is coffee and plantains in full growth, as
well as a magnificent Spanish chestnut-tree, coeval with the
dragon-tree. Out of one of its almost decayed branches a so-called
young tree was growing, but it would have been thought very
respectable and middle-aged in any other locality.

Every one here, as in Madeira, has been more or less ruined by the
failure of the vines. Most of the large landed proprietors have left
their estates to take care of themselves; and the peasants, for the
last few years, have been emigrating by hundreds to Caraccas, in
Venezuela. Things are, however, beginning to look up a little now. The
cultivation of cochineal appears to succeed, though the price is low;
coffee answers well; and permission has been obtained from the Spanish
Government to grow tobacco, accompanied by a promise to purchase, at
a certain fixed rate, all that can be produced. Still, people talk of
the Island of Teneriffe as something very different now from what it
was twenty-five or thirty years ago, both as regards the number of its
inhabitants and the activity of its commerce, and mourn over 'the good
old times;'--a custom I have remarked in many other places!

[Illustration: A Palm-tree in a Garden, Orotava, Teneriffe.]

The Marquis de la Candia and Don Hermann Wildgaret returned on board
with us to breakfast. The anchor had been weighed, and the 'Sunbeam'
was slowly steaming up and down, waiting for us. The stream of
visitors had been as great and as constant as ever during our absence,
in spite of the heavy roll of the sea, and the deck seemed quite
covered with baskets of flowers and fruit, kindly sent on board by the
people who had been over the yacht the day before. Amongst the latest
arrivals were some very handsome Spanish ladies, beautifully dressed
in black, with mantillas, each of whom was accompanied by a young man
carrying a basin. It must, I fear, be confessed that this was rather a
trial to the gravity of all on board. It certainly was an instance of
the pursuit of knowledge, or the gratification of curiosity, under
considerable difficulties.

Immediately after breakfast, our friends bade us adieu, and went
ashore in the shore-boat, while we steamed along the north side of the
island, past the splendid cliffs of Buenavista, rising 2,000 feet
sheer from the sea, to Cape Teno, the extreme western point of
Teneriffe. In the distance we could see the Great Canary, Palma, and
Hierro, and soon passed close to th