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



century before the conquest of the island ; and, in the course of the 

 15th, i6th and 17th centuries, they repeat with much frequency 

 miracles wrought by it and similar objects throughout the archi- 

 pelago, as well as in the said island of Tenerife ; so that, after 

 dispassionate critical judgment, there is nothing to do but accept the 

 historical fact of the presence of the effigy during these centuries. 

 There are those who observe that, in the fourteenth century, reports 

 were current of the presence of vessels of many different nationalities 

 in these seas, some pursuing legitimate commerce, but most entering 

 them in order to perpetrate all sorts of piracy ; and it is quite possible 

 that some one of these barks may have lost the said image, may have 

 bartered it as an article of trade, or have made a present of it out of 

 a spirit of religion. Some of our people have given heed to the version 

 of a friar, who asserted that the Virgin was the nymph or figure-head 

 from the prow of a ship, through observing in the hinder part of the 

 figure the marks of the rings whereby it was fastened. This image 

 disappeared, being carried out to sea in consequence of a terrible 

 inundation that visited the island in the twenty-sixth year of last 

 century. As the theogony of the Guanches was abundantly complex, 

 and they, beside being Sabaeans, were also idolaters, they supplanted 

 one of their idols by this new sculptured figure which had fallen into 

 their hands, giving to it special worship ; what, perhaps, contributed 

 to this being the counsel of a certain Guanche that, after a time of 

 captivity and civilization, it would bring them their own land, as the 

 chronicles relate. This is the foundation of the pious religious legends 

 of the Virgin of Candelaria, which our people have preserved, and of its 

 subsequent exaltation by the Catholic clergy. 



" The appearance of the image, according to the ancient historians 

 who had seen it, was as follows. It was of painted wood, compact but 

 not very heavy, and about five hands high, along with the pedestal 

 which was two fingers in thickness. Its colour was brown, the face 

 of a fair size, and the eyes large and full. The head was bare, with 

 the hair spread out on the shoulders and braided in six plaits. The 

 female figure carried a naked infant on the right arm, which in its time 

 grasped with both hands a little golden bird, and in the left hand was 

 a taper painted green, with a hole in the lower part for the purpose of 

 increasing it at will. It was fully clothed from the throat to the feet, 

 without any opening whatever. Its cloak was of blue and gold, 

 with much golden flower work behind, and, falling in front over the 

 shoulders, was attached at the breasts by a coloured cord of a span 

 wide. The left foot, a little uncovered by the skirt, was shod with 



