PASSAGE OF THE RESOLUTION TO TENERIFFE.—RECEPTION THERE.—DESCRIPTION OF SANTA CRUZ ROAD.—REFRESHMENTS TO BE MET WITH.—OBSERVATIONS FOR FIXING THE LONGITUDE OF TENERIFFE.—SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ISLAND.—BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS.—CITIES OF SANTA CRUZ AND LAGUNA.—AGRICULTURE.—AIR AND CLIMATE.—COMMERCE.—INHABITANTS.
We had not been long out of Plymouth Sound, before the wind came more westerly, and blew fresh, so that we were obliged to ply down the Channel; and it was not till the 14th, at eight in the evening, that we were off the Lizard.
On the 16th, at noon, St. Agnes’s lighthouse on the Isles of Scilly, bore north-west by west, distant seven or eight miles. Our latitude was now 49° 53ʹ 30ʺ north, and our longitude, by the watch, 6° 11ʹ west. Hence, I reckon that St. Agnes’s light-house is in 49° 57ʹ 30ʺ north latitude, and in 6° 20ʹ of west longitude.
On the 17th[[79]] and 18th we were off Ushant, and found the longitude of the island to be, by the watch, 5° 18ʹ 37ʺ west. The variation was 23° 0ʹ 50ʺ, in the same direction.
With a strong gale at south, on the 19th, we stood to the westward, till eight o’clock in the morning; when, the wind shifting to the west and north-west, we tacked and stretched to the southward. At this time, we saw nine sail of large ships, which we judged to be French men-of-war. They took no particular notice of us, nor we of them.
At ten o’clock in the morning of the 22d, we saw Cape Ortegal; which at noon bore south-east, half south, about four leagues distant. At this time we were in the latitude of 44° 6ʹ north; and our longitude, by the watch, was 8° 23ʹ west.
After two days of calm weather we passed Cape Finisterre, on the afternoon of the 24th, with a fine gale at north north-east. The longitude of this Cape, by the watch, is 9° 29ʹ west; and, by the mean of forty-one lunar observations, made before and after we passed it, and reduced to it by the watch, the result was 9° 19ʹ 12ʺ.
On the 30th, at six minutes and thirty-eight seconds past ten o’clock at night, apparent time, I observed with a night-telescope, the moon totally eclipsed. By the ephemeris, the same happened at Greenwich at nine minutes past eleven o’clock: the difference being one hour, two minutes, and twenty-two seconds, or 15° 35ʹ 30ʺ of longitude. The watch, for the same time, gave 15° 26ʹ 45ʺ longitude west; and latitude 31° 10ʹ north. No other observation could be made on this eclipse, as the moon was hid behind the clouds the greater part of the time; and, in particular, when the beginning and end of total darkness, and the end of the eclipse, happened.
Finding that we had not hay and corn sufficient for the subsistence of the stock of animals on board, till our arrival at the Cape of Good Hope, I determined to touch at Teneriffe, to get a supply of these, and of the usual refreshments for ourselves; thinking that island, for such purposes, better adapted than Madeira. At four in the afternoon of the 31st, we saw Teneriffe, and steered for the eastern part. At nine, being near it, we hauled up, and stood off and on during the night.
At day-light, on the morning of the 1st of August, we sailed round the east Point of the island; and, about eight o’clock, anchored on the south-east side of it, in the road of Santa Cruz, in twenty-three fathoms water; the bottom, sand and owze. Punta de Nago, the east point of the road, bore north 64° east; St. Francis’s church, remarkable for its high steeple, west south-west; the Pic, south 65° west; and the south-west point of the road, on which stands a fort or castle, south 39° west. In this situation, we moored north-east and south-west, with a cable each way, being near half a mile from the shore.