Canary Islands

“ The Islas Canarias, as the Spaniards have it, or the Canaries, or Canary Islands, as we have it, lie between thirteen and eighteen degrees of west longitude, and between twenty-seven and a half and twenty-nine and a half degrees of north latitude. They have an aggregate area of thirty-two hundred square miles, and a population of two hundred and twenty-seven thousand. There are seven principal islands, the most important of which are Teneriffe, Grand Canary, and Palma. These islands are all very mountainous, volcanic, and rocky. ”

“ In extent, wealth, and fertility it exceeds all the other Canary islands. It continues to rise on all sides from the sea, until it terminates in the celebrated peak represented in the cut, which is, however, situated rather in the southern part than in the center of the island. The ascent on 60the north side is more gradual than at the other parts, there being a space along the shore about three leagues in breadth, bounded on the sides by high mountains, or rather cliffs; but more inland it rises like a hanging garden all the way, without any considerable interruption of hills or valleys. ”

“ The four smaller islands were soon brought under subjection—Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Gomera, and Hierro; in fact, in some of the islands the newcomers were welcomed. The three larger islands—Canary, Teneriffe, and La Palma—proved a more serious undertaking, and the invaders being stoutly resisted and lacking in forces, their conquest was for a time abandoned, and Bethencourt did not live to see them subjugated. ”

“ To attain the rude little shrine at the Fortaleza where a rest was to be taken, the path leads down into the Cañadas itself. A stretch of fine yellow sand, like the sand of the Sahara, thoroughly sun-baked, proved too great a temptation to one of the mules, and regardless of its rider and luncheon-basket, it enjoyed a good roll in the soft warm bed—luckily with no untoward results. After a welcome rest in the grateful shade of a retama bush, we turned our backs to the Peak and left this beautiful solitary scene. The island of La Palma seemed to be floating in the sky ”

“ Advancing under their majestic shadow one discovers at every turn fresh views, and one’s imagination, carried away by the tales of the ancients, is filled with poetic impressions. These enchanted regions are well worthy of the fictions of fables, and in the enthusiasm they give birth to when wandering in their midst, the Canarios appear to have lost nothing of their celebrity; these are still the Fortunate Islands and their shady groves the Elysium of the Greeks, the wandering place of happy souls. ”

“ The real Canary of these islands, however, the Fringilla Canaria of Linnæus, and which still abounds here, is not of the saffron or yellow colour it attains in Europe; but is, in its wild state, the [76] colour of our common field or grey linnet, the yellow hue being the result of repeated crossings in its artificial state amongst us. The Canaries are amongst several other islands that were known to the ancients, but not discovered by modern Europe until the middle of the fifteenth century, when, after a brave resistance from the natives, the Spaniards conquered and have since retained them. ”

“ Unusually clear weather at sea had shown us our first glimpse of the Peak, rising like a phantom mountain out of the clouds when 100 miles distant, but as we drew nearer to land the clouds had gathered, and the cone was wrapped in a mantle of mist. There is no disappointment attached to one’s first impression of the Island as seen from the sea. The jagged range of hills seemed to come sheer down to the coast, and appeared to have been [2] torn and rent by some extraordinary upheaval of Nature ”

“ The Canary Islands are, for their latitude, within the usual verge of the true or general tradewind; which I have observed to be, on this side the equator, north-easterly: but then, lying not far from the African shore, they are most subject to a north wind, which is the coasting and constant trade, sweeping that coast down as low as to Cape Verde; which, spreading in breadth, takes in mostly the Canary Islands; though it be there interrupted frequently with the true tradewind, north-west winds, or other shifts of wind that islands are subject to; especially where they lie many together. ”

“ Canaris, Constantine, a Greek statesman, did much to free and consolidate Greece, more than any other statesman (1790-1877) .
Canary Islands (288) , a group of mountainous islands in the Atlantic, off the NW. African coast, belonging to Spain, with rocky coasts, and wild, picturesque scenery; on the lower levels the climate is delightful, and sugar, bananas, and dates grow; farther up there are zones where wheat and cereals are cultivated; the rainfall is low, and water often scarce; sugar, wine, and tobacco are exported; the islands are a health resort of growing favour. ”

“ In a good year, namely a rainy year, the island grows a very good wheat crop, almost larger than that of any other island, but the absence of fresh-water springs, or the apathy of the natives in not making use of [152] what there are, has prevented any agricultural development. The island has no pine forest and trees are scarce: great parts of it are barren, sandy and rocky plains, and the little vegetation there is, is said to resemble that which is found in certain parts of the northern deserts of Africa. Its highest point is only about 2700 ft. ”

“ On the left the pine woods above Icod de los Vinos stretch away into the distance to the extreme west of the island, and on the right the valley of Orotava lies spread out like a map. Just below La Corona one gets back into cultivated regions and the sight of a country-woman with the usual burden on her head reminded us how many hours it was since we had seen a sign of life—not, indeed, since we had passed the two charcoal-burners in the early morning who had given such welcome news of clear weather ahead. ”

“ I used often to wonder that it was possible to find such an unlimited market for bananas when one thinks that Grand Canary ships as many as Teneriffe, and they have a formidable rival also in Jamaica. It is to be hoped that the trade will not be overdone and the markets fall, or that a blight will not come on the plants, and that the Islands will not again suffer from the ruin which followed the cochineal boom. Bananas are said to have been introduced to the Canaries from the Gulf of Guinea, but that was not their real home, and no one knows how they were originally brought from the Far East. ”

“ The Canarios seem to have been especially fond of cave-dwellings, which are very common in Grand Canary, though they are by no means unknown in the other islands; and it is no unusual thing to find districts where a scanty population is troglodytic in habit, living entirely in cave-dwellings scooped out of the soft sandstone rock. Some families have quite a good-sized though strange home, and besides rooms with whitewashed walls are stables for goats or mules. ”

“ Probably no other island has suffered more cruelly from the axe of the charcoal-burner, and in the neighbourhood of Las Palmas everything has been cut which could be converted into charcoal, and nowadays that necessary article of life to the Spaniard has to be imported.
One of the most beautiful of all their native forests, the forest of Doramas, is hardly worthy of its name at the present time; scattered trees [130] on the mountain side are all that remains of one of the most beautiful of primeval forests, which was so celebrated in the days of the Canarios. ”

“ Now of all these islands which I have already named Grand Canary is the largest, and it will be in circumference six-and-thirty leagues. Its people are not without cunning, but of little good faith; and they know that there is a God from whom those who work good will receive good, and those who work evil will receive evil. And they have two men amongst them whom they call kings, and one duke, but all the rule of the island is in the hands of certain knights, who cannot be less than one hundred and ninety in number, nor as many as two hundred. ”

“ Each of these Canary islands being some forty miles from the next, the people of one do not understand the speech of their neighbours. They have no walls, but open villages; watch towers are placed on the highest mountains to guard the people of one village from the attacks of the next, for a guerilla warfare, half marauding, half serious civil war, is the order of the day. ”

“ We have a pretty accurate account of its first introduction into the Canary Islands in 1494 by Spaniards returning from Hispanola.
The farthest point west at which it has ever become endemic is its original home, Vera Cruz, Mexico. It has been endemic at both Panama and Guayaquil, on the west coast of America. [Pg 128] While these points are on the west coast, and Vera Cruz is on the east coast, still, Vera Cruz is some sixteen degrees of latitude west of either Panama or Guayaquil. ”

“ The third fleet of vessels, laden with soldiers, sailed from San Francisco for the Philippines.
From London the following news was received from the Canary Islands:
Most of the new forts have guns mounted, but are [pg 191] still quite exposed to view. The earthworks are not nearly completed. It is reported that ten thousand more soldiers are on the way from Spain. Of these five thousand are for the Grand Canary, and the others are for Teneriffe. The Spanish government is determined to hold the islands at any cost. ”

“ Then came the death of empires, and darkness fell upon the human race, at least upon the records of their history. When the world revived, and especially when the use of the loadstone began to be known among mariners, the Canary Islands were again discovered. Petrarch is referred to by Viera to prove that the Genoese sent out an expedition to these islands. Las Casas mentions that an English or French vessel bound from France or England to Spain was driven by contrary winds to the Canary Islands, and on its return spread abroad in France an account of the voyage. ”

“ The population of the Canary Islands is about 200,000, viz. Teneriffe, 80,000; Grand Canary, 60,000; Palma, 25,000; Lanzerota, 15,000; Forteventura, 10,000; Heirro, 4,000; Gomera, 6,000.
The exports, exclusive of the coasting trade, are wines, barilla, orchilla weed, rock-moss, safflower, (hay-saffron,) and silks. The imports are sugar, cocoa, oil, tobacco, paper, &c. from Cadiz; earthenware, from St. Lucia; brandy, from Catalonia; dry goods, cloth, iron, and hardware, from England; and staves, soap, candles, and rice from the United States of America. ”

“ He leads the life of a friar; he is tended carefully as any babe; he is permitted to indulge his pugnacity, which it would be harsh to restrain, and at worst he dies fighting like a gentleman. A Tenerifan would shudder at the horror of our fashionable sport, where ruffians gouge or blind the pigeon with a pin, squeeze it to torture, wrench out its tail, and thrust the upper through the lower mandible.
The bird in Tenerife surpasses those of the other Canary Islands, and more than once has carried off the prizes at Seville. ”

“ The seventh island they call Grand Canary, in which there will be five thousand fighting men. These three islands, from the commencement of the world, have never been subdued, but many men have already been carried off from them, and by means of these nearly all [Pg 239] their manner of life hath been learnt. ”

“ Around, a number of volcanoes, standing, as Piazzi Smyth says, like fish on their tails with widely gaping mouths. On the upper slopes the pine forests and far beneath the sea, with the Six Satellites (the islands of La Palma, [45] Gomera, Hierro, Grand Canary, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote) floating in the distance, the enormous horizon giving the impression that the looker-on is in a sort of well rather than on a height which, taken in relation to its surroundings is second to none in the world. ”

“ English for that matter do not trouble greatly about the customs or conditions of any foreigners. They are foreigners, Spaniards, strangers. It is easy to sit in the garden of a big hotel surrounded by one's own compatriots and ignore the fact that the Canary Islands do not belong to us. That they do not is perhaps a grievance of a sort. One is pleased to remember that Nelson made a bold attempt to take the city of Santa Cruz in Teneriffe, even though he was wounded and failed. For no more surprising piece of audacity ever entered an English head. ”

“ At the Canary Islands, a week after leaving Liverpool, one may spend a day of interest and pleasure. On my first voyage we called at Las Palmas, in Grand Canary Island. On the second voyage we called at Santa Cruz on Teneriffe Island. The object of chief interest is the great Mount Teneriffe, seen sometimes a hundred miles at sea; probably the Mount Atlas of ancient fable, which was supposed to support the firmament. There are of course many mountain peaks in the world which rise to a greater height above the sea-level ”

“ Every one agrees that La Palma is almost the most beautiful of the group of seven Fortunate Isles, so it is all the more deeply to be deplored that there is not better communication between the little port of Santa Cruz de la Palma and Teneriffe or Grand Canary. ”

“ But in the case of the many cliff-bounded islands, for instance in some of the Canary Islands and of Madeira, round which the inclination of the strata shows that the land once extended far into the depths of the sea, where there is no apparent means of hard rock being worn away—are we to suppose that all these islands have slowly subsided? ”