Our cavalcade consisted of nineteen mules and ponies, an equal
number of drivers and two guides. Leaving the city of Oratava
on the left, we began to ascend the mountains by a stoney path,
winding along the upper edge of a deep ravine, which was
choaked nearly with a forest of large chesnut trees. The mountains
on each side were well clothed with underwood, which in
some parts had been cleared away for the sake of firewood,
and in others for the purpose of cultivation. The little cottages,
interspersed in the coppice, served materially to enliven
the scene. The summit of the first, mountain was a
plain of so considerable an extent that it took us an hour to
cross, through an uninterrupted thicket, composed of tall and
luxuriant evergreens, among which were a species of laurel,
two of the Rhamnus or buck-thorn, a Cactus, Euphorbia
shrubby hypericum, two or three species of convolvulus,
briony and other creeping plants; but the most common was
a species of heath and the vaccinium nigrum or black
whortleberry: This surface of perpetual verdure has obtained,
not undeservedly, the name of the Green mountain.
The next part of the road was up a steep ascent of a very
different aspect, chiefly composed of scattered fragments of
lava, among which was little vegetation except the humble
class of cryptogamous plants. Here we saw a number of wild
goats, which we fired at without success. The shadow of the
Peak, which threw a dark and lengthened gloom along the
rugged ridge of hills stretching to the eastward, whilst the
whole of the opposite coast from Oratava nearly to Santa
Cruz, with its numerous villages, was strongly illumined by
the rays of the western sun, afforded a landscape that was
singularly beautiful and interesting. We continued to ascend
by a sort of steps from rock to rock, and along the brink of
frightful precipices, till 7 o’clock, when we perceived the cloud
that enveloped the bosom of the peak rolling down the sides of
the mountain with great'velocity. The thermometer, at noon
when we left Oratava, stood at 76°; and it was now down
to 45°. The guides began to be alarmed, and said we should
be overwhelmed by the storm that was brewing above, if .we
attempted to proceed much higher. We therefore concluded
to halt for the night under the lee of a large rock, near
which was growing a quantity of the Cytisus foliosus, and of
the Spartium nubigena, the cloud-born broom ; the former of
which was no bad fuel, though green, and the latter served
for our beds. The old sail was our general coverlid, but it
soon became dripping wet, and Fahrenheit’s thermometer
sunk to 40°. Just below us there happenedto.be a verdant
valley, choaked with shrubby plants, to which the muleteers
set fire; and the crackling blaze in the midst of the storm and
darkness produced a sublime and solemn scene, which was
heightened to a more romantic pitch by the guides and
muleteers singing in full chorus the midnight hymn to the
Virgin.
The following morning brought with it but little hope of a
favourable change in the weather. The guides still continued
to shew a reluctance to proceed; and the greater part
of our company, cold, wet, fatigued, and heartily sick of the
expedition, seemed to encourage the unwillingness of the
Spaniards. lo u r of us, however, determined not so readily
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