THE FORTUNATE ISLANDS.*
WHEN Sertorius, whom Mommsen thought the greatest Roman before Caesar, was fleeing from Pompey, he fell in with certain sailors at Cadiz, according to Plutarch, who told him that in the Western Sea were islands called the Isles of Happy Venture, where the winds were always zephyrs, and the soil without human aid produced sufficient fruits for life. At the news the worn soldier "had a strong desire to go t6 the islands and live there in quiet, without the care of waging wars." The isles may or may not have been the Canaries, but the description fits them. To the traveller they must always wear an air of romance. Going south, they are the last outpost of the temperate zone before the Tropics are reached; and going north, they are the last glimpse of the true South before coming to Europe. They are all mountainous, and therefore they show that terraced arrangement of scenery and vegetation which is the charm of uplands in hot climates. You ascend from palms and bananas and euphorbias to dark evergreen forests of arbutus and laurel, with fern-fringed streams ; and then to pine-woods and thickets of broom ; and last to the grasslands which fade into rock and snow. Many tourists go nowadays to Teneriffe, and the history of the
The Ow:niches of Teneriffe. By the Friar Alonso de Espinosa. Translated and Edited by Sir Clements Markham, K.C.B. London Printed for the Haklnyt Society.
islands since th6Spanish conquest is familiarenough; But we are as yet much in the dark about those earlier masters, the Guanches, who have left some traces of their blood in the present inhabitants and a few strange relics of language. Whence that race came is still a moot point. There is a legend that after the fall of Sertorius some of his African followers and others fled to the Buenaventuradas for refuge. Others think that the race came as emigrants from some African colony of Rome. It seems certain that their origin was
on the-African. coast ; but, as Sir Clements Markham says, "long ages before that country was overrun by invaders of- Arab or Negro blood. Mauretania was then inhabited by the
same ancient Iberian race which once covered all Western Europe : a people fair, tall, and strong : a people of many virtues and of few vices." There are one or two early writers on the subject, but the earliest and most credible is Alonso de Espinosa, of the Order of Preaching- Friars, who wrote some time between 1580 and 1590. The Hakluyt Society have done well to translate and reprint his work under the careful editorship of Sir Clements Markham, for it is not only a docu- ment of great historical value, but a delightful romance.
Espinosa was a Dominican friar in Guatemala when he heard strange news from Teneriffe. The islands had been conquered half-a-century before, but Central America is a far cry from the Canaries, and news travelled slow. The story was of a sacred image of the Virgin and Child which had appeared among the Guanchea nearly a century before the Spanish conqgest. Its origin was hid in mystery, but it had a wonderful power of miracle-working, and the good Espinosa could not rest till he had crossed the ocean to seethe marvel for himself. He settled in Teneriffe as a member of the fraternity which had the keeping of Our Lady of Candelaria. Soon he found more to interest him than the holy image, for he fell in love with the simple virtues of the Giutnehes, and he resolved to write the history of the island. He is greatly puzzled to account for the origin of the old inhabitants, and he quotes from the Kalendar a strange tale. Some time in the reign of the Emperor Justinian there came a "fair man of great abstinence" (or perhaps " Blandanus " is a proper name), a native of Scotland, who in company with one Maclonius established and ruled a monastery of three thousand monks for seven years. "He resuscitated a dead giant; and baptized
him. The giant recounted and explained the pains that Pagans suffer in hell, and shortly afterwards died again." Does the tale hide the exploit of some prehistoric Maclean, for we presume that the companion of Blandanns was;
like himself, a Scot ? The fantastic historian may find some evidence in the account which Espinosa gives, of Guancha habits, for certain of these have a strong Caledonian.
tinge. They had, for example, a carious version. of tko Highland custom. of the foster-mother ; their principal food. was barley porridge and milk ; their favourite dance was a • kind of reel; and their houses were built of stone and thatohed. Espinosa describes their appearance with enthusiasm. They had perfect features and well-shaped bodies; they were "of tall stature and proportionate limbs." Then he lapses into romance, for he tells of giants among them, one of whom was fourteen feet high and had eighty teeth in his head. The customs of the people as given by Espinosa were singularly enlightened, and by all accounts they were good men of their hands. "Their agility was such that at ten paces they could hurl a lsnce or a stone and never miss, for they aimed with much dexterity. In running, even over steep. or rooky ground, which others could not get over walking, they could overtake 'a goat and catch it by the legs." When they come to. fight the Spaniards there are instances of iron shields smashed with a stone flung in the ordinary way, and the men behind them badly wounded. When Espinosa reaches the tale of the said Spanish conquest he grows very sad. Patriot though he is,. and devoted missionary of Christ, be cannot approve of his countrymen's methods of proselytising :—
" It is an acknowledged fact, both as regards divine and human rights, that the wars waged by the Spaniards against the natives of these islands, as well as against the Indians in the Western regions, were unjust and without any reason to support them. For the natives had not taken the lands of Christians, nor had they gone beyond their own frontier to molest or invade their neigh- bours. If it is said that the_ Spaniards brought the Gospel, this should have been done by admonition and preaching—not by drum and banner ; by persuasion,. not by force."
It is a sad confession, but if Espinosa's counsels had been
followed there would have been as little of the British as of the Spanish •Empire. On the whole, however, the invaders under Alonso de Lugo were chivalrous and humane. They encountered a desperate resistance and fought bloody engage- ments, but the conquest is not stained by any deed of special barbarity. The Guanches were so fine a race that conquerors and conquered speedily intermarried, and the result is that to-day the people of the Canaries far excel in industry and enterprise the inhabitants of any other Spanish colony.
But what of Our Lady of Candelaria, whom Espinosa journeyed from Guatemala to see P She appeared about the year 1400, when two shepherds found her on the coast. A few miracles proclaimed her divinity, and a shrine was made for her in one of the sea-caves. She had very clear preferences for one locality, for when she was removed from her cave she went miraculously back. The Guanches treated her with reverence, for "they heard most angelic music, smelt delicious odours, and saw many lights at night." When the Spaniards came they tried to remove her to Fuertaventura, but she gave such clear signs of displeasure that they were compelled to restore her. After the conquest she was banded over to the care of the Preaching Friars, of whom Espinosa was one. She became the recipient of costly gifts, including many ropes of pearls, which were taken by the Spanish Government at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. A great tragedy, however, overtook her in 1826, for a flood came down from the mountains and swept the holy image into the sea from which it had originally come. A new image has been set up in its place, but it has not the sanctity of the old. We wonder how Espinosa would have explained the loss of the marvel to whose care be devoted his life.
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