Santa Cruz: the port and the road to La Laguna

“The road of Santa Cruz is situated before the town of the same name, on the South East side of the island. It is, as I am told, the principal road of Teneriffe, for shelter, capacity and the goodness of its bottom. It lies entirely open to the South East and South winds. But these winds are never of long continuance; and, they say, there is not an instance of a ship driving from her anchors on shore. This may, in part, be owing to the great care they take in mooring them, for I observed that all the ships we met with there, had four anchors out; two to the North East and two to the South West; and their cables buoyed up with casks. Ours suffered a little by not observing this last precaution.”

James Cook, 1776

“The road leading from Santa Cruz to Laguna runs a steep hill, which is very barren; but, lower down, we saw some fig trees and several corn fields. These are but small, and not thrown into ridges, as is practised in England. Nor does it appear that they can raise any corn here without great labour, as the ground is so encumbered with stones, that they are obliged to collect and lay them in broad rows, or walls, at small distances. […] Most of the laborious work in this island is performed by mules, horses appearing be scarce, and chiefly reserved for the use of the officers. They are of a small size, but well shaped and spirited. Oxen are also employed to drag their casks along upon a large clumsy piece of wood.”

William Anderson, 1776