Journey and Description by J. G. Milbert

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Literature · Subcategory: Literary fragments · Year: 1800 · Authors: Jacques Géreard Milbert

Jacques Gérard Milbert (Paris, 1766 - Paris, 1840) was a French artist and naturalist who participated as a draftsman in the scientific expedition sponsored by Napoleon's government in 1800 destined for Australia. Commanded by Captain Nicolas Baudin, it also included Bory de Saint-Vincent, Louis C. D. de Freycinet and François Peron, all scientists who, during the nearly two weeks they stopped at the port of Santa Cruz (from 1 to 13 November 1800), left written various observations about the city, the island and the rest of the archipelago. 

Milbert published in Paris in 1812 Picturesque Journey to the Isle of France, Cape of Good Hope and Island of Tenerife . In this work the author, in the first two chapters, provides a description of his passage through Tenerife and his brief stay in Santa Cruz. There are numerous references: windmills, salted fish trade, prickly pear plantations and other various aspects. His portrayal of island reality is not exactly kind. He writes harshly about the widespread poverty he observed and about Santa Cruz's character as a port centre that attracts trade, but also social outcasts, beggars and prostitutes who shamelessly offer themselves to visitors; now, that is, all maintaining their religiosity, with rosary in hand, reciting prayers and heading to the temples.

The description the Frenchman made of the rather prestigious houses he found in that Santa Cruz transitioning from the 18th to the 19th century is very interesting: 

«The main entrance consists of a covered hallway; on the entire ground floor there is a gallery divided by columns that support another upper gallery; in this gallery there are large rooms and storerooms; in the middle there are one or two very spacious courtyards, and a pond or cistern to collect rainwater»

Regarding the interiors, he comments:

«The ground floor rooms are closed with latticework, which protect them from the great heat of the day and maintain a pleasant coolness […] The interior of the rooms is excessively simple; the walls are painted and not wallpapered. The furniture is not refined; some engravings, very small mirrors and quite a few poor paintings representing saints or miracles can be seen. The sofa, for the use of the lady of the house, is the most elegant piece of furniture decorating the lounge. Finally, in a private room, there is a small oratory, normally decorated with natural flowers»

As for the exterior, Milbert writes: 

«Most of the houses are built with wood and whitewashed with lime; the inhabitants have the custom of whitewashing them again from time to time. It is impossible to fix the eyes on them when they directly reflect the sun's rays. The brightness of that whiteness dazzles and extraordinarily tires the sight […] The windows are well furnished with latticework […] Each of the frames opens separately at its lower part […] The roofs are Italian style, covered with red tiles in a corrugated shape. Normally, rich people have a lookout or belvedere in their houses, from where a wide perspective can be seen»

Milbert's text, ultimately, is a detailed and harsh description of those old mansions, now mostly disappeared, which were once built near the port and along the main streets and squares of that early 19th-century city.

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