CANADA CANARIES. 



353 



a severe vengeance upon the rebels whom he found 

 there, burning the houses of the disaffected through- 

 out tli<; whole district of Acadie. 



An invasion of Upper Canada, by which the at- 

 tention of the British commander might be dis- 

 tracted, and the military force of the colony 

 divided and weakened, was part of the plan of the 

 rebels. Accordingly, on the night of the 1 1th, 

 800 republican pirates embarked in two schooners 

 at Ogdenburgh, fully armed, and provided with six 

 or eight pieces of artillery, to attack the town of 

 Prescott, on the opposite side of the river. They 

 failed in their attempt to disembark at Prescott, 

 but, by the aid of two steamers, effected a landing 

 a mile or two below the town, where they esta- 

 blished themselves in a windmill and some stone 

 buildings, and repelled the first attempt made to 

 dislodge them, killing and wounding forty-five of 

 their assailants. On the loth, Col. Dundas brought 

 a reinforcement of regular troops, with three pieces 

 of artillery, against the insurgents. From the 

 water they were fired upon by Captain Sandom, 

 who had two gun boats ; and, after enduring the 

 attack for about an hour, they hung out a flag of 

 truce, and surrendered at discretion. 



Another invasion from the American border took 

 place on the 14th Dec. 1838. The insurgents, 

 who amounted to about 400 men, came from De- 

 troit, and landed at Moy, near the village of Wind- 

 sor, when having set fire to a steam boat which 

 was lying there, they proceeded to destroy the 

 barracks and other buildings. Several loyalists 

 were killed in cold blood ; among others, assistant 

 staff surgeon Hume, who, unarmed, accidentally 

 fell into their hands. The militia, stationed at 

 Sandwich, three miles below Windsor, speedily 

 turned out, attacked the ruffians for such was 

 rather their character than that of political anta- 

 gonists and in a short time completely routed 

 them, killing twenty-six, and taking as many pri- 

 soners. 



Hitherto, the captives had been treated with 

 great lenity, but it was now judged necessary to 

 exercise greater rigour. A considerable number of 

 the ringleaders were executed, and others were 

 condemned to severe and ignominious punishments. 

 Up to March, 1839, the whole number of rebels 

 and pirates executed was thirty-four. 



An idea may be formed of the composition of 

 the insurgent force in Upper Canada from the fol- 

 lowing national classification of the prisoners taken 

 at Prescott: 131 Americans, 9 Germans, Poles, 

 and French, 8 Lower Canadians, 4 Upper Cana- 

 dians, 3 Irishmen, 1 Englishman, and 1 Scotchman. 

 It will be seen from this, that the great majority 

 of the insurgents in Upper Canada consisted of 

 adventurers from the United States, or, as they 

 called themselves, sympathizers; men of the most 

 lawless habits and desperate fortunes. The Ameri- 

 can government itself, from the commencement of 

 hostilities, displayed an earnest determination to 

 preserve a strict neutrality. The president, Van 

 Buren, issued proclamations, warning the people 

 of the penalties to which they would become 

 liable by engaging in hostilities with a friendly 

 power, and the congress manifested an unanimous 

 sentiment against any countenance whatever being 

 shown to the Canadian insurgents. But the friendly 

 disposition of the American legislature towards 

 Britain could not prevent many desperadoes from 

 the American borders from taking an active part in 

 the cause of the rebels; and one of the conse- 



VII. 



quences of the unhappy Canadian commotions, 

 most to be feared, is the danger that they may ulti- 

 mately lead to hostilities with the neighbouring 

 states, in spite of every disposition on the part of 

 the respective governments to preserve neutrality. 

 Meanwhile, the British ministry propose to form a 

 legislative UNION OF THE PROVINCES of Upper and 

 Lower Canada, on the principles of a free and re- 

 presentative government, by which, it is conjec- 

 tured, the animosities arising from race and local 

 faction would be in a great measure removed, and 

 the strength of the French party in Lower Canada 

 would be neutralized by the attachment to the 

 mother country of the Upper Canadians. 



CANARIES, THE, OR FORTUNATE ISL- 

 ANDS, (a.) situated in the Atlantic ocean, near 

 the western coast of Africa, and belonging to Spain, 

 are thirteen in number, of which Teneriffe, Grand 

 Canary, and Forteventura, are the largest ; Palma, 

 Ferro, Gomera, and Lancerota, of secondary mag- 

 nitude ; and the remaining six little more than 

 rocks. They were known to the ancients, and 

 called by them the Fortunate isles, on account of 

 the beauty of their climate. 



The condition of the natives of these islands, 

 before their conquest, by the Spaniards, in the 

 fourteenth century, was similar to that of the peo- 

 ple of Otaheite on their first discovery, and al- 

 though in many instances their conduct was cruel 

 and sanguinary, several of their customs, without 

 their rude ceremonies, would not be unworthy of 

 imitation. The language and manners of the in- 

 habitants at the present day, are nearly the same 

 as that of their conquerors, and excepting some 

 few local customs, their laws and religion are 

 entirely Spanish. The original inhabitants, known 

 by the name of Guanches, were in the habit of 

 embalming their dead, and depositing them in care. 

 The processes of embalming must be similar in all 

 places ; Herodotus describes those in use among the 

 Egyptians ; and Spanish writers represent the mode 

 followed in the Canary islands as resembling it. 

 When the preparations were completed, the body 

 was sewn up in goat-skins, and bandaged with 

 leather ; the kings and nobles were placed in a 

 sarcophagus made of a hollowed tree ; but in all 

 cases the corpse was deposited in a'grotto destined 

 to that purpose. They much resemble, when dis- 

 covered in the present day, those of Egypt in ap- 

 pearance, but soon crumble into dust on being 

 taken out of the skins in which they are wrapped. 

 At Fer, the catacombs were walled up, and domes- 

 tic utensils were found in them. The most cele- 

 brated are those at Teneriffe, between Arico and 

 Guimar ; the interior is spacious, but the entrance 

 is in a steep cliff, and difficult of access ; there are 

 niches in the walls, in which the bodies were 

 placed ; and, when first discovered, there were up- 

 wards of a thousand mummies in the place ; these 

 are always found placed on a species of trestle, and 

 five or six are joined together by the skin, the feet 

 of one being sewed to that of the head of the 

 next The wood-work of the scaffold is very per- 

 fect. It may be noticed, that Egypt and the 

 Canaries are, as far as known, the only countries in 

 which the preservation of the bodies of the dead 

 was a universal custom. 



The Canary islands at times are visited by fear- 

 ful tornadoes, which sweep before them the dwell- 

 ings of the inhabitants. The floods from the 

 mountains in the rainy season bring down huge 

 blocks of stone, which crush every object they 



