Chapter III.
June 1787
Reasons for touching at the Canary Isles--Precautions for preserving Health--Their admirable Success--Some Account of the Canaries--Fables respecting them--Attempt of a Convict to escape--Departure.
3 June 1787
The chief object proposed by Governor Phillip in touching at Teneriffe, was the obtaining a fresh supply of water and vegetables. It was adviseable also at this period to give the people such advantages and refreshments, for the sake of health, as this place would readily supply, but which can only be obtained on shore. In this, and every port, the crews, soldiers, and convicts, were indulged with fresh meat, fruit, vegetables, and every thing which could conduce to preserve them from the complaints formerly inevitable in long voyages. The allowance was, to the marines, a pound of bread, a pound of beef, and a pint of wine per man, daily: the convicts had three quarters of a pound of beef, and of bread, but no wine. The fruits obtained here were only figs and mulberries, but these were plentiful and excellent. How successfully precautions of every kind, tending to this great end, were employed throughout the voyage, the reports of the number of sick and dead will sufficiently evince.
Captain Cook had very fully shown, how favourable such expeditions might be made to the health of those engaged in them; and Governor Phillip was happy enough to confirm the opinion, that the success of his great predecessor, in this essential point, was not in any degree the effect of chance, but arose from that care and attention of which he has humanely given us the detail; and which, in similar circumstances, may generally be expected to produce the same result. If the number of convicts who died between the time of embarkation and the arrival of the fleet at this place, should seem inconsistent with this assertion, it must be considered that the deaths were confined entirely to that class of people, many of whom were advanced in years, or labouring under diseases contracted in prison or elsewhere, while they were yet on shore.
A week was passed at this place, during which time the weather was very moderate, the thermometer not exceeding 70° of Fahrenheit's scale. The barometer stood at about 30 inches.
The Governor of the Canaries, at this time, was the Marquis de Brancifort, by birth a Sicilian. He was resident as usual at Santa Cruz, and paid to Governor Phillip, and the other officers, a polite attention and respect equally honourable to all parties. The port of Santa Cruz, though not remarkably fine, is yet the best in the Canaries, and the usual place at which vessels touch for refreshment; the residence of the Governor General is therefore fixed always in Teneriffe, for the sake of a more frequent intercourse with Europe: in preference to the great Canary Isle, which contains the Metropolitan church, and the palace of the Bishop. The Marquis de Brancifort has lately established some useful manufactures in Teneriffe.
To enter into much detail concerning the Canary Islands, which lie exactly in the course of every ship that sails from Europe to the Cape, and consequently have been described in almost every book of voyages, must be superfluous. A few general notices concerning them may, perhaps, not be unacceptable. They are in number about fourteen, of which the principal, and only considerable are, Canary, Teneriffe, Fortaventure, Palma, Ferro, Gomera, Lancerotta. Their distance from the coast of Africa is from about forty to eighty leagues. The circumference of Teneriffe is not above one hundred and twenty miles, but that of Canary, or as it is usually called, the Great Canary, is one hundred and fifty. They have been possessed and colonized by Spain from the beginning of the 15th century.
There is no reason to doubt that these are the islands slightly known to the ancients under the name of Fortunate: though the mistake of Ptolemy concerning their latitude has led one of the commentators on Solinus to contend, that this title belongs rather to the Islands of Cape Verd. Pliny mentions Canaria, and accounts for that name from the number of large dogs which the island contained; a circumstance which some modern voyagers, perhaps with little accuracy, repeat as having occasioned the same name to be given by the Spaniards. Nivaria, spoken of by the same author, is evidently Teneriffe, and synonymous, if we are rightly informed, to the modern name*. Ombrion, or Pluvialia, is supposed to be Ferro; where the dryness of the soil has at all times compelled the inhabitants to depend for water on the rains.
[* Occasioned by the perpetual snows with which the Peak is covered. Tener is said to mean snow, and itte or iffe a mountain, in the language of the island.]
If the ancients made these islands the region of fable, and their poets decorated them with imaginary charms to supply the want of real knowledge, the moderns cannot wholly be exempted from a similar imputation. Travellers have delighted to speak of the Peak of Teneriffe, as the highest mountain in the ancient world, whereas, by the best accounts, Mont Blanc exceeds it* by 3523 feet, or near a mile of perpendicular altitude. The Isle of Ferro, having no such mountain to distinguish it, was celebrated for a century or two on the credit of a miraculous tree, single in its kind, enveloped in perpetual mists, and distilling sufficient water for the ample supply of the island.** But this wonder, though vouched by several voyagers, and by some as eye-witnesses, vanished at the approach of sober enquiry, nor could a single native be found hardy enough to assert its existence. The truth is, that the Canary Isles, though a valuable possession to Spain, and an excellent resource to voyagers of all nations, contain no wonders, except what belong naturally to volcanic mountains such as the Peak, which, though it always threatens, has not now been noxious for more than eighty years***.
[* The height of Mont Blanc, on a mean of the best accounts, is 15,673 English feet from the level of the sea, Teneriffe 12,150.]
[** Clipperton speaks of it as a fact, Harris's Voyages, Vol. I. p. 187. Mandelsloe pretended to have seen it, ibid. p. 806. Baudrand was the first who by careful enquiry detected the fiction. An account of this imaginary tree, curious from being so circumstantial, is here given from a French book of geography, of some credit in other respects. "Mais ce qu'il-y-a de plus digne de remarque, est cet arbre merveilleux qui fournit d'eau toute l'isle, tant pour les hommes que pour les bêtes. Cet arbre, que les habitans appellent Caroë, Garoë, ou Arbre Saint, unique en son espéce, est gros, et large de branches; son tronc a environ douze pieds de tour; ses feuilles sont un peu plus grosses que celles des noiers, et toujours vertes; il porte un fruit, semblable à un gland, qui a un noiau d'un goût aromatique, doux et piquant. Cet arbre est perpétuellement convert d'un nuage, qui l'humecte partout, en sorte que l'eau en distille goutte à goutte par les branches et par les feuilles, en telle quantité qu'on en peut emplir trente tonneaux par jour. Cette eau est extrémement fraiche, claire, fort bonne a boire, et fort saine. Elle tombe dans deux bassins de pierre que les insulaires ont bâtis pour la recevoir. La nuage qui couvre cet arbre ne se dissipe pas; settlement dans les grandes chaleurs de l'été il se diminue un peu; mais en échange la mer envoie une vapeur epaisse, qui se jette sur l'arbre, et qui supplée a ce manquement." Du Bois Geogr. Part. iii. ch. 17. Can all this have arisen from Pliny's arbores ex quibus aquae exprimantur?]
[*** See Captain Glasse's elaborate account of the Canaries, and Captain Cook's last Voyage.]
The capital of Teneriffe is Laguna, or more properly San Christoval de la Laguna, St. Christopher of the Lake, so called from its situation near a lake. Both this and Santa Cruz are built of stone, but the appearance of the latter is more pleasing than that of Laguna. They are distant from each other about four miles. The capital of the Great Canary, and properly of the whole government, is the City of Palms: But that place has been for some time the centre of ecclesiastical government only. The custom of reckoning the first meridian as passing through these isles was begun by Ptolemy; and perhaps it is still to be wished that the French regulations on that subject were generally adopted.
9 June 1787.
Our ships were at length preparing to depart, when on the evening of the 9th of June, a convict belonging to the Alexander, having been employed on deck, found means to cut away the boat, and make a temporary escape; but he was missed and soon retaken. It is not probable that he had formed any definite plan of escape; the means of absconding must have been accidentally offered, and suddenly embraced; and for making such an attempt, the vague hope of liberty, without any certain prospect, would naturally afford sufficient temptation.
10 June 1787
By the 10th of June the ships had completed their water, and early the next morning, the Governor gave the signal for weighing anchor, and the fleet pursued its course.
Report of the marines and convicts under medical treatment, given in to Governor Phillip, June 4th, 1787.
Charlotte, -- Marines 4 Convicts 16 Alexander, -- Marines 2 Convicts 26 Scarborough, -- Marine 1 Convicts 9 Friendship, -- Convicts 13 Lady Penrhyn, Convicts 11 Prince of Wales, Marines 2 Convicts 7 --- Total Marines 9 Convicts 72
Convicts dead since the first embarkation 21 Children of convicts 3
Of these only fifteen, and one child, had died since the departure from Spithead.