234 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
IIl].—Tur History oF THE CANARY ISLANDS. 
Of the original peopling of the Canary Islands nothing definite is 
known. The existence of the group was made known to the Romans be- 
fore 79 B.C., for in that year Sertorius, according to Plutarch, expressed 
his intention of sailing over to them and passing the remainder of his 
life in the peaceful repose of their perennial verdure and natural beauty. 
Pliny, the elder, informs us that, soon after this, Sebosus gave a descrip- 
tion of the islands, from which he took some meagre extracts, as he did 
also from a similar record by Juba, king of Mauritania. In so far as 
literature is concerned, the islands were lost sight of till 1330, A.D., when 
a French vessel, driven out of her course, sighted them. Seven years 
later, Spain sought to subdue them, but only succeeded in getting a foot- 
hold in Lancerotta between 1360 and 1370, and in conquering the whole 
archipelago in 1495. The natives were brave, and made a stout resist- 
ance. The oldest book treating of them is entitled, “ Histoire de la 
première descouverte et conqueste des Canaries faite des l’an 1402, par 
Jean de Bethencourt, Chambellan du Roy Charles VI. escrite par P. 
Bontier et J. LeVerrier, mise en lumière par Galion de Bethencourt,” and 
was published in Paris in 1629, Then, in 1632, a Spanish friar of the 
island of Palma, named Juan de Abreu de Galineo, wrote in his native 
language a manuscript concerning the islands, which was translated by 
the Englishman Glas, and published by him in 1764 as “‘ A history of the 
Discovery and Conquest of the Canary Islands, translated from a Spanish 
MS., with the modern History of the inhabitants, by Glas.” Among recent 
books on the subject is “The Fortunate Isles,” by HE. Pégot Ogier, 
translated by Frances Locock. Malte Brun, Réclus, and other encyclopedic, 
geographers furnish information concerning the islands and their people 
As a distinct race, the Guanches, for thus the natives of the Canaries 
called themselves, have vanished. They were not exterminated, but have 
gradually been merged in the general population, and their language has 
been superseded like the Cornish. The writers who knew them do not 
agree in their portraiture. Some speak of them as a white race of con- 
siderable stature and bold features, among whom red hair was not un- 
known, while others regard them as darker than a European, of medium 
height, and with straight black hair, and beard,if any. This contradic- 
tion indicates a mixed population, a fact which there are now, for the 
first time, means to confirm. The few remains of the Guanche language 
preserved by old writers are identical with words of the same meaning in 
the Berber dialects of Northern Africa. The Berber languages are Celtic. 
Pégot Ogier and other French writers agree that the Guanches are 
Berbers, and also that they may be put down as exclusively of Celtic 
origin. The Guanche vocabulary is Berber, and the Berber grammar is 
