Thompson and Co. Agency

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Literature · Subcategory: Literary fragments · Year: 1907 · Authors: Jules Verne

The Thompson and Cía. agency is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne (1828-1905) published posthumously in chapters in "Le Journal", between 17 October and 25 December 1907. Recent studies have shown that it was extensively modified by Michel Verne, son of Jules Verne, being the work most altered by him.

[...] «For the first time since leaving London, the passengers could experience a genuine sensation of exoticism. Built at the exit of the Guiniguada ravine, on a succession of very uneven terrains, the city offers a totally oriental aspect. Its narrow streets, its white houses with flat roofs, justify to some extent the epithet of Kasbah with which Roger de Sorgues believed he should honour it.

Towards noon the Seamew finally anchored in the port of La Luz, about three kilometres from the city. [...]

The Guiniguada river divides Las Palmas into two unequal parts: the upper city, inhabited only by the nobility and officials, and the lower city, more especially commercial, which ends at the western promontory, at the tip of which stands the fortress of the Castle of the King. [...]

Las Palmas is a well-built city, with narrow and shady streets, but in which the nature of the terrain turns walking into a perpetual ascent, followed by a perpetual descent. Apart from the cathedral, in Spanish Renaissance style, it has few interesting monuments. As for the Moorish aspect of the city, seen from the sea, it raises deceptive hopes, for seen up close the charm fades. Nothing less Moorish than the streets, the houses, the inhabitants, the latter offering to public admiration exclusively European, even French, elegance.

These were the limits of their travel impressions. And how could it have been otherwise? Had they lived the life of that people to appreciate their courtesy and refinement, corrected by a natural liveliness, which is too often the cause of knives coming out of their sheaths? Had they penetrated those dwellings with correct façades, but containing nothing more than small and dilapidated rooms, all the space being reserved for the reception room, whose dimensions are the pride of the Canarians? Could they know the soul of that people, in which the fierceness and pride of the old nobleman mix with the proud simplicity of the Guanche, another of their ancestors, the latter despised?

This is the consequence of rapid travels. Man, too complicated, does not fall under its dominion. Only nature can be penetrated with a glance.» [...]

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