408
APPENDIX.
pilot, accompanied by the padre Lorenzo Pinedo, a holy Franciscan friar, skilled in natural science.
St. Borondon, however, refused to reveal his
island to either monk or mariner.
After cruising about in every direction,
sounding, observing the skies, the clouds, the winds, every thing that could furnish indications, they returned without having seen any thing to authorize a hope. Upwards of a century now elapsed without any new attempt to seek this fairy island.
Every now and then, it is true, the public mind was
agitated by fresh reports of its having been seen.
Lemons and other
fruits, and the green branches of trees which floated to the shores of Gomera and Ferro, were pronounced to be from the enchanted groves of St. Borondon.
A t length, in 1 7 2 1 , the public infatuation again rose to
such a height that a fourth expedition was sent, commanded by Don Gaspar Dominguez, a man of probity and talent.
A s this was an expedi足
tion of solemn and mysterious import, he had two holy friars as apostolical chaplains.
They made sail from the island of Teneriffe towards the end
of October, leaving the populace in an indescribable state of anxious curi足 osity mingled with superstition.
T h e ship, however, returned from its
cruise as unsuccessful as all its predecessors. W e have no account of any expedition being since undertaken, though the island still continued to be a subject of speculation, and occasionally to reveal its shadowy mountains to the eyes of favored individuals.
In a
letter written from the island of Gomera, 1759, by a Franciscan monk, to one of his friends, he relates having seen it from the village of Alaxero at six in the morning of the third of M a y .
It appeared to consist of two
lofty mountains, with a deep valley between ; and on contemplating it with a telescope, the valley or ravine appeared to be filled with trees.
He
summoned the curate Antonio Joseph Manrique, and upwards of forty other persons, all of whom beheld it plainly.* Nor is this island delineated merely in ancient maps of the time of Columbus.
It is laid down as one of the Canary islands in a French map
published in 1 7 0 4 ; and Mons. Gautier, in a geographical chart, annexed to his Observations on Natural History, published in 1 7 5 5 , places it five degrees to the west of the island of Ferro, in the 29th deg. of N . lati足 tude.]Such are the principal facts existing relative to the island of St.
* Viera. Hist. Isl. Can. torn. i. cap. 28.
1 Idem.