w paintings were to be seen; the best were half-lengths of some of the
saints disposed round the pulpit. The form of this building was a
quadrangle, the centre of which was laid out in garden-ground, elegantly
divided into walks, bordered with roses, myrtle, and a variety of other
shrubs and flowers. Hence we proceeded to the retreat of religious
females, but had not chosen the proper time for paying our respects,
which ceremony we therefore deferred until our return in the evening from
an excursion into the adjacent country.

The town of Laguna (a name which signifies Lake or Swamp) is situated
upon a plain surrounded by high hills, and watered by the same means as
Santa Cruz, from a great distance up the country. We noticed, indeed, two
stone-basins, and fountains playing in different streets of the place.
The buildings here had a manifest superiority over those of Santa Cruz,
the streets were far more spacious, and the houses larger. In some of the
former we perceived a regular line of shops filled chiefly with articles
from England. The insalubrity of the air of this place, however, had
driven, and was continuing to drive, such numbers almost daily from its
influence, that it had more the appearance of a deserted than of an
inhabited town, weeds and grass literally growing in the streets. As this
town decreased in its population, Santa Cruz, with some others on the
island, received the benefit; and it must be acknowledged, that although
in quitting Laguna they removed from fertile fields and a romantic
pleasant country, to uncouth and almost barren rocks at Santa Cruz, they
changed a noxious for a very healthy situation.

After viewing the town we remounted our beasts, and proceeded by the side
of the aqueduct into a most delightful country, where we found the people
cheerfully employed in gathering their harvest, and singing their rural
roundelays. The soil produced oats, barley, wheat, and Indian corn; but,
though it bore always two, and sometimes three crops, it was nevertheless
unequal in the whole of its produce to the consumption of the island, the
deficiency being supplied from the Grand Canary.

The sides of the hills were clothed with woods, into one of which we
rode, and arriving at a place named Il Plano de los Vieios, or the Plain
of the Old People, we rested for some little time, and afterward,
crossing through a cultivated valley, ascended the hill on the opposite
side, where we visited the source of