Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Wind Having Freshened A Little Towards The Morning On The 18th,
We Succeeded In Passing The Channel.
We drew very near the Infierno
the second time, and remarked the large crevices, through which the
gaseous fluids probably issued, when this basaltic mass was raised.
We lost sight of the small islands of Alegranza, Montana Clara, and
Graciosa, which appear never to have been inhabited by the
Guanches.
They are now visited only for the purpose of gathering
archil, which production is, however, less sought after, since so
many other lichens of the north of Europe have been found to yield
materials proper for dyeing. Montana Clara is noted for its
beautiful canary-birds. The note of these birds varies with their
flocks, like that of our chaffinches, which often differs in two
neighbouring districts. Montana Clara yields pasture for goats, a
fact which proves that the interior of this islet is less arid than
its coasts. The name of Alegranza is synonymous with the Joyous,
(La Joyeuse,) which denomination it received from the first
conquerors of the Canary Islands, the two Norman barons, Jean de
Bethencourt and Gadifer de Salle. This was the first point on which
they landed. After remaining several days at Graciosa, a small part
of which we examined, they conceived the project of taking
possession of the neighbouring island of Lancerota, where they were
welcomed by Guadarfia, sovereign of the Guanches, with the same
hospitality that Cortez found in the palace of Montezuma. The
shepherd king, who had no other riches than his goats, became the
victim of base treachery, like the sultan of Mexico.
We sailed along the coasts of Lancerota, of the island of Lobos,
and of Forteventura. The second of these islands seems to have
anciently formed part of the two others. This geological hypothesis
was started in the seventeenth century by the Franciscan, Juan
Galindo. That writer supposed that king Juba had named six Canary
Islands only, because, in his time, three among them were
contiguous. Without admitting the probability of this hypothesis,
some learned geographers have imagined they recognized, in the two
islands Nivaria and Ombrios, the Canaria and Capraria of the
ancients.
The haziness of the horizon prevented us, during the whole of our
passage from Lancerota to Teneriffe, from discovering the summit of
the peak of Teyde. If the height of this volcano is 1905 toises, as
the last trigonometrical measure of Borda indicates, its summit
ought to be visible at a distance of 43 leagues, supposing the eye
on a level with the ocean, and a refraction equal to 0.079 of
distance. It has been doubted whether the peak has ever been seen
from the channel which separates Lancerota from Forteventura, and
which is distant from the volcano, according to the chart of
Varela, 2 degrees 29 minutes, or nearly 50 leagues. This phenomenon
appears nevertheless to have been verified by several officers of
the Spanish navy. I had in my hand, on board the Pizarro, a
journal, in which it was noted, that the peak of Teneriffe had been
seen at 135 miles distance, near the southern cape of Lancerota,
called Pichiguera.
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