120 CANARY ISLANDS. 



island must have been a continuous chain of volcanos, for 

 all these islands are decidedly of volcanic origin ; and who- 

 ever will attentively examine the basaltic cliffs of the Giant's 

 Causeway, will soon discover sufficient cause to conclude 

 that the crater from which that melted matter flowed, was ac- 

 tually sunk, at some remote period of time, and became the 

 bottom of the Atlantic Ocean — a period, indeed, much be- 

 yond the reach of any historical monument or even of tra- 

 dition itself* And often, in strong easterly winds, vitri- 

 fied substances, as well as tufa and pumice-stones, are 

 washed up by the waves on the eastern shores of the An- 

 tilles, which tends to prove that the bottom of the ocean 

 from thence, towards the Cape de Verds, is covered with 

 the debris of some large volcano, that has consumed its 

 foundation, and buried itself beneath the ocean. 



The first writer among the Greeks who has made any 

 mention of the Atlantic Islands, is supposed to be Hesiod, 

 who speaks of the Hesperides and the Gorgons, about 640 

 years before the commencement of the Christian era. But 

 long before that period, some of the illustrious MyrmJdonian 

 navigators probably made occasional voyages to these and 

 other islands, either driven there by adverse winds, or 

 incited by an enterprising spirit, and gave rise to the various 

 traditions respecting the renowned country, Atkmtis, the 

 Elydaii Fields, the Gardens of the Hesperides, the 

 Fortunate Islands, and other delightful abodes, the beau- 

 ties of which were either heightened by the vanity of 

 the discoverer, or were the actual descriptions of the more 

 fertile regions and richer scenery of Teneriffe, Madeira, or 

 other Atlantic Isles. 



" When Sertorius, a native of Nursia, fled before the 

 arms of Sylla, and having passed the straits of Gades, 

 reached the coast of the river Bcetis, he there met with 

 some seamen who were but lately returned from the 

 Fortunate Islands, and spoke in the highest terms of the 

 beauty of the country." This circumstance is mentioned 

 by Plutarch in his life of Sertorius, w^ith the additional in- 

 formation, that the islands mentioned were two in number, 



Vide Whitchurst's Theory, p. 91. 



