commanded the boat.

The depravity of morals at St. Croix is extreme; so much so that when the
women heard that some Frenchmen were arrived in the town, they placed
themselves at their doors, and when they passed, urged them to enter. All
this is usually done in the presence of the husbands, who have no right to
oppose it, because the Holy Inquisition will have it so, and because the
monks who are very numerous in the island take care that this custom is
observed. They possess the art of blinding the husbands, by means of the
_prestiges_ of religion, which they abuse in the highest degree; they cure
them of their jealousy, to which they are much inclined, by assuring them
that their passion, which they call ridiculous, or conjugal mania, is
nothing but the persecution of Satan which torments them, and from which
they alone are able to deliver them, by inspiring their dear consorts with
some religious sentiments. These abuses are almost inevitable in a burning
climate, where the passion of love is often stronger than reason, and
sometimes breaks through the barriers which religion attempts to oppose to
it: this depravity of morals must therefore be attributed to inflamed
passions, and not to abuses facilitated by a religion so sublime as ours.

The Island of Teneriffe is not equal to that of Madeira: one cannot even
compare their agricultural productions, on account of the great difference
of their soils: but in a commercial view, Teneriffe has the advantage of
Madeira. Its geographical position in the middle of the Canaries, enables
it to carry on an extensive trade, while Madeira is confined to the sale
and exchange of its wines for articles of European manufacture.

The soil of Teneriffe is much drier; a great part of it is too volcanic to
be used for agriculture: every part of it however, which is capable of
producing anything is very well cultivated, which should seem to prove,