The Strange Voyage and Adventures of Domingo Gonsales, to the World in the Moon/A Description of the Pike of Teneriff
Mention being made in the preceding Story of the Pike of Teneriff, it may be some Diversion to insert the following little Journey performed by divers Englishmen a few Years since to the Top, who published the following Account thereof.
The Pike of Teneriff is thought not to have its Equal in the World tor Height, its Top being so much above the Clouds, that in clear Weather it may be seen sixty Dutch Leagues at Sea. It cannot be ascended but in July and August, lying all the other Months covered with Snow, though upon this and the near adjacent Islands none is to be seen: It requires three Days travel to come to the top: The Merchants and other worthy Persons who undertook this Journey proceed thus. Having furnished ourselves with a Guide, Servants, and Horses to carry our Wine and vision, we let forth from Oratava, a Port Town in the Island of Teneriff, situate on the North Side, two Mile distant from the main Sea, and travelled from twelve at Night till eight in the Morning, by which time we got to the Top of the first Mountain toward the Pico de Terraira; there under a very large and conspicuous Pine Tree we took our Breakfast, dined, and refresht ourselves till two in the Afternoon. Then we passed through many sandy Ways, over many lofty Mountains, but naked and bare, and not covered with Pine Trees as our first Night’s Passage was; this exposed us to excessive Heat, till we arrived to the Foot of the Pico, where we found divers huge Stones, which seemed to have fallen from some upper Part: About six in the Evening we began to ascend up the Pico, but were scarce advanced a Mile, when the Way being no more passable for Horses, we left them with our Servants. In the Ascent of one Mile, some of our Company grew very faint and sick, disordered by Fluxes, Vomitings, and agueish Distempers, our Horses Hair standing up like Bristles, and calling for some of our Wine carried in small Barrels on an Horse, we found it so wonderfully cold, that we could not drink it till we had made a Fire to warm it, notwithstanding the Air was very calm and moderate, but when the Sun was set, it began to blow with such Violence, and grew so cold, that taking up our Lodging among the hollow Rocks, we were necessitated to keep Fires in the Mouths of them all Night.
About four in the Morning we began to mount again, and being come another Mile up, one of our Company failed and was able to proceed no further: Here began the black Rocks; the rest of us pursued our Journey till we came to the Sugar Loaf, where we began to travel again in a white Sand, being fitted with Shoes, whose single Soles are made a Finger broader than the upper Leathers, to encounter this difficult Passage: Having ascended as far the black Rocks, which lay all flat like, a plain Floor, we climbed within a Mile of the very Top of the Pico, and at last we attained the Summit, where we found no such Smoak as appeared a little below, but a continual Perspiration of a hot and sulphureous Vapour that made our Faces extremely sore; all this way we found no considerable Alteration of the Air, and very little Wind, but on the Top it was so impetuous, that we had much ado to stand against it whilst we drank K. Charles II. Health, and fired each of us a Gun. Here also we took our Dinner, but found that our strong Waters had lost their Virtue, and were almost insipid, while our Wine was more brisk and spirituous than before: The Top on which we stood being not above a Yard broad, is the Brink of a Pit called the Caldera, which we judged to be a Musket Shot over, and near fourscore Yards deep, in form of a Cone, hollow within like a Kettle, and covered over with small loose Stones mixed with Sulphur and Sand, from among which issued divers Spiracles of Smoak and Heat, which being stirred with any Thing puffs and makes a Noise, and is so offensive, that we were even suffocated with the sudden rising of Vapors, upon removing one of these Stones, which were so hot as not easily to be handled; we descended not above four or five Yards into the Caldera or Caldron, because of the Slipperiness under Foot, and the difficulty; but some have adventured to the Bottom: Other Matters observable we discovered none, besides a clear sort of Sulphur which lay like Salt upon the Stones: From this renowned Pico we could see the Grand Canaries fourteen Leagues, distant, Palma eighteen, and Gomera seven, which Interval of Sea seemed not much wider than the Thames about London; we discerned also the Herro, being distant about twenty Leagues, and so to the utmost Limits of the Sea much farther: As soon as the Sun appeared, the Shadow of the Pico seemed to cover not only the whole Island and the Grand Canaries, but the Sea to the very Horizon, where the Top of the Sugar-Loaf or Pico visibly appeared to turn up, and cast its Shade into the Air itself, at which we were much surprized.
But the Sun was not far ascended when the Clouds began to rise so fast, as intercepted our Prospect both of the Sea and the whole Island, except the Tops only of the subjacent Mountains, which seemed to pierce them through; whether these Clouds do ever surmount the Pico we cannot say, but to such as are far below they seem sometimes to hang above it, or rather wrap themselves about it, constantly when the Weft Winds blow; this they call the Cap, and is an infallible Prognostick of ensuing Storms: One of our Company who made this Journey again two Years after, arriving at the Top of the Pico before Day, and creeping under a great Stone to shroud himself from the cold Air, after a little Space found himself all wet, and perceived it to come from a perpetual trickling of the Water from the Rocks above him: Many excellent and exuberant Springs we found issuing from the Tops of most of the other Mountains, gushing out in great Spouts, almost as far as the huge Fine Tree we mentioned before; having stayed a while at the Top, we all descended the sandy Way till we came to the Foot of the Sugar-Loaf, which being steep even almost to a Perpendicular we soon paired, and here we met with a Cave about ten Yards deep and fifteen broad, being in Shape like an Oven or Cupola, having a Hole at the Top near eight Yards over; this we descended by a Rope that our Servants held fast on the Top, while with the other End being fattened about our Middles we swung ourselves, till being over a Bank of Snow we slid down, lighting upon it; we were forced to swing thus in the Descent, because in the Midst of the Bottom of this Cave opposite to the Overture at the Top, is a round Pit of Water like a Well, the surface whereof is about a Yard lower, but as wide as the Mouth at Top, and about six Fathom deep; we supposed this Water was not a Spring, but dissolved Snow blown in, or Water trickling through, the Rocks; about the Sides of the Grott for some Height there is Ice and Isicles hanging down to the Snow.
But being quickly weary of this excessive cold Place, and drawn up again, we continued our Descent from the Mountains by the same Passage we went up the Day before, and so about five in the Evening arrived at Oratava, from whence we set forth; our Faces were so red and sore that to cool them we were forced to wash and bathe them in whites of Eggs: The whole Height of the Pico in Perpendicular is vulgarly esteemed to be two Miles and an half. No Trees, Herbs nor Shrubs did we find in all the Passage, but Pines, and among the whiter Sands a kind of Broom being a bushy Plant: It is the Opinion of some ingenious Persons who have lived twenty Years upon the Place, that the whole Island being a Soil mightily impregnated with Brimstone, did in former Times take Fire, and blow up all or near all at the same Time; and that many Mountains of huge Stones calcined and burnt, which appear all over this Island, especially in the South-Weft Part of it, were cast up and raised out of the Bowels, of the Earth at the Time of that general Conflagration; and that the greatest Quantity of this Sulphur lying about the Center of the Island raised up the Pico to that Height at which it now is seen; which appears by the Situation of those Rocks that lye three or four Miles round the Bottom of the Pico, and in such Order one above another almost to the Sugar Loaf, as it is called, as if the whole ground swelling and rising up together by the Ascension of the Brimstone, the Torrents and Rivers of it did with a sudden Eruption roul and tumble them down from the rest of the Rocks; especially to the South-West, where from the Top of the Pico to the Sea coast lie huge Heaps of these burnt Rocks one under another, and there still remain the very Tracks of the Brimstone Rivers as they ran over this Quarter of the Island which hath so wasted the Ground, beyond Recovery, that nothing can be made to grow there but Broom.