54 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. VII. 



to number and the peculiarities of their rock formation. These the 

 emigrants sailed from some time in the early part of the eighth 

 century. Now 714 was the year of the conquest of Spain by the 

 Arabs, and before this they had taken possession of Northern Africa, 

 whence it was but a short voyage to the Canaries. Not having access 

 to any of the Tarikhs or Chronicles of Maghreb and Andalus, or 

 Western Africa and Spain, the writer is unable to state when the 

 Canary Islands were invaded, and Sir William Muir's admirable work 

 on " The Caliphate " makes no mention of them ; but Sir William 

 Ouseley's statement, in the preface of the anonymous translator of 

 " Sadik Isfahani," that the Mahometan geographers calculated their 

 longitude from the Fortunate Isles eastward, would evidently indicate 

 an ancient acquaintance with them as the world's Ultima Thule in the 

 west. Whether the Arabs were the invaders, or the Berber tribes that 

 refused to obey the authorit}' of the Koran, fleeing before their arms, 

 sought refuge in the islands, a pressure of a hostile people took place 

 some time between the years 700 and 717. The result in any case was 

 the westward migration of, in all probability, the whole of the Iberic 

 population, and of a ver}- considerable number of the Guanches. If 

 any of the former, who, in the time of their inscriptions, were the 

 dorminant race, remained behind, the vocabularies both of proper 

 names and common words, as well as what chronicles survive, indicate 

 that they lost their identity, and forfeited their authority to the Celtic 

 Guanches. 



What were the circumstances of their long voyage straight in the 

 line of the tropic of Cancer, will probably never be known. The reason 

 why, on reaching the American islands and coasts, they did not take 

 up their abode on them, was, perhaps, the same that made them leave 

 their beautiful homes of many centuries, the presence, namely, of a 

 hostile population on these, and their desire to lead a peaceful life in 

 the New World. From at least 717 they built up their Toltec empire 

 in Mexico, pressed upon from time to time by new immigrants from 

 the north and west, until, after more than three centuries, they could 

 bear the pressure no longer, and took up their weary travels again. 

 Neither the Mexican account of their flight, nor the Peruvian story of 

 their sudden appearance at Cuzco, favours the idea of a second voyage 

 from the west coast, followed by a landing at a Southern Pacific 

 port. It is more likely that they made their way overland, through 

 Guatemala and the deadly Isthmus of Panama, helped here and there 

 by lakes and rivers, until, traversing the mountains of Colombia, they 

 found and named the Ucayali river, against whose tide they steered 



