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who, at the close of the last century, visited the 

 islands of the Pacific Ocean. 



The inhabitants of those islands, too much 

 vaunted, though heretofore anthropophagi, re- 

 semble, under more than one point of view, the 

 Guanches of Teneriffe. We see both nations 

 groaning under the yoke of feudal government. 

 Among the Guanches this institution, which fa- 

 cilitates and renders a state of warfare perpe- 

 tual, was sanctioned by religion. The priests 

 declared to the people, " The great Spirit, Acha- 

 man, created first the nobles, the achimenceys, 

 to whom he distributed all the goats, that exist 

 on the face of the Earth. After the nobles, 

 Achaman created the plebeians, achicaxnas. 

 This younger race had the boldness to petition 

 also for goats ; but the supreme being answered, 

 that this race was destined to serve the nobles, 

 and that they had need of no property." This 

 tradition was made, no doubt, to please the rich 

 vassals of the shepherd kings. Thus the faycan, 

 or high priest, exercised the right of conferring 

 nobility ; and the law of the Guanches expressed, 

 that every achimencey, who degraded himself 

 by milking a goat with his own hands, lost his 

 title to nobility. This law does not remind us 

 of the simplicity of the Homeric age. We are 

 astonished to see the useful labours of agricul- 

 ture, and of a pastoral life, exposed to contempt 

 at the very dawn of civilization. 



