1837.

All our preparations being completed, there embarked in the Beagle,
besides myself and Mr. Lushington, Mr. Walker, a surgeon and naturalist,
and Corporals Coles and Auger, Royal Sappers and Miners, who had
volunteered their services; and we sailed from Plymouth on the 5th July
1837.

TENERIFE. AQUEDUCT AT SANTA CRUZ.

The usual incidents of a sea voyage brought us to Santa Cruz in Tenerife,
where I landed on Wednesday 19th July 1837, about 2 o'clock in the
afternoon. There was a sort of table d'hote at 3 o'clock at an hotel kept
by an Englishman, at which I dined, and was fortunate in so doing as I
met there a German and several English merchants who were principally
engaged in the trade of the country. There was also a gentleman who had
been from his earliest years in the African trade for gums, etc.; and he
gave me many interesting particulars of the wild life the individuals so
occupied are compelled to lead. In the afternoon I made a set of magnetic
observations and then walked out to see the aqueduct; which at about
three-quarters of a mile to the north-east of the town approaches it by a
passage cut through a mountain. The execution of this work must have been
attended with immense labour, for, although the design is grand and
noble, the actual plan upon which it has been completed was by no means
well conceived. The average depth of this cut is at least one hundred and
twenty feet, its length is about one hundred and eighty, whilst its
breadth in many parts is not more than four.

Previously to the construction of this aqueduct the town of Santa Cruz