ANCIENT HISTORICAL NOTICES. 
Ill 
Though the narratives of Hanno and Scylax, in the state 
in which they have reached us, contain no passage which we 
can reasonably apply to the Canary Islands, it is very pro- 
bable that the Carthaginians, and even the Phoenicians, had 
some knowledge of the Peak of Teneriffo. In the time of 
Plato and Aristotle, vague notions of it had reached the 
Greeks, who considered the whole of the coast of Africa, 
beyond the Pillars of Hercules, as thrown into disorder by 
the fire of volcanoes. The Abode of the Blessed, which Was 
sought first in the north, beyond the Biphican mountains, 
among the Hyperboreans, and next to the south ot Cyrc- 
naica, was supposed to bo situated in regions that were con- 
sidered to he westward, being the direction in which the 
world known to the ancients terminated. The name ofTor- 
tunato Islands was long in as vaguo signification, as that of 
El Dorado among the conquerors of America. Happiness 
was thought to reside at the end of the earth, as we seek 
for the most exquisite enjoyments of the mind in an ideal 
world beyond the limits of reality. 
We must not he surprised that, previous to the time of 
Aristotle, we find no accurate notiou respecting the Canary 
Islands and the volcanoes they contain, among the Greek 
geographers. The only nation whose navigations extended 
toward the west and the north, the Carthaginians, were 
interested in throwing a veil of mystery over those distant 
regions. While the senate of Carthage was averse to any 
partial emigration, it pointed out those islands as a place 
of refuge in times of trouble and public misfortune ; they 
were to the Carthaginians what the free soil of America has 
become to Europeans amidst their religious and civil dis- 
sensions. 
The Canaries were not better known to the Homans till 
eighty-four years before the reign of Augustus. A private 
individual was desirous of executing the project, which wise 
foresight had dictated to the senate of Carthage. Sertorius, 
conquered by Sylla, and weary of the din of war, looked 
out for a safe and peaceable retreat. Ho chose the For- 
tunate Islands, of which a delightful picture had been 
* The idea of the happiness, the great civilization, and the riches 
of the inhabitants of the north, was common to the Greeks, to the 
i'eople of India, and to the Mexicans. 
