I left Santa Cruz and Las Palmas, after two short visits, with the conviction that both are on the highway of progress, and much edified by their contrast with Funchal. The difference is that of a free port and a closed port. In the former there is commercial, industrial, and literary activity: Las Palmas can support two museums. In the latter there is neither this, that, nor the other. Madeira also suffers from repressed emigration. The Canaries wisely allow their sons to make gold ounces abroad for spending at home. Spain also, a few years ago so backward in the race, is fast regaining her place amongst the nations. She is now reaping the benefit of her truly liberal (not Liberal) policy. Such were the abolition of the _morgado_ (primogeniture) in 1834, the closing of the 1,800 convents in 1836-37, and the _disamortizacion_, or suppression of Church property and granting liberty of belief, in 1855. Finally, the vigour infused by a short--which will lead to a longer--trial of democracy and of republican institutions have given her a new life. She is no longer the Gallio of the Western world. CHAPTER X. THE RUINED RIVER-PORT AND THE TATTERED FLAG. On the night of January 10 we steamed out of Las Palmas to cover the long line of 940 miles between Grand Canary and Bathurst. The A. S. S. generously abandons the monopoly of the Gambia to its rival, the B. and A., receiving in exchange the poor profits of the Isles de Los. Consequently the old Company's ships, when homeward-bound, run directly from Sierra Leone to Grand Canary, a week's work of 1,430 knots.