CHAPTER IV - PASSAGE FROM TENERIFFE TO CUMANA

Summary

Having sailed from Santa Cruz on the evening of the 25th of June, with a strong wind from the north-east, our travellers soon lost sight of the Canary Islands, the mountains of which were covered with reddish vapour, the Peak alone appearing at intervals in the breaks. The passage from Teneriffe to Cumana was performed in twenty days, the distance being 3106 miles.

The wind gradually subsided as they retired from the African coast. Short calms of several hours occasionally took place, which were regularly interrupted by slight squalls, accompanied by masses of dark clouds, emitting a few large drops of rain, but without thunder. To the north of the Cape Verd Islands they met with large patches of floating seaweed (Fucus natans), which grows on submarine rocks, from the equator to forty degrees of latitude on either side. These scattered plants, however, must not be confounded with the vast beds, said by Columbus to resemble extensive meadows, and which inspired with terror the crew of the Santa Maria. From a comparison of numerous journals it appears that there are two such fields of seaweed in the Atlantic. The largest occurs a little to the west of the meridian of Fayal, one of the Azores, between 25° and 36° of latitude. The temperature of the ocean there is between 60·8° and 68°; and the north-west winds, which blow sometimes with impetuosity, drive floating islands of those weeds into low latitudes, as far as the parallels of 24° and even 20°.