The inhabitants of the iſland are beſet with religious prejudices from their earlieſt infancy. The children came running out of their habitations to enquire if we were of their religion; and we contented ourſelves with commiſerating the unfortunate beings, upon whom monkiſh bigotry and intolerance exert with unbounded rigour their pernicious ſway.
Moſt of the garden-walls in the country beyond Laguna, are ornamented with the beautiful plant called trichomanes canarienſe.
As we approached Orotava, our road led us down a very gentle declivity. We ſaw no more ſuch barren mountains as in the vicinity of St. Croix, where the luxuriance of the vegetable kingdom is only an indication of the ſterility of the ſoil; but verdant banks covered with vineyards, the produce of which conſtitutes the chief wealth of the iſland. The ſhrub termed boſca yervamora grows here in low ſituations.
At five o'clock in the evening we arrived at Orotava, where we were received by M. de Cologant, in the moſt hoſpitable manner.
Two veſſels, an Engliſh and a Dutch, were then at anchor in the road-ſtead, in order to take in a cargo of wine. The landing-place here is much more difficult of acceſs than that at St.
Croix,
