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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We Crossed These Latitudes In June, At A
Period When The Seas Had Not For A Long Time Been Agitated By
Tempests.
I mention this last circumstance, because small birds and
even butterflies, are sometimes forced out to sea by the
impetuosity of the winds, as we observed in the Pacific ocean, when
we were on the western coast of Mexico.
The Pizarro had orders to touch at the isle of Lancerota, one of
the seven great Canary Islands; and at five in the afternoon of the
16th of June, that island appeared so distinctly in view that I was
able to take the angle of altitude of a conic mountain, which
towered majestically over the other summits, and which we thought
was the great volcano which had occasioned such devastation on the
night of the 1st of September, 1730.
The current drew us toward the coast more rapidly than we wished.
As we advanced, we discovered at first the island of Forteventura,
famous for its numerous camels;* (* These camels, which serve for
labour, and sometimes for food, did not exist till the Bethencourts
made the conquest of the Canaries. In the sixteenth century, asses
were so abundant in the island of Forteventura, that they became
wild and were hunted. Several thousands were killed to save the
harvest. The horses of Forteventura are of singular beauty, and of
the Barbary race. - "Noticias de la Historia General de las Islas
Canarias" por Don Jose de Viera, tome 2 page 436.) and a short time
after we saw the small island of Lobos in the channel which
separates Forteventura from Lancerota.
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