It Is Hardly Necessary
For Me To Say, That The Precaution Of Ironing The Convicts At Any Time
Reached To The Men Only.
In the evening of the same day, the Hyena left us for England, which afforded
an early opportunity of writing to our friends, and easing their apprehensions
by a communication of the favourable accounts it was in our power to send them.
From this time to the day of our making the land, little occurred
worthy of remark. I cannot, however, help noticing the propriety of employing
the marines on a service which requires activity and exertion at sea,
in preference to other troops. Had a regiment recruited since the war
been sent out, sea-sickness would have incapacitated half the men
from performing the duties immediately and indispensably necessary;
whereas the marines, from being accustomed to serve on board ship,
accommodated themselves with ease to every exigency, and surmounted
every difficulty.
At daybreak, on the morning of the 30th of May we saw the rocks named
the Deserters, which lie off the south-east end of Madeira; and found
the south-east extremity of the most southerly of them, to be in the latitude
of 32 deg 28 min north, longitude 16 deg 17 1/2 min west of Greenwich.
The following day we saw the Salvages, a cluster of rocks which are placed
between the Madeiras and Canary Islands, and determined the latitude
of the middle of the Great Salvage to be 30 deg 12 min north, and the longitude
of its eastern side to be 15 deg 39 min west. It is no less extraordinary
than unpardonable, that in some very modern charts of the Atlantic,
published in London, the Salvages are totally omitted.
We made the island of Teneriffe on the 3d of June, and in the evening
anchored in the road of Santa Cruz, after an excellent passage
of three weeks from the day we left England.
CHAPTER III.
From the Fleet's Arrival at Teneriffe, to its Departure
for Rio de Janeiro, in the Brazils.
There is little to please a traveller at Teneriffe. He has heard wonders
of its celebrated Peak, but he may remain for weeks together at the town
of Santa Cruz without having a glimpse of it, and when its cloud-topped head
emerges, the chance is, that he feels disappointed, for, from the point of view
in which he sees it, the neighbouring mountains lessen its effect
very considerably. Excepting the Peak, the eye receives little pleasure
from the general face of the country, which is sterile and uninviting
to the last degree. The town, however, from its cheerful white appearance,
contrasted with the dreary brownness of the back ground, makes not an
unpleasing coup d'oeil. It is neither irregular in its plan, nor despicable
in its style of building; and the churches and religious houses are numerous,
sumptuous, and highly ornamented.
The morning of our arrival, as many officers as could be spared from
the different ships were introduced to the Marquis de Brancifort,
Governor of the Canary Islands, whose reception was highly flattering
and polite.
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