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The History of the Royal-Society of London 1667, S. 200
A RELATION OF THE PICO TENERIFFE
Receiv´d from some considerable Merchants and Men worthy of Credit, who went to the top of it.
Having furnish´d our selves with a Guide, Servants, and Horses to carry our Wine and Provisions, we set out from Oratava, a Port Town in the Island of Tenariffe, scituated on the North of it at two miles distant from the main Sea. We travelled from twelve at night till eight in the morning, by which time we got to the top of the first Mountain towards the Pico de Terraira; here, under a very great and conspicuous Pine tree, we brake our fast, dined and refresht our selves, till two in the afternoon; then we proceeded through much Sandy way, over many lofty Mountains, but naked and bare, and not covered with any Pine trees, as our first nights passage was: this exposed us to excessive heat, till we arrived at the foot of the Pico; where we found many huge Stones,which seemed to have been fallen down from some upper part.
About six a clock this evening, we began to ascend up the Pico, but being now a mile advanced, and the way no more passable for our Horses, we quitted and left them with our Servants: In this miles ascent some of our company grew very faint and sick,disorder´d by fluxes,vomitings, and Aguish distempers, our Horses hair standing up right like Bristles: but calling for some of our Wine, which was carried in small Barrels on a Horse, we found it so wonderfully cold, that we could not drink it, till we had kindled a fire to warm it, although yet the temper of the Air was very calm and moderate. But when the Sun was set, it began to blow with that violence, and grew so cold, that taking up our lodging under certain great Stones in the Rocks, we were constreined to keep great fires before the mouthes of them all night. About four in the morning we began to mount again, and being come about a mile up, one of the Company fail´d, and was able to proceed no further. Here began the black Rocks. The rest of us pursued our Journey till we came to the Sugar-leaf, where we begin to travel again in a white sand,being fore-shod with shooes whose single soles are made a finger broader than the upper leather, to encounter this difficult and unstable passage; being ascended as far as the black Rocks, which are all flat, & lie like a pavement,we climbed with in a mile of the very top of the Pico, and at last we gained the Summit, where we found no such smoak as appeared a little below, but a continual breathing of a hot and sulphurous Vapoura which made our faces extreamly sore.
In this passage we found no considerable alteration of Air, and very little Wind; but being at the top, it was so impetuous, that we had much ado to stand against it, whilst we drank the Kings health, and fired each of us a peece. Here we also brake fast, but found our Strong-water had quite lost its force, and was become almost insipid, whilst our Wine was rather more spirituos and brisque than it was before.
The top on which we stood, being not above a yard broad, is the brink of a Pit called the Caldera, which we judged to be about a Musquet-shot over, and neer fourscore yards deep, in shape like a cone, within hollow like a Kettle or Cauldron, and all over cover´d with small loose Stones mixt with Sulphur and Sand, from amongst which issue divers Spiracles of smoak and heat, when stirred with any thing puffs and makes a noise, and so offensive, that we were almost stifled with the sudden Emanation, of Vapours upon the removing of one of these Stones, which are so hot as they are not easily to be handled. We descended not above four or five yards into the Caldera, in regard of its sliding from our feet and the difficulty. But some have adventured to the bottom. Other observable materials we discover´d none, besides a clear sort of Sulphur, which looks like Salt upon the Stones.
From this famous Pico, we could ken the Grand Canaria, fourteen leagues distant, Palma eighteen, and Gomera seven leagues, which interval of Sea seemed to us not much larger than the River of Thames about London: We discerned also the Herro, being distant above twenty leagues, and so to the: outmost limits of the Sea, much farther. So soon as the Sun appeared, the shadow of the Pico seemed to cover, not only the whole Island, and the Grand Canarie, but the Sea to the very Horison, where the top of the Sugar-loaf or Pico visibly appeared to turn up and cast its shade into the Air it self, at which we were much surprised: But the Sun was not far ascended, when the Clouds began to rise so fast, as intercepted our prospect both of the Sea, and the whole Island, excepting only the tops of the subjacent Mountains, which seem´d to pierce them through: Whether these Clouds do ever surmount the Pico we cannot say, but to such as are sar beneaths they some times seem to hang above it, or rather wrap thems selves about it, as consstantly when the North-west Wind blows; this they call the Cappe, and is a certain prognostick of ensuing Storms.
One of our company, who made this journey again two years after, arriving at the top of the Pico before day, and creeping under a great Stone to shrowd himfelf from the cold Air (after a little space) found himself all wet, and perceived it to come from a perpetual trickling of water from the Rocks above him. Many excellent and very exuberant Springs we found issuing from the tops of most of the other Mountains, gushing out in great Spouts, almost as far as the huge Pine tree which we mention´d.
Having stay´d some time upon the top, we all descended by the Sandy way till we came to the foot of the Sugar-loaf, which being steep, even to almost a perpendicular, we soon passed. And here we met a Cave of about ten yards deep, and fifteen broad, being in shape like an Oven or Cupola, having a hole at the top which is neer eight yards overs; by this we descended by a Rope, which our Servants held at the top, whilst the other end being fastned about our middles, we swing our selves, till being over a Bank of Snow, we slidedown and light upon it. We were forced to swing thus in the descent, because in the middle of the bottom of this Cave, opposite to the overture at the top, is a round Pit of water, resembling a Well, the surface where of is about a yard lower than the Snow, but as wide as the mouth at top, and is about six fathom deep. We suppose this Water not a Spring, but dissolved Snow blown in, or Water trickling through the Rocks.
About the sides of the Grot, for some height, there is Ice and Icicles hanging down to the Snow. But being quickly weary of this excessive cold place, and drawn up again, we continued our descent from the Mountains by the same passages we went up the day before, and so about five in the evening arrived at Oratava, from whence we set forth, our Faces so red and sore, that to cool them, we were forced to wash and bathe them in Whites of Eggs.
The whole height of the Pico in perpendicular is vulgarly esteem´d to be two miles and a half. No Trees, Herbs, or Shrubs in all the passage but Pines, and amongst the whiter Sands a kind of Broom, being a bushy Plant; and at the side where we lay all night, a kind of Cordon, which hath Stems of eight foot high, the Trunk near half a foot thick, every Stem growing in four squares, and emerging from the ground like Tuffets of Rushes; upon the edges of these Stems grow very small red Buttons or Berries, which being squeezed producd a poysonous Milk, which lighting upon any part of a Horse, or other Beast, fetches off the hair from the skin immediately; of the dead part of this we made our fires all night. This Plant is also universally spread over the Island, and is perhaps a kind of Euphorbium
Rast Scory
Nachdem wir die Herren Scory und Edens sowie die unbenannten Kaufleute auf den Pik hinauf und wieder herunter begleitet haben, gönnen wir uns eine Rast und schauen uns die Schilderungen näher an. Aus dem VI. Buch der Allgemeinen Historie haben wir zuerst drei Abschnitte aus der Beschreibung von Teneriffa des Thomas Nicols, auch Nichols geschrieben. Die Sätze in runden Klammern waren ursprünglich Fußnoten, eventuell Zusätze von Schwabe oder schon von Nicols. Nicols wurde etwa im Jahr 1532 geboren und war1556 und auch später auf der Insel. Dann folgen die drei Berichte Scory 1582, Sprat 1680 und Edens 1715. Von Sprat gibt es noch eine Version in der deutschen Übersetzung von Dappers Africa. Zum Vergleich habe ich auch noch das englische Original mit aufgenommen. Soweit zur Form.
Nun zum Inhalt. Es ist leichter die angegeben Fakten zu bezweifeln, als sie zu bestätigen. Das englische yard – etwa 90 cm – wird immer als Elle – etwa 60
