8 Teneriffe. [Jan., 
of from 6,500 feet to the foot of the Peak, which is 7,817 feet, are 
several caves in the lower cliffs, containing bodies of the Guanches, 
or aborigines of Teneriffe. They were preserved in a manner very 
similar to that adopted by the ancient Egyptians. The internal 
cavities were filled with odoriferous gums, and the body was 
enveloped in the skins of goats, which had preserved in some degree 
their suppleness. Round the necks of some bodies I found in a 
cave in the Cafiadas del Pico, 7,700 feet above the sea, were neck- 
laces composed of small discs of baked clay, of different degrees of 
thickness. The necklaces are very similar in size and material to 
those I have seen round the necks of the preserved bodies of the 
ancient Indians of Peru, who employed them as numerical signs, 
and to record dates and events. One round the neck of a body 
discovered near Arica, in Peru, was almost identical with those I 
have seen round the necks of the embalmed Guanches. 
The history of the Guanches is involved in the greatest 
obscurity ; probably, they were a branch of the great Lybian 
stock. Plutarch calls the Canaries the Fortunate Isles, and it is 
conjectured that they were the site of the fabulous gardens of the 
Hesperides. Although the Canaries were visited by the Phcenicians, 
they were lost to the world for nearly fourteen centuries, from the 
time of Juba, a few years before the birth of Christ, till the year 
1330, when a French ship was driven on one of the islands. From 
that time various expeditions attempted their conquest; the 
principal one was headed by Jean de Bethencourt, a Norman noble, 
who landed in 1400, but was ultimately obliged to retire. The 
Spaniards ultimately reduced Teneriffe and the other islands in 
1493. At the time of the conquest, the island was governed by 
seven independent chiefs, whose manners and customs differed 
considerably, although their domains were only separated by walls 
of loose stones. About a century after the conquest, this singular 
people became utterly extinct. It is said that numbers retired to 
caves in the mountains, and starved themselves to death, but there 
is no doubt that disease and misery caused them to melt rapidly 
away. In the library of the convent where I was residing, there 
was a manuscript journal, which had been kept by a friar who had 
attended the last expedition of the Spaniards; it gives a most 
interesting and affecting account of the extreme humanity and 
bravery of the poor islanders. 
Birds are in great variety ; but I must not omit to mention the 
far-famed canary-bird (Fringilla Canaria); when I saw it first in its 
native woods, I could scarcely recognize it as the same species as our 
domestic yellow warbler, so much is the latter altered by domestica- 
tion and repeated crosses. The native bird is grey on the wings, 
the belly is green, and the back a very dark grey; it builds on 
bushy trees or high shrubs; the nest is composed of moss, roots, 
