358 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct. 5, 1888. 



no interest of any kind whatever was felt as to their 

 fate. They seem to have completely faded away from 

 men's thoughts. 



The Portuguese were probably the re-discoverers. 

 About 1341 the spirit of enterprise began once again to 

 animate men's breasts, and the poet Boccaccio sets forth 

 an account of a voyage made to the Canaries in that year 

 under the direction of the King of Portugal. From this 

 narrative we learn that the voyagers landed probably on 

 Fuerteventura, but " they did not dare to penetrate far 

 into the country." At Gran Canaria they saw apparently 

 little of the inhabitants, for they say some of the natives 

 "were covered with goats' skins coloured yellow and 

 red, and, as far as could be seen from a distance," show- 

 ing their intercourse with them was slight, the skins 

 were fine and soft, and tolerably well sewn together 

 with the intestines of animals. To judge from their 

 gestures, they seemed to have a prince. Their lan- 

 guage, however, was soft, and their pronunciation rapid 

 and animated like Italian. The sailors went on probably 

 to Gomera, but " ventured but a very little way into the 

 country." They also sailed round Tenerife, but " did 

 not dare to land." 



From this important account, we plainly gather that 

 the natives were anything but savage ; that the islanders 

 had no means of intercommunication, for they knew not 

 the use of boats ; and probably that the languages or dia- 

 lects of the islands were so different that the natives of 

 one could not understand the natives of another ; still, the 

 languages had some affinity to one another ; that the 

 sailors found the islanders anything but rich, for they 

 "hardly covered the expenses of the voyage ;" and that, 

 finally, their intercourse with the islands when they did 

 land was so slight and their journeys in those islands — 

 if they left the shore, which may be doubted — so unim- 

 portant that their advent was scarcely felt. They were 

 amongst the islanders altogether only some fifteen or 

 sixteen weeks. It is probable that the Portuguese visited 

 the islands on perhaps one or two occasions earlier than 

 i34i,but no detailed accounts of the voyages have been 

 discovered, and it may reasonably be supposed that they 

 partook of the same superficial character as that to which 

 allusion has been made. From this time to the com- 

 mencement of the final conquest, which began in 1402 

 by Jean de Bethencourt, we know nothing of the ancient 

 inhabitants of the islands. They remained as before, a 

 simple, gentle people, unknown to the world at large, 

 pursuing their usual avocations and having everything 

 they wanted in their self-contained islands. Occasional 

 expeditions from Europe, doubtless at rare intervals, 

 reached their shores and kidnapped natives. Vessels 

 manned by Genoese, Castilians, or Florentinos, corsairs, 

 and adventurers in search of any kind of portable prey, 

 whether dead or living, may have ravaged their coasts. 

 But the natives at the approach of strangers would retire 

 to their mountain-strongholds and fastnesses, where a 

 handful could make an effective stand against a large 

 number of assailants. The precipitous and rocky nature 

 of the shores of most of the islands, the absence of 

 natural harbours and anchorage ground, would have 

 rendered, in those days, the coasts anything but favour- 

 able for vessels. Then again the natives never were a 

 sea-going or sea-loving race. With most early races the 

 sea was held to be evil and not to be trusted. They did 

 not live much by the shores. Their great settlements 

 were in the interior, in most inaccessible places. Hence 

 the foreign maurauder would see little near the shore to 



tempt him to pursue his thieving propensity, or to again 

 pay the islands a visit. And, besides, even the most suc- 

 cessful adventurer obtained, in human cattle and goods, 

 hardly sufficient to repay his outlay. Most of these 

 spasmodic advents of civilisation must have been made at 

 a loss. When the foreigners did meet the natives arm 

 to arm, the latter could always give a good account of 

 themselves ; for they were lofty of stature, robust of 

 limb, and of wonderfully healthy constitutions. Alto- 

 gether it may be well imagined that the handful of men 

 from a casual ship would think twice before engaging 

 in hostilities with this vigorous race. The mere 

 fact that it took the Spaniards from 1402 to 1496, 

 and a vast amount of hard work and endurance be- 

 fore they were able to complete the conquest, is mutely 

 eloquent of the courage of the natives. The configura- 

 tion of the ground of the Canaries shows that it is almost 

 everywhere admirably adapted to help the efforts of 

 defenders knowing the country well. Even at the 

 present day, a great portion of the islands is well nigh 

 impassable, and the entrances to them difficult. In the 

 narrative of the conquest we are continually reminded 

 of this. Hierro " is very difficult of access, for it has 

 no good port or entrance ; " " the others fled and betook 

 themselves to the mountains ; " " the country is so in- 

 accessible ; " " they found it necessary to take off their 

 shoes to pass over the slabs of marble, which were so 

 smooth and slippery that they could only cross them on 

 hands and feet, and even those who were behind had to 

 hold the ends of their lances for the foremost to push 

 their feet against, and they, when safely over, in their 

 turn pulled the hindmost after them." This place I 

 travelled over on a camel's back whose soft pads safely 

 grasped the stones of the rough path now hewn, where 

 on foot there might have been some danger of a fall over 

 the precipice. " The forces from Seville, being unac- 

 customed to such rough ways, were greatly incommoded 

 and harassed by the natives, who, being very agile, 

 leaped from rock to rock with greatease (havingbeen used 

 totheexercise from their infancy), and galled the Spaniards 

 in those narrow passes in such a manner as obliged 

 them to retreat." And again Galindo succinctly remarks : 

 "All the Canary Islands, except Lancerota and Fuerte- 

 venturas" (but he could not have known those islands well, 

 or he would not thus signally except them) " are so full of 

 deep and narrow vallies, or gullies, high rugged moun- 

 tains and narrow difficult passes, thata body of men cannot 

 march into any of them the distance of a league from 

 the shore, before they come to places where an hundred 

 men may very easily baffle the efforts of a thousand. 

 This being the case, where could shipping enough be 

 found to transport a sufficient number of troops to sub- 

 due such a people, and in a country so strongly forti; 

 fied by nature ? " And again, in Canaria, when the 

 Spaniards, elated by a late victory, pursued the Canarians 

 to the mountains, they defended themselves so 

 well, by throwing stones and tumbling down loose frag- 

 ments of rocks upon the enemy, that they obliged them 

 to retreat, with the loss of twenty-five men killed and 

 a great number wounded." 



(To be continued.) 



i-J*£?*ff*£^ — 



Earthquakes. — According to a communication from 

 Mr. W. G. Forster of Zante, there was a subsidence of 

 the sea bed in the Gulf of Corinth, accompanying the 

 earthquake felt in Greece on the 9th inst. 



