posted at a dangerous point of attack--the beach to the south of the
town, near Puerto Caballas, beyond where the Lazaretto now lies. When
the enemy purposed assaulting a more central post, they came up at the
moment of the affair, ending in our victory.

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