o return, the
ladies both embraced me, and we began our journey down the hill, having
first looked into the churches, which are spacious and handsome, a good
deal in the style of those of Madeira, but finer.

As we rode along, we observed a large Dominican convent, the only one
now on the island. The recent law passed by the Spanish Cortes for the
suppression of religious houses, has been strictly enforced here. No
more than one convent of each denomination is allowed to subsist, and
great checks are put on the profession of new members. As to the
revolution here, the inhabitants had known from authentic though not
official authority of what had taken place in the mother country, three
weeks before they received any notification from either court or cortes.
When notice did arrive, the magistrates assembled the people, read their
orders, and took their oaths to support the cortes; the people shouted,
and made a bonfire: next day the forms of law and justice were declared
to be changed, the tribunals proceeded accordingly, and all was over and
quiet.

The Canary Islands boast of two bishoprics, both of which are now
vacant, yet have not one newspaper. The only printing press has been so
long in disuse that there is nobody who can work it in the country. I
could not learn that there are any manufactures in Teneriffe; if there
are, I conclude they must be in the neighbourhood of Laguna or Santa
Cruz. Oratava appears to be the district of corn and wine.

We returned to the port by a longer road than that by which we left it.
In the hedges, the boys, with no small delight, gathered fine ripe
black-berries, which were growing among prickly pear and other tropical
plants. The fields, vineyards, and orchards we had seen from the former
road we now passed through; and as it was a _fiesta_, we saw the
peasants in their best attire, and their little mud huts cleanly swept
and garnished. They seem gentle and lively, not much darker than the
natives of the south of Europe; and if there be a mixture of Guanche
blood, it is said to be traced in the high cheek-bones, narrow chins,
and slender hands and feet which in a few districts seem to indicate a
different race of men. I regret that I had not time to see more of the
people and the country; but not being travellers from curiosity, and
belonging to a service that may not swerve from the strictest obedience,
we dared not even think of a farther excursion.

Halfway down the hill, we