1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

204

Tlie Wines of Tenerife.

the offc-recurring allusions in the works of the Elizabethan dramatists to "cups of cool Canary," and above aU Howell's- oft-quoted eulogium of Canary sack,I went these four or five hundred miles out of my way scarcely with reluctance. On board the steamer which conveyed me to Santa Cruz were a number of negro mercantile agents returning from England to the West Coast of Africa, who, after having encountered a series of severe gales in the Channel and off the Bay of Biscay, were just beginning to pick themselves up as the vessel touched Madeira. They were all decked out with an abundance of heavy jewellery,, wore velvet smoking-caps and gaily-embroidered slippers, and affected the indolent dignified airs of the best-bred African potentates. Among the few remaining passengers were a couj)le of Germans, one of whom was bent on making the ascent ofthe Peak at Tenerife,to witness the marvellous sunrise of which' Humboldt speaks—the sun seeming to rise like a ball of fire from out the sea itself,and not on the horizon—while his fellow- countryman was of an adventurous turn of mind, and provided, with a few maps,a pocket-compass,and a violin—in full faith, we suppose,in the axiom that music hath charms to soothe the savage breast—was intent upon solving some of the African problems which still perplex geographers. The captain of the- steamer, after gathering from him his proposed plan of pro ceeding, privately enunciated his opinion that before the- enthusiastic Teuton had penetrated twenty miles from the coast his guides would rob him and run away from him,and that the next party of blacks he fell in with wotdd assuredly eat him. Most people with any knowledge of Howell's Familiar- Letters—one of Thackeray's favourite' bedside books—will recollect the gossiping Clerk of the Council's lengthy epistle- on wines and other beverages to my Lord Cliff, wherein, when, recording the ancient adage that"good wine sendeth a man to heaven," he tells us that the saying may be most truly applied' to the far-famed sack of the Canary Isles, which,like sherry and madeira, can lay claim to a Shakspearean recognition.. Famous,however,as Canary wine was during the Elizabethau.