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SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct 5, 1888. 



fluences. These are statements which it is likely no 

 student and traveller will deny. Traveller is thus pur- 

 posely coupled with student, because for several reasons 

 it seems advisable that besides a knowledge of their 

 past history, the investigator should possess a personal 

 acquaintance with each of the islands in order to 

 intelligently and impartially treat this subject. Several 

 grotesque and ridiculous theories and statements have 

 seen the light about the Canaries and their ancient 

 inhabitants, which would certainly not have been put 

 forward had their authors ever been through the islands, 

 and had noticed the present inhabitants, the configura- 

 tion of the country, and the remains of the old inhabit- 

 ants which are to be seen in situ. In the case of nearly 

 all the writers on the Canary Islands, with one or two 

 notable exceptions, a partial knowledge of the islands 

 has proved to be misleading. 



For example, Bory de St. Vincent, in a thick quarto 

 volume, published in 1803, amongst other obvious 

 blunders, states that the old inhabitants, whom he com- 

 prehensively and erroneously calls Guanches, buried 

 their dead in pyramids destined to endure, like those of 

 Egypt, for a number of centuries, and that the builders 

 of the magnificent Egyptian structures were no more 

 expert in architecture than were the Guanches. Now 

 the student soon discovers that Bory de St. Vincent's 

 large work is entirely a compilation from that of Viera, 

 coupled with the result of one night's stay at Santa Cruz, 

 in Tenerife. The pyramids, so strong, so lasting, so 

 grand in architecture, have been visited by me. To 

 lean against them would disarrange the loose stones of 

 which they are composed, and they are about three or 

 four feet in height. The epithet pyramidal might be 

 applied to the rough and ready way in which the stones 

 were thrown on the tombs in question, and some such 

 rumour reaching the too credulous author doubtless 

 accounts for his remarkable statement. 



The same author also thinks that the Purpurarias were 

 Madeira and Porto Santo. The presence of orchil and in- 

 habitants in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, and their 

 absence at that period in Madeira and Porto Santo, should 

 have prevented Bory de St. Vincent falling into this error. 

 Scant courtesy has always been paid to these islands by 

 travellers. 



Ogier, who could never have visited the ancient burial- 

 places of the race, makes the following astonishing state- 

 ment : "The Guanches had a temple which was long be- 

 lieved to be a tomb. It is a kind of stone pyramid in 

 Gran Canaria, with respect to which we have no infor- 

 mation of any kind. In this building, and in the shape 

 of their temple, we can trace a similarity to the ancient 

 pyramidal and circular constructions of Ancient Egypt and 

 Karnac in Brittany." 



Similarly Humboldt's description of Tenerife is very 

 inaccurate and misleading. His long account is founded 

 on a three days' stay only in the island, added to what he 

 heard and had read. 



Still more recently, the elaborate account of the 

 whistling language of Gomera does credit to the in- 

 ventive faculty of its German author, but it is not a 

 contribution to our knowledge of that island. 



1 wish in the first place to show that this interesting 

 people, up to the time of the conquest of the islands 

 (1402 to 1496), incredible as it may seem, were ignorant 

 of the use of metals. 



In the collections of their remains which can be seen 

 in the islands themselves there are no signs that metals 



were used. In the tombs and caves which I have visited 

 no signs of metal remains were apparent, and history 

 supports this conclusion. 



In a narrative emanating from certain Florentine mer- 

 chants (1341), and recorded by Boccaccio, we learn that 

 the inhabitants of Canary " were shown some gold and 

 silver money, but they were quite ignorant of the use of 

 it, and they knew as little of any kind of spices. Rings of 

 gold and vases of carved work, swords and sabres, were 

 shown to them ; but they seemed never to have seen such 

 things and did not know how to use them." 



Again,Azurara(i443)remarksthat "theironly weapons 

 were a short club and the stones with which their country 

 abounded ; they made no account of the precious metals, 

 but set a high value on iron which they worked with 

 stones, and made into fishing-hooks," this was, of course, 

 after they had obtained that metal from the conquerors, 

 " they even used stones for shaving ; " and further, that 

 the people of Palm a "fought with spears like the men 

 of Tenerife, but pointed them with sharp horn instead of 

 iron." Plenty of these spears are to be seen in the 

 islands. Cadamosto, who wrote in 1455, during the con- 

 quest, says of the natives of Tenerife, " Their weapons 

 were stones and javelins, pointed with sharpened horn 

 instead of iron, and sometimes the wood itself hardened 

 by fire, till it was as hard as iron." It must be re- 

 membered, however, that Cadamosto only visited 

 Gomera and Hierro. His other information must there- 

 fore have been hearsay. The narrators of the conquest, 

 in several passages in the course of their rather rambling 

 narrative, clearly endorse the fact that the use of iron 

 was unknown. When they arrived at Gran Canaria 

 they induced some natives to come on board and exchange 

 figs and dragons' blood for " fishing-hooks, old iron, and 

 little knives," while with great naivete they continue, 

 "The dragon's blood was well worth two hundred ducats, 

 while what was given in exchange was hardly worth 

 two francs." Then again, " The infidels have no armour 

 nor any knowledge of warfare ; they are not, therefore, to 

 be dreaded like other nations." Again, of the isle ot 

 Hierro they say, " The men use long lances without iron 

 points, for they have no iron nor any other metal ; " and 

 again, of the Canarios, " These people have no other 

 weapons " (than stones), " and, believe me, they can 

 throw and handle a stone much better than a Christian 

 can." And the natives of Fuerteventura " had no armour, 

 and were only clothed in goatskins and leather and could 

 only retaliate with stones and wooden lances untipped 

 with iron, although they did a good deal of mischief." 



Many will join issue upon the assertion that up to the 

 beginning of the conquest of the islands in 1402 the in- 

 habitants had lived, to all intents and purposes, unknown 

 to the world, and therefore unacquainted with the civili- 

 sation of the time, though the highest civilisation of that 

 day was, it may be said, close at their doors ; still, it may 

 be maintained that the proposition is right, and that for 

 three reasons. The recorded voyages before 1402 sup- 

 port this view, as do the remains of the ancient inhabit- 

 ants which can be seen to-day, and also the physiognomy 

 of the islands themselves — a factor the importance of 

 which is considerable. Even during the conquest in 

 1446 we find an independent voyager who went there, 

 Dinisianez da Gran, writing : " In fight the3' used no 

 weapons but sticks and stones ; their clothing upwards 

 was skins, the lower part a covering made of palm 

 leaves of divers colours. They took off their beards 

 with sharp stone ? " 



