Stopover in Tenerife

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Literature · Subcategory: Literary fragments · Year: 1799-1804 · Authors: Alexander von Humboldt

In his book From the Orinoco to the Amazon the great Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (Berlin, 14 September 1769 - 6 May 1859) narrates the most interesting part of the journey he made between 1799 and 1804 to South America. Humboldt, regarded as a geographer, was in fact one of those enlightened scientists and complete naturalists who took geographical coordinates, visited mines, observed the sky, collected plants, gathered anthropological data from indigenous peoples and described all kinds of animal species. That is, a man of science in the fullest sense of the word.

On his stopover in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, he writes:

«[...] the Añaza of the Guanches is a rather beautiful town of 8,000 inhabitants. I will not stop to describe the churches; the Dominicans' library, with its scant two hundred volumes; the pier, a meeting place for the inhabitants at dusk to enjoy the cool air, and the famous monument, made of Carrara marble, 10 m high, dedicated to Our Lady of Candelaria in memory of her miraculous appearance in Chimisay, near Güímar, in the year 1392. The port of Santa Cruz is in reality a large caravanserai on the route to America and India [...]».

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