and Tierra del Fuego, commenced under Captain King in 1826 to 1830,--to
survey the shores of Chile, Peru, and of some islands in the
Pacific--and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round the
World. On the 6th of January we reached Teneriffe, but were prevented
landing, by fears of our bringing the cholera: the next morning we saw
the sun rise behind the rugged outline of the Grand Canary island, and
suddenly illuminate the Peak of Teneriffe, whilst the lower parts were
veiled in fleecy clouds. This was the first of many delightful days
never to be forgotten. On the 16th of January, 1832, we anchored at
Porto Praya, in St. Jago, the chief island of the Cape de Verd
archipelago.
The neighbourhood of Porto Praya, viewed from the sea, wears a desolate
aspect. The volcanic fires of a past age, and the scorching heat of a
tropical sun, have in most places rendered the soil unfit for
vegetation. The country rises in successive steps of table-land,
interspersed with some truncate conical hills, and the horizon is
bounded by an irregular chain of more lofty mountains. The scene, as
beheld through the hazy atmosphere of this climate, is one of great
interest; if, indeed, a person, fresh from sea, and who has just
walked, for the first time, in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be a
judge of anything but his own happiness. The island would generally be
considered as very uninteresting, but to anyone accustomed only to an
English landscape, the novel aspect of an utterly sterile land
possesses a grandeur which more vegetation might spoil. A single green
leaf can scarcely be discovered over wide tracts of the lava plains;
yet flocks of goats, together with a few cows, contrive to exist. It
rains very seldom, but during a short portion of the year heavy
torrents fall, and immediately afterwards a light vegetation springs
out of every crevice. This soon withers; and upon such naturally
formed hay the animals live. It had not now rained for an entire year.
When the island was discovered, the immediate neighbourhood of Porto
Praya was clothed with trees, [1] the reckless destruction of which has
caused here, as at St. Helena, and at some of the Canary islands,
almost entire sterility. The broad, flat-bottomed valleys, many of
which serve during a few days only in the season as water-courses, are
clothed with thickets of leafless bushes. Few living creatures inhabit
these valleys. The commonest bird is a kingfisher (Dacelo Iagoensis),
which tamely sits on the branches of the castor-oil plant, and thence
darts on grasshoppers and lizards. It is brightly coloured, but not so
4