El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-14

with party of seamen to get the an
chors off the forecastle to her bows
This was no light task, the reader may
be assured. for they were each about
forty-five hundred weight; and now
the ponderous cables ratified along the
deck as they were bent to the iron
rings.
We approached this singular island
from point that was new to me; but
still it's great and most familiar fea-
lures were the same as when 1 first
saw them from the deck of the Eu-
genie.
Estremera now reminded us that
when at Teneriffe we should not fail to
visit the two great sigh is of the island
the Valley of the Diamond and the
old Dragon tree Of Caora.
The wind was fresh and fair, but
felt light after sunset; and when the
high land Of the Grand Canary was on
our starboard beam it almost died
away. AS We crept on we saw the
lighthouse at the base of La Montana
Rexo, which in the warm sunset seem
ed to have turned into blood or port
wine, so deeply crimson was the glow
that fingered on the clouds and on the
shore; and then the vast peak-save
where girdled in midair by a light
floating vapor-seemed all of a deep
violet tint dotted at its base by the
white walls of houses, or of sugar mills
and by groves of cocoa and rosewood
trees.
By midnight we were abreast Of it,
and all was darkness at last save
where the millions of stars were spar
king in the wide blue dome of the
sky.
Hislop and I were in the morning
watch when the ship arrived off the
mouth OF thu harbor OF Santa Cruz
that pretty Town which Humboldt
termed the most beautiful between
Spain and the Indies.
A flash that broke the darkness, with
light puff of smoke floating away
from the olu castle walls, indicated the
morning gun, and that dawn was Wis
ible.
1t seemed as if it were but yesterday
when the Eugene and the Costa Rican
brig had worked out Of the same har-
Dor together, in the same species of
dull twilight, and that all which had
PoooCu oAhSS IAdl IllaS Adu UcSu q
dream.
We beat in with the breeze ahead.
The light of another day was rapidly
descending from the summit Of the
peak, and already that green girdle
named the Region of Laurels was
shining in the sunbeam; so ere long we
saw the windows of the custom house.
which stands above the long mole, and
all the shaded lattices Of the terraced
streets OF Santa Cruz, glittering in gold
and purple sheen.
The anchors were ready TO be let go:
the chain cables were ranged upon
deck in long coils that ran fore and
aft; we tackled repeatedly, and each
time the tacks became shorter and
more frequent.
Ready about! Presto! down with
the helm-let fly the head-sheetsi"
were the orders heard necessarily
from Estremera and Manuel Gautier.
The yards slowed around sharply and
the canvas tapped with a sound like
the cracking of musketry; at last the
anchor was let go about half mile
from the shore in thirty fathoms of
water and the ship swung round head
to wind as her courses were brailed
up, and the men hurried aloft to
hand the topsails and topgallant sails;
so she was soon denuded OF her can
vas.
When the anchor plunged into the
frothy water, making a thousand con-
centric ripples run from the ship; and
when 1 felt, by the instant strain
upon the cable, that she had firm hold
Of the ground, my heart swelled with
unalloyed happiness; for to be in Ten
eriffe was to be far on the watery high
road to my home.
Santa Cruz being the capital of these
isles, is the residence of the captain
general of the Canaries, the seat of the
supreme court of law, and of all the
and commissaries of foreign
powers, whose various flags, when dis
played upon their houses, make the
handsome streets as gay in aspect as
The harbor, which is always crowded
by the shipping of every nation.
A custom house boat, with the Span
sh ensign floating at the stern, came
promptly off with an official, a dandied
,reOle in uniform, with a sombrero on
MS curly head, a saber at his side,
and a cigar In his mouth. To him
Capt. Estremera made a full report of
he mutiny which had broken out in
MS ship when off the African coast,
Ind the stern mode OF its suppression.
Hence. in two hours after, we had
the satisfaction On .aucnio el
Benito Ojed2, ,ne old tindal Of
the Lascars, and Fighter other rascals,
taken of to the castle of Santa Cruz in
q large open boat, guarded by twelve
Spanish soldiers, in charge of a lieu
tenant, Don Luiz Pineda.
/ can still recall the glance of i'm
potent and baff1ed malignity that An