A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15: Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15: Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
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 S.E.
side of it, in the road of Santa Cruz, in twenty-three fathoms water;
the bottom, sand and ooze. Punta de Nago, the east point of the road,
bore N. 64° E.; St Francis's church, remarkable for its high steeple,
W.S.W.; the Pic, S. 65° W.; and the S.W. point of the road, on which
stands a fort or castle, S. 39° W. In this situation, we moored N.E. and
S.W. with a cable each way, being near half a mile from the shore.
We found, riding in this road, La Boussole, a French frigate, commanded
by the Chevalier de Borda; two brigantines of the same nation; an
English brigantine from London, bound to Senegal; and fourteen sail of
Spanish vessels.
No sooner had we anchored, than we were visited by the master of the
port, who satisfied himself with asking the ship's name. Upon his
leaving us, I sent an officer ashore, to present my respects to the
governor; and to ask his leave to take in water, and to purchase such
articles as we were in want of. All this he granted with the greatest
politeness; and, soon after, sent an officer on board, to compliment me
on my arrival. In the afternoon, I waited upon him in person,
accompanied by some of my officers; and, before I returned to my ship,
bespoke some corn and straw for the live stock; ordered a quantity of
wine from Mr McCarrick, the contractor, and made an agreement with the
master of a Spanish boat to supply us with water, as I found that we
could not do it ourselves.
The road of Santa Cruz is situated before the town of the same name, on
the S.E. side of the island. It is, as I am told, the principal road of
Teneriffe, for shelter, capacity, and the goodness of its bottom. It
lies entirely open to the S.E. and S. winds. But these winds are never
of long continuance; and, they say, there is not an instance of a ship
driving from her anchors on shore.[69] This may, in part, be owing to
the great care they take in mooring them; for I observed, that all the
ships we met with, there, had four anchors out; two to the N.E., and two
to the S.W.; and their cables buoyed up with casks. Ours suffered a
little by not observing this last precaution.
[Footnote 69: Though no such instance was known to those from whom
Captain Cook had this information, we learn from Glas, that some years
before he was at Teneriffe, almost all the shipping in the road were
driven on shore. See Glas's History of the Canary Islands, p. 235. We
may well suppose the precautions now used, have prevented any more such
accidents happening. This will sufficiently justify Captain Cook's
account.--- D.]
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