Narrative of a Voyage to Tenerife

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Literature · Subcategory: Literary fragments · Year: 1837 · Authors: William Robert Wilde

William Robert Wilde (Kilkeevin, 1815-Dublin, 1876) was an Irish physician specialised in ophthalmology and founder of St. Mark's Ophthalmic Hospital in his hometown. His medical training and professional activity did not prevent him from becoming passionate about ethnography, researching Irish folklore and Celtic myths. He wrote several technical works and, despite his ardent Irish nationalism, was appointed oculist to Queen Victoria and knight of the British Empire. Father of the great poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, William Robert Wilde died honoured and distinguished.

He was an energetic, active and tireless traveller with an unlimited curiosity for many and varied aspects. In 1837 he embarked for Madeira and the Canaries, accompanying one of his patients who suffered from tuberculosis. His observations on Tenerife and its inhabitants demonstrate brilliance and deep insight. His book Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, Tenerife and along Shores of Mediterranean , published in 1840, had a strong impact among the general public and especially among English doctors, presenting the island as an ideal place for the cure of European patients, especially those suffering from pulmonary diseases. A section of this book, the one referring to his trip to Tenerife, has been published independently in recent years. It narrates the visit he made to Santa Cruz on 7 November 1837. Noteworthy is the irony with which the author expresses himself when defining the British sailors who had caused, in an act of vandalism some time before, damage and mutilations to the ensemble of the Triumph of Candelaria.

"The city of Santa Cruz is clean and the part near the sea much more so than Funchal; in the centre there is a pretty square, the Plaza de la Constitución. In it stands the famous statue of the Virgin, Our Lady of Candelaria, of good workmanship and fine Carrara marble. It commemorates the conversion, in 1392, of the four Guanche kings who are placed as supports of the pedestal, each holding a femur in their hands. Why? I could not find out. However, they only enjoy one nose; the three lost can be found in the collection of curiosities of our midshipmen, who, as could be expected of such people, could not miss the opportunity to make themselves noticed for their good taste, sense and decorum."

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