rs ended in nothing less.
Purchas complains that he could not obtain the reading of some travels
by an Englishman who had visited the Peak; the good pilgrim's curiosity
had been strongly excited by the particulars he had learnt from books,
and the journals of some of his friends who had travelled, which he has
carefully related: they are such as to make me regret that he has not
recorded more, and that I cannot see more. We brought with us from
Oratava one of the finest goats I ever saw; I presume she was a
descendant of the original flock which the supreme deity of the Guanches
created to be the property of the kings alone: she is brown, with very
long twisted horns, a very remarkable white beard, and the largest udder
I ever saw.

29th. Passed the island of Hierro or Ferro, the old first meridian;
which honour, I presume, it enjoyed from having been considered as the
most western land in the world until the discovery of America. We were
very close to it, and all agreed that we never saw so hard-looking and
inaccessible a place. We saw some fine woods, a few scattered houses,
and one village perched upon a hill, at least 1500 feet above us. The
Peak of Teneriffe still visible above the clouds.

_Sept._ 1st. The flying-fish are become very numerous, and whole fleets
of medusae have passed us; some we have picked up, besides a very
beautiful purple sea-snail. This fish has four horns, like a snail, the
shell is very beautifully tinted with purple, and there is a spongy
substance attached to the fish which I thought assisted it to swim: it
is larger in bulk than the whole fish. One of them gave out fully a
quarter of an ounce of purple fluid from the lower part of the fish. A
fine yellow locust and a swallow flew on board; and as we believe
ourselves to be four hundred miles from the nearest land, Cape Blanco,
we cannot enough admire the structure of the wings that have borne them
so far.

Our school for the ship's boys is now fairly established, and does Mr.
Hyslop, our school-master, great credit; that for the midshipmen is
going on very well, being kept in the fore-cabin under the captain's
eye. The boys have his presence, not only as a check to idleness or
noise, but as an encouragement to industry. He is most anxious to make
them fit to be officers and seamen in their profession, and good men and
gentlemen both at sea and on shore. Happily they are all promising; but
if G---- should disappoint us, I never will bel