Oct. 5, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



357 



Concerning the very ancient inhabitants of the Canary 

 Islands we know nothing. They were peopled then 

 by the souls of the blessed. The ancient poets de- 

 lighted to dwell on those Elysian Fields, the resting- 

 place of the happy departed spirits far beyond the en- 

 trance to the Mediterranean, on the banks of the river 

 Oceanus, or on islands in its midst. 



Homer says that, " there the life of mortals is easy ; 

 there is no snow, nor winter, nor much rain, but ocean is 

 ever sending up the shrilly breathing breezes of 

 Zepherus to refresh man." Hesiod and Pindar describe 

 them under the name of the Fortunate Isles, but we 

 learn next to nothing of their corporeal inhabitants. The 

 earliest mention of the islands, not entirely partaking of 

 the romantic halo so delightfully woven round them by 

 Homer and other ancient authors, is in the treatise " De 

 Mirabilis " about the year 250 B.C. The account there 

 given, as also that by Diodorus, are no doubt taken 

 from the historian Timaeus, his authority being the 

 Greek navigator Pytheas and the travellers' tales 

 of Punic and other sailors. But it were only 

 right to say that these accounts may equally 

 apply to the Madeira group. I rather incline to the con- 

 clusion that, at any rate, the two easterly islands of the 

 Canary group (Fuerteventura and Lanzarote) were 

 included, because primitive sailors would come across 

 them by coasting, the nearest island being only sixty 

 miles distant from the west coast of Africa. For the 

 same reason I still more strongly think that Lanzarote 

 and Fuerteventura are alluded to in " Plutarch's Life of 

 Sertorius." That general, Plutarch says, " crossed the 

 Straits of Gades, and keeping to the right, landed a little 

 above the mouth of the river Bcetis (Guadalquiver), 

 which, running through a large track to discharge itself 

 in the Atlantic Ocean, gives name to all that part of 

 Spain through which it passes " (Bcetica, now Andalusia). 

 "There he found some mariners lately arrived from the 

 Atlantic Islands. These are two in number " (probably 

 Lanzarote and Fuerteventura). " separated only by a 

 narrow channel, and are at the distance of four hundred 

 leagues from the African coast. They are called the For- 

 tunate Islands. Rain seldom falls there, and when it does 

 it falls moderately ; but they generally have soft breezes, 

 which scatter such rich dews that the soil is not only 

 good for sowing and planting, but spontaneously pro- 

 excellent fruits, and those in such 

 the inhabitants have nothing more 

 indulge themselves in the enjoy- 

 The air is always pleasant and salu- 

 rious, through the happy temperature of the seasons, 

 ad their insensible transition into each other ; for the 

 srth and east winds which blow from our continent, 

 the immense track they have to pass, are dissipated 

 and lost ; while the sea winds, that is, the south and the 

 west, bring with them from the ocean slight and gentle 

 showers, which imperceptibly scatter plenty on their 

 plains. So that it is generally believed, even among the 

 barbarians, that these are the Elysian Fields, and the 

 seats of the blessed, which Homer has described in the 

 charms of verse." 



" Sertorius hearing these wonders, conceived a strong 

 desire to fix himself in these islands, where he might 



* In a letter written in November, 1814, and published in Vol. I. 

 of the Pocket Magazine, the writer, who dates from Fuerteventura, 

 says, " Theie is a tradition in the island, of nearly three hundred 

 years date, which indicates that the barren mountains were then 

 covered with trees, like those of Tenerife and Canary." 



duces the most 



abundance, that 



o do than to 



lent of ease.* 



live in perfect tranquillity at a distance from the evils of 

 tyranny and war." 



This account, which bears internal evidence of relating 

 to the Canary Islands, is the least hazy that we know of 

 up to the date S2 b.c. 



Pliny gives us a vague itinerary, drawn up by Statius 

 Sebosus, about 40 B.C., in which, under the name of the 

 Hesperides, five islands of the Canary Group are clearly 

 mentioned. 



Unfortunately for the Anthropological Section of the 

 British Association, these old-world sailors, like their 

 successors in more modern times, were not literary, 

 and even if any of them did possess habits of scientific 

 observation, they were not educated enough to commit 

 their observations to writing. Hence our knowledge 

 of the inhabitants of the islands in these times is most 

 misty and doubtful. 



King Juba II. sent out an expedition specially in 



Fig. 1. — The Only Guanche House in the Archipelaog 

 San Bartolome, Tirajana. 



search of the Insulas Fortunatse, and finding the Canaries, 

 named them from their characteristics thus : Ombrios 

 (Palma), Junonia (Gomera), Nivaria (Tenerife), Capraria 

 (Hierro), Canaria (Gran Canaria), while the name Pur- 

 purariae was given to the two islands Lanzarote and 

 Fuerteventura. From this time it might be thought we 

 should have begun to learn something definite concerning 

 the islands and their inhabitants. Owing to the destruc- 

 tion of the Roman Empire, and the pall of inertness and 

 ignorance which settled over the civilized world, this 

 gleam of knowledge concerning the islands faded away, 

 and for no less than thirteen centuries they were practi- 

 cally lost, less being known and thought about them than 

 in the days of Homer. In his time an interest in them 

 was taken, even though that interest was of a romantic 

 I or semi -religious character, but now for thirteen centuries 



