140 proceedings: anthropological society 



it merely reflects the civilized life of Plato's time on the Mediterranean 

 shores and 1 hrows no light on mankind in the Atlantic. He recited also 

 the description of a far western island, which seems to be Madeira, 

 given in the time of Julius Caesar by Diodorous Siculus, and added the 

 same esl imate. He held that this applies also to Plutarch's interesting 

 account of Ogyggia, possibly Ireland or Iceland and the continent be- 

 yond it; also to the Irish Sea romances, or Imrama, though the home 

 life which they at times repeated in their tales was very different from 

 the life of the Mediterranean. 



In the Geography of the Arab writer Edrisi (about 1154) we seem 

 to find, perhaps for the first time, notes of observations of real human 

 beings on the islands of the eastern Atlantic. A list of these was given 

 with most of the relevant items, showing great diversity in matters of 

 culture, perhaps also of race, but in part agreeing very well with four- 

 teenth and fifteenth century accounts of the Canary Islanders. His 

 sources were partly mythical, partly recent Arabic, and to some extent 

 probably also European, both classic and mediaeval. It is impractic- 

 able to identify each island; but some of them are doubtless to be located 

 among the Canaries, one is perhaps Madeira, and two or three at least 

 should be credited to the Azores. We have nothing certain and ex- 

 plicit concerning the latter after this time until the Portuguese coloni- 

 zation, which seems to have found no one in possession, but fortu- 

 nately there is a considerable body of information as to the Canary 

 Islanders. 



The speaker quoted from Major's introduction to the Canarien of 

 Bontier and Leverrier, a translation of a letter written at the end of 

 1341 by certain Florentine merchants dwelling in Seville, Spain, narrat- 

 ing an expedition to the Canary Islands that year, of three Portuguese 

 ships manned partly by Italian seamen. It constitutes one of the best 

 reports ever made of the people of the Canary Islands, who at that time 

 were less affected by European interference than afterward. 



Mr. Babcock mentioned a brief settlement of thirteen Spaniards in 

 Grand Canary in 1382, and also the conquest of the islands, begun by 

 Bethencourt in 1402 and completed about 1485. From the same source 

 (Major's introduction) the speaker quoted Azurara's narrative (in 

 the History of the Conquest of Guinea, published in 1448) of a slave 

 raid on the island of Palma, participated in by a Portuguese vessel in 

 1443, the quotation including some account of the inhabitants of the 

 other islands. Further quotations were given from Cadmosto's report 

 on the Canary Islands in 1455, about the middle of the conquest, some 

 of the islands being then still un conquered and pagan. The speaker 

 then gave, from the body of the Canarien, several selections presenting 

 similar anthropological matter. A few words as to matters of race and 

 culture closed the paper. 



The presentation of the paper was followed by a general discussion 

 of the subject in which the speakers were Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, Dr. 

 John R. Swanton and Dr. Truman Michelson. 



Frances Densmore, Secretary. 



