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before we failed the commodore obliged every man to go to confeffion ; he alfo ftri£tlyforbade any woman being taken on board.
The 20th September we failed from San Lucar , fleering towards the fouth-wefl,and on the 26th reached one of the Canary iflands called Teneriffe, fituate in twenty-eight degrees of latitude north. We flopped here for three days, at a fpot where wecould take in wood and water : afterwards we entered a port of the fame ifland calledMonte Rofi'o, where we palled two days.
A fingular phenomenon was related to us refpeding this ifland ; viz. that it neverrains here, and that it has neither fpring nor river, but that it produces a large tree,the leaves of which continually diftil excellent water; this is collected in a pit at thefoot of the tree, and hither the inhabitants go for what water they want, and all theanimals tame and wild to quench their thirfl. This tree is perpetually encircled by a.thick mill which doubtlefs fupplies its leaves with water # .
On Monday 3d Odtober we made fail diredlly towards the fouth. We paflfed be-tween Cape Verb and its iflands in latitude fourteen degrees thirty minutes north.After coafling along the fhores of Guinea for feveral days we arrived in latitude eightdegrees north, where is a mountain called Sierra Leona . We here experienced con-trary winds, or dead calms with rain, which continued to the equinoctial line ; theduration of the rainy weather was fixty days, a circumflance that controverts thehypothefis of the ancients f.
In latitude fourteen degrees north we experienced very impetuous fqualls, which,joined to the currents, prevented our advancing. On the approach of thefe fquallsWe had the precaution of taking in our fails, and laid to until the wind abated.
In clear and calm weather, large fifh called tiburoni (fharks) fwam about our veiTel.Thefe fifh have feveral rows of frightful teeth ; and if unhappily they chance to meetwith a man in the fea they inflantly devour him. We caught feveral with ironhooks; the large ones are by no means good to eat, and the fmaller are but of littlee fteem J.
In ftormy weather we frequently faw what is called the corpo fanto, or St. Elme-On one very dark night it appeared to us like a brilliant flambeau on the fummit of alarge tree, and thus remained for the fpace of two hours, which was a matter of greatconfolation to us during the temped. At the inflant of its difappearing, it diffufed
. * This is a tale of ancient date The learned pretend that this ifland is the Plnvialis, or Ombrion, men-tioned by Pliny , (lib vi. c 37.) and placed by l.im among the Canaries : he fays that in the firft rain-water® n ly is drunk, and that in tht ftcond it never rains ; but that the inhabitants colled! the water which diftilsroia the brances of a tree Later navigators who have vifiied the ifland, 1 y nothing of this phenomenon.Amor. The tree is affirmed to have had extftence by Bory de St. Vincent, on refpeftable authority..Lng. Tr.
t The ancients imagined that no rain fell between the tropics, and confequently deemed this-T e R'on uninhabitable. Amor. For feme entirely novel, valuable, and ingenious remarks refpefting theinfluence of the fun on the equatorial region, fee the termination or Chap. III. of a Voyage of Difcoverythe Southern Iflands, in this collection of voyages. Eng Tr.
. t There are many fpecies of fharks, The celebrated Spallanzani , lately loft to the univerfity of Padua,A the naturalift, who of all others has belt deferibed this fifh, efpeeially as to what refpedts its form, itstl vJ 8 ' ail< ^ ^’ e u ^ e '* s tcet h- (Viaggi alle due Sicilie , tom iv.) We have in the mufeum of our libraryte head of a fhark. the mouth of which, when open, meafures two feet perpendicular ; it has five rows ofJj et h, and each tooth is an inch and a half in length, from which we may conclude how large the animalu t have been to which it belonged. It is probable Septala found the teeth he mentions in the hills ofA^T° na (fe e Muf. Sept. p. 225*)} where I myfelf difeovered fome at the period of rebuilding the caftle.
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