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FOETUNATE ISLES; 



THE AEOEIPELAGO OF THE CANARIES. 



BT E. PÉGOT-9GIER 



TRASSLATED FBOM THE FSESCS BY FSANCBS LOCOCS. 



IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. IL ' 1 1 



LONDON: 
RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, 

^Dblb^tii in OibiRaig ta 9ii Igajctta. 
1871. 



K ^ ?/^ ^ 




HARVARD 

UNIVERSITY 

LIBRARY 

MAR S 1&41 



V 



LOVDOir: rtajfTKD bt 
sroniswooDi aitd co., vzW'Btrbxt bqitasi 

AlTD PABLXAlfZirT BTBIST 



CONTENTS 



ov 



THE SECOND VOLUME. 



CHIPTEB PAGE 

I. Disbases— Elephaktiasxs 1 

II. Locusts 15 

m. The Gardens of AccxmATisATioN ..... 22 

IV. National Education 42 

V. The Bbaoon ot the Garden of the Hbsfebides . . 50 

VI. The Cibeqt . . » 69 

VII. CoNsuMFnoN. — Santa Cbuz, Obotava, and Puerto, 

CONSIDERED AS SaNITART EeSORTS »... 94 

Vin. Agriculture, Trade, and Commerce . . . .122 
IX. Art, Music, Literature, and Lanouaob . . .152 



vi CONTENTS. 



CHÂPTSB PAOB 

X. Thb Guanches — Thbib Gotbbnmbnt aitd OaiaiM. 

Atlantis 177 

XI. General Scientific Observations 215 

XII. Civil and Military Government. Jurisdiction. 

Different Governments 240 

XIII. A Conversation by Starlight ... . 2Ô2 

XIV. Retrospective Review 283 



,'S 



THE FORTUNATE ISLANDS 

(fee. 



Chapter I. 

DISEASES- -ELEPHANTIASIS. 

' Gektlemen,' said the Canadian, as he sipped his coffee, 
'this Havana tobacco is perfect. The cigars are cer- 
tainly dear, but they do not belie their reputation. 
Nothing but havanas are smoked in the Canary Islands ; 
every passing ship provides itself with tobacco and cigars 
there. The picado is excellent, full of aroma and 
flavour.' 

' You are right ; the picado is the king of cigars.' 

' For my part,' said Briinner, ' I cannot understand how 
you can smoke that dust : it is as dry as the sand at 
Lanzarote ; it gets into your throat,, and no Christian could 
ever fill a pipe with it.' 

' You are right as regards a pipe ; but why should they 
cut tobacco for pipes when no one uses them in this 
country any more than in Spain?' 

' As for me,' said Krauss, ' I never can make cigarettes ; 
the paper is too narrow, and the tobacco too short ; but I 

VOL. II. B 



2 • DISEASES'-ELEPHANTIASIS. 

have some mild cigars : try them — you will be delighted 
with them.' 

We each took a cigar, and assumed an attitude suited 
to our tastes. The Canadian seated himself on one chair 
with his feet on the back of another ; Briinner adopted a 
horizontal position, Krauss leant his elbows on the table. 
The Canadian, whose conversation was interrupted by 
immense pufis of smoke, said : — 

• The Canaries are certainly the Happy Isles ; are you 
aware that the term of human life is very long here V 

'That is contrary to scientific teaching. Is it not 
acknowledged that in hot countries vitality is more 
quickly exhausted than in temperate climates, and do not 
cold countries aflford the most numerous examples of 
longevity?' 

' Yes, that is true as a rule ; but there are many excep- 
tions, and we must bow to proofs. I have been to the 
hospital to-day ; it is very well managed, and ' 

' A hospital is always well managed for a visitor,' said 
Briinner ; ' the rooms one goes through are models of 
cleanliness ; work is over by the time visitors are admitted; 
they show nothing but what they are not ashamed of; 
luxury even is sometimes displayed, while necessaries are 
wanting, and then ' 

' My dear Briinner,' said Krauss, ' you are really unbear- 
able ; you doubt everything ; you believe nothing you are 
told ; really one would believe you had made up your 
mind beforehand.' 

' I tell you, it is the same thing everywhere. Hospitals 
are perfect in the afternoon ; but if you could see them 



THE INVALIDES, 



at seven o'clock in the morning 1 Do you know the 
history of the hospital of the Invalides ? No ? Well, here 
it is. At the time of the Revolution, out of 900 inmates, 
600 were coachmen or footmen belonging to great houses, 
who had never seen any fire but a kitchen fire, and were 
brought in by their masters' influence. That is one side 
of the question. In another French town they foimd at 
the hospital 250Z. worth of expensive wines, of which half 
was champagne, under the pretext of having wine for the 
convalescents I Do you want any more facts ? ' 

' You are right,' said Krauss ; ' one must always give in 
to you, for there is no arguing with you. We have 
hospitals in Germany——' 

'To be sure you have- -numbers ; lunatic asylums 
especially.' 

'Hushl' said the Canadian, *I am going on.' The 
mortality in Tenerifife amounts only to 1 in 38 patients 
a-year, according to the statistics given me : in the hos- 
pital at Nice, 1 in 31 ; in Milan, 1 in 28 ; in Rome, 1 in 
25 ; in Montpellier, 1 in 35 ; in Madeira, 1 in 39.' 

' Madeira, then, is healthier than Tenerifie ?' 

' Yes ; but in Grran Canaria the numbers are in 1 in 41, 
which makes it even.' 

' It seems certain, according to the doctor who took me 
over the hospital, that all diseases assume in these Islands 
a peculiarly mild character which renders them less dis- 
tressing to the patient.' 

* Yes, that is the result of an insular position, in the 
smaller Islands at all events; where the land is sur- 
rounded and bathed by the sea, there must be an evenness 

B 2 



DISEASES— ELEPHANTIASIS, 



of temperature which scarcely ever heightens morbid 
affections.; it must also be remembered that everything 
is on a milder, more subdued scale in islands than in 
continents ; it is one of their characteristic features.' 

There are very few in the Islands crippled or otherwise 
deformed from their birth, but a great many deaf and 
dumb. The American method of curing stammering has 
not been tried : this neglect is unpardonable. Diseases 
of the eye are common, and the Islands contain a great 
number of blind persons, as you may see in the statistical 
returns. 

Slight attacks of rheumatic gout are common among 
the wealthier classes. Intermittent fevers are entirely 
unknown, except among the sailors who contract them 
abroad, for there are no marshy exhalations, ponds, or 
stagnant water's in the Islands. 

Pleurisy and similar serious disorders only attack that 
class of people who work hard in the open air and take no 
precautions. 

Colds anfi bronchitis assume an epidemic character 
immediately, like influenza, but are never dangerous. 
Typhoid fevers are much milder than they are anywhere 
else: insanity is very rare. It is to be observed that 
children, with very few exceptions, are very little subject 
to infantine disorders, and when attacked by them resist 
them better than elsewhere. Croup is not common. 

There are hardly any cases of hydrophobia. The doctor 
maintains that there has never been a case at the hospital. 
Nervous disorders are far less uncommon in the Canaries 
than in IMadeira — the result, probably, of a drier, more 



PREVAILING DISEASES. 



exciting, and more tonic air. Hysteria is certainly known 
there, but of a very moderate type. It attacks the richer 
classes almost exclusively, and is attributable in a great 
degree to the sedentary life they lead. 

Eingworm and similar diseases are very common, but 
they have greatly diminished during -the last ten years. 
The kind of tick which in Brazil and Madeira gets be- 
neath the skin of the fingers or toes, and spreads over the 
whole body, is imknown in the Canaries. Many of the 
skin diseases which attack the lowest classes are entirely 
owing to their utter want of cleanliness ; a little attention 
to hygienic laws would cure them. The cure would be 
still more complete if the material well-being of this 
class, which has considerably improved, were aided by 
education; ignorance, neglect, and prejudice, are now 
the only causes of these diseases. 

The prevailing diseases, especially among the upper 
classes, are those of the stomach, liver, and digestive 
organs — diarrhoea, dysentery, and even dropsy. All these 
are complicated by bilious fever. It is a disputed point 
among the local physicians whether the bilious mucous 
fever is epidemic at certain times in Tenerifie ; it has cer- 
tainly been so in some places. Contrary to ordinary ex- 
perience, the labourers cannot withstand these maladies ; 
a fatal termination is far more common among them 
than among the upper classes : this fact is hard to ex- 
plain. 

There are no endemic diseases in the Islands. Epi- 
demics are very uncommon, and not serious ; mild dis- 
orders only, such as influenza, assume an epidemic 



niSEASES^ELEFHANTIASIS, 



character. The terrible maladies of yellow-fever, Asiatic 
cholera, and the plague, are unknown, in spite of daily 
maritime intercourse with the West Indies, especially, 
through Cuba. 

But the Canary Islands have their scourge — ele- 
phantiasis. ♦ This malady,' said Mr. Groatbeard, ' deserves 
special study, for it is happily unknown in Europe. Wait 
until to-morrow.' 

' Will that be as amusing as what you have been telling 
us?' said Briinner. 

> Very nearly,' said the Canadian, coolly. 

Krauss was asleep ; the young American was yawning to 
the peril of his jaws ; I was writing. 

The next evening, Briinner slipped away after coffee. 
This is what Mr. Groatbeard told us about elephantiasis ; — 

Elephantiasis is a disease ' which presents itself under 
two forms ; the first is called Arabian elephantiasis, be- 
cause it was described by an Arab physician, Bhases ; the 
second, Greek elephantiasis, because it was described by 
a Grreek physician, Aretseus. The disease is called ele- 
phantiasis because the legs of the patient swell so as to 
resemble those of an elephant. 

The first, called Arabian elephantiasis, is characterised 
by a swelling of the skin and subjacent tissues. It attacks 
the legs chiefly. It is neither hereditary nor contagious. 
It is endemic in Barbadoes, Japan, India, and Egypt. 
Its causes have been sought unsuccessfully : the principal 
symptoms are these : — swelling and reddening of the skin 
along the course of the veins ; fever ensues, and leaves 
after successive attacks, varying in their frequency of 



GREEK ELEPHANTIASIS, 



return, an endematous induration of the tissues ; gradu- 
ally the hypertrophy of the skin and subjacent tissues 
spreads over the leg (it rarely attacks both legs at once) ; 
then follows the scirrhous induration of the skin, 
which becomes cracked. The patient's only discomfort 
arises from the weight and size of the limb affected : the 
disease lasts to the end of his life, and is not complicated 
by any disturbing symptoms. Amputation has been 
tried ; when successful, the other leg has been soon 
attacked. 

The second kind, called Grreek elephantiasis, is that 
which generally prevails in all the islands off the coast of 
Africa. It was formerly endemic in Spain, Portugal, and 
even in Provence, Brazil, and Paraguay. This kind of 
elephantiasis is a tubercular leprosy, sometimes called 
leontiaaia, because the patient's face resembles that of a 
lion. It was known in ancient times, and may be affirmed 
to have been the leprosy of the ancients, if we may affirm 
anything in medicine. 

Grreek elephantiasis is characterised by tubercles — soft, 
not much raised — ^at first red, afterwards livid, which break 
out on the ears, nose and whole face, which thus becomes 
horribly disfigured. The sense of touch, voice, sight, and 
smell, are all affected, and hypertrophy of the skin ensues. 
Finally, the tubercles crack and ulcerate, and are covered 
with scabs, which afterwards turn to scars. 

This disease is undoubtedly hereditary, but not inva- 
riably so. All the African colonies and islands, and the 
negro population of the continent are subject to it. The 
causes of this frightful malady have been sought in vain. 



8 DISEASES--ELEPHANTIAS1S, 

Stagnant water, pork, salt fish, farinaceous vegetables, 
have all been suggested. Diet, undoubtedly, has a great 
effect on the ordinarily very slow progress of the disease, 
but cannot produce it. 

It has always been found that this disease is generally 
confined to particular localities where it seems to thrive. 
For instance, while there is no case of elephantiasis in 
several parishes in Madeira, one parish alone — Ponta da 
Sol — furnishes more than half the total number of cases 
in the whole Island. There is nothing to distinguish 
this parish from others, whether as regards climate or 
position ; and in Ponta da Sol the diet of the patients 
is the same as that of those who escape. The fact of con- 
centration arises partly, no doubt, from constant inter- 
marriages, which prevail more in the mountains than in 
the plains. 

Elephantiasis is not an incurable disease, using the 
words in their widest sense. It has been known to last 
only a few months, or a few years, and then to disappear 
all at once; but the doctors have not attempted to 
claim the honour of these recoveries. 

It used to be believed that this fearful disease only 
attacked the poor ; but it is now known to attack the rich 
also. This, however, is very rarely the case. 

Pliny tells us that it was unknown in Italy before the 
time of Pompey the Great, when the first case was ob- 
served. Lucretius in his poem affirms that the disease 
had not reached Europe, but remained in Egypt. In 
Book iv. he says : 

* Est elephas morbus qui propter flumina Nili 
Gignitur .£gypto in modia, neque prdeteroa nusquam/ 



TREATMENT, 



Avicenna, Ehases, Avenzoar, Fuchsius, Sevestus, Ac, 
have given detailed accounts of elephantiasis. 

All attempts at curing it by medicine have but very 
rarely succeeded, even for a time ; patients may recover 
in books, but they always die in the hospitals. 

Sulphur internally, mercury externally and internally, 
and sulphur baths, are generally used. Alibert, who has 
devoted a great deal of attention to cutaneous diseases, 
has advocated turtle soup and the flesh of the turtle as 
exclusive diet, with baths of hot sand. This mode of 
treatment has had no results. 

The only remedy appears to be change of air. As the 
patients are so poor, very few experiments have been 
made as regards this mode of treatment, which was found 
out by means of some sailors. It would, however, be 
very easy to try it, at first from one island to another, 
from Canaria to Madeira, or from hospital to hospital. It 
would involve no expense beyond the journey, and Spain 
and Portugal might, in default of elephantiasis patients, 
send their consumptive patients to Madeira or Tenerifie 
in exchange. 

The diseases appear to be in some degree similar. In 
the Islands it has been proved that tubercles on the face 
do not necessarily imply tubercles on the lungs. Never- 
theless, in France, medicine teaches that tubercles of a 
certain kind follow the disease. In the Islands there has 
not been a sufficient number of experiments made to 
prove anything on the subject. Since change of climate 
and expatriation undoubtedly have an immense influence 
on tubercular phthisis, as well as on the tuberculisation 



10 DISEASES— ELEPHANTIASIS, 

of the sub-cutaneous tissues of the face, there may very 
possibly be some connection between these two tubercular 
affections. The absence of cases in Europe has, it is 
true, rendered much study of the subject impossible, and 
medical study in the Canary Islands and East and West 
Indies is incomplete. But if there could be an exchange 
of patients established between the hospitals of Europe 
and these Islands, European doctors would then be led to 
study the subject, and might make some discoveries. 
Such an exchange would be easier than may be imagined. 
There is communication twice a month between Madeira 
and TeneriflFe and Liverpool ; twice a month with Lisbon, 
twice a month with Cadiz, and once a month with 
Marseilles and Barcelona. There would be no danger in 
the exchange, for neither malady is contagious. 

Hot countries are not the only ones ravaged by this 
terrible disease. It prevails on the coasts of Norway and 
Lapland, between 60** and 70® N. lat., but less intensely 
than in equatorial regions. In Europe, with very few 
exceptions as regards Arabian elephantiasis and one or 
two cases of Greek elephantiasis, it is unknown between 
40® and ^^^ N. lat. America is not so privileged. 

To return to the Canaries. All elephantiasis patients 
from all the islands are shut up together in one hospital 
in Gran Canaria. Can the disease be thus stamped out ? 
It is probable ; but better living must also be tried, and 
change of air is indispensable. 

The lazaretto in Gran Canaria has always contained a 
great number of patients, from the first century of the 
Conquest. It was established on a large scale at I^as 



LEPROSY, IT 



Palmas, and was managed in a singular manner. Father 
Sora ('Topography of Gran Canaria,' 1668) says naively 
that those who entered it never left it. He tells us that 
there were priests and laity, men and women, in it. 
Very few patients were excused from entering the hospital ; 
if families did not wish to go there, they were shut up in 
the lazaretto, in separate cells. Patients in the hospital 
were allowed to marry. The lazaretto was governed by a 
royal ordinance, the king appointing an officer whose duty 
it was to govern and chastise the patients ; ' which was 
quite right,' says Sora. 

We may indeed say with Father Viera, that though 
the Islands may be Fortunate, there is a terrible re- 
verse to the medal. Between 70 and 75 out of the 350 
to 400 patients die every year in the hospital of San 
Lâzaro in Gran Canaria. Viera piously adds that we 
must acknowledge the justice of the expression by which 
the Catholic religion designates this world as 'a vale 
of tears I' 

A great discussion has been raised, as to whether 
modem elephantiasis be the same as the leprosy of the 
middle ages. Some say yes ; some no. Who shall decide ? 
This question has only a fictitious importance &om the 
discussions which have been raised ; it has none in itself. 
If it can claim any interest at all, it is in an historical 
point of view. 

The leprosy of the middle ages was widely spread. It 
raged everywhere, and with such violence that in 1250 
the order of St. Laasaras had 19,000 establishments or 
lazarettoefl. In Lombardy its ravages were frightful, and 



1 2 DISEASES^ELEPHANTIASIS^ 

in Piedmont it was nearly as bad. Attempts have been 
made to prove that this disease was brought from the 
East by the Crusades. But Charlemagne, who was not in 
the Crusades, published edicts with regard to leper-houses 
which still exist. Didier, King of the Lombards, had also 
taken precautionary measures against the evil fifty years 
before, in the eighth century. 

About the year 1700, the disease began to decrease 
considerably; and out of ten patients in the hospitals 
from Vienna to Holland, from Madrid to Berlin, only one 
was a leper. About the middle of the eighteenth century, 
leper-houses disappeared from Europe. 

Among the Jews the leper was banished from both 
town and camp, and driven into the wilderness ; this was 
the custom also in Persia and Asia. In France, in the 
middle ages, directly a leper was discovered, he was 
seized, the funeral service was read over him, and he was 
taken to the lazaretto or' leper-house. If — as, alas! was 
frequently the case — there were no room for him, he 
was dressed in a special garb, with a bell round his neck 
and another in his hand (a rattle in certain provinces), 
and left to wander about the country until he died either 
of his disease or from hunger and misery. He might 
neither give away nor sell ; if he had any property, he 
could touch the income of it only ; he could neither make 
a will nor inherit. Civilisation gradually did away with 
these absurdities. 

What was this leprosy ? Scientific men described it as 
a kind of scaly eruption, of circular spots, healthy in the 
centre, but surrounded by scales which constantly fell off 



WHITE AND BLACK LEPROSY. 13 

and re-formed. The spots were first grey, then copper- 
coloured, which gave rise to the distinctions of white and 
black leprosy. These are not the distinguishing signs of 
elephantiasis; and as there were cases of Greek ele- 
phantiasis in Holland in the sixteenth century — for Grrig- 
Horst, a Leyden physician, gives a long account of it, in 
which he describes the tubercles, the tubercular affections 
of the nose and ears — ^accompanied or followed by scaly 
pustules, it is evident that there was no resemblance 
between the two diseases. 

Isabella the Catholic lived for more than a year without 
change of linen, in fulfilment of a vow for the conquest 
of Grenada 1 Francis I. washed his face — occasionally; 
Henri Quatre wore no stockings, and wrote, ^ Come and 
console the Béarnais, who has not taken off his boots for 
a week !' Louis XIV. wetted his fingers every morning — 
with a damp towel. We may judge from these instances 
what the state of labourers, soldiers, and the religious 
orders was likely to be. (These furnished their con- 
tingent of elephantiasis patients in the Canary Islands.) 
We may add that the price of linen was then excessively 
high, and that the peasants in Champagne not a century 
ago ate grass to avoid dying of hunger. To such ex- 
tremities did the institutions of the age reduce men. 
This state of things was remedied in Europe by civilisa- 
tion, sanitary precautions, cleanliness better food, )a,nd 
cotton. Comfort, the fruit of labour, will purge the 
African islands from this horrible disease ; already the 
people are more energetic — they are applying them- 
selves to agriculture, and are rapidly becoming more 



14 DISEASES-ELEPHANTIASIS, 



prosperous ; the majority akeady enjoy more than ease — 
they have health and wealth. 

Work is the grand panacea, both physical and moral. 
It cures leprosy, and ignorance and superstition as well. 
From the easy circumstances resulting from work, man 
will acquire, together with health, the dignity which will 
one day enable him to walk among his equals, having no 
longer any tyrants to dread, with head erect, — the head 
which God made in His image, but which, through misery, 
neglect, servility, idleness, superstition, absolute kings, 
wars, priests, and vermin, has been changed into the 
face of a lion. 

It is possible that the traveller, on arriving in the 
Islands, and learning that elephantiasis prevails there, 
may be alarmed at the idea of contagion and of the 
horror and disgust produced by the mere sight of the 
disease. Let him re-assure himself. These unhappy 
people live and die in Gran Canaria. They are never 
seen. If there are any who are allowed to remain in 
their own homes, they carefully avoid being seen^ 



AFRICAN PLAGUES. 15 



Chapter II. 

LOCUSTS. 

LoGTTSTS and the levante^ Krauss informs us, are the two 
plagues which Afidca sends the Islands. From the centre 
of the African deserts winged legions spread over Algiers, 
Morocco, Egypt, the Mediterranean islands, Spain, and 
the French coast. These myriads of insects, heaped and 
entangled together, are driven by the wind in all direc- 
tions and carried to immense distances. To give some 
idea of this, it will suffice to say that clouds of African 
locusts have reached the West Indies, 4,500 miles oflF, 
necessitating an aerial voyage of a fortnight, during 
which they devour each other. So it is supposed, 
although it is possible to keep an African locust alive 
for twenty days in a glass bottle without food. 

Navigators have sometimes found shoals of locusts 
drowned in the sea, either because part of the cloud had 
lost its power of resistance through exhaustion, or from 
the action of the winds precipitating an immense number 
of the locusts on the sea, which swallowed them up. 
Other navigators have seen the sky darkened, and clouds 
of locusts overhead, driven by the wind. 

^ In Canada,' said Mr. G-oatbeard, ' we sometimes see in 



1 6 LOCUSTS. 



spring clouds of butterflies of the family of Hesperiadœ 
advance, carried oflF by the winds from the wet forests 
and thrown into the sea.' 

' I don't understand anything about science, and I think 
• alL this a great bore,' said Brunner. 

' I dare say you do. You are just like the cockchafers, 
that don't understand natural history,' said Krauss. 

Briinner was silent, and Krauss continued : — 

These voracious animals which the Bible tells us formed 
one of the plagues of Egypt, when they have once spread 
over the surface of the land, devour everything — grass, 
the bark of trees, linen, cloth, leather ; and nothing can 
satisfy the terrible appetites of these winged hosts. 

Directly the cloud alights on a shore, or stops at the 
foot of a mountain, the locusts remain stationary, warm 
themselves, smooth their wings, sharpen their instruments 
of destruction, and often remain for a whole day in a 
state of astonishing torpor and insensibility. It would 
then be easy to destroy them ; but their landing-places 
are never known, and their presence is often only dis- 
covered when they are seen in full possession of their 
powers, taking flight, rushing on the crops, and devouring 
everything. These animals, whose small size preserves 
them from destruction, are armed in a formidable manner. 

The locust is an insect belonging to the order of 
Orthoptera and the genus Acridium of the section 
Saltatoria. The scutellum covers the wings ; they have 
two antennae, two eyes, head vertical, prothorax narrow, 
abdomen vesicular in the female ; the hind legs are much 
longer than the fore legs. The shrill sound they make 



SHOWERS OF FROGS. 17 

is produced by the male, by the friction of his thighs 
against the elytra (wing-sheaths). The female deposits 
her eggs by hundreds in the ground, and the larvae are 
wanting only in wings and elytra. 

The locust is a pretty insect, with a pinkish tinge on 
the wings; this is the distinctive mark of the African 
locust. The European locust is usually green. 

The deserts of Africa, Tartary, and Arabia are the most 
extensive receptacles of these insects. According to 
Bouillet, crops have been set on fire in hopes of thus 
forming a barrier against locusts ; the African negroes do 
this. 

This, gentlemen, is what I have to tell you with regard 
to the African locusts, of which I have a dozen specimens 
preserved in spirits of wine. The largest are about an 
inch and a half long. Lionel will give us some details to 
conclude this sketch. 

* Are not the showers of frogs,' said Briinner, * produced 
by winds which carry them like the locusts from the. 
borders of marshes to a great distance ?' 

' You know nothing about it, my dear Briinner. There 
never have been any showers of frogs. Storms will bring 
out of the ground myriads of a particular kind of frog, 
very common in Switzerland, the Btifo crepana minimus, 
which lives in the ground, a fellow countryman of yours.' 

'Beally, Krauss, you are worthy of being a German; 
you know everything.' 

' Not quite ; I am learning.' 

We called these gentlemen to order, and Lionel read 
as follows : 

VOL. II. c 



i8 LOCUSTS. 



The first historical tradition of ravages committed by 
locusts in the Islands goes back to the beginning of the 
sixteenth century, 1507, at Hierro, Viera says that God 
being, pleased to send this scourge, S, Augustine was 
chosen by the inhabitants as their advocate to plead 
against the locusts. An annual holiday was foimded at 
the parish church for the delivery of the island from this 
plague. 

But neither the holiday nor S. Augustine produced any 
result, for the locusts still appear from time to time. 

In 1588, Juan Munez de la Fuente, the Governor, 
called out all tibie peasants in the night, to kill, bury, and 
bum these devastators. 

In 1607, the number of locusts was so great that the 
Governor, Don Fernando de Benavides, brought the 
Madonna de la Candelaria to Laguna, to put an end to 
the calamity. As this was not enough, S. Placidia was 
chosen advocate, in addition to S. Augustine, but the evil 
went on notwithstanding. 

On October 15 and 16, 1659, the cloud of locusts was 
so great that it covered nearly the whole of the island ; 
the crops, the fruit, the vines, all were devoured. The 
locusts were so numerous that they even attacked the 
aloes, which had hitherto remained untouched owing to 
the bitterness of the juice. After that they ate the bark 
of the trees which they had already stripped of leaves ; 
finally, they devoured each other. Under such circum-f 
stances, man recognised his own helplessness. Father 
Yiera tells us that the inhabitants went in procession, 
scourged themselves, fasted, did public penance, made 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD. 19 



vows; but all in vain. The work of destruction only 
came to an end with the locusts, after two months. 

In 1680, the people went to war with them! The 
militia were called out, they marched by companies, pre- 
ceded by drums. They killed millions of locusts — with 
no apparent result. 

Numerous royal ordinances were issued for the destruc- 
tion of the locusts, under the three forms of eggs, larvae, 
and locusts. The eggs are buried ; for the larvae they 
make a kind of long drag net with string and grass ;, 
when enough are caught, a circle is traced round the 
spoil, and net and larvae are burnt together. Some 
animal is placed in the centre of the net, so aS'to attract 
the larvae to one place. In order to catch the fully 
developed insect, it is necessary to wait until night, and 
to be preceded by a herd of pigs. The locusts are the» 
digesting and sleeping, and can be taken. They are put 
in sacks, and then buried in the ground at a depth of five 
or six feet : otherwise, the exhalations from so many dead 
creatures would create a pestilence. 

Locusts' thighs are excellent in flavour, and very whole- 
some ; they form quite a dainty dish among orientals, who 
store up locusts, salt them, and keep them for months to 
guard against chances of famine. 

The only powerful hindrances to these creatures are 
natural phenomena, such as tempests, particular winds, 
and violent rain; millions are destroyed in this way» 
Foxes, pigs, birds, and frogs eat a great many. 

There are some winds the currents of which are ir- 
regular in height and velocity, which carry these animals 

c2 



30 LOCUSTS. 



more than others; in order that these currents should 
seize on them, these countless legions must be raised into 
the air, either by cyclones or waterspouts. The manner 
in which they are raised has not as yet been discovered, 
nor has the formation of the winged cloud. Africa will 
some day reveal the secret. 

' Is the Algerine locust the same kind as that found in 
the Canaries V asked G-oatbeard. 

* Exactly,' answered Krauss, * the only difference results 
from tibie difference of season ; the lapse of a month or 
two will change the colour and size ; the migratory locust 
is known by the name of cricket, whether it come from 
Tartary, Arabia, or Africa.' 

' For this evil, there is only one remedy ; let the poor 
man become rich enough to be able to lose the whole or 
part of his crops.'. 

' Why should there not be an Insurance Company, as 
there is for hail ? ' 

' It has not been thought of. The scourge is rare, and 
people always hope to escape.' 

' Last year,' said Krauss, ' Algiers was ravaged by locusts ; 
they were in a great measure the cause of the famine, 
mortality, and horrible crimes.' 

* Do you think that the locusts caused all these evils ? ' 

* If Algiers were free and self-governed, like Canada, 
I assure you that no one would die of hunger there, even 
in years when tihie locusts devastate the coimtry. With 
us ' 

' With you, my dear American,' said I, * there are no 
Arab bureaux I there is no standing army I ' 



IBBIPP^B— g^egsggBgfWKj^, ^'j— ■.- ■ ■■■aan 



THE AUTHOR'S OPINION. 21 

' Well,' said Briinner, ' do leave ofiF writing down our 
conversation for a little while, and give us your opinion.' 

* Gentlemen, every day I lengthen my list of things 
which I don't talk about ; this is one of them : he whose 
list is the longest is the greatest philosopher. However, 
if you want my opinion, I say : what can't be cured must 
be endured — locusts, the ravages of time, the injustice of 
governments, the folly of the governed, in short, every 
evil.' 

' To-morrow morning at six o'clock we will start for the 
Garden of Acclimatisation,' said Lionel. ^ Erauss will be 
in his element there.' 



22 THE GARDENS OF ACCLIMATISATION. 



Chapter III. 

THE QABDEN8 OF ACCLIMATISATION, 

Towards the end of the last century, a native of Teneriffe, 
Don Alonso Nava Grimon, Marquis de Villanueva del 
Pardo, a distinguished writer, a modest savant (a rare 
combination), a liberal patrician, and a passionate lover 
of the Islands, conceived the idea of forming there a 
Garden of Acclimatisation which should, in accordance 
with the ideas of that time, supply Europe with exotics. 
He was convinced that a more or less prolonged stay in 
the Islands would enable them to live and flourish in 
Europe, although they might die if taken there at once 
without any transitional stage. This was called accli- 
matisation. The word took. The idea once admitted, in 
no other place so near Europe it was said could the plants 
of the torrid zone be so easily acclimatised as in Teneriffe ; 
seeds and plants might be sent thence to temperate 
climates ; they would become acclimatised there, and the 
imdertaking would be crowned with success. Vain hope 1 
After eighty years' experience, this gradual acclimati- 
sation is proved to be a delusion. Nevertheless, all the 
learned men who visited the Gardens between 1795 and 



NATURE A LA MODE. 23 

1820, and they were many, believed in the realisation of 
the problem, and applauded the undertaking. 

It was the fashion, too, and every one knows the power 
of fashion. 

We know what a vehement cry of * Let 14s go back to 
nature ! ' was raised by the philosophers of the last cen- 
tury. The study of natural history was carried on so 
vigorously, facilitated by the Linnsean system of classifi- 
cation and the various works of the great naturalists of 
the time, and spread so rapidly that even in Spain, where 
no one read at that time, and where so few read even 
now, 20,000 copies of * Buffon ' were sold in ten years ; 
the work was admirably translated by Clavijo, à Canary 
Islander, who carefully annotated it, correcting the author 
when necessary. Delille wrote, drew, and made gardens, 
even in Poland. The French school of Le Nôtre was 
abandoned by the Court, Queen Marie Antoinette 
deserted cold, melancholy Versailles for the English 
Trianon. In Spain, the Court laid out the wonderful 
gardens of Aranjuez, La Grranja, El Pardo, and San Ilde- 
fonso. All the little Grerman sovereigns who had ruined 
themselves in order to make gigantic Versailles in their 
Lilliputian principalities, now ruined their subjects for 
the sake of making English parks and gardens of Armida. 

' Let us go back to nature I ' Such was the cry of that 
half of the century, a violent reaction, which the too 
formal grandeur, the conventional beauty, symbolism, 
allegory, all the bombast of the preceding age, naturally 
produced. Although we owe a great deal to this return 
to nature, such as the introduction into Europe of 4,000 



24 THE GARDENS OF A CCLIMA TISA TION. 

diflferent species^ the settlement of physical zoology, 
scientific expeditions in search of various floras, the dis- 
covery of geology, and the computation of tides, yet it 
must be confessed that enthusiasm was carried so far as to 
become folly. Naturalism, through Eobespierre, invaded 
politics; that ascetic priest, a bouquet of flowers and 
com in his hand, led the National Convention to the 
altar of Nature, at the very moment when the Marquis 
de Villanueva was making the Garden of Orotava. 

There was but one voice in Europe with regard to the 
Garden of Acclimatisation. From all parts, during the 
first ten years of its existence, the most remote speciinens 
were sent, and the Marquis carried on a world-wide cor- 
respondence. 

Alas 1 it was but a happy dream, only too short-lived ; 
the first successful trials of acclimatisation proved decep- 
tive. This must necessarily have been the case. Let us 
enter somewhat into detail, and let us hope that the in- 
habitants of Orotava and the Islanders in general will not 
mistake our motives. Indiscriminate praise is the surest 
means of preserving some friends, but if this go against 
the conscience, it is better to follow the old saying : 
AmiAMè Plato, aed magia arnica Veritas. 

Experiments were made immediately, and plants sent to 
Madrid. Not a single one which flourished would have 
done so if sent there direct. On the other hand, those which 
died have never been able to be cultivated there. They 
laid this result to the climate of Madrid. Plants and 
shrubs were sent to Seville and Barcelona, with the same 
negative result. Although we cannot positively prove 



EUROPEAN EXPERIMENTS. 25 

that similar experiments were made in other parts of 
Europe, we think, nevertheless, that every probability is 
in favour of such a belief, for we know that all the Euro- 
pean savants were in correspondence with the Marquis. 
The ambassadors of all the Powers congratulated the 
Court of Spain on the undertaking, — an honour which 
it little deserved, as we shall presently see. Plants and 
seeds were sent to Orotava from Paris, the Hague, Austria, 
England, the Gape, Australia, and America. The Marquis 
in return was to send to Europe the products of the torrid 
zone which he had grown. The fact that plants were 
sent to Madrid, Barcelona, and Seville, being proved, we 
may be permitted to suppose that experiments were tried 
in other coimtries besides Spain. Some deception must 
have been practised on the subject, for we hear nothing 
of it. 

< What I can affirm,' said Krauss, * is that all the species 
which are or have been cultivated in Orotava, are culti- 
vated quite as successfully in the Mediterranean between 
Nice and Cannes, and in the fiiviera of Grenoa. In cer- 
tain spots even where what are called hothouse plants 
grow to a larger size in the open air than at Orotava, 
northern shrubs also flourish, which at Orotava, with the 
exception of pines, languish or die. It is true that the 
Canarian flora contains more than one hundred indigenous 
species, some of which would be well worth cultivating in 
Europe, either for their form or flowers, or as medicinal 
plants ; but in that case it is useless to cultivate them in 
the Gardens in order to send them thence to Europe, the 
simpler plan would be to transplant them at once, and 



26 THE GARDENS OF ACCLIMATISATION, 

such plants would be sure to succeed in Sardinia, the 
Balearic Isles, Cannes, and even in Andalusia, in spite of 
the varieties of temperature.' 

* Is not the equality of the mean temperature between 
two countries all that matters?' said Lionel. 

^ By no means ; it has been said, re-said, and printed 
hundreds of times, that the mean temperature of the 
Grardens is 22® centigrade; and from this numberless 
random conclusions have been drawn, which, however, 
prove nothing, not even that the Grardens stand on the 
finest spot in the world, as they have attempted to prove. 
A mean temperature proves nothing ; for instance, the 
mean temperature of Moscow is very high, the summer 
heat being so great as to counterbalance the winter cold. 
It is not the ffiean but the extrenfies of temperature which 
we require to know. At Funchal, Malaga, and S. Kitt's, 
there is less variation of temperature than in any other 
part of the globe. The temperature of Funchal is rela- 
tively very low in summer, 2* lower than at Orotava, 
while it is 2° 7 higher in winter. Besides, the constant 
moist heat of Funchal, even in summer, is most favourable 
to the growth of plants ; the vegetation of Funchal is 
much more luxuriant than that of Orotava. At Malaga 
the temperature is nearly the same as that of Orotava ; 
but it is less exposed, being sheltered from all winds 
between N. and S.S.W. I cannot say anything about 
S. Kitt's, never having been there.' 

'In your opinion, then, Funchal, Malaga, and S* 
Kitt's, would be preferable to Orotava?' 

' You have quite misunderstood me,' replied our young 



DOUBTFUL UTILITY. 27 

naturalist. ^ I do not pretend to say that the soil and 
climate of Orotava are unfavourable to the cultivation of 
plants. I meant that Orotava is no better than other 
places; but I own that there is very little difference 
between its qualifications and those of Malaga, Funchal, 
and S. Kitt's. Setting aside the mistaken idea of accli- 
matisation, I think that botanical gardens, containing 
nearly every species of animal and vegetable, might be 
made at Orotava as well as in two or three other islands 
of the Archipelago. There are great differences between 
the islands ; and thanks to the different heights of the 
mountain ranges in Teneriffe, the table-lands of different 
heights in Grran Ganaria and Palma, and the plains of 
Lanzarote, every kind of animal can live in the Archi- 
pelago, and every kind of plant grow there under fevour- 
able circimMtances.' 

* Still, the question of utility remains,' said the Cana- 
dian. ' Taking for granted that useful animals and plants 
can be acclimatised in the Islands, still there would only 
be a local use for them. The Islanders may increase their 
prosperity by thé cultivation of new plants; they may 
become more wealthy by introducing new animals ; let 
them do so, they have the right, but they must no longer 
flatter themselves that they are privileged to send to 
Europe races or species which cannot live there when 
transplanted directly from their homes* Such an illusion 
should now be dispelled. 

* Eeal acclimatisation, in the strict sense of the word, is 
a difiScult thing, both as regards animals and vegetables^ 
Man himself, the being above all others capable of modifi- 



28 THE GARDENS OF ACCLIMATISATION. 

cation according to climate, who has laid both nature and 
art under contribution in order to make himself less suscep- 
tible to variety of climate, man even could not live in 
zones greatly varying from his birth-place if he were left 
to himself like plants and animals without the help of 
science and commerce. Even with the aid of these, men 
do not become acclimatised without great suflfering.' 

' Very true, it is proved by emigration statistics. The 
mortality among emigrants in the healthiest countries is 
7*43 higher than the average mortality in the mother 
country.' 

* Not only is that the case,' added Mr. Groatbeard, * but 
it is a fact that even among the emigrants who survive in 
inhabited countries, healthy, and favourable to acclimati- 
sation — ^Buenos Ayres, for example — acclimatisation is 
very gradual ; its eflfects are not appreciable until after 
two, sometimes not until after four generations, and 
after repeated intermarriages with natives. Without such 
intermarriages the newly introduced race does not seem 
capable of becoming thoroughly acclimatised. Before 
you have spent a couple of months in Peru, for instance, 
you can easily distinguish, after the lapse of 200 years, a 
French Creole from a Spanish Creole, even though there 
have been intermarriages with other races: it is the 
same in Canada. Even after ten generations what a dif- 
ference there is between the Creoles and the native races I 
You may see it in Mexico ; the Ind/io is strong, active, 
energetic ; the Creole weak, slow, lazy, in spite of three 
centuries of acclimatisation. Thus, then, although mankind 
have at their disposal the whole of nature and their accu- 



ACCLIMATISATION OF RACES. 29 

mnlated knowledge and conquests, they can only acclima- 
tise themselves so far as not to die in healthy climates. 
But if we enquire into the degree of acclimatisation 
attained by man in Sierra Leone, Fernando Po, Cayenne, 
Panama, India, the Timor Islands, the mortality is some- 
thing fearful, and life is full of suffering. The English 
have reduced the time of service to a few years; the 
children of Europeans die there if not sent to Europe. In 
short, we may say that Grod made white men, negroes, 
and copper-coloured men to live in different countries, 
and made different plants for different countries as well.' 

^ You are right,' said I : * in Bathurst, on the Gambia, 
out of 153 Europeans, 41 died last year — ^in one year I ' 

<And animals are still more difficult to acclimatise, 
since they can only partially participate in the advantages 
man enjoys. With plants, it is different ; as Krauss says, 
it will always be impossible for any species to flourish in 
London, for example, which, not being able to live if 
transplanted there ai once, should go through a period of 
acclimatisation at Orotava or anywhere else. The differ- 
ence between the extremes of temperature would alone 
prevent it. On an average of twenty years the difference 
does not exceed 12° centigrade at Orotava, 10° at Santa 
Cruz ; while in Paris and London it exceeds 40°. To 
those who still believe in the possibility of acclimati-' 
sation, by means of an intermediary climate, it may 
be objected that Orotava is all the less suitable for such 
experiments as its differences of temperature are so 
trifling. 

Nor is this all. Those plants and animals which live 



30 THE GARDENS OF ACCLIMATISATION, 

when transplanted, for example, to London or Paris, do 
badly, die young, and exhaust their vital principle in 
resistance instead of growth. Andalusian and Arab 
horses degenerate, or die out. Almond-trees bear no 
fruit.' 

' Laurels,' I observed, * grow to a height of one hundred 
feet at Tenerifife,* there are some in Madeira still larger, 
the trunks are eight or ten feet in circumference. Look 
at them in Paris or London, wretched sickly specimens. 

^ Even supposing you transplanted your specimens from 
Orotava to a favourable isothermal climate, even then 
nature, which we call capricious because we cannot under- 
stand her, would disappoint your hopes. The Gruemsey 
lily will not flourish in Jersey ; it becomes blanched and 
dies ; and yet the two islands almost touch each other. 
Toads abound in Jersey; millions have been exported 
thence into England and Australia, where they flourish ; 
but they die in Guernsey, although they have been known 
to live in stones. The two islands are only eighteen 
miles apart, on the same isothermal line. The African 
aloe flourishes in Jersey in the open air, while geraniimis 
are killed nearly every third or fourth year ; in Gruemsey 
a magnificent aloe has flowered in Victor Hugo's garden. 
]bi 1866, 1 saw at St. Peter Port an aloe larger and finer 
than any in Tenerifife ; it has been pulled up this year, 
for it grew above the first-floor windows and obstructed 
the light and air ; the pelargoniimis close to it died in 
November. Who can explain these anomalies ? ' 

' Such being the case in isothermal latitudes,' said 
Krauss, 'why try acclimatisation in Orotava? Before 



RAMOJSrS OPINION, 31 

sending plants to other countries, it would be as well to 
know why the tulip has not been introduced into the 
Canary Islands. 

'Eamon, the great naturalist, who fifteen years ago 
demanded its secret from the mountain, and at length dis-» 
covered it — ^Ramon says ; " However capricious the causes 
which presided over the distribution of the various species 
throughout the world, there is no doubt that they could 
all live on the same isothermal line if nature simply fol- 
lowed the laws of temperature ; but besides this law, they 
are subject to other conditions, the mystery of which has 
not yet been discovered." 

^ I think the question of acclimatisation is at an end 
after that ; I have no more to say.' 

* I have something to add,' said the Canadian. * As to 
making the Garden a practical school of agriculture and 
arboriculture, as has been proposed, the idea is Utopian. 
The mere keeping up of the Grarden as it is is impossible 
in the present state of its ftmds ; how, then, are you tq 
increase the expenses tenfold? There is not sufl&cient 
land, nor houses enough, the professional staff would be 
expensive, the soil is unfavourable to agriculture, being 
now nothing more than a conglomerate of dead leaves 
and vegetable matter. Some degree of vegetation is kept 
up by the action of sun and rain, but for a Botanical 
Garden the soil would have to be entirely re-made. 

* As to the idea of making Zoological Gardens, it is 
realisable like the preceding one, with several thousand 
pounds. For the last thirty years, money for the present 
expenses has been wanting; where is the money for a 



32 THE GARDENS OF ACCLIMATISATION, 



menagerie to come from ? And what would be the use 
ofit? 

' When you cannot get a cottage, it may be all very well 
in Spain to dream of castles, it consoles some people ; we 
active Americans laugh at dreamers. 

* Let us leave these Utopian ideas. 

' The situation of the Grardens has been criticised.* 
' Quite wrongly,' said Krauss. * They are on the slope 
of a hill, a very gentle slope, just enough to circulate the 
water, which is very abundant. They are enclosed by 
walls which could easily be put in good repair. They are 
planted with magnificent trees, and it would be a crime 
of lèse-nationality to allow for the want of a little money 
these gardens to perish, which were the glory of Orotava 
when they were superintended by a true patriot, and 
which might not only again become so, but might surpass 
their former splendour by being made exclusively a Bo- 
tanical Garden. What can be more noble, more moral, 
more delightful, than the possession of a Botanical Gar- 
den ? Every town obtains one as soon as possible. Let 
them then devote money to this object, for the present 
state of the Gardens is worse than death. Half the species 
which it formerly contained are lost.' 

* Yes,' said the Canadian, ' the gardeners plant cabbages, 
onions, and carrots in the Linnaean squares ; a third of 
the Gturdens is given up to the cultivation of cochineal, in 
order that the gardeners may be paid ; seeds are sold to 
Parisians and Londoners ; flowers and fruit are sold in 
the Gturdens, Meanwhile, the walls are tumbling down, 
there is no money to pay for repairs : the head-gardener 



BAUDirrS EXPEDITION. 33 

has been, he says, for the last three years without the 
annual salary voted by the Cortes. It is worse than death, 
it is disgraceful I 

Let us go back a little, and take up the history of the 
Gardens again. 

At the request of the Marquis de Villenueva, the Crown 
sanctioned the Crardens by a royal ordinance of 1791. 
This monarchy, on whose dominions the sun never set, 
could only help the undertaking with 1,000^. I not enough 
for the preliminary expenses. Next year, the Spanish 
Crovemment undertook to pay a gardener, whom it sent 
out. The Marquis finding that he was of no use, sent for 
another from England at his own expense. He was de- 
ceived by his agent in London, who sent him a man per- 
fectly ignorant of botany and even of horticulture. Things 
went on as best they could until 1796. The Marquis 
could not draw back, personal and national honour were 
in question, he was forced to go on. 

The French Government now determined to send out 
an expedition conmianded by Baudin ; Le Dru, a cele- 
brated naturalist, took part in it. Le Dru believed in the 
possibility of acclimatisation, and wrote in his report ta 
Captain Baudin : ' The Spanish Government, to which the 
finest countries in the world belong, is perhaps the only 
Government which can collect together in one spot the 
most valuable tropical plants in order gradually to accli- 
matise them in temperate latitudes.' 

By this time the Marquis had spent 4,000i. of his 
own money, besides the l,000i from Government ; he had 
tried Spanish gardeners, and had engaged an English one, 

VOL. II. n 



34 THE GARDENS OF ACCLIMATISATION, 

when Le Dru arrived at Santa Cruz. He went the very 
next day to the Crardens, accompanied by M. Legros. 
The Marquis received these gentlemen with the greatest 
delight. ' They first traced out, in accordance with the 
Linnaean system, twenty-four squares, one for each of the 
great families of plants corresponding to the division. 
They .wrote on labels the names of the classes, orders, and 
genera ; arranged them not only according to the Linnaean 
nomenclature, but also in proportion to the larger or 
smaller number of known plants forming each section. 
Thus, as soon as a plant came into the Grardens, any of 
the labourers could put it in its proper place. No skill 
or science was needed. Thanks to these gentlemen, the 
Grarden became a botanical chart, in which one could read, 
see, and understand the science better than in a book. 
So, finding it impossible to procure a good gardener, the 
Marquis kept the one already there, and for ten years all 
went on admirably.' 

These are the Marquis's own words, taken from a report 
to the Grovemment, written twenty years later. France 
may be proud of them. 

The Marquis adds, mournfully : *I had made another 
engagement, and was obliged to pay the detestable gar- 
dener 600i. to get rid of him.' 

An under-gardener and two labourers were employed as 
well ; and so admirably were the G^ardens arranged that 
these few men suflSced to take care of the plants, plant 
fresh specimens, and manage the irrigation. 

It was during this period that the Grardens attained 
their chief celebrity : it was immense, universal, and still 



COST OF THE GARDENS. 35 

survives. A great deal of it was owing to Humboldt, who 
went all over them with the greatest care. 

We shall not give a list of all the persons who have 
visited them, although for the last twenty years they 
have been in a deplorable state ; yet such was their early 
fame that people still come to see them. The sight is 
now a lamentable one, no longer a garden, a terrestrial 
paradise ; in spite of cool shades and murmuring waters, 
one is anxious to leave the place. And yet, what an 
admirable situation, and what labour has been spent upon 
it I The walls and fountains alone cost the Marquis 
4,000i., and besides this he spent nearly 400i. a-year for 
five-and-twenty or thirty years. He gave also part of the 
ground ; the rest was given by the Marquis de la Florida's 
grandfather. And now to give an idea of the labour. 
The land was rocky, the rocks had to be cleared away, 
they were made use of for the buildings. And when they 
had removed six feet of rock, what did they find under- 
neath, permeable soil, or more rock? Both. These 
diflBculties were overcome by the energy of the Marquis 
and by money. This labour over, the Water Companies 
generously gave the necessary supply of water. 

It should be remarked, that the Marquis lived at 
Laguna, with which his family and his own interests 
were connected, and that he could, if he had pleased, 
have made the Grardens there. But he conscientiously 
preferred the climate of Orotava to that of Laguna, and 
laid out the Grardens there, eighteen miles from his own 
residence ; which, for the rest of his life, three-and-thirty 
years, was a daily source of great inconvenience to him. 

D 2 



36 THE GARDENS OF ACCLIMATISATION. 

He had at least the satisfaction of seeing plants arrive 
from Asia, Africa, America, and Australia. Although 
afterwards he met with disappointments in trying to 
realise his favourite scheme of European acclimatisation, 
he had some consolation ; for his undertaking, besides 
exciting curiosity and praise, obtained for him valuable 
friendships, and intercourse with the most eminent men 
of the early part of this century. His polished and gentle 
character, his knowledge of men and things, science and 
literature, rendered him worthy of his high position. 
His glory was reflected on his country. What honours 
were paid him in return ? Was even the trumpery Order 
of Charles III. given him ? We do not know ; probably 
not. What parsimony then 1 What prodigality now I 
But the Gardens remain, as a monument to his glory. 
And they will remain, unless there is neither patriotism, 
nor intelligence, nor gratitude, nor taste, nor conmion 
sense, in the Islands. 

' Ah ! ' said Briinner, * if it were a Madonna, or some 
monument of human vanity, barracks, or a chapel, money 
would not be wanting 1 ' 

'And now for the history of the Gardens since the 
death of the Marquis,' resumed the Canadian. 

The Spanish Government had voted 280i. a-year to be 
thus distributed : 60Z. for the superintendent ; 40Z. for a 
gardener ; 28i. for two labourers ; and the rest for keep- 
ing up the Gardens, &c. It was very little, but it was 
something. 

The Marquis, a short time before his death, begged M. 
Berthelot, an excellent yoimg French savant, who, for love 



M. BERTHELOT. 37 

of the Islands, of which he has been the best historian, 
had settled there, to take the management of the Gardens 
in hand. * I was already convinced,' says M. Berthelot, in 
his great work, ' that acclimatisation could only be carried 
out in isothermal latitudes, nature having imposed on 
plants conditions of existence which man can reproduce 
in hothouses only. However, as my assistance might be 
useful in other ways, I accepted the oflFer.' 

It was a pity he did. Disgusted for many reasons, he 
was forced to resign. Then came superintendents igno- 
rant of botany, unpractical gardeners. About 1857, a 
Frenchman, ^ although disgusted by threats of dismissal,' 
remained some time, then resigned. The present gardener 
is a Swiss, who is no botanist, but manages to live &om 
the produce of the Grardens. 

General Ortega perceived that if the Captain-General 
lived at the Gardens, besides the agreeableness of such a 
residence, the Gurdens would profit by the presence of the 
chief authority of the Islands, and the sums destined for 
them would not be laid out in other ways. Accordingly, 
he laid in a stock of wood, and had the walls and frame- 
work prepared of a house for the Governor. He went 
away ; another Governor was appointed. A few beams are 
all that now remain of the projected building ; every- 
thing has been sold piecemeal, or destroyed, or is lying 
there on the spot. 

In a report to the Junta, Don F. Maria de Leon wrote : 
* Since the death of the Marquis, the Gardens have been 
neglected ; the squares are used as a kitchen-garden ; 
other parts remain uncultivated ; so that, instead of «being 



38 THE GARDENS • OF A CCLIMA TISA TION. 

a sign of the prosperity of the Islands, it shows shameful 
neglect.' 

Ah 1 if these ' wonderful Gardens belonged to France, 
or England, or even to Portugal,' exclaims Don Benigno 
Carballo, * they would soon be looked after, and their fame 
spread in every imaginable way I' This is very possible, 
and somewhat disgraceful. Cannot the Canary Islanders 
do what every other people would do ? They boast so 
much of their patriotism, they are so proud of their 
nationality ; is all this nothing but words ? There are 
certainly 2,000 wealthy families in the Islands. If each 
would give ten shillings a-year, the Gardens might be 
kept up. If the Government will not help, let them do 
without it. 

To conclude, the Gardens are useful in themselves. 
They have been the glory of the Canary Islands; the 
honour and patriotism of the Islanders are involved in the 
matter. If they cannot render all the services once ex- 
pected, that is no reason for suppressing them. I know, 
on good authority, that some of the Islanders have pro- 
posed to sell them. Happily, the suggestion has not 
been listened to. Let the name be changed from Gtirdens 
of Acclimatisation, which they never can be, to Botanical 
Gardens. Let the Islands keep them up, as they keep up 
their promenades, streets, and roads. Surely they are in 
a high degree matter of public utility. 

There is a press in Santa Cruz, by means of which a 
vote of subsidies for the preservation of a national glory 
can be demanded from the local authorities. If they re- 
fuse, let the Islanders employ every constitutional weapon, 



SELF-HELP, 39 



let them not re-elect any official without making stipu- 
lations with respect to the Grardens. If these and cfther 
practicable means fail, a remedy still remains ; let those • 
who can afford it subscribe, but let them cultivate the 
Gardens, and cease their lamentations : there is nothing to 
hinder them, neither the law, nor the Grovemment. 

'When he sees the deplorable state of the Gardens,' 
says Senor Carballo, 'the traveller cannot refrain from 
severe accusations against Spain.'^ But it is not only 
Spain, it is the conduct of the Islanders that deserves 
severe accusations. As Professor of Political Economy in 
the commercial and industrial Institute of Madrid, the 
author ought to know that those nations who are indepen- 
dent of the Government are the happiest and wealthiest. 
He must have taught his pupils that privileges, monopolies, 
state aid, ruin the citizens of a State. He has no doubt 
taught them that ' Help yourself ' is the motto, not only of 
the man who wishes to become free, but also of him who, . 
being free, wishes to remain so. 

Instead then, Canarians, of complaining, and making 
useless lamentations, form an association, give lectures, 
English fashion, or ventilate the matter by means of the 
press. Say that, by exchanging plants, the expenses will 
not be so great as people think, and that they may be 
still further diminished by the sale of the products. Say 
that the Gardens are planted, the system for watering them 
all ready, that there are no other expenses, except those of 
keeping them up, that you can procure new species, that 
you will appeal to the Gardens of India, the Cape, America, 
France, and England; that Spain, if she will give no 



40 THE GARDENS OF ACCLIMATISATION. 

money, can recommend the Gurdens to her Consuls and 
Ministers throughout the world; that emigration has 
made numbers of your fellow-countrymen in Havana and 
all over America wealthy men, and that they will send 
you specimens. Finally, invoke patriotism in your pero- 
ration, and you will see that you will be understood. 
What ]a wanting above everything in the Canaries, is the 
inclination to take the initiative. You must rouse it ; 
then if you fail, you will at least have the honour of 
having made the attempt, and that is much. 

A question of interest still remains. A Frenchman, 
M. Grermond de Lavigne, says : ' The principal attraction 
of Orotava is the Botanical Grarden.' He is right. It 
was formed by scientific men, amidst the unanimous 
applause of all the scientific men of the age. Voyages 
were made to it ; not a voyage has been made round the 
world for the last eighty years which has not sent its 
artists and naturalists there; not an invalid or tourist 
has spent a week in TenerifiFe without paying a visit to 
the Gardens ; not a letter has been written to a friend, 
no book of travels or of natural history, which does not 
ïnention the Gturdens; and they are to be allowed to 
perish — ^the glory of the nation, a source of prosperity to 
the Island I The landlords of Orotava and Santa Cruz are 
well aware of the importance of the Gardens to them. 
They talk of making Orotava a winter residence for 
invalids, but in order to do so they must offer some attrac- 
tions ; and what greater attraction can there be than the 
Gardens ? If they are properly kept up, the number of 
visitors will increase, and the money laid out on the 



A TERRESTRIAL PARADISE. 41 

Grardens will return to its owners' hands, by roundabout 
but sure ways. 

Come then, gentlemen, subscribe something annually 
to the Botanical Grardens I spend a little less in masses, 
and you will thus make sure of the true terrestrial 
pai-adise, the Botanical Grardens of Orotava^ 



42 NATIONAL EDUCATION 



Chapter IV. 

NATIONAL EDUCATION, 

With the exception of primary instruction, which to a 
certain extent is carried on throughout the Archipelago, 
TenerifiFe and Gran Canaria alone, alas ! enjoy, and that 
but lately, the advantages of secondary instruction. 

After the Conquest there was no instruction in the 
Islands, except such as the priests and monks gave of 
their own accord to a favoured few ; and this education 
was in general very elementary. The Conquistador, 
Alonso de Lugo, brought with him two Augustine monks. 
Endowments were given them, a hermitage provided for 
them, and in a short time they possessed a monastery and 
considerable revenues, a sumptuous church attached to 
the monastery, endowments for chapels and vaults. The 
Augustine cloister, which was destined to serve as a 
public school, then took the title of College of the Holy 
Ghost, and for 200 years the Augustine monks remained 
peaceable detainers of science, literature, and philosophy: 
' detainers ' we may well say, for they kept these treasures 
entirely to themselves, if indeed they possessed them, 
which is extremely doubtful. They could not give any 
definite diploma ; that remained the exclusive privilege of 



AUGUSTINES AND DOMINICANS, 43 

the mother-country. Under Pope Clement XI. [1700- 
1721] they were granted the right of conferring the minor 
orders and the title of Bachelor. This was all, and yet 
such a privilege, and so many laurels, prevented the 
Dominican monks from sleeping quietly in their beds. 
These zealous inquisitors did not seek the diffusion of 
light, they had quite another object in view. They 
wished to have the guidance of the public mind ; and as 
no one could take part in the government without being 
more or less able to read and write, and have some know- 
ledge of the Catechism, Lives of the Saints, and other 
things equally useful, they said to themselves, that since 
some one must teach these things, it would be much more 
correct if their order, already so powerful, were to have 
this little privilege, which would increase their influence, 
by furnishing oflScials to the Islands who would always be 
under their control. They worked so hard, that on the 
death of Cardinal Molina, the zealous protector of the 
Augustines, the Dominican fathers, who had gained over 
the heads of the clergy, gained their end, and in 1747 the 
Augustine college was suspended : it was replaced by a 
seminary which the Canons of Gran Canaria obtained for 
their island. It still exists, but is now under the super- 
intendence of the Bishop and the regular clergy. 

During the long war between Augustines and Domini- 
cans, a third thief arrived, as in the fable — ^the Jesuits, as 
the reader will have guessed. The Jesuit fathers suc- 
ceeded in founding a college at Laguna ; they also were 
exposed to the hatred of the Dominicans : the latter were 
at first the weaker, but some years afterwards, in 1767, the 



44 NATIONAL EDUCATION 

Jesuit university at Laguna was suppressed by a royal 
decree. The disciples of Loyola were rudely aroused in 
the middle of the night, expelled by the Corregidor, and 
forced to re-cross the sea. Next day the bells of the 
Dominican monastery rang a triple peal, to announce to 
the people that the expulsion of the Jesuits was an ac- 
complished fact. 

We know what deep studies were carried on in France, 
and even in certain parts of Spain, under the direction of 
the Oratorians, Dominicans, and Jesuits ; but such was 
not the case in the Canary Islands. The education and 
instruction of which they enjoyed the monopoly by turns, 
was so trifling, that even the Grovernment, afraid as it was 
of light, thought that there was a great void to be filled, 
and that it would be as well to have a college capable of 
giving some genuine instruction to the Canarians. They 
were a long time thinking of it, 325 years, from 1493 
until 1817. A University was then founded in the 
Augustine monastery, and dififerent chairs established. 
Professors of merit were elected, sent from Spain, and 
from the seminary at Grran Ganaria. The course of 
studies began ; and after seven years, when they were 
beginning to have some result, the Revolution of 1823 put 
a stop to it all. A pretext was necessary for suppressing 
this pernicious centre of light, this school of anarchy, and 
as when a man wishes to kill his neighbour's dog, he says 
it is mad, so the Professors were accused of impiety, the 
university was said to be a hot-bed of revolution ; in those 
times such an accusation included everything. Informa- 
tion was laid, the Dominicans, always inimical to progress, 



HISTORICAL LESSONS. 45 

were the accusers, and, curious vicissitude of things below I 
the Augustines, formerly sacrificed by the Dominicans, 
and their irreconcilable enemies, now forgot their old 
hatred in order to overthrow the common enemy, and took 
part with them in the new crusade. At last they were 
successful. But they had hardly enjoyed their triumph 
two years, when the Infant Don Carlos caused the uni- 
versity to be re-opened, in 1825. It is true that the 
course of instruction was greatly restricted. For five 
years an absurd plan of study was carried out, which bore 
the celebrated name of its author Colomarde. After the 
very short reign of the liberal institutions of the Cadiz 
Cortes, Ferdinand VII, and Colomarde exercised a most 
fatal influence on public education, both in Spain and in 
the Colonies. Philosophy, history, the sciences, all was 
interfered with and expurgated. From the union of 
clerical and despotic notions resulted a kind of education 
of which it was difficult to give an idea. History being 
within the scope of nearly every intelligence, and the 
events of modem history being appreciable by most 
people, a remedy was necessary for this evil. The in- 
credible historical instruction given by a royal decree is 
still remembered in Spain ; the absurd was taught by 
order of Grovemment 1 

For fear of wounding the national pride in giving an 
idea of historical instruction in Spain, it will suffice to 
give an analogous example taken from Portugal. The 
same dominant system in France, Portugal, and Italy, 
produced exactly the same results in the diflTerent Latin 
countries. In Portugal, it was publicly taught that at 



46 NA TIONAL - ED UCA TION. 



the famous battle of Algifarote, which, it is said, was the 
foundation of the Portuguese monarchy, the Virgin Mary 
appeared, fought for the good cause, and won the victory I 
Not content with this, the date of the monarchy was 
carried back to 2,000 or 3,000 years b.c. ; even this was 
not enough, the language also was made out to be 4,000 
years old. This is not more absurd than ' Bonaparte, lieu- 
tenant of His Majesty Louis XVIII.' (See Loriquet.) 

These statements are now being refuted by some 
writers. But it is on such food that the present genera- 
tion has been brought up. In Portugal, it has jieeded all 
the talent of Ercolano to free history from the incredible 
or absurd stories with which the clergy had overloaded it. 
No one would believe now what extraordinary things were 
taught under the name of science. Algebra was sup- 
pressed as leading to atheism ; medicine, chemistry, and 
natural philosophy were forced to obey the orders of the 
fanatical minister who presided over education. While 
a similar system in France dismissed those Professors at 
the Sorbonne who were not orthodox, in Spain they im- 
prisoned the Professors, regretting that it was not possible 
to burn them alive. In the Canaries, the teaching of 
natTiral philosophy was forbidden, as contradicting the 
sacred truths of the Book of Genesis. Let us not be too 
indignant against these extravagances of 1825. In our 
own day, in Spain, Portugal, and France, public educa- 
tion is under the control of the state and the clergy. 
Two or three years ago strange occurrences took place in 
Madrid, in regard to a celebrated Professor. 

In 1824, several persons thought that, in the neglected 



THE TENERIFFE LYCEUM, 47 



state of public education, it would be as well to establish 
in TenerifiFe a Lyceum, which should serve as an inter- 
mediary school between the few primary schools in the 
Island and the University of Laguna. M. Berthelot, a 
distinguished geographer and naturalist, was chosen 
Director, with the task of establishing the Lyceum on a 
liberal basis like the French colleges. He was obliged 
first of all to submit to a purification, that is, to make 
a profession of his political and religious faith, and 
above all, to prove that he was not a freemason. Cer- 
tainly one of the most ridiculous farces of our day is 
the charge of freemasonry, which threatens to last a long 
while. A belief in Blue Beard is allowed ; but children 
of seven years old would pull his beard in our day. Hav- 
ing proved that he was not a freemason, he was excused 
from proving that he knew anything, and obtained a pro^ 
visional licence ; the college was opened at Orotava, and 
M. Berthelot did wonders. Alas I he was too successful, 
for scholars were sent to him from every island : it was 
insufiFerable. 

What were the Bishop and clergy to do, in the face of 
his success ? Intrigue, abuse, calunmiate, and taking 
advantage of a voyage to Spain, take official steps, and — 
three months afterwards, the establishment was closed by 
royal decree. 

1830 came, and education being still too revolutionary 
in the eyes of Ferdinand VIL, was entirely put a stop to. 
That model son and husband, as fanatical as he was ignor- 
ant, suppressed at one stroke the universities ' in all the 
Spains.' Thus the evil was cut ofiF at the root. It is true 



48 NATIONAL EDUCATION 



that, to make up for this, he presented his people with an 
academy of bull-fighting the same year. A grandee of 
Spain was at the head of it I The professors were well 
paid. Fellowships were founded in order that the art 
might be properly learnt, according to rule, of killing a 
bull before 10,000 spectators, some of whom could hardly 
sign their names. Queen Christina re-opened the uni- 
versities. 

So much for the history of national education in the 
Canaries, prior to the Revolution. Now, everything is 
changed. The sendnary in Grran Canaria still exists ; at 
Laguna there is an Institute, containing from 200 to 300 
scholars. Professors worthy of their high calling teach 
there Latin, Greek, rhetoric, philosophy, history, and 
grammar. The sciences are held in honour, and every- 
thing promises good results. An adult school is carried 
on regularly at Lagima, and there are primary teachers 
in more than three-fourths of the parishes in the Islands. 

The revolution which is taking place in Spain while 
we write these pages will open a new era for national 
education. Having lived in Spain and in her Colonies, 
we can confidently affirm that there is no country in 
Europe where the importance of national education is 
better understood. If then the new Grovemment be 
anxious to satisfy a want felt by all, and a very laudable 
one, it will establish a system of national education in 
every district. 

The Canary Islands were at one time the lowest in the 
scale, on a par with the least enlightened provinces of the 
kingdom ; by their own efforts, they were beginning to 



BENEFITS OF EDUCATION. 49 

take a higher place. We like to think that the generals 
who formerly resided there, and who made the revolution 
of 1868, understand that these Islands are destined to 
become powerful and prosperous, if Government will 
develope in them that indispensable element of all moral 
and physical progress, national education. Liberty of in- 
struction being proclaimed, superior schools will also be 
opened, as a necessary complement to the enforced pri- 
mary instruction which the Ganarians themselves ought 
to decree as an administrative measure. 

Primary instruction is indispensable ; it is the fruitful 
mother of manual labour as well as of arts and industry ; 
it alone &ee& men from the gloom of superstition, helps 
them to understand their duties as sons, fathers, and 
citizens, and enables them to render themselves worthy 
of liberty. 

To be successful, every revolution ought to raise the 
standard of intelligence, and difiFdse instruction more 
widely. If the victors of September fail in this duty, the 
Ganarians must act without them ; they will see a new 
spirit arise, and the secondary schools, which are now 
deserted on account of the insufficiency of primary educa- 
tion, will then have any nimiber of scholars, anxious to 
learn science, philosophy, history, and art. 



VOL. II. 



50 THE DRAGON OF THE HESPERIDES, 



Chapter V. 

Tim DRAGON OF THE GARDEN OF THE HE8PERIDE8. 

The Hesperides, from Hesperus or VesperuSj were the 
islands where the evening lived, the extreme westerly 
point of the globe. This just and logical idea of the 
ancients has not been overturned by the discovery of the 
New World ; the Hesperides remain the extreme west of 
Europe. Hierro, the most westerly of the Islands, was 
fixed on by a scientific congress as the point through 
which the meridian of west longitude should still pass for 
Asia, Europe, and Africa. 

Hesiod, the father of poetry, says ' night gave birth to 
the Hesperides, who guard the golden apples in the bosom 
of ocean, in the same place where Atlas supports the 
heavens.' It would have been impossible to describe 
Teneriffe more exactly in the mythological language of 
the time. 

Diodorus Siculus says * the Hesperides, or Atlantides, 
were the seven daughters of Atlas.' This is an exact 
description of the seven Islands ; there can be no doubt 
on the subject, for Dionysius of Halicamassus says ' the 
Hesperides, daughters of Atlas, were the seven Pleiades, 



THE JDRAGOJY TREE. 51 



whose mother was Hesperis, daughter of Hesperus, the 
brother of Atlas.' 

All the ancients indicate the Hesperides under the 
name of Happy or Fortunate Islands, as we mentioned in 
our geographical sketch, and we shall find other proofs 
when we come to treat of Atlantis. 

Teneriffe being evidently meant by the Island of the 
Hesperides, the Garden of the Hesperides could be no- 
where else than in the valley of Orotava. 

The golden apples are still there, and the palm-trees ; 
the laurua persea (avocado pear) is indigenous, and the 
dragon still bars the entrance. With the dragon we 
enter the realm of fable. 

Let us first examine the tree. 

Drago (d/raccBna cl/raco), Linnaeus; Draco (palma 
Canarienais), Toumefort, a tree of the family Asparagese, 
indigenous in the Canary Islands, Madeira, Porto Santo, 
and the Atlas chain, grows wild in the fields. The trunk is 
thick and short, and spreads out into regular branches, 
forming a funnel, bare of twigs, like the trimk, and having 
leaves only at the extremities. These branches all spring 
from the top of the trunk, close together, in pairs, like 
those of the mandrake ; smooth and even, like the arms 
of a giant or a serpent's skin, they form a sort of contracted 
cup ; like the trunk, they are of a bluish green, rounded, 
and terminating in tufts of leaves, standing up like 
gigantic fingers. The part at the end, oh which the 
leaves grow, can be pulled ofiF without leaving a mark, as 
you break the top ofif an asparagus shoot. It is covered 
with numerous leaves, smooth, green, from two to four 

E 2 



52 THE DRAGON OF THE HESPERIDES. 

feet long, from one to three inches broad, ending in a 
sharp point like a sword. The flowers are small, nmnerous, 
and panicled ; they spring from the end of the branch. 
Each flower has six petals, six stamens, and an ovary. 
The fruit is a yellowish berry, rough, with a small kernel. 
The pedicles of these flowers are furnished with a small 
sheath at the base. 

The wood of the dragon-tree is spongy and light. The 
Guanches made ronddchea (bucklers) of it. The bark 
being soft and fibrous, they made it into string. 

The dragon-tree owes its celebrity as much to the blood 
or sap which flows from its woimds, as to its extraordinary 
shape ; it cannot fail to strike the traveller with wonder. 
This sap is a kind of resin which exudes from the trunk 
and branches in the dog-days, by means of incisions or 
natural openings. It condenses in great drops the colour 
of blood, at first soft, but afterwards dry and easily 
crumbled. It is made into grains without taste or smell, 
except when burnt ; they then diffuse an odour somewhat 
like that of liquid storax. 

This substance is composed of resin and tannic acid; 
it is much used in medicine, although now in pharma- 
ceutic preparations the resinous dragon!s blood of the 
Indies is preferred — ^the product of the common dragon- 
trees of Asia and America, entirely dissimilar from that of 
the Atlantic dragon-tree. It is also extracted from a 
number of similar vegetable products, and made into dry, 
hard, long rods, which are preferred to the product of the 
d/raccena draco on account of the difference of the price, 
which amounts to ninety per cent. After incisions have 



DRAGON'S BLOOD. 53 

been made in the common dragon-tree, the resin is re- 
ceived in reeds divided at each joint, or more often into 
the smooth leaves of reeds; from thence it derives its 
commercial name ^ dragon's blood in reeds.' 

Dragon's blood will not dissolve in water, but only in 
spirits of wine. A curative power is attributed to it in 
cases of diarrhoea, dysentery, and haemorrhage ; it is a 
strong astringent. Applied externally, it heals ulcers 
and facilitates the cicatrisation of wounds ; it was used 
for many centuries to strengthen warriors, and entered 
into the composition of all the powders used for that 
purpose ; it is now used in making several kinds of varnish, 
to which it gives a fine red gold colour, after being dis- 
solved in spirits of wine. Its consumption was formerly 
much more considerable than it is now. No doubt it is 
essential not to confound the dragon's blood of the 
â/raccena druco with that of the common shrubs of Asia 
and America ; but it is still more important not to con- 
found any of these substances with the dragon's blood 
extracted from the rotang and croton aanguifiuum. 
This is also a red resin, but of far inferior curative powers. 

Under the names of Grambian and Oriental dragon's 
blood, a kind of red gum has been largely used as a drug. 
In France the name of dragon's blood is given to the 
plant called monk's rhubarb (rumex alpinua), a kind of 
sorrel, having tubercles at the base of the interior leaflets 
of the calyx. 

A tax was levied in the Canary Islands on the very 
large sale of the produce of the d/racœna draco. Yet no 
efforts were made to increase the number of trees. A great 



54 THE DRAGON OF THE HESPERIDES. 

number have even been pulled up, as injurious to agri- 
culture; and although some very fine trees still exist, 
their number diminishes from day to day. 

From the time of the Conquest down to the last century, 
it was believed and maintained by scientific men that the 
dragon-tree originally came from the East. This error is 
now exploded; the species originally belonged exclusively 
to the islands of Atlantis, and grew spontaneously in the 
Archipelago. It is found in Madeira and Porto Santo, 
where it was certainly never taken by m^n ; it is found 
in Palma and all over TeneriflFe, while we may vainly 
seek it in India, where the savans placed it. The mistake 
arose from the product of the common dragon-tree, which 
grows, as we have just seen, in India and America, 
but which has nothing in common with the âjraaxfoa 
â/raco. 

The ancients who frequented the islands, who collected 
purple in Madeira and Porto Santo, {purpuriœ mavlœ)^ 
came for dragon's blood to Teneriffe and Palma, as the 
naturalist Pliny tells us (*Hist. Nat.' lib. vi. cap. xxxvii.): 
* Ex Ua quoque inaulia Fortundtia Ormabaris Romam 
advehebatur. Sane hodie num frequena eat m mauUa 
arbor ilia quœ Cri/nabarim gignit, vidgo aanguinem 
d/raconia appeUanV ' 

The ancients always spoke of the dragon of the Grarden 
of the Hesperides in the singular ; this was because there 
was one tree, 4,000 years ago, of prodigious dimensions 
in the very middle of the valley of Orotava, in a particular 
spot of the Garden of the Hesperides, near the royal 
grotto, in the centre of the population and of cultiva- 



THE GREAT DRAGON TREE, 55 

tîon. This tree still exists, and we are about to give its 
history. 

When the conquerors divided the island and formed 
the 'twelve great houses,' the dragon-tree of Orotava 
served as a landmark for the division of the valley lands. 
When they cut down the forests for the purpose of build- 
ing the town, the harbour, and their country residences, 
they spared the old dragon, as the Gruanches had respected 
and venerated the monarch of their forests ; the ancients, 
as we have said, had attributed to it animal life and even 
deified it. The respect paid to it by the modems proves 
that the ancients had rightly estimated this vegetable 
wonder. 

As early as 1350 Cadamosto (more correctly Ca da 
Mosto) had spoken of the dragon-tree. But since the 
latter half of the fourteenth century all the sailors, 
soldiers, monks, historians, travellers from every country, 
scientific men, and artists have drawn or described the 
gigantic dragon-tree of Orotava. In our days the 
daguerreotype and photography have been called in. A 
branch broken oflF in a storm was shown in Kew Gardens, 
and the gaping public, after seeing the picture or reading 
the description of it, was able actually to touch the 
monster. We were assured at Orotava that this branch 
was not sold, as is generally believed, but given. The 
branch at Kew is a tree nearly ten feet in circumference, 
one of twelve similar branches which sprang from the 
trunk. 

At the time of the Conquest the dimensions of the 
tree were said to be 48 feet in circumference close 



S6 THE DRAGON OF THE HESPERIDES. 

to the ground, 35 feet at the height of 6 feet, 23 
feet at the height of 14 feet, and 60 feet in height. 
The trunk divided into twelve branches, opening like a 
funnel. In this opening a table was placed, round which 
fourteen persons could seat themselves. 

Every vegetable product has a personal, individual 
form, which characterises it and distinguishes it from all 
others; the distinctive mark and exterior character of 
this tree was very curious, and merits description. The 
body of the tree was like a truncated sugar-loaf, from the 
upper part of which sprang twelve branches, in the shape 
of a hollow cone, much wider than the sugar-loaf itself ; 
for while the circumfexence of the cone at the base was 
but 50 feet, the circumference of the .reversed cone at the 
top was about 200 feet. It was, we may say, a small cone 
supporting a large cone, joined at the narrow part — a kind 
of hour-glass, the upper part of which was five times the 
size of the lower part. 

Le Dru, the naturalist attached to Baudin's expedition, 
measured the tree with mathematical exactness 400 years 
after the first navigators. He gave almost exactly the 
same dimensions, with the exception of one foot more at 
the base. This diflFerence was not the eflFect of age; the 
tree had suffered, was split, and had expanded. Baudin 
and Le Dru predicted its downfall, and gave 150 years as 
the time it would probably last. Thus, towards the end 
of the last century, signs of decrepitude were manifest ; the 
trunk was attacked. However, the cracks and cavities 
were filled in with masonry and. cement, and in a country 
where there are no violent storms, sheltered from the 



AGE OF THE TREE. 57 

north-east winds and the levaide^ it was hoped that it 
might be preserved, at least for the 150 years given it by 
Le Dru. In 1819 it was standing, and its leaves and 
bark were full of sap and vigour ; but the state of the 
trunk had grown worse. Then came the storm which 
broke off the first branch (that sent to Kew). It was 
mutilated, and from that time disaster was imminent. 
Let us say a few words before relating the catastrophe. 

It was during the first half of this century that the 
tree received a visit from the most famous of travellers. 
Baron Humboldt, who settled the question of its age. 
6,000 years had been the age assigned to it ; Le Dru, 
Borda, and other travellers had stopped at 5,000 or 6,000 
as the very outside. Humboldt set it down as 10,000 
years. Since then various naturalists, able to study the 
fiubjecty have nearly all confirmed Humboldt's calcula- 
tions on different grounds, checking the one by the other. 
It is difficult to calculate exactly the age of this colossus, 
this ancestor of the vegetable world. Perhaps, if it were 
cut down and the trunk examined, some solid starting 
point might be found on which to base the calculations. 
VidearU aapientea. It is their affair. 

In 1867 a dreadful tempest destroyed the top of the 
tree. The upper cone fell ; the lower one alone is left. The 
soil all round is covered with pieces of broken branches, 
some of which are eighteen feet in circumference I The 
smallest, the ends of the branches having lost their 
leaves, look like mutilated wrists, and are as thick, as a 
man's leg. 

The trunk alone, as we have said, remains standing ; 



S8 THE DRAGON OF THE HESPERIDES. 

but it is much injured. The holes have been filled up with 
stones and plaster. It is now only from its base that any 
idea of the colossus can be formed, as it once was when 
it bore the branches which now lie at its feet. 

Although the greatest care and attention since the 
time of the Conquest have not been able to preserve the 
dragon-tree, although it is substantially dead to posterity, 
yet its memory will remain, kept alive by science, obser- 
vation, and all the imitative arts. The poetic fables of 
the ancients will also remain to us, and it must be ac- 
knowledged that, according to the ancient hypothesis, this 
image of the dragon was not over-strained, and presented 
some special features. Â philosopher, not an Athenian, 
nor a Sicilian geographer, nor a Parthenopian naturalist, 
but a Frenchman, Nicolas Monard, imagined that, like the 
ancients, he had discovered beneath the husk of the fruit 
a perfect figure of the dragon of fable. What cannot 
imagination do? and what a wonderful thing is faith, 
whether applied to the miracles of Somanism or the 
fables of Paganism I 

ancient witness of primitive ages I high grass covered 
thy feet ; climbing plants twined themselves round thy 
trunk, and boldly clung .to thy branches ; parasites grew 
on thee, feeding on thy substance ; thou hast seen beneath 
thy shade happy generations, useless or malevolent monks, 
and bloody warriors ; for a hundred centuries, men have 
been sheltered by thee ; the conqueror Alonso de Lugo had 
mass said on an altar under thy shade, thine, who hadst 
witnessed the mysterious rites of Egypt, Phœnician idola- 
try, Greek mythology, and Moorish ablutions I What a 



AN ASPARAGUS PLANT, 59 

marvellous life has been thine, and what a mournful death 
after a hundred years of dying ! And now, ancient tree, 
first-bom and most venerable of created beings, thou art 
dishonoured hopelessly, for it is in the name of science. 
fabulous dragon, thou who wert deified ; thou art no- 
thing more than an asparagus plants an asparagus plant 
larger than any other, that is all I Thou art no longer a 
tree, the monarch of the forest ; thou art but a mere 
vegetable, classed in the family asparageœ, and this sen- 
tence is without appeal. 

The slow growth of this plant is well known ; to this 
discovery are due the calculations which have fixed 
10,000 years as the age of the dragon-tree. 

But whilst science classes among the asparageœ one of 
the most marvellous trees in creation, a learned man, M. 
de Mirbel, declares that the d/racœna draco is living I 
He has found in the tissue between the bark and the 
stem an utricular layer, which he has examined with a 
powerful microscope, and he has seen living granules, ex- 
cessively small, produced in it. These granules move, come 
together, and form fresh utricles. Thus we see the cellule 
secreted by the creature which is to build it with the aid 
of the cellulose, and this creature which thus protects 
and covers itself is an atom, an invisible corpuscle, 
six millions go to a cubic inch ! The draccena has 
given rise to these marvellous studies, and has held the 
honour of furnishing the material for the first discoveries 
of Messrs. Payen and de Mirbel. Thus we see on how 
many grounds this celebrated tree is interesting to men 
of science as well as to poets and tourists. 



6o THE DRAGON OF THE HESPERIDES. 

We said in a previous chapter that the Ganarian Archi- 
pelago was of primary formation ; the dragon-tree con- 
firms this idea. The plant, or arborescent vegetable, is 
not, like calamités, found in the carboniferous districts of 
Europe, but it still exists in the region of Atlantis ; the 
gigantic equiaetum (horse-tail) which appeared there 
millions of years before the period of transition, must 
have been the immense asparagus, thirty or forty feet high^ 
the fruit of which was a sort of layered stump, a living 
plant reproducing itself by means of cryptogamoufi 
sporules. Although in succeeding epochs these plants 
diminished in size, yet we may well allow that the pre- 
ijervation of the dragon-tree in a favourable soil was very 
possible. 

The great dragon-tree, the ancestor and veteran of 
vegetation, is not the only one which has enjoyed a wide- 
spread reputation. Clavijo, the great naturalist, the 
insular translator of Buffon, speaks of a dragon-tree in 
Gran Canaria, the large dimensions of which had been 
mentioned to him, and which had been seen by aged 
persons then living. Two oxen, harnessed, could easily get 
into the hollow trunk. The dragon-tree of Orotava was, 
however, undoubtedly larger, even according to Clavijo. 

The size of the great dragon-tree, 49 feet in circum- 
ference at the base, has been surpassed by other trees of a 
different kind. But its antiquity is indisputably greater 
than that of any other known tree, from the extraordi- 
narily slow growth of aaparageœ. 

On the sides of the Sierra Nevada, in California, there 
still, I believe, exist about a hundred araucarias, sequias. 



GIGANTIC TREES. 6i 

and wellingtonias of gigantic size. One of the welling- 
tonias, which was cut down, proved from its concentric 
rings to be 3,100 years old; it was 450 feet high, nearly 
the height of the Great Pyramid, and 116 feet in circum- 
ference. In Brazil, on the Bio Branco, a tree has been 
discovered the foliage of which measures 500 feet in cir- 
cumference ; this is the sofVbfMi or meiro, and it belongs 
to the same family as the boabab of Senegambia, which 
covers 19,000 square feet with its shadow. 

In England and Norway there are oaks and pines of 
astonishing weight and size ; not one of them is 4,000 
years old. 

The Cyprus and laurvs persea have reached the age of 
4,000 years in Persia. 

The cedars of Lebanon existed in Solomon's time, and 
some of them still remain, less noticeable for the size of 
the trunk than for the strength and spread of the branches. 
We cannot allow their age to exceed 4,000 years. 

These trees are of astonishing hardiness and vigour for 
trees. Their growth is rapid and vigorous. Not so with 
the dragon-tree ; its slowness of growth is something ex^ 
traordinary. There are some at Orotava which, although 
clearly proved to be 300 or 400 years old, are less than a 
foot in circumference ; others, planted at the time of the 
Conquest, have hardly attained four feet ; and yet it is 
well known that the first period of growth is the most 
rapid and vigorous. 

The trees which bear the golden apples and the laurel 
are, as we have said, indigenous in the Canaries ; if they 
were indigenous in other countries as well as Asia and 



62 THE DRAGON OF THE HESPERIDES. 



Persia, still there is no proof that they were exported 
thence to the islands of Atlantis. It is probable that 
the people of Atlantis, who civilized Grreece and Egypt, 
introduced them into the Mediterranean countries. These 
trees, so dear to the Grreeks and Somans, were the one 
a glorious emblem crowning the brows of heroes, the 
prize of poetry, art, and science ; the other a refreshing 
draught, indispensable to dwellers in hot countries. These 
precious trees, disseminated by the ancients wherever their 
conquests extended, were sacred in their native place. 
Tradition, history, poetry, all prove it. But the cabalistic 
tree, which must have been singularly striking to nations . 
whose theogony was inspired by nature, the dragon-tree, 
is more especially indigenous, autocthonous, and is 
only found in the Atlantic islands of Madeira and the 
Canaries. In its thick red sap these imaginative people, 
according to their constant habit of animating plants, saw 
the blood of an animal, the dragon of fable; the low 
strong trunk, the regular bifurcation of the branches like 
the fingers of a man's hand, the mysterious peculiar fruit, 
the inside of which, according to fanciful accoimts, 
resembled a hideous monster, the sword-shaped leaves, 
three or four feet long, bristling on a kind of mutilated 
arm at the end of the branches, the bluish green colour of 
the scaly trunk, all gave to this tree a strange, peculiar 
aspect, which, separating it entirely from other trees, 
must have had a singular effect on the imaginative minds 
of those who saw it for the first time growing wild in the 
midst of laurel and orange groves. Seeing it bleed from 
its incisions during the midsummer heats, they called it a 



ANTEDILUVIAN MONSTERS, 63 



dragon, comparing it in their alarm to the terrible 
monster slain by Hercules. Perhaps also, seeing a winged 
reptile live on this extraordinary tree and dart from it on 
its prey, these poetic minds called by the same name the 
reptile and the tree. 

Let us examine this symbol, this tradition. 

It is an undoubted fact that before the great Mediter- 
ranean deluge, and to a certain point even after it, strange 
creatures, brought forth in transitional periods, inhabited 
the marshy grounds or those shallow seas which still re- 
mained warm. This epoch, called by modem geologists 
the Beptile Period, produced creatures belonging at once 
to the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, or to two 
only, monstrous products of creative forces ; birds, quad- 
rupeds, fish, plants, reptiles, all at once, either united or 
distinct ; the greater number of these have been restored 
for us by geologists. The great Cuvier reconstructed the 
world for us, from the ichthyosaurus to the nautilus, from 
the giant 1 00 feet long to the infusoria. 

The dragon has existed. The first men saw the last 
survivors of those prodigious creatures, and the memory 
of them has been preserved. The struggles of mankind 
with the mighty creatures which overran the earth must 
have been terrible ; the excessive alarm of men possessing 
no weapons in the first ages, gave rise to the traditions of 
formidable beings attacking mankind and destroyed by 
the demi-gods, strong and brave men. 

Science corroborates tradition ; the dragon still exists. 
It is true that it is reduced to iuisigniticant proportions, 
which can po longer alarm. Its present form resembles 



64 THE DRAGON OF THE HESPERIDES. 

that of the serpent and green lizard; the wings of ancient 
story are now only two lateral membranes, moyeable, but 
incapable of raising their possessor. When the dragon, 
however, climbs to the tops of trees to watch for its prey, 
it spreads out these membranes like a parachute, and being 
slightly moved, they suffice to bring it gently to the 
ground. Thence comes the naine of d/raco volana. This 
modem dragon (the flying lizard) feeds on insects, and is 
able to store them up, keeping them in a kind of pouch, 
from which it can withdraw them at will, its throat and 
lower membrane dyed pink or red, for those parasitical 
insects and animalculse which live by niillions on the 
bark of certain trees dye red the jaws which devour 
them and the bodies which crush them. 

This degenerate reptile is not, it is true, directly 
descended from the dragon of fable, but it witnesses to 
the truth of the fable, and science has discovered among 
fossil remains creatures which answer exactly to the de- 
scriptions of antiquity, the great family of the Saurians. 
The iguanodon was herbivorous, and perhaps, like the 
camel, able to bite the toughest plants ; the megalosaurus 
pursued fish in the depths of the sea. The ptérodactyles, 
furnished with rudimentary claws, walked the earth, 
while at the same time they were able to rise above 
it by means of their enormous wings; the nature of 
their feet proves that they could and did perch on trees, 
thus being at once reptiles, vampires, bats, and fish; 
monsters of creation, whose remains form important strata, 
and which are found by millions on the surface of the 
primary marine formatiops. 



THE DRAGON OF FABLE. 65 

Their eyes were so enormous, says Cuvier, that the orbits 
of some were fourteen inches deep! they were seventy 
feet long; their bodies were covered with scales; their 
serpent-like tails must have been alarming; and their 
throats could swallow almost anything, the opening being 
six or seven feet wide I After these facts, why should the 
tales of antiquity astonish ua ? On the contrary, we ought 
to admire the poetic genius of the ancients, which, taking 
its source from such horrors, was able to embellish these 
terrible images in order the better to preserve their 
memory. Let us hear the old fables. 

The dragon, Spa/cœv (from hipKOfiai^ I see), was thus 
named on account of its piercing sight and peculiar red 
eye ; it was of enormous size, had an ensanguined throat, 
the body and tail of a serpent; it was represented as 
covered with scales and possessing claws, and often wings. 
This is exactly the antediluvian monster which modem 
science has reconstructed from its fossil remains. Nothing 
is wanting, not even the enormous eye. 

Nor is this all. The dragon inhabited especially the 
Caspian and Grreek seas and shores, marshy seas, subject 
to many changes, and identified by science under the 
names of Ninevite or Asiatic Sea, Hellenic Sea, Saharian 
or Libyan Sea. These seas, partly dried up by the succes- 
sive disturbances of the earth's crust, have revealed vast 
calcareous deposits, in which an accumulation of organic 
remains has been discovered. The East must have pre- 
served the tradition of these, and Asiatic and Greek poetry, 
called them by turns the guardian of the Golden Fleece, 
on t^ose eastern shores conquered by the Argonauts, the 

VOL. II. F 



66 THE DRAGON OF THE HESPERIDES. 

protector of the Gastalian fountain on the Mediterranean 
shores, and the guardian of the golden apples in the 
Gardens of the Hesperides in the land of Atlantis. Was 
the dragon an object of worship among the ancients? 
This has been maintained, but it is useless to seek for 
proofs of the probability of such worship. 

It is enough to prove that an epoch of transition between 
the animal creation and mankind was recognised in the 
ancient théogonies, in order to harmonise the traditions 
of Egypt with those of the Vedas, the Zend-Avesta of 
Zoroaster, Brahma and Manu with Greek feble. It is 
true that these early ideas of mankind were obscured 
by erroneous interpretations and defective symbols, but 
they suffice to show us the first confirmations of the 
revelations of a modem science which, when developed, 
will one day show us the origin of the world in which 
we live, and prove that universal progress is the law of 
nature- 

The strange monsters who peopled the world before the 
advent of man are depicted to us as vanquished by light, 
by divine wisdom, by human strength. Apollo in his fiery 
car traverses and illuminates chaos, dispersing the monsters 
and transfixing them with his arrows ; Bellerophon 
destroys the chimera; Hercules slays the hydra. And 
Saint Michael the Archangel is represented as slaying the 
dragon- Nor is this all. The ardent faith of the Middle 
Ages preserved the image, by the sublime language of 
art, in fairy tales, popular festivals. Catholic ceremonies, 
and monuments ; in gurgoyles and the sculptures of 
cathedrals. The Middle Ages everywhere preserved the 



MODERN DRAGONS, 67 

remembrance of the dragon of antiquity, and chivalry 
used it as the heraldic emblem of heroic actions. 

We ourselves, although rendered prosaic by the worship 
of the golden calf, too much influenced by the material 
wants of a life exclusively devoted to gain, have not we 
also countenanced the eastern fable by giving the name 
of dragoon to a horse-soldier, a kind of hippogriflf, like 
the saurian, that formidable being furnished with the 
means of battling with the wild order of nature in which 
its lot was cast? have we not given that ancient and 
monstrous name to those troops who are the terror of 
their enemies from their boldness in harassing them, their 
power to conquer them, and their swiftness in overtaking 
them ? have we not covered their heads with helmets on 
which, in imitation of the ancients, we have laid the 
serpent's scales, and the gorgon's head surmounted by the 
red bird's plume, and ending in the hippogrifTs tail ? 

The Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and American savages, 
too, have they not also, in remembrance of the monstrous 
creatures who first peopled the earth, preserved in 
their paintings, their sculpture, and their poetry the 
dragon of ancient fable, and perpetuated it until this 
very hour ? 

From Hesiod and Homer down to Tasso and Ariosto, 
from the ancient world to the modern, the dragon has 
been sung by all, and to complete the universality of the 
symbol, the great saurian, reptile, bird, fish, was also 
deified by the Danes and Northmen, who in the ninth and 
tenth centuries embarked on board their d/raJceSj or dragons, 
on the prows of which the traditional head was carved, 

F 2 



68 THE DRAGON OF THE HESPFJtIDES, 

and which in their form resembled the fabulous priatia of 
the ancients. 

No, the fable of the dragon is not a fable, but the true 
and exact image of one phase of creation ; it is a symbol 
in use among all nations, and it is with a feeling of admira- 
tion for those who created it, and of veneration for those 
who hare successiyely preserved it, that we treat of this 
subject in the very place which gave it birth, and in 
sight of the venerable tree beneath which the dragon once 
crouched. 

The Valley of the Hesperides is indeed the paradise of 
pagan antiquity, where in profound peace, the dragon 
slain, evil defeated, eternity gained, the souls of the heroes 
wandered in tranquillity and light. The monster was no 
more ; the first age of the primary formation was at an 
end for ever ; the age of reptiles was over ; the harmless 
tree alone has remained. 

The age of humanity begins. 



THE INQUISITION. 



Chaptbb VI. 

THE CLERGY, 

* "We will begin with a little ancient history,' said Briinner ; 

* I like speaking of the clergy of former times as well as 
of those of the present day. 

* The Inquisition has not been idle in the Archipelago. 
Established on a small scale in 1504, it constituted itself, 
contrary to law, a free tribunal in 1567. It soon began to 
rack and bum, to torture in every imaginable way, for the 
sake of sending the souls of its victims to paradise. But 
its deeds were insignificant when compared with what went 
on in Spain ; still more so when compared with the Inqui- 
sition in America, where, in order to save the Dominicans 
trouble, dogs were specially trained to devour the Indians 
in a Catholic manner, thus despatching them at once to 
heaven. The name of one of these dogs, Berecillo, has 
been carefully preserved to history, thanks to one of the 
fathers, according to whose accounts the Grpvemment 
granted this dog, on account of his services to religion, 
the pay of three men. It was his due : he had devoured 
more Indians than the other dogs. 

*The most impossible crimes were imputed by the 
tribunal to those who were to be got rid of — sorcery. 



70 THE CLERGY. 



Judaism, and even Mohammedanism 1 Any excuse served. 
Let us mention a few of the Inquisition's acts, so well 
adapted to make the Christian religion beloved. In 1557 
a Guanche was burnt to death, for the sake of example ; 
in 1576 a Moor, to amuse the people. A Moor wasless 
than a dog, less than nothing. In 1526 a Portuguese. 
That was a mere trifle, a foreigner who ought to have been 
judged by the civil law, a mere violation of international 
law, not worth mentioning. There is a Spanish proverb : 
* Take from a Spaniard all the good in him, and what 
remains ? a Portuguese.' Accordingly another Portuguese 
was burnt in 1559. When the naturalist Le Dru visited 
Laguna, he saw with his own eyes the pictures which re- 
presented these amusements, these acte of faith {autos da 
fe). The name is somewhat ironical. 

^ Fortunately Portugal was the first to expel the Jesuits, 
showing herself superior to Spain in this respect at least. 
The ^ Encyclopédie ' appeared, and the worthy Dominicans, 
despised and abused in Spain and the Canaries, were 
henceforward powerless, and were allowed to exist until 
1820 only on condition of their tolerance as regarded all 
religious questions. The good fathers occupied themselves 
with eating and other material concerns alone for a hun- 
dred years, leaving the instruments of torture to moulder 
away in their dungeons. 

^ The law of 1820 abolished the Inquisition and dispersed 
the monks. On the day the news arrived at Las Palmas 
the college students mounted tjie tower and rang a funeral 
knell. The alarmed populace, fearing some disaster, ran 
to the foot of the tower. " There is nothing the matter," 



THE INQUISITION ABOLISHED. 71 

cried the students ; " our neighbour is dead ; we are ring- 
ing for the funeral. Hurrah for the Constitution ! '" 

^ The laughter and cheers of the crowd may be imagined. 
In this manner the " Holy Inquisition " expired in the 
Canaries. The only revenge taken on it was a tragi- 
comic student's joke. Nations are certainly too good- 
natured.' 

* What do you mean ? ' said Elrauss. 

* Once or twice, in thousands of years, one or two kings 
have been executed, a pope never. The amount of suffer- 
ing they have caused is incalculable ; nations are, as I 
said, too good-natured.' 

' You are a Eed Eepublican ; you like blood.' 
^ I drink it. The excellent Dominic who said, " Kill 
them all ; Grod will recognise His own ! " was a gentle, 
good, pious man, a Boyalist ; if I had been a peasant of 
Beziers or Carcassonne who had captured and hanged him, 
I should have been wicked, impious, a Eepublican. There's 
justice for you I One man kills his fellow-creatures by 
thousands. He does them too much honour ; he shall be 
canonised. The people, at length exasperated, revenge 
themselves. No, judge a king, who after all is a responsible 
being. No excuse, no pity for them; out upon them! 
Nations are decidedly too good-natured.' 

* There, that is enough,' said the Canadian ; * do allow 
us to laugh a little, and don't talk politics ; you look to 
me like a regicide who would not dare to kill even 
Bousseau's mandarin.' 

* You want to laugh ? ' said Briinner ; ' then don't in^ 
terrupt me any more, but listen. 



72 THE CLERGY, 



*In 1516 a capitular order of the Chapter of Grran 
Canaria, at that time the principal island of the Canaries, 
prohibited any priest from playing the guitar in the 
streets. 

' They must therefore have done so before. It must have 
been a curious sight to see priests playing guitars in the 
streets and squares I 

* Another law prohibited them from indulging in 
this musical exercise on the doorsteps, or even at the 
windows ! 

* They must have been singularly fond of performing in 
public. 

'Next they were forbidden to wear vety expensive 
breeches, coloured cassocks, and embroidered hats pointed 
behind. They were coxcombs and dandies as long ago 
as 1550. It appears also that they were ignorant, for it 
became necessary, still by means of a sovereign decree of 
the chapter of capitular canons, to take steps against in- 
capable canons and priests who c(mlA Tiot read. You 
wanted something comic, gentlemen ; here it is. Laugh 
away I 

' What can we say for these clergy, who, not knowing 
how to read, were the instructors, the only instructors, of 
youth ? They could not read, and they were so powerful 
that the civil and military chiefs were really under their 
control, and that they alone administered some sort of 
justice. What can we say for these clergy ? This. Such 
rigour against the priests who played the guitar in the 
streets, who persisted in playing it on doorsteps, who 
dressed in silk and were unable to read, such rigour on 



■ LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES, 73 

the part of the chapter proves that this chapter was 
^* rigidly observant of discipline, full of zeal for the pre- 
servation of that decorum which ought to distinguish 
persons clothed with the sacerdotal authority;" and, accord- 
ing to the author of the " Philosophical Letters," it proves 
nothing el^e. Sweet philosophy I people in their senses, 
less philosophical perhaps, would have found a most 
evident proof of want of discipline and decorum, and of 
ignorance, among the clergy in the Islands. 

^ The pagan theatre which became extinct in the fifth 
century had been neglected even long before that time, 
and the people had crowded to see the butcheries of the 
circus. After such exciting spectacles nothing could be. 
shown to King Mob which did not appear tame and com- 
monplace. Lassitude and disgust, the results of satie^ 
took possession of the minds of men in the Middle Ages. 
Everything was gloomy and melancholy, a life of laboiir 
without a future, present unhappiness without a cure. 
Warriors and priests divided the lands between them- 
selves ; heaven and hell, masses and the stake, were the 
engines used by them as instruments of wealth and des- 
potic rule. The world will never know all the ills which 
Europe suffered in the Middle Ages, and the most ter* 
rible part is the immense time this suffering lasted — 
twelve centuries. 

*Even in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 
however, efforts were made towards emancipation; to- 
wards the end of the fourteenth century there was a 
great religious movement, and the protests against the 
fidghtfiil excesses of Catholicism engendered reform as 



74 THE CLERGY, 



well as mocking scepticism. The struggle became violent 
and terrible. Then the clergy, not despising trifles, took 
possession of the theatres, and brought them into the 
churches, to attract waverers, to bring back to the altar 
those who, cursing the Pope, delighted in revelry, or those 
possessed of ennui, driven away by dullness. In order to 
amuse such as these, the priests brought forward the 
comic sacred play. 

* There were two kinds of performances in the churches 
and two in the streets. In the streets people were burnt 
alive. This lasted a long time. In the streets also, 
during processions, mysteries were performed on a plat- 
form — the Passion, for instance. In the north of Europe 
public opinion was more powerful than fanaticism ; hardly 
any burning alive took place, and this happy reaction 
had a very powerful effect on the Spanish clergy. They 
burned fewer people, and the street mysteries also dimi- 
nished. They had been abused from the very first. In 
1568 the clergy were only allowed to have one perform- 
ance in the year, on Corpus Christi Day. Finally Charles 
III. ordered them to be put an end to altogether, saying 
that such a scandal ought to cease. So much for the 
streets. 

' In the churches there were two kinds of theatrical 
representations ; one, more religious than the other, re- 
presented scenes from the life and death of our Saviour. 
The priests and other church oflScials were the actors. 
Vestiges of these are still to be found in Spain and the 
Canary Islands in the Holy Week ceremonies. 

' The second kind was very different. It consisted in 



AUTOS SA CR AMENTALES, 75 

representing the history of some saint, into which Spanish 
imagination introduced the coarsest buffooneries. It is 
impossible to describe them. 

' " These profane representations," says Viardot, " were 
satirical and licentious. The platforms erected in the 
churches were crowded with priestly buffoons and clowns, 
and became schools of scandal." Finally it was decreed 
that these representations should take place only in those 
towns where there was a bishop, and in his presence. 

'This did not remedy the evil. It was a profitable 
business ; the spectator had to pay to see the performances. 
Another decree of the supreme court ordered "that in 
future performances were not to be given in the churches 
for money." Then, what these priests could no longer do 
for money they did for their amusement. The theory of 
art for art's sake is not a new one. The abuses still 
increased. In short, the authority of a council was neces- 
sary in 1565, which, " considering that performances which 
would not be permitted in the lowest places were given in 
churches," suppressed by order the representation of the 
festival of the Holy Innocents, "written," says Viardot, " in 
the most scandalous language." As for other performances, 
they were not for the future to take place during mass, 
and every piece " was to be examined before being per- 
formed." 

* These were the divine comedies, or auioa aacramentales 
(sacramental acts). The two most celebrated are " The 
Comedy of the Eosary," by Pedro Diaz, and "The 
Comedy of S. Anthony," by Alonso. 

'A Spanish writer, Augustin Eojas, in tracing the origin 



76 THE CLERGY. 



of the Spanish theatre, says that there "was not an abbé, 
priest, or poet in Madrid or Seville who had not written 
a play about some saint, "We all know that Calderon and 
Lope de Vega, the fathers of the modem theatre, wrote a 
number of autoè aacramentales. One must live ! ' 

* It must be owned,' remarked Mr. Groatbeard, ^ that 
those were curious times. To us Americans, a perfectly 
modem or at least rejuvenated people, such things appear 
incredible ; the most unexceptionable testimony alone can 
enable us to admit their possibility. So much misery and 
tears side by side with so much effrontery ! ' 

' All the more reason for amusing themselves a little,' 
said Briinner ; * the only pleasure the poor serfs had was 
in church, and of course they went there in crowds. After 
service came the theatre, where the priests amused the 
populace, making them thus forget their misery for a 
moment. They crowded, nay more, at Burgos they stifled 
themselves in the cathedral on the days of funcion 
(representation). Simday was indeed a pleasant day. 
During the week there were taxgatherers, thieves, bailiffs, 
followed by the soldiers, who each in turn took everything 
they could lay hands on, seignorial rights having already 
taken what the tithe collector had spared. The last 
comer perhaps carried off the peasant's wife or daughter, 
or got drunk at his expense. Happy for him if his hut 
were not burnt down. Between the fifteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries the rural districts became a desert ; the 
centres of population, towns and villages capable of being 
defended, were alone inhabited. The Tneata (proprietors 
of black cattle and sheep considered as a body) assumed 



CLERICAL POWER. 77 

alarming proportions. First the forests, then single trees 
were destroyed ; cultivation ceased ; grass was allowed to 
grow over half the provinces, and the sheep joined with 
the priests and soldiers in devouring the kingdom. It 
was pitiable I The peasant of La Mancha, Castille, and 
Estramaduras did indeed stand in need of some compen- 
sation. For such misery some remedy or diversion was 
needed ; the priest offered it ; the ministers of religion 
performed buffooneries in front of the altar.' 

^ Come, come, Briinner,' said Krauss, < you are going 
beyond bounds ; speak dispassionately of the clergy of 
the present day, and let these old tales be forgotten.' 

^ Be it so,' said Briinner, ^ these things put me in a rage; 
I will say no more about them ; but it would be difiBicult 
to make you understand the present state of the clergy in 
the Archipelago if I did not tell you what it was for- 
merly. We will examine it from another point of view. 

^Endowed by the conquerors and nobles, maintained 
by the middle classes, having the whole of civil life under 
their control, taking possession of a man at his birth and 
only letting him go after death, owning half the land, 
served by the fanatical and ignorant multitude, feared by 
the intelligent and independent, the clergy formed a body 
which was the absolute master of the consciences and of 
at least half the wealth of the Islands. The clergy 
derived their riches as much firom the religious zeal and 
blind devotion of the middle and lower classes as firom 
the legacies of the princes and nobles. 

^ Towards the end of the eighteenth century new ideas 
sprang up and blind faith cooled down ; the regular 



78 THE CLERGY, 



clergy, intoxicated with pride, sunk in indolent ease, only 
thought of enjoying themselves in the most scandalous 
ways; the secular clergy, more intelligent, endeavoured 
to struggle against those liberal influences which held a 
certain sway over men's minds, and attempted to conceal 
the as yet faint glimmer of light. The French Eevolution 
broke out, and gave the first blow to the power of the 
clergy. The ideas of emancipation from the clergy, of 
the opening of cloisters, of the confiscation of ecclesias- 
tical property, entered the peninsula with the French. 
These ideas were, alas I the sole result of that six years' 
war which cost so much gold and blood to the two sister 
nations ; an impious war, begun with an ambuscade, 
carried on with madness, and ended by a retreat, by 
disaster; a frightful war which alone would suflSce to 
disgrace a man of genius guilty of many other crimes 
besides, but which nevertheless produced two excellent 
results — hatred of despotism and the constitution of 
Cadiz.' 

* Briinner, you are intolerable,' said Krauss ; ^ you always 
go to such extremes. Where did you find that the 
Emperor — ' 

' My dear Krauss, I retract, out of respect to your 
Frankfort Bonapartism, and I will proceed. 

*The monks of every order remained, so to speak, 
mewed up in their monasteries, rather despised than hated, 
being for the most part natives of the country, resigned to 
their fate from indifference, cowardly apathy, tempera- 
ment, habit, or idleness ; they lived well and were happy, 
too stupid to perceive that the ground was trembling 



THEIR PRESENT STATE. 79 

beneath their feet. Several laws in succession gave them 
rude shocks. 

' The secular clergy made a wonderful resistance. They 
had seen the storm coming, and by priestcraft, by cunning, 
and by the help of the civil and military power, maintained 
a fierce struggle. In 1854 a decisive law deprived them 
of their chief privileges, which two or three revolutions 
have not restored. 

* Yet there is still a struggle in the Islands, although a 
mild one. Clerical influence is descending an inclined 
plane, which, while not altogether annulling it, is robbing 
it by degrees of its moral, political, and financial power. 
It is the march of human intellect, and this resistance to 
the clergy is one of the signs of the times in both hemi- 
spheres. However, like the asymptote, the clergy will 
always come nearer to, without ever reaching, the logical 
line, that is to say the absence of any authority. Some 
people have imagined that this Utopia is realisable ; as 
long as mankind has passions, vices, and infirmities, devo- 
teeism will be a fatal necessity which may diminish, but 
will never entirely die out. This diminution ought to be 
hastened. 

' The clergy are now paid. The Church property and 
monasteries have been sold, and now that the Islands no 
longer maintain 500 or 600 useless mouths in luxury, the 
250,000 inhabitants who have gained possession of the 
property in mortmain are growing rich. At the present 
day the priest, if he be old, is a good man, who has be- 
come tolerant and agreeable, rarely well informed, but yet 
far removed from the ignorance of the good old times. 



8o THE CLERGY. 



The middle-aged priest is better educated .and has differ- 
ent ideas ; he is more tolerant and also more moral than 
in former times. The young priests who cannot remem- 
ber the old days, and have nothing to regret, fulfil their 
duties with a zeal somewhat lukewarm, but capable, per- 
haps, of being stirred up. It must be owned that they are 
much better educated than formerly. Those living in the 
country are generally honest, simple, and hospitable. 

' The town clergy are much more occupied with worldli- 
ness than with politics. They live without disturbing 
themselves or intriguing much, peaceably, as they should 
do. But they feel that they are independent even of the 
State which pays them ; they know that the metropolitan 
clergy and the army govern the State between them. 

* Although the clergy are deprived of their property, the 
churches are still rich in decorations, copes, stuffs, gilding, 
shrines, vestments, old furniture, tapestry, and candle- 
sticks ; but only in the towns. This is the result of the 
clergy's having been despoiled legally and peaceably, not 
by a popular revolution. The churches in the rural dis- 
tricts are as simple as possible. 

' What a happy change I We may unhesitatingly attri- 
bute half the blessings which the Islanders now enjoy to 
the destruction of the enormous power of the priests, which, 
in fact, was nothing else than making, use of religion in 
order to appropriate the riches, liberty, and intelligence of 
the faithful.' 

* I should like to tell you a story,' said Lionel. 

* Go on,' said I; Hhe interruption will not put an end to 
what Briinner has to say.' 



A WOULD-BE CHURCHWARDEN. 8i 

* No, indeed, I find the clergy an inexhaustible source 
of instruction.' - 

' Well, this is an example of the clerical mode of pro- 
ceeding, taken from Laguna. 

' A wealthy mulatto inhabited that town ; America had 
been propitious to him. He was ambitious, the poor man 
wanted to be made a churchwarden. Being duly instructed 
by one of the fathers, he offered a present which was 
accepted but pronounced insufficient. It was hinted that 
he might succeed by means of the gift of a pulpit more 
•beautiful than that in the church of Santa Cruz. Our 
firiend ordered one from Genoa, of Carrara marble, the 
very one we so much admired. The question of the ad- 
mission or rejection of the mulatto was put to the vote. 
In spite of the prejudice of colour he would have been 
admitted for the sake of his piety, but what was to be 
done ? two more votes were wanting. This time he un- 
derstood how to go to work, and sent six silver lamps and 
two candelabra of the same metal four feet high. Then 
at length he was found worthy to sit on the church- 
wardens' bench, but he was obliged always to take the 
lowest seat. This opened the way to the sale of steps in 
rank. He would have made his way up by payment if he 
had lived ; but the poor man died ; probably he was skil- 
fully induced at the last tobequeath his fortune to the 
church.' 

* In these days,' said Brunner, ^ such scandalous pro- 
ceedings no longer take place. Let the civil law now 
separate the priest from the magistrate; let the priest 
fulfil his mission, he will then gain all that is really 

VOL. II. a 



82 THE CLERGY, 



enviable — ^the esteem and love of the faithful. Let the 
clergy be careful of the dignity of the new position which 
they occupy.' 

' Tell us something about the processions and rçymeriaa^ 
said Mr. Groatbeard. 

* I was just going to do so when you interrupted me. 
'During Holy Week the churches are turned into 

magnificent shows and theatres where the Passion is per- 
formed. On Holy Thursday the people go to see the 
churches, all dressed out with flowers, lights, and gold 
and silver ornaments. On Good Friday all this is 
changed, and the time of mourning begins. Then on 
Easter Sunday comes another change. The churches are 
splendidly decorated, and to the decorations is added the 
efifect produced by sacred music, mixed in the most un- 
blushing manner with profane music from well known 
operas. 

* The processions carry through the streets a still more 
costly paraphernalia, and form long files of copes, crosses, 
and costly ornaments; the monstrances are resplendent 
with gold and jewels ; the dresses of the saints are also 
very rich. The finest procession is that of Corpus Christi 
Day. The streets are crowded, old hangings and tapestry 
are suspended from the balconies, the ground is strewn 
with flowers, awnings are stretched from house to house to 
shade the streets through which the procession is to pass^ 
and altars, fitted up by the piety or ostentation of the 
faithful, arrest the procession, which performs some kind 
of ceremony at each of them, and then resumes its progress, 
preceded by a band of music. All the officials, generals, 



ROMERIAS. Zz 



magistrates, and government clerks, follow the procession 
with the utmost seriousness. Long files of young girls 
dressed in white, pilgrims, penitents, guilds, deacons, sub- 
deacons, burning incense, little children dressed as Cupids 
or like S. John the Baptist, finally the militia, all these, 
joined to a nimierous body of clergy, form an imposing 
and magnificent spectacle. The populace is always fond 
of crowds, apart from processions ; curiosity, custom, 
vanity, love, dress, all are gratified. The Dutch have their 
hermeaa^ the English their races, the Spaniards their 
processions. The latter are very dubious exhibitions. 
True religion does not enter into them, and the clergy 
only perform a part in them. 

'There is quite a rivalry between Santa Cruz and Las 
Palmas, each of the two towns trying to out-do the other 
in the pomp and splendour of its pi:ocessions. This 
rivalry is very profitable to the clergy, who manipulate it 
skilfully. The processions in Las Palmas are very fine, 
and, as at Teneriflfe, attract an immense concourse of people 
from the remotest parts of the Islands. 

* What shall we say about the Bomeriaa ? These 
festivals correspond to the Pardons of Brittany, the 
Assemblies of Picardy, and the Fenetras of Languedoc. 
They were religious festivals which drew together every 
year at certain periods, sometimes in one place, sometimes 
in another, vast crowds of pilgrims — Romeros ; whence 
Rom&ria^ an assembly of pilgrims. The religious fes- 
tival was long ago superseded by a meeting varying in 
numbers of the lower orders both from town and country ; 
with no other object than dancing, drinking, courting, 

Q 2 



84 THE CLERGY, 



exhibiting fine clothes — pleasure, in short; the chapel 
serves only as an excuse. 

' Next to the Eomeria of Tacoronte, the most famous is 
that of the Cristo de la Laguna. The image, which is of 
carved wood, is roughly executed, but most painful to 
look at, for the wounds stream with blood. No tradition 
is attached to this figure, which is celebrated in the island, 
and no one knows whence it came. The festival lasts two 
days, during which crowds of pilgrims flock from the most 
distant parts of the island. The town being too small to 
accommodate so many, the pilgrims are obliged to encamp 
in the open air. The effect at night is very picturesque, 
as then a general ball takes place, with music and 
fireworks. Meanwhile there is a great consumption of 
eatables and drinkables in Laguna, and all the petty 
shopkeepers make the most they can out of the pilgrims. 
' These annual festivals, often repeated in fine weather, 
may be blamed, condemned, or approved, but certainly, 
from a religious point of view, it would be better to put a 
stop to them ; they do no good either to body or soul. 

' The Eomerias evidently give rise to a great deal of ex- 
pense, and their periodical return causes a great waste of 
time ; so much for the material result ; morally, they en- 
courage an idolatry often puerile and sometimes ridi- 
culous. The net result of these festivals is great fatigue, 
an enormous consumption of liquor, and much licentious- 
ness. Therefore, judging the Bomerias by their results, 
one can but condemn them. On the other hand, it may 
be urged that the working classes in town and country 
frequent them for the sake of recreation, to forget their 



'm • W ,^^-—, 



NATIONAL CUSTOMS. 85 

weekday toils, fatiguing their bodies, it is true, but at the 
same time forgetting their troubles. The next day they 
are wearied, their purses are empty, and their hardships 
remain, but what does that matter ? They must go to 
the Someria ; it is the custom. They come back with 
empty pockets, tired and worn out ; they vow they will 
never go to another, and go the very next year. It is the 
same all the world over. There is no longer any excuse for 
Longchamps, for there a pilgrimage is made to a sanctuary 
which has ceased to exist ; the Carnival in Paris brings out 
500,000 simpletons in the midst of cold and rain, crowding 
the boulevards under pretence of going to look at the 
masks, which have not been seen for the last five and twenty 
years ; the Bois de Boulogne, the Prater, Eotten Eow, and 
the Prado, where the same persons are drawn by the same 
horses and carriages along the same drive 300 times in the 
year, prove that such customs belong to all countries. Let 
us not, therefore, be too severe on these Islanders who 
frequent the only festival, the only opportunity of 
meeting other people, which lies within their reach. 
Let us content ourselves with recommending a little more 
moderation, and abstaining from liquor and from the 
fighting which results from it. 

' The Island clergy, who possess some influence over the 
peasants, have scarcely any hold over the intelligent 
classes, who yield them only nominal respect. Among the 
townspeople there is a certain degree of unbelief which is 
not so apparent in Spain. The clergy exercise over the 
rural population an influence almost justified by the 
interval established by education between the pastor and 



S6 THE CLERGY. 



his flock. The confidant of the whole parish, lawyer, 
and adviser of the mayor and of the council as well, 
sometimes a doctor also, as we said before, the priest is 
beloved and esteemed. It is astonishing that in his posi- 
tion he does not exercise a greater influence on national 
life, education and politics, but this may be accounted for 
by the daily development of a new feeling in the Islands ; 
a beginning of independence which growing prosperity 
increases daily. At present there are in every village old 
men who remember the old order of things, and who have 
compared it with the new and drawn their own con- 
clusions. If primary education should complete the work^ 
it will be impossible for the clergy to regain their former 
footing ; on the contrary, the separation will become every 
day gi-eater and more decided. It will take a long time^ 
it is true, to diminish among simple-minded people the 
blind faith and credulity which satisfies the cravings of 
their imagination ; it will never be completely destroyed* 
The love of the marvellous, the taste for the pomp of 
Eomanism, the churches turned into theatres, the flowers, 
music, beautiful statues, the fragrance of incense, all these 
things, so repugnant to the quiet common sense and cool 
reason of northern races, have an immense influence over 
the souls, minds, and senses of southern nations. A con- 
siderable amount of progress must, however, have been 
made when we see the Church reduced to inaction, with 
the exception of its material manifestations, and the 
clergy deprived of their possessions, without political in- 
fluence, limited as regards money to their salaries, power- 
less to get it voted to them, not even able to make wills, 



SPAIN AND THE ISLANDS. 87 

beyond such rare exceptions as are to be found in all 
countries, even Protestant ones. 

*Eecent calculations proved that the Spanish clergy, 
amidst a population of 16,000, rather exceeded in number 
the French clergy, and that the budget for public worship 
was exactly double that of France* There are rather fewer 
priests in proportion in the Islands than in Madrid, about 
one per cent, less ; and the power of the clergy is not so 
great, not having such a concentration of military and 
civil power to lean on as in Spain. In the Islands, the 
Grovemment is to some extent constitutional, while in 
Spain it is only nominally so, being in reality despotic. 
In the Islands the clergy do not serve for the delegates of 
the central Grovemment to lean on, and these delegates do 
not carry out the aspirations of the clergy as is the case in 
the Peninsula ; and the Canarians have already shaken 
off the Soman Catholic torpor which is so striking in some 
of the Spanish provinces. By means of commerce and 
agriculture, which have produced wealth, the Islanders are 
escaping from the fatal circle of idleness, ignorance, and 
misery which Eomanism traces everywhere, and which 
the Spanish Grovemment has protected and developed, 
leaving the rural populations in a frightful state of ignor- 
ance. The Islanders, more and more emancipated, will 
live happily and prosperously on a fertile soil, in a healthy 
and invigorating climate, and an atmosphere breathing of 
perfumes. Priest and King becoming less powerful each 
day, national life will become more vigorous. Only let 
there be schools, and the Canarians will make rapid pro- 
gress ; a liberal education alone will put an end to the 



88 THE CLERGY. 



miscliievoiis influence of the priests. Such an education 
is indispensable, and should be organised at once. 

' Even in the case of a free church in the State, priests 
will always be needed, and the nation must take proper 
means to keep their power in check. The Eomish clergy 
are interested in keeping men in ignorance, and only at- 
tempt to instruct them in such matters as may keep 
them dependent. The State, on the contrary, ought by 
means of education to lead men to the consciousness of 
their strength and freedom. But what sort of education 

should it be ? I prefer the Swiss plan, according to which 
religious education is entirely separate.' 

' I prefer the American plan,' said Groatbeard. ' You may 
remember, gentlemen, that some time ago the United 
States Congress decided to ofier a prize for a musical com- 
position. ITie practical American Eepublicans chose for 
the subject " The Constitution." You cannot imagine the 
torrent of French ridicule on the subject. What, " Every 
American is free " to be set to music ! What, " Justice," 
*' Grovemment," all the articles of the Constitution, in 
short, to be set to music and sung as solos, duets, quar- 
tettes, and choruses I How they laughed !' 

'Laughing is such an excellent thing,' said Briinner, 
' that you had better die than never laugh. If I were not 
a Swiss, I should wish to be a Frenchman, for no other 
reason than to possess that precious faculty of laughing at 
everything, at other people and at one's self.' 

' How is it,' continued Groatbeard, ' that the clergy have 
succeeded in driving into the heads of a hundred millions 
of ignoramuses litanies, for example, and the customary 



USE OF MUSIC. 89 



prayers ? By setting them to music. How do they teach 
spelling to children too yoimg and inattentive to be 
taught in an ordinary way? By setting it to music. 
And is it more extraordinary to set to music, in order to 
imbue the minds of the population with them, the great 
principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, the moral 
rules of the duty of man, and the rights of citizens ? ' 

' If we laugh at the Americans,' said Briinner, ' it is 
because we have not yet thoroughly shaken oflF the 
Bomish yoke which has so long oppressed us. If the 
Spaniards would set to work to teach for twenty years 
only the duties and rights of citizens by the same 
methods the clergy haVe employed for eighteen hundred 
years to disseminate their teaching, the whole of Spanish 
society would be for ever regenerated. If, instead of 
being taught to read by spelling out the fables of the 
priests, future generations were made to imbibe inde- 
pendence, political liberty, and the rights of man, together 
with Christian morality, such substantial food would 
transform the race. When we reflect that a people 
stupefied by such an education as they have had, have 
still suflScient energy to rise in arms in spite of the 
length of time they have been crushed by despotism and 
credulity, we canjiot but acknowledge in them a degree 
of intelligence and common sense reassuring for the 
future ; and we must feel convinced that the return of 
past evils would be for ever impossible after a Bepublican 
education for two generations.' 

'Now you are going back to politics,' said Krauss. 
* Well, this time, for once, I agree with you.' 



^o THE CLERGY, 



^ Let Spain,' resumed Brunner, ' still pay her clergy if 
she likes, but let her manage national education in a 
genuinely Eepublican manner, as it is more difiBcult to 
reform than to found ; and she can easily establish it at 
once on liberal principles, for primary education, strictly 
speaking, does not at present exist. Let her reject the 
doctrines of submission, patience, and servility, and teach 
the children those great social principles which teach 
man his individual worth, liberty, equality, and fraternity, 
the basis of all morality ; it will then be seen that if men 
are made to live together, as even learned doctors are 
forced to acknowledge, it is because they are apparently 
endowed with sufiBcient good sense and intelligence to 
understand the necessity of living under laws approved 
by reason, and which ought to control priests, soldiers, 
citizens, and the Grovemment itself. 

' Clerical power has been greater in Spain than in any 
of the sister Latin nations ; and to this fact is due the 
depth of her fall, during which she has drunk to the 
dregs the cup of bitterness, shame, and misery, which the 
dynasty and the clergy held to her lips. The Philips and 
the Inquisition at the same time I It was too much. 

' The Islands suffered less than did the Mother Country 
from clerical crimes and excess of power, but they have 
suffered morally : living members of the national body, 
the moral decay of Spain has injured them, for they have 
participated in it. The country of the Islanders was not 
the Canaries only, a great part of it was in Europe. Every 
wound dealt the Mother Country made their hearts bleed, 
united to it by the powerful ties of common descent. 



DES AMOR TIZA CI ON. 9 î 

language, and customs. If autos dafé were rare in the 
Islands, if despotism exercised there a somewhat mild sway^ 
these results were due to their situation : power has not 
such long arms as some imagine, and where its direct 
grasp cannot reach, it is at least possible to live. The 
Islanders also possess more liberty than continental people, 
for they are more closely united, and form, as it were, one 
great family ; and then, living at the base of those im- 
mense volcanoes, which may overwhelm them any hour, 
temembering the autocthonous race and the dreadful end 
of the Atlantes, and living in a liquid prison, closed in by 
the terrible sea, the Islanders feel that nature has more 
power over them than man. The might of man seems 
insignificant to those who are accustomed to feel the earth 
tremble under them, who see the working of scarcely 
extinct volcanoes, and hear during the silence of night 
the mighty voice of the ocean.' 

Briinner ceased, and a long silence ensued. We felt 
that his narrative, perhaps exaggerated as regarded certain 
points, required sofbem'ng down before it could be pub- 
lished. It was necessary, however, to preserve somewhat 
of his aggressive, violent method of proceeding, but we 
have suppressed passages which it appeared imprudent to 
publish, with regard to clerical morality, the manœuvres 
of the priests to retain the power which was visibly slipping 
from their hands, &c. We have done so the more readily 
as they are things of the past, or very nearly so, in the 
Canary Islands. 

Let me add a few words. Spain has profited less than 
the Islands by the deaaraortizacion (abolition of mort- 



92 THE CLERGY, 



main) of the ecclesiastical property, for a very simple 
reason: in the Islands everything is weaker — passion, 
power, fanaticism, rancour, disease even ; it seems as if 
the sea, by keeping the climate temperate, exercises over 
mankind an influence favourable to good and unfavourable 
to evil, opposed to every excess. The bitterness aroused 
on the continent by the law of deaaTnortizacion has 
either been unknown in the Canaries or has completely 
died out. 

But matters have changed for the better, even in Spain. 
On Sunday, April 10, 1868, Briinner attended the 
Protestant service held privately at the English consul's. 
On January 24, 1869, Briinner, Krauss, the Canadian, and 
I were present at the opening of a church for Protestant 
public worship, amidst an immense crowd who would have 
burnt us alive a hundred years ago, and excommunicated 
and stabbed us six months ago I The Revolution of Sep- 
tember had taken place in the interval. 

The Canaries have been so completely transformed, 
from a clerical point of view, in the last forty years, that 
it is quite curious to study the diflference in the old 
authors and accounts written in the early part of this 
century. Small collars, small cloaks, small shoes, and 
large hats, cassocks and surplices, guilds, mendicant 
orders, barefooted or otherwise, priests, abbés, canons, 
monks of every order, swarmed in the streets and houses, 
followed by beggars and vagabonds of every kind, the 
whole motley crowd speaking, gesticulating, smoking, 
blessing, begging, forming all together an assemblage so 
strange, so immoral, so dangerous, that captains of ships 



CHANGES IN THE CANARIES. 93 

dared not allow their crews to land. Misery, ignorance, 
&naticism, and licentiousness, were the too visible fruits 
of three hundred years of clerical rule. Now, everything 
is changed, and there is less misery than in Europe. With 
twenty years' enjoyment of liberty and compulsory educa- 
tion, the Canaries, will far surpass the most favoured 
provinces of Spain in civilisation, progress, and well- 
being. We hope so, and are confident that it will be so. 



94 CONSUMPTION, ETC, 



Chapter VII. 

C0N8UMPTI0N.SANTA CRUZ, OROTAVA, AND PUERTO 
CONSIDERED AS SANITARY RESORTS. 

Before entering on the subject of the various considera- 
tions which in our opinion render Teneriffe one of the 
most important sanitary resorts, it may be profitable to 
say a few words on the terrible diseases of the respiratory 
organs. 

It is unhappily too true, as statistics prove, that diseases 
of the chest carry off on an average one-fifth of the 
population of Europe. This is one great cause of depopu- 
lation, and not the only one, for as consumption is 
hereditary, consumptive patients ought not to marry. 
They have no enjoyment of any kind, amusements kill 
them ; they are, as it were, paritahs in the midst of modem 
society. The subject is, therefore, one of interest to in- 
dividuals, to families, and even to the State, for in armies 
composed of picked men between eighteen and twenty- 
eight years of age, the average mortality from this dis- 
ease amounts to one in six ; a most enormous average» 

Consumption is doubtless hereditary ; is it also incur- 
able ? No : it is now unanimously agreed that it can be 
cured ; people have been known to live fifty years with 
tubercles in the lungs ; others with only one lung have 
been known to die from accidental causes or from old age. 



EFFECT OF A SEA VOYAGE. 95 

The disease is curable when the tubercles have not spread 
over the whole of the lungs, or when they harden, and the 
cicatrisation of the cavities takes place of itself. 

How does the cure work ? It is a mystery of nature 
hitherto unexplained. However, observations, confirmed 
during some centuries, have proved the salutary eflfects, 
first, of change of air and living in a warm climate; 
secondly, of a sea voyage. 

It has always been allowed that a sea voyage has a 
powerful curative eflfect. Consumptive sailors are well 
only when at sea ; once on shore, the malady resumes its 
progress. Others who spit blood on land get rid entirely 
of this symptom when at sea ; others sufiering from hectic 
fever have gone to Brazil or Tahiti, or have remained at sea 
for four years, and have found an entire suspension of the 
morbid symptoms ; some even have met with a complete 
cure. Attempts have in vain been made to explain this 
phenomenon of the arrest of consumption by the influence 
of the sea. Fruitless endeavours have been made to 
reproduce marine emanations on land; the same efTect 
cannot be obtained. In spite of the food being often bad, 
the want of comfort, and winds which on land would aggra- 
vate the disease, the efficacy of the sea is indisputable. 

Living in a warmer country than that in which the 
disease was contracted will often arrest its progress*, 
especially in the earlier stages. Children about whom 
there is any fear, if sent to a warm climate, will grow 
strong there, and very rarely suffer from this malady in 
later life. Priificvpiia obata, this medical rule is almost 
absolute. 



96 CONSUMPTION, ETC, 

The curative influences of air, water, and locality were 
pointed out in the earliest days of medical science by 
Hippocrates, in the most celebrated of his treatises; 
Modem science, the depositary of the accumulated wisdom 
of centuries, ratifies the principle laid down by the father 
of the medical art, and his scientific dicta having been 
confirmed by the experience and observations of twenty- 
three centuries, there is no longer room for doubt. The 
Grecian and Soman physicians sent consumptive patients 
to winter in Egypt, and to make voyages on the Mediter- 
ranean ; history informs us of this and of the good 
effects of the plan, which has been in practice ever since. 

At the present time, sea voyages, and a change to a 
warmer country than that in which the disease has shown 
itself, are much more in vogue than formerly, and within 
the last fifty years the nimiber of travelling invalids has 
increased tenfold. This is owing to various causes : the 
termination of the great wars and the state of relative 
peace, which permits the most timid to live in a foreign 
country ; the greater comfort, the advance of civilisation, 
which insures the invalid and those who accompany him 
pleasant society, luxuries, and scientific care; steam^ 
which, both on land and sea, has made journeys much 
quicker and less fetiguing ; the telegraph, which places 
the invalid within a few hours of his family, &c. The 
number of invalids who go in search of health to a wanner 
sun and a purer air, crossing the sea in magnificent 
steamers with every comfort they can desire, is now 
considerable, and may be calculated at a hundred or a 
hundred and twenty-five thousand annually. 



CHANGE OF AIR. 97 

.' Has this change of air effected any cures ? 

Invalids think so and say so, and that alone would be 
sufficient ; doctors admit it, and statistics prove it. In 
cases where the age, means, and state of the patient 
allow it, it is the doctor's duty to recommend change of ain 

The difficulty consists in the choice of a locality. 

For rheumatism, liver complaints, and certain other 
diseases, the doctors are able to point out the exact place 
from which the patient will derive benefit. But it is 
otherwise with consumption ; at least the question is more 
complicated. Water, air, and locality act upon the 
patient : which of these is the agent that benefits him ? 
the three together, one of the three, or two of them ? A 
great deal has already been done, various waters have been 
fully analysed, the air has been weighed and analysed, and 
positive conclusions can be drawn on these two points, but 
scientific men are as yet far from taving reached an equal 
degree of knowledge with regard to locality, and this 
subject is the most important because it is the most 
variable; it is the point towards which all researches 
converge. 

During the last ten years, in all places which are of 
recognised importance from a medical point of view, 
scientific observations have been made by the aid of which 
the nature of the soil has been laid down, the hygienic 
eonâitions,food, lodging, temperature, barometric pressure, 
himiidity, winds, &c. The shelter afforded by mountains 
has been studied, the course of running stream^ vegeta* 
tion, &C. Photography has even placed the most distant 
resorts before the eyes of the physician and the invalid. 

VOL. II. H 



9a CONSUMPTION, ETC. 

It is true that some of these observations have not been 
carried on for a sufficient length of time to enable us to 
obtain such minute and accurate information as could be 
wished, but in a few years this objection will be done away 
with, at all events so far as regards the principal points» 
Some important works, which have attracted a good deal 
of attention, have made known to physicians, and to 
fashionable people as well, the smallest winter resorts in 
France, Spain, Egypt, Italy, and Portugal. Some re» 
markable books have been published on this subject, and 
will greatly aid in the solution of the question* la the 
present state of the science of locality, physicians may 
decide with far less risk of error if they are well read in 
recent works on the subject. 

K from ancient times down to our own day it has beeii 
allowed that a voyage and living in a warm climate may 
cure or at least ameliorate, prolong existence, and» isx 
extreme cases, make the last moments easier; if locality^^ 
air, and water have been studied, and if on the other 
hand it is allowed that medicine find other remedies are 
useless, the patient ought to go. It is for the doctor to 
decide where : he will find in the invalid's age, the degree 
of illness, particular symptoms, &c., indications of what 
locality is to be chosen, according to its meteorological 
conditions. 

On this subject I give some observations taken froim ax^ 
English book, not perhaps indisputable» but which if 
admitted would, it appears to me, be productive of great 
results. The physician finding that the patient is capable 
of removal, wiU ask himself first, whether the invalid 



VARIETIES OF CLIMATE. 99 

would derive benefit from, a brisk, bracing air, which 
would restore his shaken nerves, above all if he be free 
from haemorrhage and have need rather of a dry, not 
very warm air, than of a soft, damp, relaxing atmosphere ; 
in such cases some parts of Switzerland or the Pyrenees, 
Eaux-Bonnes, for example, would be suitable for the 
summer, and Pau in winter : secondly, if the invalid 
should require a dry, warm air, in certain stages of the 
disease, among women especially, if a moist climate would 
l^e hurtful, then Cairo or Malaga should be recommended, 
and Santa Cruz de Teneriffe especially, as winter residences, 
the Alps in summer ; thirdly, if the patient should require 
a very equable clynate, and a warm, moist atmosphere, 
and if he should be subject to haemorrhage, Madeira alone 
should be recommended as a winter residence, and Orotava 
|br the summer. 

If these distinctions, a brisk, bracing, temperate climate ; 
a warm, dry, and tolerably equable climate; a warm, 
moist, very equable climate ; be not agreed to, it would 
be easy to draw out others more accurate ; but we must 
have them of some kind. Although diseases of the 
respiratory organs vary in each individual, yet, as it is 
possible to class analogous cases under one category, we 
cannot but take pleasure in thinking that in this way 
practical results might be attained, by which indecision 
or arbitrary decision in the choice of locality might be 
avoided. 

For the last 150 years, English physicians living m 
Madeira for the express purpose of attending consumptive 
patients, or for their own health, have studied the disease 

H 2 



loo CONSUMPTION, ETC. 

and the country. Towards the end of the last century, 
and under the Empire, a great number of eminent physi- 
cians, English, G-erman, Bussian, Spanish, and Portuguese, 
the greater number from the colleges of London, Paris, 
Jena, Heidelberg, Madrid, Goimbra, and Edinburgh, 
studied there the question of cure. One of them, named 
Mason, struck with the uselessness of therapeutic re- 
searches, and seeing the results of merely living in 
Madeira, asked himself whether, as every one was agreed 
on the question of living in a warm climate, it would not 
be more logical to study the subject of locality? He 
made two distinctions ; warm climates and dry climates. 
Meteorology did not exist before his time, he invented 
it, so to speak; his hygrometrical studies have never 
been surpassed. He set up a kind of observatory ad hoc; 
he wrote to England for the sake of directing attention 
to the study of climatology* At the same time making 
experiments on himself, he adopted as the basis of his 
classifications hot and dry climates, hot and damp climates, 
those which were bracing without being exciting, &c. 
Finding that a warm, damp climate was injurious to him, 
he resolved to search out the mysteries of hygrometry* 
He applied himself to the work with so much perseverance 
and energy, that, on discovering that his studies were 
promoting the progress of his malady, he resolved to 
leave Madeira, went to Nice, and died there some time 
afterwards at the age of twenty-seven I He was a loss to- 
mankind; his power of intuition was remarkable, his 
industry extraordinary. He left some very valuable works,- 
which, unfortunately, remained unfinished at his deaths 



INFLUENCE OF FASHION it>i 

Suppose now that Mason's observations and labours as 
to the effect of the greater or less humidity of winter 
resorts on certain stages of the disease, were to be carried 
on by physicians studying the influence of such or such a 
climate on a particular phase of the malady ; if such a 
hypothesis of practical studies and observations could be 
carried out for several years, it appears to us certain that' 
we should be able to lay down some principles, valuable 
starting points, which would help future physicians to 
determine the most suitable localities, whereas at present 
the doctor has only been guided by family convenience, 
the means and wishes of the invalid, &c., all matters 
foreign to the individual case of the patient. 

Change of air is determined on, science prescribes it. 
The invalid makes up his mind ; when autumn comes, he 
will go. And now a new difficulty presents itself to the 
physician — the fashion ! 

It is not the first time that fashion has interfered with 
physic. When Louis XIV. was saved by an emetic, 
contrary to the advice of his physician, Vallot, emetics, 
praised by alchemy, condemned by the doctors, reinstated 
once more by Act of Parliament, became the fashion. 
Dusausoi, who, by administering an emetic at Calais, had 
undoubtedly saved the king's life, became the hero of the 
day. In short, emetics were sanctioned in 1666 by the 
faculty of Paris, who yielded to the fashion. Who may 
count the victims of the systematic use of them ? They 
are now once more interdicted. 

Nice is at present the great attraction. It has been 
made a very agreeable place of resort ; balls, theatres, 



Î02 CONSUMPTION, ETC. 

promenades, concerts, excursions, abound there, all ex- 
cellent things for invalids if they are extremely cautious 
in their enjoyment of them, but dangerous &om their 
very attractiveness, for one must go to them to be in the 
fashion; one meets there one's friends, acquaintances, 
and fellow-countrymen. People dress at Nice as they do 
in Paris; French, the universal language, is spoken 
there; such and such a Prince, Princess, perhaps an 
Emperor, will be there. It is, however, a place far from 
suitable to the majority of invalids. What of that? 
Nice is the fashion ; and why should we be astonished ? 
Has not a name suf&ced, some considerable political 
influence, a lucky hit of a fortunate speculator, buying 
land, building villas^ advertising extensively, contriving to 
interest some great personages in the enterprise, some 
French or English doctor, hotel keepers, letter out of 
carriages, horses, and donkeys, newspaper writers— has 
not one man of fashion sufficed to attract 100,000 visitors 
every year to a place inferior to numbers of others, where 
you pay a sovereign for what is worth a shilling, where 
the sea-water is mixed with fresh water, and casts up on 
the shore those disgusting sea-nettles whose mere con- 
tact iniames the skin? Let there be but hotels with 
good cooks, a casino, gaming tables, dancing, dress, and 
luxury, and by dint of advertising, a new watering place 
is discovered ! What matters the locality ? 

Ten thousand people, rich, and in good health, go to 
Nice, it is a good thing ; but one thousand invalids go 
also, and that is a great evil, for about five hundred per- 
haps are ordered to go there. The unfortunate doctor- 



NICE. 103 

» — > — . — . — I — ■■-'■■■■■■ 

tliought of Vemet, Amélie-les-Bains, Pisa, Malaga, 
Teneriffe, or Madeira ; but what would his patients say ? 

Vemet, doctor 1 why, that is a horrible hole. Pisa ! it 
is a city of the dead, with a cemetery for a promenade.. 
Malaga I oh ! think of Spain, the cookery ! Spanish, who 
can speak it ? bull-fights, assassinations, and revolutions !. 
Madeira ! Teneriffe ! think of the sea voyage ! 

The patient may yield subsequently, but then it will 
be too late, for the terrible disease makes rapid progress. 
In the first stage there is much ground for hope; in the 
second, very little ; in the third, when he has decided to . 
go, it will be only to die in a foreign land.. 

Fashion, then, requires the invalid to go to Nice, 
Home, or Naples. What a mistake I What shall we say 
of Nice with its winds, sometimes too hot, sometimes too 
cold ? 25^ of difference in the temperature I Or of Bome, 
with all its attractions of past and present grandeur ? 27° 
of difference I no shelter, a cold lying in wait every time 
you cross the street. Or of Naples, Parthenope, lying on 
the sea shore, with her feet in the sunshine ? cold dews, 
constant winds, and 26° of difference in the temperature ! 

To an invalid, however, who is content to live quietly, 
Nice, like Pau, offers great attractions. The air is clear 
and bracing (less so, however, than at Pau), and has a 
great effect on certain patients in whom the germ of the 
malady is due to constitutional weakness. 

Notwithstanding the acknowledged beneficial effect of 
living in a warm climate, some unbelievers, bom con- 
tradictors of every assertion, have made the objection that 
places indicated as preferable localities are themselve» 



I04 CONSUMPTION, ETC. 

i.^ — ,- 

subject to this scourge. On the other hand, it has been 
maintained that cold, damp, foggy countries possess the 
melancholy privilege of engendering diseases of the chest 
and respiratory organs. This is a mistake. The south of 
France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Madeira, and even Tenerifife, 
afiford a proportion of cases very little below the average. 
There are, perhaps, even more consumptive patients in 
Madeira than in Tenerifife, owing to a kind of consumption 
allied to scrofula which is prevalent there. 

According to Drs. Mason, Heineken, Grourlay, Burgess, 
Barrai, Pitta, father and son, Juveneal, all scientific men, 
and some of them distinguished practitioners, who have 
devoted their lives to the study of the terrible disease of 
which we are now treating, Madeira, Tenerifife, the Cape 
Verd Islands, above all, Africa, engender consumption to 
nearly as great a degree as do France and England ; but 
they have all agreed, first, that the fact of the disease 
predominating in any particular place is no reason why 
patients should abstain &om going there : secondly, that 
those countries which are warm in winter, and possess the 
least variable climate, are preferable to all others. These 
principles have been recognised by all physicians since 
the salutary influence of those very places where con- 
sumption is prevalent has been proved. Madeira, Nice, 
Malaga, Pau, Hyères, Palermo, and Cairo rival each 
other in the number of cures efifected, and statistics, 
every day more accurate and conclusive, corroborate the 
assertions of the invalids, natives, and doctors ; and yet 
consumption is as indigenous in these places as anywhere, 
whatever may be the cause. 



EXAMPLE OF PHYSICIANS, 105 

No other objection has been offered to the resort to a 
warm climate; and this objection is not a very serious 
one, for if there be any place on the earth where con- 
sumption is unknown, it does not follow that it would be 
beneficial to consumptive patients. Physicians who go 
for the sake of their own health to places of winter resort 
know very well that consumption prevails there ; or if by 
chance they are ignorant of the fact, they are soon en- 
lightened, for immediately on their arrival they are 
consulted by all the invalids of the neighbourhood, who, 
always credulous, imagine that a foreign invalid physician, 
come for his health, must do them more good than those 
whom they are accustomed to consult. Of the invaUds, 
statistics show that physicians are the most numerous ; 
next come lawyers. This is owing to the fact that, 
knowing their own state firom the beginning, they do not 
delay, but seek change of air in the earliest stage of the 
disease. They are almost always benefited by it. An 
English physician, named Smith, went to Teneriffe twenty- 
five or thirty years ago, and died there last year : to live 
for thirty years with the disease is equivalent to health, 
especially when one is able to practise as a physician, to 
marry, and to write. This fact being granted, the large 
number of doctors who go in search of health to the 
African Islands would, in our opinion, suffice to establish 
their supremacy. Last winter, at Madeira, one patient in 
fifteen was a medical man; there was scarcely one in 
sixty at other winter resorts. This fact is very in- 
structive. 

Spain pays as large a tribute to consimiption as the 



ïo6 CONSUMPTION, ETC. 

rest of Europe ; and. although she possesses one of the 
chief resorts in the world, Malaga, and Palma and 
Barcelona as well, yet if she could find a better locality 
at a distance of four days by sea from Cadiz, in the island 
of Teneriffe, it would be most fortunate for her : such -a 
locality is to be found at Santa Cruz and Puerto, prefer- 
able on many accounts even to Malaga, for great towns 
always entail considerable drawbacks — ^gas, dust, risks of 
catching cold in theatres, concerts, churches, and large 
assemblieSé These two first-class localities axe made of 
still greater importance by Orotava, another town in 
Teneriffe, by means of which the stay of the invalid in 
the island can be prolonged during the whole of the year, 
as we axe about to prove* 

Santa Cruz and Puerto have both been thoroughly 
tested. After the foundation of the wine trade,^ numbers 
of English came to Teneriffe and Puerto. They soon 
remarked, as they had done in Madeira, the influence of 
the climate in arresting the progress of the disease» 
Living at Santa Cruz and Puerto, a few hours apart, they 
conmiunicated their observations to each other, and for- 
warded the result to their correspondents in the mother 
country. Accurate observations were first made in 1761* 
Anderson, the naturalist and doctor who accompanied 
Captain Cook's expedition, recommended Teneriffe as a 
resort for consumptive patients in 1772; thenceforth, 
those physicians who were studying the effects of climate 
in Madeira came to Santa Cruz to complete their studies. 

During the great Eevolutionary and Peninsular war» 

> In the last centuiy, especially between 1780 and 1835. 



TENERIFFE. 107 



the continental blockade closed Spain, France, and Italy 
to invalids as well as to wine fanciers ; the African islands 
took their place. Invalids invaded Madeira, and found 
there a gentle damp heat, while at Santa Cruz the air 
was remarkably dry. Some of the physicians finding many 
of their patients growing worse in Madeira, sent them to 
Tenerifife. In this they followed the course already 
established by the invalids themselves, who, attributing 
their unsatisfactory state to the warm, damp climate, 
went for the sake of the dry heat to Teneriffe, and found 
themselves the better for it* 

Then came steam. When the two islands were once 
connected by an English and Spanish fortnightly service, 
there were no longer any difficulties ; now, it is almost a 
settled thing that the two islands should supplement each 
other as sanatoria. 

Some invalids go direct to Santa Cruz, and pass the 
entire winter there ; but they are very few. The hotels, 
with one or two exceptions, are uncomfortable; the 
furnished houses do not possess those indispensable com- 
forts which those of Madeira oflFer: in a word, the in-^ 
habitants, the municipality, the Grovemment, have done 
nothing to attract invalids ; so that the patient has not 
the same conveniences in'Teneriffe that he has in Madeira, 
although at a greater cost he can easily procure anything 
he wants. 

It is acknowledged at the present day that Santa Cruz 
possesses the purest atmosphere in the world. The winter 
is dry, there is but little rain, and it never lasts for more 
than a few hours. Directly the rain is over, the invalid can 



ro8 CONSUMPTION, ETC. 

go out, and the ground shows no trace of damp. It is 
somewhat warmer there in winter than at Madeira. These 
two facts are owing to the geographical position of the 
island, which is more southerly than that of Madeira, and 
to the relative position of Santa Cruz. We need, then, 
say no more on the subject of Santa Cruz or Puerto, whose 
reputation has long been established. 

We described the towns of Santa Cruz and Puerto at 
the beginning of this book; we must now describe Orotava, 
for we are about to treat of this little town as a medical 
station complemental to the other two. 

The town of Orotava is built on the slope of a hill 
stretching from east to west ; the incKne from the moun- 
tain to the sea is steep. Two cross streets are the only 
ones in which invalids can walk ; the rest are all but im- 
practicable for them. The ground on which the town is 
built is exceedingly uneven, a hundred square yards of 
level gromid are nowhere to be found except in the two 
horizontal streets, where the inclines are short and very 
gradual. The mountain springs flow into the town, but, 
from a hygienic point of view, they can have no bad effect, 
for they flow down covered channels. The large artificial 
reservoirs for collecting in winter the superfluous water 
which will be needed in the summer are built of stone 
or concrete, and there is no serious danger of deleterious 
miasmas arising from them. 

Few small towns are built in such a singular way as 
Orotava. The streets form, where they meet, the most 
unexpected angles ; they begin by being broad, become 
narrow, and end as they can. The lines of the buildings 



OROTAVA. 109 



axe by no means straight ; the old i^onvent walls bulge 
outwards or inwards. In the cathedral you go up steps on 
the right and down steps on the left; the cathedral 
square is of a shape unknown to geometry. A magnificent 
palace built of stone is deserted, because the church bells 
rang almost in the rooms, the church and the palace 
touching at one comer. The angles of the streets do not 
correspond, and the squares are crooked. In short, it is 
easy to do this place the honour of losing oneself in it, 
and yet the space on which it is built is not larger than 
that occupied by the Louvre and the Place du Carrousel. 

The houses of the aristocracy attract the eye by their 
balconies and terraces. These houses of the patricians or 
wealthy persons have been built according to a law which 
explains the singularity of the town. Every owner 
thought himself obliged, for the sake of the view, to 
make his house &ce the mountain, for no one would have 
any neighbour, much less an opposite one. At the very 
top of the town may be seen the modem mansion of an 
ancient family, which is now deserted and in ruins ; it was 
placed so very high as to be perfectly inaccessible. Every 
good house is in a picked situation, chosen for the sake of 
a garden and a fine view, and would be delightful as a 
residence for* invalids ; the air plajrs freely through the 
courts planted with orange trees, or the patioa with their 
paved cloisters. Nearly all have galleries covered in on 
one side, and thus afford facilities for sheltered walks in 
thé open air. 

There are but few carriages at Orotava, and very little 
traffic, so that there is scarcely any dust. The elevated 



no CONSUMPTION, ETC. 

situation of the town, and its garden-like environs, protect 
it completely from the clouds of sand so frequently raised 
by the wind at Nice, Naples, Malaga, and Pisa. 

Living is cheaper at Orotava than in Madeira, very 
much cheaper than at Nice» There are two physicians in 
Orotava and another in Puerto for 4,000 inhabitants» 
Thus it possesses the conditions of comfort and salubrity, 
and if its climate be satisfactory as well, Orotava must 
prove an important resort. In the first place, the summer 
months are less hot at Orotava than at Santa Cruz, which 
is uninhabitable for Europeans at that season ; secondly» 
it is exposed in winter to the cold damp west winds, and 
to a few fogs in December and January» In the spring, 
from April to the end of May^ and in autumn, &om 
September to the end of November, Orotava supplements 
Santa Cruz most delightfully. 

The smaller the amount of variation in the tempera^ 
ture, and between the dajrs, months, seasons, and years, 
tiie greater is the importance of any locality considered 
as a resort for : consumptive patients. Statistics prove 
this. Let us notice the scale of localities. At the head 
is the island of Saint Kitt's ; the difference in temperature 
amounts to only V in the year, it is the most equable in the 
world. Unfortunately, the mean temperature is 81^ 
Fahrenheit ; 86° in summer, the heat of a hot bath, and 
,79° in winter; such a climate is insupportable to Euro- 
peans» Next comes Madeira, which varies 8° 2' ; 63*^ in 
winter, and 71° in summer. Saint Michael's, one of thç 
Azores, varies 10° 46' ; 58° in winter, and 68° in summer. 
Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe, varies 1 1° 80' ; 65° in winter, 



VARIATIONS OF TEMPERATURE, xtx 

■ 

luid 76^ in sommer. The climate of Santa Cruz is de«r 
lightful in winter, 65®; in summer it is too hot, 76®; 
whereas it is 71® in Madeira, and 68® at Orotava. 

Our readers may judge from the following list of the 
difference between the stations in the Fortunate Islands, 
where the difference of temperature is only from 7® to 
11®, and those of Europe, which, with the exception of 
Malaga, have been so greatly overpraised. 









Variation 




Varfatton 


I. Fau , 






. 27*» 


6. Faleimo .« • 


. 220 


2, Borne 






. 27^ 


7. Jersey . , 


. W* 


3. Naples 






, 26<» 


8. Lisbon • • 


• 18« 


4, Caixo 


> ^ 


/ ^ 


, 26<> 


9i Malaga , , 


, 13« 


5. Nice « 






. 25<» 







The beneficial effects of a sea voyage having been 
proved, a9 we said before, Madeira or Teneriffe must be 
preferable to any place in Europe, even if all other con-* 
-ditions are equal, on account of the voyage. How far 
superior, then, are these Islands, when we reflect that we 
find here the three types formerly indicated; a moist, 
warm climate in Madeira ; the purest air in the world, 
warm and dry, at Santa Cruz ; mountain air, without the 
changeableness we find in Europe, at Orotava ; added to 
which the patient can have sea bathing, the whey cure, 
and the grape cure. 

In a pamphlet, remarkable as much for its poetic 
language as for its lofty sentiments, the Count de 
Belcastel has suggested Orotava as the àesUd^oiv/mn Hç 
makes out this delightful valley to be not only the 
Elysian Fields, and Grarden of the Hesperides, but also 
the perfect^ unique locality where invalids will necessarily 



IÎ2 CONSUMPTION, ETC. 

and exclusively recover their health. Alas! such an 
Eldorado does not exist on earth ; at Teneriffe, as else- 
where, there are drawbacks; at Orotava, as a winter 
residence, there would be still more. The very figures 
the author quotes are not trustworthy ; the difference of 
temperature given by him as V 9' is not conclusive, for 
it is the result of experiments made in a room. Now the 
maximum and minimum of temperature ought to be 
calculated from experiments made in the open air: an 
average of five years at Orotava gives a difference of 12® 
to 13°i ïndoors the variation amounts to lO*' 27' during 
the same period, and it will be easily seen that the 
thermometer is a most untrustworthy guide when used 
in the house only.. The rooms may look either to the 
north or south, the windows may be large or small, few 
or many; even the height of the storeys will make a 
difference, and there will be a sensible difference of teln- 
perature between rooms in the same house. But even if 
we reckon the difference at 7"* or 8*^, which would be 
marvellously small, there are a number of other circum- 
stances which, without much affecting the temperature, 
would exercise an unfavourable influence over the diseases 
Winds, rain, damp, fogs, barometric pressure, all require 
to be taken into consideration* Let us go a little into 
this matter. 

Orotava is 2,200 feet above the level of the sea, and nearly 
midway up a steeply sloping mountain 4,000 feet high* 
Not being, like Funchal, spread out at the foot of a steep 
conical mountain, the winds blow all round it, and the 
dominant winds at Orotava come from the sea, from th^ 



THE .RAINFALL. 113 



west and north-west, surchaxged with a certain amount of 
moisture ; those from the north come across the moun- 
tains, and are drier but colder. The temperature is 
variable. When the warm southerly winds blow, Orotava, 
although completely sheltered on that side by the 
Canadas and the whole chain of the Sierra, is yet exposed 
to the effects of the atmospheric pressure which is so 
curiously unequal in the two belts into which the island 
is divided. People in good health find the general 
temperature delightful. Excepting a few days of extreme 
heat, and of the levante, the summer is pleasant throughout 
ihe northern belt, even on the sea coast. The summer 
residences built by the rich, the Ramblas, prove this. At 
Orotava and Laguna the summer is by no means trying ; 
they are, in fact, resorts for the summer, spring, and autumn 
•^not for winter, for December and January. Hygrometri- 
cal experiments have been made as to the number of wet 
days only. Even with this restriction we cannot admit M. 
de Belcastel's calculations, which give forty-five days. This 
calculation is correct for Santa Cruz, but at Orotava the 
rainfall is greater. There is often, too, wet there without 
rain, for there is often a fog at the height of one or two 
thousand feet, which will wet one's clothes in the evening. 
These foggy days are not reckoned as wet days, and yet 
they produce a sensible efifect on the hygrometer. There 
are, in fact, sixty-two, not forty-five, wet days at Orotava. 
Can, it be otherwise at an elevation of 2,200 feet ? Puerto, 
on the coast, is very different and fax drier. If M. de 
Belcastel had resided for a twelvemonth in Orotava, he 
would have discovered the facts just mentioned, and 

VOL. II. I 



114 CONSUMPTION, ETC. 

would have found them confirmed by the habits of the 
islanders* With the exception of the merchants tmd 
tradesmen, whose occupations oblige them to remain in 
the town, all the wealthy families leave» Orotava in the 
winter and go for a month to Santa Cruz, returning in 
the spring. Those who for various reasons cannot go to 
Santa Cruz go down to Puerto. There is an irresistible 
instinct of migration* This can only be based on some 
necessity arising from the climate, and the natives obey 
this law without thinking pf it, from mere force of 
habit. 

While the rich peasants of Orotava put on their moi/fdoiA 
or ponchos, the gentlemen walk and chat together wrapped 
up in their ca'poè ; for about nine o'clock in the evening 
the atmosphere is sufficiently chilly to make everyone put 
on some extra wrap* Invalids, it is true, ought not to go 
out in the evening or early in the morning ; but, as this 
chilly air is more damp than cold, the damp always 
penetrates the houses in some degree* 

Not only is the moimtain on which Orotava is built 
4,000 feet high, but also, being the most thickly wooded 
in the island, it is the dampest and most abundant in 
water. It has seven important springs, and it is this very 
damp which partly feeds these springs, thus forming e 
circle &om which there is no escape* 

The heat absorbs and raises the moisture, which faUs 
again after sunset, owing to the refrigeration of the atmo* 
sphere. Almost all the year round a light vapour forms 
on the mountain ; it gradually condenses or else extends 
farther* It is seldom thick — between fifty and a hundred 



4 LINGULAR CLOUD. 115 



yards generally. It begins at the northern extremity of 
Mount Florida, and spreads, towards the Bealejos on the 
eouth-west, touching the edge of the Canadas and covering 
Orotava* This cloud is shaped like a long scarf. Some 
iiave reckoned its thickness at a thousand feet. It 
certainly varies, according to the heat of the sun and the 
direction and strength of the winds. From the sea the 
long scarf can be seen floating over Orotava. The base of 
the mountain is clear, and the peak is visible above it ; 
towards mght the cloud lowers, and in the morning the 
^atmosphere is perfectly clear^ It is then rather cold, the 
|dr being extremely rarefied» 

In spite of these indisputable facts, M, de Belcastel 
affirms that ^ linen hung out to dry and botanical 
specimens dry very quickly^ There are Xio fogs what- 
ever»' 

In our opinion there are three mistakes iQ this 
^ntence» 

Wheii the sun has come roimd the mountain and 
gained a certain height, there is nothing to intercept its 
rays from ten to fouy o'clock ; the cloud, being not yet 
formed, does not interfere, and it does not take long to 
dry linen in a tropical sun — ^two hours at most. But in 
the shade it will not dry at Orotava quicker than any- 
where else, and not nearly so quickly as at Santa Cruz, 
Dry linen put out at eight o'clock in the evening will be 
wet next morning» So that we may say : 'la order to 
soak linen at Orotava, you need only put it out at jaight.* 

As for botanical specimens, we could not dry our own 
in April ?it Orotava m ihe aJwide^ Now it does not do to 

I 2 



ii6 CONSUMPTION, ETC. 

put them in the sun ; in a few hours they would entirely 
lose their shape and colour. Twice a day we spread 
them out on the terrace in the shade, each plant on a 
sheet of blotting-paper ; at night we pressed them in large 
portfolios made for the purpose, weighted with lead and 
all the heavy articles we could find. At Santa Cruz alone 
we succeeded in drying them thoroughly in a few hours 
during an east wind. 

With regard to fogs, it is proved that there was one on 
April 24, 1868. It is true that you very rarely have in 
Orotava fogs which cover the ground, thick and heavy, 
like English fogs ; ninety-nine times out of a hundred 
they are only moist vapour held in suspension in a foggy 
atmosphere. 

For these reasons Orotava, iii our opinion, should be 
avoided in winter— from December to the end of January— 
and as a decisive proof let us add : physicians and invalids 
should remember that the culture of cochineal, which 
requires a dry climate, ceases just below the town, and is 
replaced by that of the potato, which requires damp. 
This is a significant fact. The distribution of plants, the 
vegetable zone, is the irrefragable proof of the tempera- 
ture of Dame Nature, not that marked on the thermometer 
or hygrometer. 

Exaggeration, poetic effusions, national conceit, patriotic 
pride,— none of these can lower the moimtain on which 
Orotava is so beautifully situated one inch — 2,200 feet. 
Is it not enough to possess so many advantages — general 
prosperity, frequent wealth, cleanliness, a pleasant climate, 
health, wholesome and remimerative labour, the finest 



E UROPEAN PHYSICIANS. 1 1 7 

flowers, fruits, and vegetation, in the most beautiful 
coimtry in the world ? 

To wish to make of Orotava a winter resort possessing 
every advantage as well, is too much ; Orotava does not 
possess every advantage. Enough that it is a delightful 
residence in sunmier, the most beautiful, without a doubt, 
that can be found anywhere, and the most wonderful 
resort for invalids in spring and autumn. Puerto, Orotava, 
and Santa Cruz supplement each other most completely. 
To attribute to Orotava too much importance might lead 
some physician or invalid into error. This must not be ; 
we think it our bounden duty to point out the objections 
to it as a residence for the two or three winter months. 

M. de Belcastel's praiseworthy and benevolent intentions 
are in every way to be admired. We think with him 
that it is important to call the attention of European and 
especially of French physicians to the Fortunate Islands, 
the Garden of the Hesperides, the Elysian Fields, which 
to all these poetical titles might, with Madeira, add the 
name of Salubrious Islands. Would that M. de Belcastel 
may be listened to, especially by French physicians! 
Would that they may be convinced, and prescribe the 
African Islands ! It makes one melancholy to reflect that 
out of more than 8,000 invalids who have frequented 
these resorts in the last twelve years, only Befvem, have 
been Frenchmen. It is humiliating to see in Madeira 
fifteen or twenty medical men, in Teneriffe four or five, 
Spanish, Portuguese, English, Bussian, German, and 
American, who have gained the diploma of the French 
jEaculty at Paris or Montpellier which was to secure their 



Ii8 CONSUMPTION^, ETC. 

success, while not a single French physician dreams of 
coming to practise in the Islands, where he would make 
his fortune. What prevents them ? The voyage ? that 
would be too contemptible. The language? that is û 
trifle ; three months' study will suffice, and just at first it 
can be dispensed with, for these barbaricms understand 
French very welL But to leave one's family, one's home, 
to go into exile, in short ? yes, that is a calamity. It is 
no doubt better to pine away in an obscure comer, 
scarcely able to keep body and soul together, as is the 
lot of those who follow a liberal career in France. Mean- 
while the Island physicians make their fortunes in ten 
years- 

To sum up this complicated question, Madeira, 
Orotava, and Santa Cruz are in our opinion localities 
which satisfy every requirement. They are near together ; 
and if Madeira does not suit the patient, he will find 
the opposite conditions in Teneriffe. At Madeira he 
will find moist heat, a relaxing climate, especially suitable 
for cases of pulmonary catarrh, croup, haemorrhage, &c. 
At Santa Cru:^ the climate is warm, dry, tonic, superior 
to Malaga, and suitable for debilitated constitutions, in 
^hich the various forms of consumption develope rapidly. 
It braces the nerves and quickens the circulation. From 
the spring to the end of autumn Orotava offers those 
.advantages sought by invalids who resort to Pau, Eaux- 
., Bonnes, and Switzerland. Puerto is half way between 
Santa Cruz and Orotava, and partakes of the nature of 
both. 

Finally, Saint Michael, in the Azores, supplies a want 



SANTA CRUZ. 119 



felt in many cases — siilplmrôprîngs« Nature has, we see, 
done everything for these Atlantic islands* 

They must be made known to the world ; let everyone 
help to do this by every means in his power* This task 
is incumbent, especially ]on the natives of the Islands^ and 
also on travellers* 

The first method to be employed^ without which all 
the rest can be of no avail, is that of accuTote statistics ; 
for statistics are worthless unless their perfect accuracy is 
indisputable. Grovemment control alone Can secure this* 
Observations should be made many times a day with 
regard to heat, winds, barometric pressure^ hygrometry, 
the state of the sky, &c* These observations should be 
aupplemented by the use of an accurate rain-gauge, an 
instrument which is by no means suflSciently made use of. 
The Orotava Casino might, if the Government would not, 
defray the expenses (which would be but small) of this 
observatory, and employ in it one of its own staiBF. The 
Puerto Casino might do the same* The.mimicipality 
would, we think, find itself obliged to take these observa- 
tories imder its own care, to spare itself the shame of 
being outdone in patriotism by individuals. The obser- 
vations should be published annually^. All the scientific 
magazines would gladly receive and publish these notes. 

Nor is this all. Santa Cruz being the principal sani- 
toriimi, the town ought to be surrounded by plantations 
and roads, the promenade already made for two or three 
miles along the shore should be extended to the south- 
east, a carriage road added, and plenty of trees planted. 
At Orotava the Eealejos and G-arachico roads should be 



J20 CONSUMPTION, ETC. 

finished, as well as that to Puerto. By degrees, as they 
are wanted or likely to be wanted, hotels should be built, 
and the inhabitants should undertake to let comfortable 
furnished lodgings. Carriage and saddle horses will be 
wanted for hire. Villas should be built at the foot of the 
hill to the north of the town, sheltered from the wind and 
approached by broad, gravelled, shady avenues. Three or 
four of the most promising students in the Spanish 
schools should be sent to take out diplomas in France, 
Grermany, or England. Accounts of local events and 
subjects should be constantly published not only in Spain, 

but in Paris and London as well. 

« 

Steamers should go at least every fortnight from Cadiz 
to Santa Cruz, to allow the invalid easier communication 
with his family and friends than he has at present. Not 
more than three or four million reals would be required,: 
which could be raised by a capitation tax of less than ten 
shillings. Even if this capital returned no interest, the 
Islands would be greatly benefited by this doubling of the 
postal and passenger service. The mole is too small ; it 
should be lengthened. What is wanted above all is that 
the inhabitants should bestir themselves, and then in ten 
years they might make the island a commercial centre, 
a first-class naval station, and a resort for invalids which 
would rival Madeira. But, indeed, there would be no 
room for rivalry ; the two islands would not contain all 
the invalids if the inhabitants were to make such efforts 
to attract them as would in the end enrich themselves. 

Unless these things, and others perhaps besides, are 
done, Madeira wiU retain her monopoly, and only a few 



WHAT WILL BE DONE? 121 

invalids will resort to the Canaries— enough, perhaps, to 
prove how much they might benefit mankind, but far 
fewer than there ought to be. They will still be sought 
by a few tourists only ; every ten years one or two learned 
men will spend in them twenty-four hours at least, three 
days at most, according to the ancient and solemn custom 
adopted by these learned gentlemen and prescribed by 
the governments who pay them. Finally some misguided 
author will study the Islands, make Cassandra-like predio* 
tions, and preach to the winds* 



122 AGRICULTURE, 2RADE, AND COMMERCE. 



Chaptbk VIIÏ. 

» 

AGBICULTUBE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 

The western islands of the Archipelago are deficient iff- 
plains favourable to cultivation ; the valleys and mountain 
ridges alone are given up to agriculture. In Teneriffe 
the mountain torrents flow into the sea with extraordinary 
rapidity ; there are not many in those parts of the island 
where rain is scarce, and most unfortunately the inhabi- 
tants, as we shall see, pay but little attention to collecting 
the water in canals, which is only done at Orotava- Thus 
the soil is dry and arid in that part called the southern 
belt, of which Santa Cruz is the active centre. Commerce, 
a little trade, and navigation chiefly occupy its inhabi- 
tants; and, for want of irrigation, agriculture is in a 
deplorable state of neglect, except perhaps in the imme- 
diate environs of the town. 

Towards the southern extremity the water is utilised 
by means of a good deal of hard work in the valley of 
Adeje, but between it and Santa Cruz you will find no 
trace of a canal, and even at Santa Cruz the water- 
works are iitended exclusively not for cultivation, but 
for the wants of the town. 

It is said that ' the southern slopes of the Sierra do 
not give such an abundant supply of water as the northern 



sow TO OBTAIN WATER. Ï23 



■Afa. 



slopes, and it is on that account that expensive works are 
not undertaken ; the quantity of water supplied by them 
would not be sufficient to repay the expense.^ 

This assertion is true in the present state of things ; 
but if the southern slopes were wooded, the quantity 
of water they would furnish would ^increase until it was 
tnore than sufficient for agricultural requirements* In 
order to plant them money and water are needed. We 
are apparently travelling in a vicious circle ; but sup- 
pose that some society similar to those which abound 
in Orotava were formed, and were to utilise the 
water in one spot, the most favourable, then that spot 
might be planted to good purpose. The water could be 
carried along the slopes, and the vegetation woidd soon 
be vigorous. In the higher parts pine forests might 
be planted without any water at all ; wherever there is 
any earth, however little, pines will come of themselves. 
This first beginning being made, others will soon follow 
the example set, for the results will be visible in two or 
three years, and remunerative in a few more. 

This is no utopian idea. It has already been carried 
out in some parts of Madeira, and the pines planted on 
the arid mountain ridges, at a height of from 2,000 
•to 5,000 feet, have succeeded admirably. This method 
has been practised for the last ten or fifteen years, and 
the amount of water is double and triple what it 
used to be in the subjacent valleys. It has been also 
collected at no great cost in open channels of stone- 
work. In Madeira, too, the difficulties were greater; 
whilst the south-eastern belt of Teneriffe has a gentle 



124 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE, 

slope, the inclines in Madeira were so steep that it was 
often impossible to retain the water. Mountains in 
Madeira 6,000 feet high are only two or three miles 
from the sea at their base, while the southern belt in 
Teneriffe averages a distance of from four to six miles 
from the sea at its base. In Madeira it is impossible 
to make reservoirs ; in Teneriffe it is easy» In Madeira 
lime is wanting, and must be brought from Porto Santo ; 
in Teneriflfe it is cheap. 

It is for the sake of the improvement of the land, 
and also of the inhabitants of the southern belt, who 
are the poorest in the island, and for the sake of in- 
creasing the population in this thinly-inhabited locality, 
that we are anxious to see hydraulic works and plan- 
tations begun. On the lower declivities the vine, which 
needs very little water, would succeed well ; the people 
of Madeira are re-planting it as fast as they can ; why 
should not the people of Teneriffe do the same in all 
those parts of the southern belt where they canïiot 
cultivate cochineal ? It would be so much clear profit. 

The conquerors divided the springs among the cap- 
tains who had received lands in the valley of Orotava, 
and thus created a monopoly. The name of dviia, was 
given to the water company formed by the concession- 
aires. For want of a satisfactory etymology I oflfer one 
for what it is worth. At that time large associations had 
already been made in Spain for the breeding of sheep. 
These sheep belonged to the municipalities or to a great 
number of persons, and a few shepherds took care of the 
mesta for the municipality. This flock was called dvlo^ 



WATER COMPANIES. 125 

Mr 

and each of the proprietors a dvlarvte. The water com- 
panies in Teneriffe took from this the name of d/uXa^ and 
each member was called a d/idcmte. 

At first the water was given out four times a year ; but 
at that time the vine waa generally cultivated, and it] is 
well known that it can dispense with water better than any 
other plant. A few years ago, when the vine disease 
appeared, the vines were pulled up ; other things were cul- 
tivated instead, and water became necessary. It was given 
out every month. The water was more carefully hus- 
banded, new companies were formed, and when the law 
was published abolishing mortmain and primogeniture, 
still more subdivisions were made. The old watercourses 
were repaired, and new companies have made fresh canals 
and reservoirs. At the present time the valley of Orotava 
is watered daily by about 12,000 pipes, and this nimiber 
will probably increase. 

The 'Impresa,' founded in 1848 by fifty-four dulantesy 
now yields 4,600 pipes a day in summer. A still more 
recent company, ' Los Principes,' established in 1867, will 
in 1869 give 6,600 pipes a day; its aqueducts were so 
badly made that it has been found necessary to make new 
ones. The ' Palo Blanco ' will yield 2,000 pipes. There 
are other companies besides these. 

A very copious spring has just been turned to account 
which unfortunately has its source too low down, and only 
waters 200 fanegas of land — about eleven square acres. 
Another company has just built an immense reservoir at 
Orotava, and supplies its members with the water stored 
up in the winter. Nor is this all. There are more thaû 



t • 



126 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 

fifty other smaller reservoirs, belonging to private indi-r 
viduals. These reservoirs are usually circular, made of 
granitic basalt, covered over with cement. Those belong-r 
ing to private persons serve to irrigate their estates, and 
nearly all water a kitchen-garden as well, so that fresl^ 
vegetables are to be had all the year round» 

Grran Ganaria is better supplied with water than Tene-f 
riffe, and the land, chiefly owing to this fact, is more exf 
tensively and more highly cultivated. 

In Palma irrigation is not conducted on a large scale, a9 
jrt might be with advantage. 

In Hierro and Gromera a very small portion only of th^ 
land is cultivated ; and yet in Hierro, whatever the styl^ 
of farming may be, the products are more considerably 
than in the other western islands — ^in proportion, that is^ 
to the small number of inhabitants and the small amount 
of land under cultivation. 

Just as there used to be in Madeira 'lords of the vine-' 
yard,' so at Orotava there were ' lords of the d/ida.^ It is 
as well to preserve these names, for they are no longer in 
use. Wine and water, the two opposites, have each in 
turn made the fortunes of the two islands. 

In Teneriffe, Canaria, Palma, and Hierro the nature of 
the soil is very nearly the same ; the proportions alone vary, 
I give its composition^ With the exception of certain 
localities where the soil is nothing but pulverised pumice* 
«tone, abounding in flint, all the rest of the cultivable 
soil in the above-mentioned islands consists of an amalgam 
of scoriae, sand, and basaltic lava, in which the argilla*;- 
/seoufl element predominates. 



ISLAND SOILS. 127 



This soil was formerly «specially favourable to the cul- 
tivation of the vine, but after three centuries the disease 
•appeared, first rotting the fruit, then destroying the 
plants, until the owners of the vineyards were obliged to 
^oot up what remained. 

In the island of Gomera there is more clay, and the vine 
never succeeded so well there as in the other islands» 

In Lanzarote all the soil produced by recent eruptions, 
especially those of the last century, is useless for cultiv^ 
tioui A certain amoimt of land is of the same nature as 
that of the before-mentioned islands ; another portion, not 
^ large, is composed of calcareous sand. 

The Isleta, in Gran Ganaria, shows evident tokens of an^ 
•exactly similar composition* 

In Fuerteventura the soil is almost entirely sand, dlay, 
and basaltic lava ; on the coasts, and sometimes in other 
parts, gypsum is found. This absorbs moisture, and owing 
to this less irrigation is necessary than in Ganaria. 

The country was formerly devastated by two scourges — 
ecclesiastical property and primogeniture. Recent laws 
have completely changed the state of affairs. During 
three hundred and fifty years the former laws had pro- 
duced misery and expatriation, idleness, disease, and 
superstition. Twenty years of the new system, only par- 
tially carried out, have enriched the Islands and almost 
put a stop to expatriation. 

The amount of Ghurch land was so enormous that it 
comprehended more than a third of the entire territory ; 
a whole valley, of more than 160 square acres, called Las 
Vegas, belonged to the Augustines of Jlealejo» Many 



128 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 

persoDfl practised on a large scale, to the detriment of 

their families, a most lamentable system of endowment ; 

after giving their money and valuables, and being unable 

to give away their estates, they charged them with 

annuities to some monastery or church. Nor was this alL 

There was a curious institution in those days called 

capellanias ; these were rents on estates, which were to 

pay for masses being said. There were so many that it 

was impossible to say them all. Then priests were ap* 

pointed, called chaplains, to say as many as would satisfy 

the conditions of the legacy. We must not forget that 

similar proceedings were practised in France in the last 

century, as is proved by an anecdote of the Abbé Baynal. 

Being yoimg and poor, he undertook a mass for which the 

pay was ten pence a day. When he became richer he 

handed it over to the Abbé de la Porte, keeping five pence 

for himself; after a time the Abbé de la Porte, finding 

himself in less needy circumstances, handed over the 

mass in his turn to the Abbé Dénouart, keeping two 

pence half-penny for himself; so that the mass, twice 

underlet, only brought two pence half-penny to the man 

who said it^r did not say it. 

All the land which did not belong to the Church 
belonged to the nobility and was entailed. Every &mily, 
for the sake of preserving its name and wealth, made it a 
point of honour to tie up the patrimonial estates in the 
hands of the eldest son. For the others there remained 
beggary, the cloister, the army, or America. 

There is no need to explain why the lands thus entailed 
did not yield the tenth part of what they ought to have 



MORTGAGED ESTATES. 129 

done. The same results were seen in Europe* National 
prosperity dates precisely from the period of the sale of 
those lands formerly monopolised by the nobility and 
municipalities. The new law with regard to primogeni- 
ture, passed in 1834, and the law of deaammiiizacion of 
Church property, passed in 1854, have enriched the 
Islands. At first the owners of entailed property were 
allowed to dispose of half of it ; the other half fell to 
the share of the eldest son, it being thought unjust 
suddenly to despoil him utterly, but his heirs were to 
share the property equally. So that in this present 
generation the land will become perfectly free* 

As for the ecclesiastical estates, they were sold at once 
for the nation, which established instead a budget for 
public worship. With regard to lands on which there 
were clerical mortgages, the owners were permitted to 
buy back the rents in perpetuity with which they were 
charged by a certain sum paid down ; or they might pay 
it off in six years, but in that case the indemnity was 
doubled. This plan enabled all landowners whose pro- 
perty was encumbered to pay off in a short time, and at 
no great expense, the mortgages which made it difficult 
to sell land, and, above all, to cultivate it properly. The 
mortgages have disappeared as if by magic, and there are 
now scarcely any encumbered estates in the Canary 
Islands. 

With regard to the capdlaniaSj it was decided that the 
lands on which they were charged should become free on 
the death of the incumbent. These laws have transformed 
the country. Property is parcelled out and cultivated, 

VOL. II. K 



I30 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 

and although there is great room for improvement, yet 
the happy results are already most striking, and are so 
apparent to the natives that progress takes place daily. 
Only let the Canarians persevere, and as bodies in obe- 
dience to the laws of gravitation fall with accelerated 
velocity, so let them accelerate their eflforts in proportion 
as they advance ; they will soon obliterate all traces of 
V the past. 

We shall now give a general description of the modes 
of culture of the various products cultivated in the 
Islands. 

Amongst the immense variety of products we find 
cochineal, potatoes, onions, cereals (wheat, barley, rye, 
and oats), vegetables of every kind, almonds, peaches, 
oranges, lemons, bananas, walnuts, chestnuts, olives, 
Japanese medlars, palms, chickpease or garhanzos — of 
which incredible quantities are consumed — ^flax, safiFron., 
honey, wax, numberless medicinal plants, mulberries, &c. 
&c. As we said before, silk was formerly cultivated on a 
large scale as an article of commerce, and there were 
manufactories of it. Now, only a few fancy articles are 
made of it by ladies for their own amusement. To these 
products we must add tobacco, which will be the grand 
resource of the future, if cochineal should come to be less 
productive than at present. It succeeds admirably, and 
resembles Havana tobacco. The sugar-cane has bee^ 
given up entirely. The Islanders leave its cultivation to 
Havana, with which, since free trade has been declared, 
they cannot compete. Coflfee has succeeded perfectly, 
and may also serve as a resource some future day. Tea 



POTATOES. 131 



will grow well, but the Islanders do not know how to 
prepare the leaves. 

Cereals are cultivated with the most complete success, 
but unfortunately the extent of land suitable for them 
is ten times greater than that now under cultivation, and, 
in spite of their enormous yields— twenty and fifty fold— 
the actual product is insufficient fqr the local consump- 
tion ; the cheapness of foreign grain, now that the port is 
free, is an obstacle to the proper development of this 
branch of agriculture. 

The few vines which still remain do not yield nearly 
enough wine to supply the Islands; most of that con- 
Bumed there comes from Catalonia. A white wine, how- 
ever, is made there, very cheap to what it used to be ; 
when old it is excellent. There is now only one foreign 
house, an English one, which carries on a wholesale 
trade in TenerifiFe wines. A native house of less im- 
portance is also engaged in this now almost extinct 
trade. Xerez, Malaga, Porto, Setubal, Marsala, &c., now 
supply the place of Madeira and TenerifiFe. If those 
parts of the Islands where cereals and cochineal cannot 
be cultivated were replanted with vines, they would yield 
large revenues. 

Early potatoes are cultivated very successfully, and 
there is an extensive trade in them. The English flukes 
and kidneys are generally preferred. Vessels bring the 
seed from the Channel Islands or the south coast of 
England to Puerto and Grran Canaria ; in the spring they 
take the potatoes to Cuba and the West Indies. More 
than three thousand tons are exported from Puerto alone* 

K 2 



132 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 

These early potatoes fetch a high price, and are thought 
a great deal of throughout the West Indies. 

The same cultivation of early vegetables goes on in the 
Channel Islands, more than fifteen hundred miles to the 
north, and on a scale ten times larger* 

Onions are also sent in immense quantities to America. 
They resemble those of Egypt rathet than the Portugal 
onions. 

The orange-trees have been attacked by disease, and 
here, as in Madeira, the greater part have been destroyed ; 
«ome, however, are still to be found at Orotava. 

The banana produces delicious fruit. Unfortunately, 
like most 'other fruits, it is not sufficiently cultivated; 
and yet in ten days, or eleven at the most, it could be 
sent to the London, Brussels, and Paris markets ; it could 
be sent to Madrid in a week. ^ 

Wherever the land is the least moist, or even only 
cool, maize is cultivated ; it yields large crops. The finest 
cereals are to be found mostly at Laguna, which is the 
most cultivated, elevated, airy, cpol part of the Islands» 
Cultivation has been carried in certain parts even as far 
as the pines, whose sombre verdure contrasts admirably 
with the tender green of the cereals or the splendid 
golden crops at harvest time. At Orotava, that wonderful 
garden where everything grows at a wish, the cultivation 
of potatoes begins at the town, just where the cochineal 
ends ; the cereals come next or beside them ; higher up 
are chestnuts and pines; the bare rock above prevents 
any more cultivation. 

The palm is carefully cultivated. This picturesque 



COCHINEAL, 133 



and graceful tree is very remunerative. The leaves are 
made into baskets, matting, and brooms. The wood is 
made into fans. 

Cochineal is cultivated on a plant possessing a variety 
of names — cactus, nopal, agave — ^in the G-uanche lan- 
guage tunera, the leaf tenca, the fruit higo tuno^ The 
fruit is very good, and forms an important article of food 
in the Islands. It is on the leaves of this plant that the 
cochineal is fed. This insect was brought from Mexico 
about the year 1823 by a retired intendant, who imder- 
took the first experiments at his own expense. The 
undertaking was carried on and promoted by the Grovem- 
ment, but it was not really until after the destruction of 
the vinejrards that the cultivation of cochineal became a 
source of wealth to some, of prosperity to the greater 
number, and a real benefit to all. 

Cochineal, properly speaking, is an insect of the genus 
coccus, from the Greek word kokkivos, scarlet. The 
scientific name of this hemopterous insect is coccus cacti, 
80 called from its attaching itself to the cactus, the fibres 
of which afford it food, by means of a sucker. The body 
is thick and soft, without wings ; it has nine antennse 
and but one joint to the tarsi. The female remains fixed 
to the cactus and lives there; her skin secretes a soft 
kind of envelope, in which she deposits her eggs, after 
which she dies, and nothing remains of her but a hardened 
membrane which protects the eggs. The male alone is 
able to move. This insect came originally from Mexico. 

In order to produce cochineal it is necessary to prepare 
the land, and to plant rows of young nopals at a distance 



134 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 

of about two yards apart, in parallel lines. When the 
nopals are sufiSciently large the insects are placed on 
them; the eggs are then laid and hatched. They are 
very numerous, and only a small number of female insects 
is required^four or five on each leaf. When they have 
undergone their various transformations, they are scraped 
off the leaves with a knife; they are killed by being 
plunged into boiling water, and then dried in the sun or 
in an oven. They then look like a small black or reddish- 
brown grain of maize. The colouring principle is called 
carmine. There are other kinds of cochineals, of which, 
however, we need not speak here. Cochineal is used to 
dye silk and wool. A splendid scarlet dye is also obtained 
from it, but this latter is not a fast colour ; water spots it, 
and alkalies turn it purple. Cochineal is also used in 
making red ink and paints, to colour liqueurs, opiates, 
tooth powder, &c. 

The female insects cannot be cultivated everjnwrhere. 
In Teneriflfe they are cultivated in the northern belt, 
which is dry, and the eggs after hatching in the southern 
belt. There are large cochineal establishments at Orota va 
and in Gran Canaria. 

In order that the insects, after they are hatched, may be 
securely fixed to the leaves, the nopal is usually covered 
with strips of linen, either put all over the tree, or else 
cut in pieces and fastened to each separate leaf. If you 
look down from a height into the valleys at certain times 
of the year, you will be struck by the curious effect of 
these immense pieces of white calico which cover the 
fields. You would take it for snow if it did not stop so 



NOPAL PLANTATIONS. 135 

■ 

abruptly at the end of each nopal plantation. The insects 
are three months in reaching their full development. 
The nopals are not fit to receive them before they are 
two years old. A considerable capital is needed for the 
undertaking, which yields from thirty to forty per cent, 
net. 

Cochineal gives employment to the women of the 
coimtry nearly all the year round. This is one of the 
chief causes of the prosperity of the Islands, where formerly 
the women were without occupation, while now they earn 
good wages. The men are employed in preparing the 
groimd, planting the nopals, and in all the other branches 
of agriculture. 

With the exception of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, 
cochineal is cultivated everywhere throughout the Islands. 

For the sake of the Canary Islands it is to be hoped 
that the marvellous colours which chemistry extracts from 
coal, before coming into exclusive use, will allow the 
Islanders a dozen years of profitable results. By that 
time the habit of industry will have taken firm root. 
The land will be under cultivation, and the change of 
employment will easily be made* Far-seeing people are 
already preparing for it. 

• The preparation of the land for the nopal plantations 
is no slight task. * Be sure that you describe in your 
book,' said the Marquis de la Florida, * what I have shown 
you on my estate. Everyone else has done the same. 
They ought to know in Europe that we are not incorrigi- 
bly idle, men of no determination, Spaniards only fit to 
smoke, dance, and sleep.' 



136 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE 

I will describe the undertaking to my readers. 

Given two acres of land^ composed of flint, basalt, 
triturated pumice-stone, and a little clay on a substratum 
of basaltic rock or tufa, a third of the surface sometimes 
consisting of the bare rock ; the question is how to convert 
this space, where soil is so scanty and rock so abundant, 
into a field of arable soil two or three feet deep. First 
of all a ditch is dug, two yards long and a yard deep. The 
earth is put in a heap on one side, the tufa and blocks of 
granite and basalt are made into a wall outside the ditch, 
and in a parallel line with it, so as to bound the field on* 
that side. This done, another ditch is dug beside the 
first. The earth is carried to the heap and the pieces of 
rock laid on the wall, and so on, ditch by ditch, until the 
whole field is completed. Before half the task is over, 
the field is surrounded by a wall six feet thick and about 
six feet high ; an equal amount of rock remains, which 
is used to build a pyramid or an immense cube surrounded 
by smaller ones in the worst part of the field. Some of 
these are sixteen feet high, and their sides measure nineteen 
or twenty feet, the stones being carried on the head, one 
by one. This is called making a moUera (a sununit of 
elevation). How much time, money, and labour all this 
must take ! Noble or peasant, everyone does the same, 
and it is at such a cost that the nopal plantations are 
made. 

One of the necessary results of the cultivation of 
cochineal is the stop put to the TnMayer system— that is, 
farming on the condition of half profits. Formerly all 
the great landowners let their land on condition of sharing 



BARILLA. 137 



the profits. But as soon as the land became valuable from 
the cultivation of cochineal, the landowners bought back 
their estates from the farmers ; the latter bought land 
with the money, or else while they derived from it a 
certain amount of income, they hired themselves to work 
on the same lands. Now, many of the sons of men of 
good family superintend the cultivation themselves, and 
the fermers who still remain are disappearing day by day ; 
not half of them are left. Some people are alarmed at 
this ; but let them alone ; it is the best thing for them. 
They will find other things to do which will pay them 
better. Farming on the condition of half profits is con^ 
fessedly inimical to agricultural progress, and leaves the 
farmer as badly off as the landowner. 

The supply of cereals being insufficient, a trade in 
maize, sometimes considerable, is carried on with the 
coast of Morocco. Vessels from the Levant also bring 
corn ; the mother country or America supply the rest, 
according to the state of the markets and other con- 
siderations. 

Carbonate of soda is made from the barilla, a plant 
which grows wild in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, and 
is now cultivated there. These two islands trade largely 
in the product of this plant, of which they enjoy the 
monopoly. Having no cochineal, they grow barilla. This 
product is so important that we think a few details may 
be useful. 

MeaeTnlynyanthemum crysUdlMhum^ such is the bar- 
barous name of the barilla according to scientific classifi- 
cation. This plant, or rather herb, in Latin aoda^ scdaola^ 



138 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE, 

- 

is of the important family of chenopodiaceœ ; those parti- 
cular memhers of it which produce alkali are called sahola. 
They are found only on the sea-shore or in soil exposed 
to marine influences ; their stems are extremely flexible, 
and when they grow by the sea they yield to the force 
of the waves and do not break. The leaves lie close round 
the stalk. These plants flourish in the poor, dry soil of 
Fuerteventura. They take root in the light soil, and if 
left alone will make the most friable soil compact. The 
leaves of certain species are good for food. The soil of 
Fuerteventura being strongly impregnated with marine 
salts, the plant flourishes there to perfection, and consti- 
tutes a most precious gift natural to the island. 

Generally speaking the salsola requires rain. To 
compensate for the want of rain in Fuerteventura and 
Lanzarote, a phenomenon takes place there which has 
been noticed also in Morocco, and even close to Sahara, 
on the shores of the Natron lakes. The night dews settle 
on the leaves, which, being salt, do not immediately absorb 
the moisture ; the salt is therefore enabled to retain a 
portion of the water and to convert the surplus into mother- 
water, which crystallises on the leaf. This explains the 
fact that in Lanzarote, for instance, amidst beds of i^coriae 
and lava, on the dry sea-sand and on volcanic ashes, the 
salsola grows on soil scorched by the sun and scarcely 
ever moistened by rain. Lanzarote produces an immense 
quantity of barilla. 

The barilla of commerce is obtained by burning the 
plant, the ashes of which form the substance so univer- 
sally employed in making soap, glass, ley, woollen fabrics, 
&c. 



CEREALS AND VINES. 139 

The Spanish barilla, from Alicante, Malaga, and the 
Islands, is the best in the world; England uses great 
quantities of it, and her ships bring from Arecife nearly 
all the barilla to be had in the Canary Islands.* 

All the European, African, and American fruits and 
vegetables which have been introduced into the Islands 
yield enormous crops, if a little care be taken to remove 
any accidental causes which might injure them ; those 
which are indigenous require no grafting or cultivation of 
any kind. 

European cereals, little or badly cultivated on account 
of their comparative unproductiveness, might, however^ 
in some parts give more satisfactory results. We think, 
as do others who have communicated with us on the 
subject, that this branch of agriculture will soon be 
greatly developed in proportion as cochineal becomes 
daily less and less remunerative. 

The vine could be cultivated in the high lands, and if 
attempts were made to do this in Ganaria and Teneriffe 
they would probably be crowned with success, as is the 
case in Palma. In this manner land now almost unpro- 
ductive could be brought into cultivation. 

In those parts which are well watered the vegetation 
is remarkable, not equal to that of certain parts of Brazil, 
but superior to that of Europe. Canarian vegetation is, 
as it were, the happy medium between that of the tempe- 
rate zones and that of the tropical zones; the trees 

♦ Little OP no barilla is now imported into Great Britain, carbonate of 
soda being now produced from common salt by means of sulphuric acid. 
{Tranalaior^s note,) 



140 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 

especially follow the law of moderate vegetation, except 
at Orotava. There is an extraordinary tree in the gardens 
of the Marquis de Gandia* It is a chestnut-tree, eighteen 
feet in circumference close to the ground ; from its very 
low trunk, only ten feet high, are sent out two branches 
in an almost horizontal direction seven or eight feet in 
circumference. What I am about to relate happened 
two or three centuries ago. At the top of the trunk was 
a cavity, into which rain and dust must have penetrated j 
a chestnut from one of the branches must have dropped 
into it, and a second tree sprang up just on the top of 
the trunk between the two branches. The roots, nourished 
at first by the rain and dust, have penetrated the old trunk. 
This second tree is ten feet in circumference ; the trunk 
is short, bifurcates like the first, and the same phenomenon 
having again happened, a third chestnut-tree has grown 
out of the second. Not being able to climb so high, we 
could not see the roots. The tree is magnificent ; its 
shape is that of a wide Y, and it is in the cavity of the 
V that the second chestnut has grown, also in the form of 
a Y, the third chestnut springing from the cavity of the 
second V. The mother tree has sustained no damage. 
These three trunks one above the other, with their branches 
stretching out in pairs, remind one of those humaU 
pyramids we see in circuses — three men, one above the 
other, with their arms extended. 

It is said at Orotava, and the magistrate Secall affirmed 
in his book, that the phenomenon is repeated five times. 
We proved this assertion to be erroneous : there are only 
two superposed trees resting on a third. 



A WONDERFUL TREE. 141 

■ ■ ' ' ' III 11.11 ^—^«11 — M^— «»i».^.^»a I I 

It is also asserted, and Secall also affirmed, that the 
roots of the upper tree, the fifth, go through the trunk of 
the fourth, the roots of the fourth through the trunk of 
the third, and so on ; and that the trunk of the original 
tree is nothing but a hollow case, through which all these 
roots reach the earth. Such an assertion is directly 
opposed to all natural laws. The roots only penetrate 
two inches into the tree, only piercing the bark, and not 
the wood at all ; the trees live on the sap derived from 
the roots of the original tree. If the trunk of the lowest 
tree should fall or be cut down, no trace of the roots of 
the upper trees would be found in it. All this con- 
glomeration of vegetation Kves by means of the roots of 
the chestnut-tree. It is a case of grafting; the upper 
trees are grafted on the lower one. 

Directly we admit the possibility of the germination 
or development of the germ contained in the chestnut 
fallen among the dust and sand collected in the cavity of 
the trunk, the whole thing is easily explained, although 
the phenomenon is unusual. Whether it were an experi- 
ment, a trick, or an accident, the chestnut germinated, 
because the contact with the liber of the young plant 
necessarily made it grow; because the two plants were 
not only of the same family^ which would have been 
sufficient, but of the same species, and because there 
could have been no contact with the outer air, or germi- 
nation could not have taken place, three essential con- 
ditions to grafting. Now in grafting the stock always 
nourishes the germ grafted on it* This fact is beyond 
dispute ; it is well known in all orchards. 



142 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 



Let us draw the attention of all amateur horticultural 
tourists to the gardens of the Casa de Franchi, now belong- 
ing to the Marquis de Saussal, which are very beautiful 
and well kept, watered by running streams, adorned with 
the finest trees from America and Australia, and containing 
nearly the whole insular flora. The orange-trees in the 
'patio are magnificent, and the view from the terrace is 
most lovely. 

The gardens of the Marquis de Candia are not so well 
kept ; with a little more attention they would be mag- 
nificent, for they are very extensive, command the finest 
view in Orotava, and are beautifully planted. 

The Monteverde family possess fine gardens and a 
splendid collection of heaths. 

The finest flowers, perhaps, are in the garden of a young 
man named De Vina y Lugo; he is very intelligent, and 
cultivates rare species with great care. 

Gasa Machado possesses a magnolia of extraordinary 
size, and, not much to the honour of the Garden of 
Acclimatisation, it is a cutting from the one there, the 
oldest of all in the Islands, but very inferior to its descend- 
ant. The large tree-camellias here are also remarkable 
from the size of their stems and branches. These remarks 
are sufficient to prove the fertility of this privileged 
locality, which the sun warms even in winter, and where 
springs of water abound. It is indeed a teiTestrial 
Paradise, where flowers and fruit abound, the true 
Garden of the Hesperides, still guarded by the immense 
dragon-tree. The trunk of this enormous tree still re- 
mains ; its branches lie at its feet. Let those make haste 



MODEL FARMS. 143 

who are anxious to see this ancestor of vegetation anterior 
to man; let them make haste if they wish to see the 
discrowned guardian of the golden apples of the Crarden 
of the Hesperides. 

It is astonishing that the natives of the Canaries do not, 
like those of Madeira and Porto Santo, breed cattle for 
killing. Oxen and cows would soon yield an important 
revenue to the Islands, for the extent of pasture-land 
accessible all the year round is considerable, and would 
amply suffice to support all the cattle wanted. It is true 
that very little meat is eaten in the Islands, but that is 
on accoimt of its high price. Against the breeding of 
horses it is urged that the Islands already contain as many 
as are necessary ; this may be true in the present state of 
things, but when the Islands are covered with roads 
double and treble the actual member of horses will be re- 
quired. In our opinion the Arab and Andalusian horses 
might very well be introduced, and would answer as well 
as they do in the Peninsula. 

Latterly every writer, every journalist, and every land- 
owner on the side of progress cries out for the establishment 
of model farms. As a general rule we think model 
farms are not sufficiently productive in proportion to the 
outlay. We even think that, with a few rare exceptions, 
they do more harm than good. 

The instruction given in model farms is of two kinds. 
It includes, first, such preliminary general knowledge as 
is useful to everyone and is necessary in every line of 
life, agriculture among the rest. The upper and middle 
classes are taught as follows : A little history, geography. 



J44 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 

arithmetio, geometry, book-keeping, natural history, 
cheniistry, a smattering of law, &c. So much for the 
intellectual part. Then comes the practical part — ^sanitary 
laws, the veterinary art, horse-shoeing, making waggons, 
fencing, &c. ; finally, the cultivation of the fields, the 
management of cattle, a dairy, wool, &c. 

Who are to frequent these schools ? labourers ? The first 
part of the instruction would be unsuitable for them in 
the present state of public education and general know- 
ledge in the Islands. The middle classes ? The manual 
labour of the second part would be unsuitable for them. 

Should the pupils pay ? Should a certificate be given 
when the studies are over ? How long should they last ? 
How old should the pupils be ? How much liberty should 
they have ? All these are diiOScult questions. If the pupils 
are too young, they will be able to study, but not to work* 
If they are past twenty, it will be just the reverse. The 
farming schools which have been tried have not afforded 
satisfactory results. 

It is said also that agricultural professorships ought to 
be foimded at Orotava, Lagima, Las Palmas, and Santa 
Cruz. They would be very profitable to the professors, 
who would thus gain sinecures but no pupils ; they would 
talk to the winds* The labourers work all day and then 
go to bed, and would not attend the lectures even if they 
could understand them. Send them first to the primary 
schools. 

Farmers are not to be made in this way. Professors 
are of no use ; work and education are necessary in the 
first place. Farming should be looked on as a branch of 



SUGAR. I4S 



trade or commeroe, and the fanner as an important and 
honoured member of the State, equal to the lawyer, the 
banker, or the shipowner. Then the labourer will become 
intelligent, and the land inexhaustible ; then the farmer 
will make roads and ponds, and establish schools in his 
village. These are no Utopian ideas ; this state of things ex- 
ists in Holland, Belgium, Great Britain, the United States, 
Australia, and wherever the Anglo-Keltic Saxon race is 
found, and is desirous of leading an honest life by means 
of labour and liberty. In these countries, agriculture is 
studied and thought a great deal of, and every one knows 
that in England, the land of aristocracy and privilege, a 
nobility has been created for farmers ; the gentleman 
farmer is the equal, if not the superior, of the banker 
and the merchant. Social customs ought to be changed : 
the useful man ought to take precedence of the useless 
one, the worker of the noble idler ; the farmer ought to 
be the first citizen of the State, the equal of those most 
distinguished by wealth, talent, or office. 

There are very few manufactures carried on in the 
Islands. Formerly, when the sugar-cane was cultivated, 
there were manufactories for the construction of sugar- 
mills; wood and wrought iron were the only materials 
employed. When the vine flourished, wine-presses were 
made instead of sugar-mills. Some of these presses, 
which were in the open air, in comparatively elevated 
situations, still exist; the greater number have disap- 
peared, leaving, however, traces behind them in the shape 
of immense horizontal beams, raised a few yards above 
the ground. After passing Tacoronte, on the road from 

VOL. II. L 



146 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 

Laguna to Orotava, and gaining the site of the ancient 
vineyards, we see here and there, near some isolated farm, 
these great beams, which have a most extraordinary effect, 
for one cannot understand their use or object, Near the 
Bealejos and G-uarachico, they occur more firequently, and 
remind one of the immense crane which for so many years 
has disfigured the Cathedral of Cologne. 

There are not many windmills in the Islands : Santa 
Cruz possesses a few. The valley of Orotava utilises its 
waters by means of the most simple, elementary water- 
works ; a dozen small water-wheels with two mill-stones 
each ; they are arranged with some skill. 

The printing-press is held in great respect in Santa 
Cruz de Teneriffe. Vidal's press publishes newspapers 
and books. Vidal is also the editor of several works, 
among which is the ' Biblioteca Islena ' [Insular Library], 
which consists of writings on the Canaries, and the 
works of native authors. He also publishes transla- 
tions of a medley of oddly chosen French works, of 
the best and worst kinds. He has also a good circulating 
library. 

The manufacture of carved wood furniture, picture 
frames, cornices, mouldings, galleries, balconies, chapels, 
marriage coffers, &c., is still carried on in Santa Cruz ; 
but the competition introduced by the importation of 
similar European products, since Santa Cruz was made a 
free port, has given a terrible blow to this branch of trade. 
Henceforth the only articles produced in carved wood 
will be those which cannot be procured from abroad. 
This trade, to which the necessity of being self-supporting 



IMPORTS. X47 



gave birth, is about to perish before the pitiless law of 
competition. 

The trade in freestone, a very hard kind of basaltic 
granite, has assumed very considerable proportions, in 
consequence of the improvements made in Havana, which, 
being a Spanish colony, procures stone from Tenerifife. 
The quarrying of this stone employs a good many work-^ 
men, and to these we must add the whole body of stone- 
cutters. 

One small branch of trade is gradually dying out, that 
of making jewellery for the peasant women, who are a 
prey to the gold disease. These ladies will only wear 
Spanish or French jewellery, which, as well as watches, is 
imported to a large amount. 

There is really little or no trade in the Islands: America, 
England, France, and Spain, supply them with everything. 
Machinery and timber come from the United States. 
Spain sends oil, wine, earthenware, and olives, and the 
best products of Catalonia. France sends ribbons, toys, 
silks, dresses, and perfumery. From England come 
cotton goods, cutlery, cast iron, steel, coal, hardware, 
agricultural implements, — ^three-fourths, at least, of the 
goods imported into the Islands* 

In the face of the immense development of the cultiva- 
tion of cochineal, and of the considerable increase of the 
national wealth which has been its result, it would be 
in bad taste, and perhaps imjust, to urge the Islanders 
to accelerate the necessarily slow course of agricultural 
progress ; we would rather see in what they have done 
during thç last twenty years satisfactory reasons for ex- 

L 2 



148 AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 

pecting continued progress: we would, however, once 
more recommend them to plant trees on the heights, 
which will produce water in abundance ; to cultivate 
vines in the poor soils, and cereals in those localities 
where cochineal will not succeed ; finally, to do every- 
thing in their power for the^more complete irrigation 
of the Islands. 

Those laws, customs, and social distinctions which 
formerly so greatly hindered agricultural progress by 
keeping the land in the hands of religious bodies and the 
nobility, having disappeared, the land is free — the 
labourer is free ; and by work the peasant can become a 
proprietor, as is feiir and right. 

The literary man, whether noble or not, will always 
find in the exercise of his intellectual faculties*a sufficient 
source of wealth ; and from these two methods of obtain- 
ing money will spring Emulation, the mother of Progress. 
The head and the arms constitute the whole strength of 
man. These two forces are constantly brought into play, 
and developed, and soon bring wealth when actively 
employed under liberal institutions. Wealth moralises : 

* With three yards of fine cloth,' said Cosmo de' Medici, 

* I can make a respectable man.' With two acres of land 
in our day we can make of a serf a free man, a citizen. 
Cosmo gave the cloth ; the peasant earns and saves enough 
to buy the land, which is much better. 

The commerce of the Islands is not nearly as important 
as it ought to be ; there are several reasons for this. 
Limited to supplying local wants, commerce is in the 
hands of foreigners and of a few native houses^ because 



WANT OF A HARBOURS 149 

companies are not as yet in &8hion, and the spirit of 
monopoly and exclusiveness — ^the inevitable result of an 
absolute monarchy and authoritative education — ^is domi- 
nant, although gradually becoming weaker. It is necessary 
to make an efiforfc. Commerce can be easily developed 
everywhere, with the help of good-will, time, and the 
bringing together of capital and labour ; how much more 
easily in the Canary Islands, so admirably situated for 
commercial purposes, and so rich in various products! 
But although commerce might be established and prosper 
everywhere, although Santa Cruz and Funchal are ex- 
ceptionally situated for the carrying out of the most 
ambitious commercial plans, one obstacle presents itself — 
the want of a harbour. It is of no use to talk of the open 
roadsteads where ships find an uncertain shelter and 
doubtful refuge, as well as constant diiOSculties. and ex- 
penses in embarking and disembarking. These roadsteads 
might be sufficient a himdred years ago, but now they are 
deserted. There must be a harbour at Santa Cruz, a 
sheltered one ; without it, commerce is impossible. Santa 
Cruz and Funchal are the only victualling places on the 
African coast; between Europe and the Cape of Grood 
Hope or Straits cf Magellan, as well as between Europe 
and South America, China, and Australia. In all the 
Atlantic ocean there are only these two spots where, if 
they possessed sheltered harbours, the fleets of the whole 
world would find health for their crews ; lemons and 
vegetables after a long voyage ; agricultural products, 
sheep, poultry, and oxen, at prices remunerative to the 
Islanders, and very cheap to the buyers. To have worked 



ISO AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 

for three hundred years at a jetty fifteen hundred feet 
long, is worse than waste of money, worse than neglect ; it 
is folly. To wait quietly for the State, preyed on as it is 
by the army, the clergy, the various officials, the public 
debt, and the follies of the court, to come and build a 
harbour at Santa Cruz is too foolish. The harbour, like 
the gardens of Acclimatization, must be made by the 
Islanders themselves. 

Let a company be formed with a capital of 200,000?., 
and in five years a magnificent harbour will be ready for 
the conmierce and fleets of all nations. And it will pay 
well, too, which will be no drawback. A small tonnage 
due will reimburse the outlay in twenty years, the harbour 
remaining free. 

An Utopian idea ? No, a proved fact. The 59,000 
inhabitants of Jersey made a harbour costing 200,000Z. at 
their own expense ; it repaid the money in ten years. In 
Guernsey, which has only 30,000 inhabitants, an equally 
magnificent harbour has been built in five years, which 
will repay the expense in ten years. 

Let the Canary Islanders reflect that ships may perhaps 
come to forget the way to the Islands, being no longer 
attracted, as they were formerly, by their choice wines ; 
let them reflect that France, during her unfortimate 
Mexican expedition, was obliged to divide her fleet 
between the Azores, Madeira, and the Canaries ; if Santa 
Cruz had had a harbour, a hundred thousand men, and 
more than a hundred men of war, would have anchored 
ofif her quays. If Santa Cruz possessed a harbour, all 
the steam navigation which plies from Spain to Porto 



CAPABILITIES OF SANTA CRUZ. 151 

Bico, Havana, and Mexico, would touch there, as well as 
all the French and English steamers ; it would be used 
as a naval station by all the great maritime powers. 
Agriculture and commerce would find in the establishment 
of a harbour, the one a fevourable outlet, the other a 
source of profit, and the necessary conditions of rapid 
development. 

How many times have we heard it said at Santa Cruz 
that a harbour there is impossible I It is an erroneous 
assertion, for the construction of a harbour is not only 
possible, but easy ; the tides are not very high,, materials 
are abundant and of the best kind, the soil is excellent, 
the shape of the bay is favourable, and the price of labour 
very low. To say that a harbour is impracticable under 
such circumstances^ is to make wilfully false excuses for 
indifference and disinclination. 

If we were asked to sum up the condition of agriculture, 
commerce, and manufactures in the Canary Islands, we 
should say that, there are hardly any manufactures there, 
and that there is no chance of their development, but 
that the country seems to us destined to be almost ex^ 
clusively occupied in commerce and agriculture. 



152 ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 



Chapter IX. 

ART, MUSIC, LITEBATUEE, AND LANGUAGE. 

Our readers may have remarked, in our descriptions of 
Canarian public buildings, the praises we have besto'^^ed 
on the carvings in wood, and on the Canarian workmen 
who executed them ; we must now describe some of them^ 
and say of the aillerias [stalls] and other ornamental 
work in the churches, that the good taste which eminently 
characterises them approximates them much rather to 
the work of Bartolome Morel, the celebrated maker of 
the far-famed reading-desk at Seville, than to the Spanish 
school of Churriguerra, who has held such despotic sway 
over architecture and ornamental carving. It is difficult 
to classify the Canarian wood-carving, for th^e is some-- 
thing in it entirely peculiar to the Islands. As the 
authors of these beautiful works are imknown, it is 
possible that the monks and priests furnished the designs, 
and perhaps brought over artists from the Continent : in 
that case, however, we must acknowledge that the work 
is original, and neither copied nor imitated from the 
carvings in the mother country. Whatever may have 
been the case with regard to foreign workmen, we shall 
certainly find the impress of native hands on thç chests, 



i 



WOOD CARVINGS. 15^ 

furniture, and coffers, which abound in the Islands, and 
about which there is a look, a something, quite 9ui 
generis, which shows them to be really national works. 
The same remark may be made with regard to the prin-' 
cipal balconies of the great houses. 

The Suarez Garcia palace is ornamented along its whole 
façade by a most elegant balcony, wonderfully light, and 
most beautifully carved 5 the design is good, and the 
details exquisite. Sunshine and damp alternately have' 
destroyed the hand-rail, which has been replaced, with 
unpardonable barbarism, by one made of iron, more 
durable certainly, but terribly inappropriate. This 
blunder has been crowned by painting the panels in= 
rosettes, in the most vivid colours, green, yellow, and 
blue. Painting on wood has an extremely good effect, 
when it harmonises with the sober, sombre beauty of the 
material : gilding ought to be the only relief to the sober 
colours, as we see it in Italian work. Bright green and 
yellow have a most disagreeable effect, and destroy the 
harmony of the whole. Time, by softening down the 
shades, may make them harmonise a little more, but in 
our opinion it would be better to re-paint the whole. 

The balcony of the Alfaro palace would, if it were not 
in a deplorable state of ruin, carry off the palm. Like 
the one just described, it runs along the whole façade. 
Less light than the Suarez Grarcia balcony, it is perhaps 
more finely proportioned ; like it, it unites great skill and 
great simplicity — ^two qualities which might be thought 
irreconcilable. From the street, the effect is simple and 
grand ; exaniined closely, the carving is most delicate ; 



154 ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 

looked at from either point, it is a beautiful work of art, 
and one which ought to be restored at any cost. 

The Justiniani Lascari palace is adorned by a most 
extraordinary balcony, for it is placed immediately over 
the great gates, spoiling their effect, and just under aa 
ornamental window which disfigures the building archi- 
tecturaUy, by being out of harmony with the façade. 
This carved wooden balcony, ten feet long at least, is 
supported by nothing, neither by brickwork nor corbels ; 
it comes out boldly from the wall, turns its two right 
angles with perfect ease, and displays its ornaments with 
a coquetry which astonishes and charms the passer-by; 
one sees nothing elçe in the façade, and it is just as welL 

They were indeed thorough artists, those unknown 
workmen who executed these beautiful works of art. 
What a splendid career might have been open to them, if 
they had received the necessary education I Instead of 
remaining at home, or going to America as journeymen 
to execute the beautiful carvings we see in Cuba, Bogota, 
or Caracas, they might have enriched the Peninsula with 
a galaxy of eminent artists. But there were no schools 
or academies; there was nothing to be done but to 
remain on their rock in the Atlantic, or turn emigrants, 
gaining their daily bread as journeymen. 

Schools of art have been founded in Teneriffe, but 
alas I there are no pupils. The aristocracy, by forsaking 
the Islands for the court, have given up their country 
into the hands of the middle classes, too exclusively occu- 
pied with material concerns; and the nobility who re-» 
main, troubled by the abolition of primogeniture, the 



SCHOOLS OF ART. 155 

loss of old privileges, and the fear of revolution, hoards 
its wealth, and indulges in very little unnecessary ex- 
pense. Thus, there are but few persons interested in 
developing the artistic movement which might so well 
be carried out in Canaria and Teneriffe, and the school 
already founded is deserted. Add to this that there is 
neither painter, sculptor, nor architect, who takes pupils ; 
everything depends on personal effort, on individual 
talent, which is always rare when placed amid unfavour- 
able circumstances. 

But, say some, if we had a school, what would become 
of the pupils ? They must either vegetate in the Islands, 
or go to Madrid ; for it would be only there and in other 
great towns that they would find employment. Be it so ; 
where would be the harm ? The schools and academies of 
singing in Milan, Naples, and Toulouse, supply the world 
with singers, while those towns themselves do not employ 
the tenth, no, nor the himdredth part of those who study 
there. There is, we repeat, a very marked degree of 
artistic taste in the Canary Islands which ought to be 
developed ; and just as in Milan, Naples, and Toulouse, 
good voices are cultivated, so the skilful hands in Teneriffe 
and Grran Canaria ought to be trained ; Spain, and per- 
haps all Europe, would reap the benefit, for an artist has 
the world for his field of operations. 

Schools of design appear to us indispensable; they 
teach the first rudiments of art, and at the same time 
wonderfully develope manufactures. The workman de- 
rives from them knowledge by which he will afterwards 
profit, unconsciously perhaps to himself, though all who 



iS6 ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 

have eyes to see will perceive whence his skill is derived. 
It does not cost much to establish these schools; thej 
should be open at convenient hours for the pupils, and 
working men should be admitted gratis. 

Taste for art still manifests itself unmistakably in the 
Islands. Flemish tapestry, old china, antique furniturcj. 
Venetian mirrors, singularly fine armour and weapons 
from Spain and Italy, paintings not wanting in merit, 
are to be seen everywhere. We cannot enter into* a 
description of all these treasures, but we cannot pass over 
in silence the two Monteverde Murillos. The house 
which contains them is a small palace, furnished in 
harmony with its style. Senorita Monteverde cultivates 
successfully the most beautiful heaths and some of the 
indigenous plants ; her brother is a good amateur photo- 
grapher. 

M. Berthelot, the French consul, has hung in his 
drawing-room some fine pictures, choice engravings, and 
a few of the wqrks of our modem painters. In this room 
is also the beautiful plan of the island in relief, made by 
his own hands. 

At Orotava, there is a sort of collection or gallery of 
pictures, which was begun by a former Marquis de Castro ; 
this collection will probably soon be dispersed. We re- 
marked there a fine Poussin, the ' Triumph of Bacchus, • 
which, by its colouring, reminds one of Eubens ; a Cupid 
by Vandyck, of the period when that painter executed 
pictures without much heed to his own fame, but in 
which, nevertheless, we still find traces of his energy and 
originality ; * Fortune and Prudence,' by Rubens ; * Diana 



PAINTINGS. T57 



Bathing,' by Troy, an excellent work ; a Gruardsman, by 
F. Leduc, very fine ; and a few small good Dutch pictures. 
These paintings are well preserved, and their value will 
be enhanced in the eyes of a good many amateurs by the 
fact that they are shown by a bevy of young ladies, each 
more charming than the other. Their fairy fingers cut 
out of paper most graceful and original designs, Moorish 
arabesques, and modem fancies ; these designs are made 
by instinct, for not one of them could draw a profile, or 
any part of one. "We shall not easily forget the graceful- 
ness with whichy while the eldest did the honours of the 
house, the younger ladies brought us, one a catalogue, 
another an ancient broken plate, another a carved frame, 
black with dust, picked out of a heap of rubbish ; all the 
while laughing and showing the whitest teeth possible. 
It is of these ladies that permission is asked to visit the 
Bambla, the charming summer residence of which we 
have given a most inadequate description, which affords 
an object for the most lovely ride the traveller can take 
in the Canaries. 

We have mentioned a few of the fine pictures, and of 
the schools of which the Islanders possess some fine speci- 
mens. It is to be wished that all these beautiful things 
could be placed in a national museum in a suitable build- 
ing at Santa Cruz ; collected together, these treasures 
would be more valuable, and being accessible to all, they 
would prove to foreigners and also to the Spaniards that 
of which they have no idea, the great originality of the 
Islanders, and the love of and taste for art which they 
possess ; this, perhaps, would lead to the development of 



IS8 ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 

these qualities by means of the help either of the mother 
country or of those native inhabitants who may take an 
interest in the subject. There are more treasures of art 
in the Islands than people imagine. To form a Ganarian 
museum it only requires some one to take the lead. 

We believe that the Islands have never given birth to 
any painter or sculptor of renown. 

It was long ago remarked that the Portuguese in 
general had no aptitude for the arts, whilst the Spaniards, 
on the contrary, were highly gifted, and also, what is very 
curious, that although the Portuguese colonies excel the 
mother country in this respect, the Spanish colonies are 
inferior to Spain. As regards music, islands are always 
inferior to continents, and singing is less cultivated in 
them ; the damp which characterises lands surrounded by 
water produces on the vocal organs, as it does on the 
strings of instruments, a sort of relaxation and loosening, 
which lowers the tone. This dampness enlarges the 
glands and ganglions, and softens the arches of the palate, 
and the lower part of the glottis and larynx, which con- 
tribute by their mechanism to the emission of sound. In 
Madeira as in Jersey, in the Azores as in Sardinia, there 
are hardly any or no voices. At Santa Cruz de TeneriflFe, 
however, where the air is dry and invigorating, voices are 
as sonorous and true as in Spain, forming an exception to 
the rule. Singers are there in abundance, whose fall- 
toned, strong voices possess in a marked degree the 
quality of zi/nc^ that is to say, a certain vibration, almost 
imperceptible, which gives a kind of metalUc ring to the 
voice» Violinists obtain the same effect on their instru- 



CHORAL SOCIETIES. 159 

tnents by the tremulous pressure of the finger on the 
string touched by the bow ; by this means the sound of 
the instrument becomes vibratory, sympathetic, almost 
human. In the Canarian Archipelago every one sings, 
the labourer in the fields, and the workman in the town, 
the peasant and the noble. It is a grace said to benevo- 
lent nature, as well as balm bringing oblivion of misery* 
Singing is a necessity, a pleasure, a remedy ; happy are 
the nations who sing I Whilst in society the Italian 
cavatina bears sway, amongst the working classes, the 
Andalusian or Moorish songs maintain their supremacy, 
and these songs charm the tourist by their unusual poetry, 
as much as the productions of the best masters. 

Guitars groan under the fierce attacks of practised 
hands, or squeak in unknown chords, under the pressure 
of inexperienced fingers; sometimes a tambourine serves 
as base to the guitar, and to excite the singer more 
intensely ; he gains &esh animation, and pursues his song 
until, more and more carried away by the melody and the 
accompaniment, the crescendo bursts forth by a last effort 
of the singer, excited by the prolonged beating of the 
moistened thumb on the tightened parchment, and the 
aharp sound of the castanets; the listener forgets the 
voice, often nasal, and the somewhat guttural pronuncia- 
tion ; he yields to the effect of the rhythm ; pierced 
through by the melody, he shares the emotion of the 
performer. 

How is it that a Choral Society has not been established 
at Santa Cruz? Indifference, apathy, and yet what powerful 
elements of success I The whole of Europe can bear witness 



i6o ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 

— — — • ' — I — •• — — ----- - 

to the good results of these musical reunions, one of the 
least of which is the enjoyment they give ; they form a 
powerful bond of union among men. The common study 
and practice of music equalise characters, soften the 
manners, pacify and calm the passions : Amphion appeas- 
ing civil discord by the sound of his lyre, Orpheus taming 
the wild beasts, were true symbols of the might of the 
divine art. An Orphéon might be founded in every town; 
it would be a pleasant source of amusement to the inha- 
bitants as well as of the advantages enumerated. 

In the Canary Islands the public balls are most lively 
and animated; some of the dancers never stop until 
perfectly exhausted, or until the music stops, and people 
cease to shout at the top of their voices, Arida ! anda ! 
alza ! [' Go on, go on 1 faster 1 '] 

Pianos abound in the Islands. Some critics deplore 
the fabulous success of this instrument, but wrongly» 
The piano, which is also an ornamental piece of furniture, 
has done more towards spreading the art of music than 
all the theatres and orchestras. It is suited to every 
one, to the beginner as well as to the composer ; it can 
give both to the performer and the listener, by means of 
accompaniments and singing, an accurate idea of a 
musical composition ; it is the best instrument of all for 
accompanjring and helping the voice ; and it is owing to 
the piano that the study of music and singing is double 
that of the instrument itself, which has greatly simplified 
these studies, formerly so difficult. 

There are a large number of pianists in the Islands, of 
great merit, who can perform the most brilliant capriccio^ 



SPANISH OPERAS. 16 1 



as well as the most classic sonatas. This is another surface 
of the artistic organisation of the Islanders, and the tra- 
veUer who is admitted into the principal houses will be 
struck at once by the taste and natural talent displayed 
by amateurs. 

The 'Zarzuela,' the sort of comic opera, often inter- 
spersed with ballets, which has won its way throughout 
Spain, has done so also in the Canary Islands ; the libretto 
which serves as its theme permits of lyric drama and 
ballet music being introduced. This kind of opera is 
treated by the Spanish composers with a brio and skill 
which is at first astonishing. This efifect wears off when 
one is accustomed to it, but one will still be struck by the 
wonderful ease and elegance which distinguishes it. We 
have seen the 'Domino Noir' performed with Spanish 
music, ' Bon soir, M. Pantalon,' and many other Frencl» 
comic operas with Spanish music ; and in spite of national 
partiality, we must acknowledge that in these bold at- 
tempts the imitation ofben surpasses the model. 

Nor is this all : what will astonish the traveller much 
more than the excellence of the voices, much more 
than the superiority of the music and the dancing, will 
be to find good actors in the most inferior companies. 
It must be admitted that dramatic talent is far more 
innate in the Spanish race than in France. There, by 
dint of hard study and long practice, talents above the 
average may make their way ; here, the greater niunber 
have had little or no opportmiity of seeing other actors, 
and have no incitement to study, being deprived of the 
great stimulus, emulation : masters are scarce ; and yet 

VOL. II. M 



x6t art, music, literature, etc. 

* 

all these actors sing, act, and speak in the most artistic 
manner. It is one of those points in which southern 
races excel those of the north, but not one to be over- 
proud of. From a social point of view, nothing is more 
deplorable than the stage ; on every step of the ladder^ 
the actor asserts his own talent with the most shameless 
effrontery, sanctioned by the crowd of worshippers who 
value an ut de poitrine as much as a noble deed, a 
comedian more than a philosopher. The actor speaks of 
his own talent as Arago or Victor Hugo would blush to 
do of theirs. Unbounded love of amusement, and a 
degradation of the aim of life which has fallen to mere 
egotistical materialism are the cause of this. The evil is 
not a new one, but it was never so serious as now in Spain 
and the Canaries ; it recalls those days of Greek and 
Boman decline when the interpreters of art were more 
highly esteemed than art itself. Leotard with his trapeze 
makes his fortune in that very Spain which allowed the 
great Cervantes to die of hunger. We would rather see 
Spain excited about liberty than about actors. 

Great regard is at present shown to literature in the 
Canary Islands, and on this head the natives have some- 
thing to boast of. During our stay in the Islands, we 
heard the names of ten poets, and if we had been de- 
sirous of visiting all the followers of the Muse, we 
might have done nothing else. Everybody makes poetry — 
the language induces them ; it is so easy, so accommo- 
dating, so flexible, that it obeys the slightest wish, helps 
in a wonderful manner those who know it, and consoles 
by its rhythm. those who do not. 



AUTHORS. 163 



'Poetry flourishes in the Islands like the tunerci* 
(cactus), said one of the Laguna Professors to us, 
^Stunted or luxuriant, with or without fruit, from 
time to time it puts forth some splendid blossom, blazing 
in the sunshine. Look at this collection.' We found in 
it some pieces which were charming, striking, real pearls 
on the dunghill of Ennius ; a carefully-chosen selection 
would form a very interesting volume, and would not be a. 
bad literary speculation. 

The Canarians occupy a very distinguished position in 
Spanish literature ; we cannot prove it more clearly than 
by giving a kind of catalogue of Canarian authors and 
their works. 

Pedro Quesada de Molina, bom in Teneriffe, wrote 
the biographies of the principal Canarians, and a work 
on the Canonical Institutions. He was considered * a 
very great man, and renowned jurisconsult.' Sumo 
varan y jurisconsulto de gran nombre. He also 
left behind him an unpublished history of the Catholic 
Kings. 

Don José de Sosa compiled a gazetteer, an excellent 
work, which we have found useful : he was a native of 
Gran Canaria. 

Don Miguel de Abreu Galindo, Bishop of Oajaca, wrote, 
amongst other works? one on the Canary Islands. 

Jose Anchieta, the Apostle of Brazil, a celebrated Jesuit, 
published a number of valuable works. 
• Guillen del Castillo, an Admiral who conquered various 
lands for the Spanish Monarchy, and beat the Dutch in 
the Sound, wrote an account of his voyages* 

X 2 



i64 ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 

Don Francisco Machado, secretary to the Viceroy of 
Mexico, made some excellent maps. 

Nunez de la Pena, the chronicler, wrote the history of 
Castile and Leon. 

Don Antonio Viana, the most celebrated of all the 
Canarian authors, is universally known by his ' Metamor- 
phoses,' but he deserves, like Camoens, a statue for his 
epic poem, the subject of which is the Conquest of the 
Canary Islands. Notwithstanding the faults of his age, 
the poem shows great poetic talent, and contains many 
passages of striking beauty. Unfortunately, with very few 
exceptions, Spaniards are ignorant of it. At Cadiz, Seville, 
Madrid, Barcelona, Badajos, Cordova, everywhere where 
we found a bookseller's shop, we asked for Viana's 
poem. It is out of print; there is not a copy to be 
had, even in the Canary Islands. It is but little known, 
although a new edition, long ago exhausted, was pub- 
lished at Santa Cruz. Yiana was the friend of Lope 
de Vega. 

Santiago Bemomo was the brother of the too celebrated 
Archbishop of Heraclea, also a native of the Islands, who 
was Confessor to Ferdinand VII., and a member of the 
Council of that contemptible monarch. His brother San- 
tiago wrote two volumes of sermons of great repute. 

Don Alonso de Nava y Grrimon, Marquis de Villanueva 
del Pardo, was a nobleman, a learned man, and the trans- 
lator of several works : he foimded the Crardens of Accli- 
matization at Orotava. 

Iriarte, the celebrated writer of fables, is not thought 
much of in Spain, we do not know why ; but he is highly 



CELEBRATED CANARI ANS, 165 

appreciated abroad, especially for his literary fables, which 
are masterpieces of elegance, wit, and satire. 

Antonio Porlier wrote for the Academy of History 
several fragments of great merit, which still remain in 
manuscript. 

Alejandro Savinon was a Professor in the Academy of 
Saint Ferdinand, a first-class naturalist, well versed in all 
the sciences, a physician who had graduated in Paris, 
whose works are highly esteemed, and deservedly so. 

Carballo was a Professor of Political Economy, &c. 

Clavijo, the learned naturalist and celebrated Professor, 
had the honour of translating, annotating, and correcti/rig 
in the most admirable manner, the works of the great 
Buffon, thus gaining for himself a European reputation ; 
more than twenty editions have been exhausted. 

This is a tolerably long list of remarkable men ; we 
might mention many more : and everyone will be surprised 
to find among the natives of such small islands so many 
men distinguished in various ways — ^poetry, literature, and 
science. We might well say that the Canarians are highly 
gifted. It seems as if there were in this race an innate 
poetical feeling, for it is not study alone which has given 
birth to such great poetic talent, to those writers who 
charm and astonish us ; it is not chance which has pro- 
duced in these Islands containing 30,000 or 40,000 in- 
habitants, historians, literary admirals and noblemen, 
writers on physical geography, clerical jurisconsults, and 
first-rate poets ; there must be some creative faculty there 
— ^the Numen, Votes Meus cUvinior f In support of our 
opinion, we may cite a remarkable fact. After the con- 



1 66 ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 

quest of Spain, Borne possessed more Spanish than Soman 
writers; Cicero made this observation, and spoke in the 
highest terms of the poets of the Baetis (Guadalquivir) and 
the Tagus. Lucan, Silius Italiens, Martial, and Seneca 
were Spaniards. While the world slumbered in ignorance, 
Spain was singing, and the romancero linked the chain of 
the ages ; while the Visigoths, Alani, Suevi, Vandals, and 
Moors overran Spain, the Iberian, driven back into the 
mountains of Asturias, still sang, and his songs produced 
the heroes who, sword in hand, reconquered their country, 
and raised it under Philip to such a pitch of greatness 
that it dictated to Europe and to the world. 

But to return to the Islands. Newspapers abound 
there — a remarkable fact in a country ruled by a despotic 
monarchy, naturally inimical to the spread of know- 
ledge. Here is a list of the publications, political, 
literary, statistical, agricultural, and educational, which 
are published in the Islands : eight in TenerifiTe, four in 
Gran Canaria, and two in Palma. The eight newspapers 
published in Tenerifife consist of two liberal political 
papers, one ofi&cial bulletin, one of local interest, one of 
public education ; three times a month appears a publi-^ 
cation in the form of a review, disseminated by the 
Society of Friends of the Country. This review treats of 
trade, conmierce, navigation, statistics, agriculture, science 
— in short, of every possible occupation. From this list 
the reader may easily perceive the amount of literary 
energy in the Islands. 

To support this literary movement, there are several 
printing presses, a tolerably good library, and many shops 



LIBRARIES. Ï67 

which sell educational books and moral and religious 
works ; while every steamer which touches at the Islands 
brings over the newest French and Spanish books. Under 
the title of ' Insular Library,' a Santa Cruz publisher, 
named Vidal, publishes new works, republishes those out 
of print, and sells every book on the subject of the Islands 
or written by Islanders. This patriotic undertaking does 
not pay badly. 

We have already described the great library at Laguna, 
which contains fifteen thousand volumes. At Santa 
Cruz there is also a library, but not of such importance. 
The Society of Friends of the Country is diligently en- 
larging its own. The municipal library of Gran Canaria 
contains four thousand volumes. Thus there is a vigorous 
principle of vitality which will bring in a fine harvest when 
national education shall have been more fully developed, 
to which end every effort of the Islanders ougnt to be 
directed; it will bring liberty, prosperity, and such a 
general intellectual standard as will produce an appreci-» 
ation of the benefits of prosperity, which charms and 
adorns the life of the wealthy, diverts the unhappy, and 
rests the busy. 

The Spanish language is derived from the Latin. It has 
preserved none of the various indigenous forms of the 
language ; of all the Latin tongues it is the purest, for 
it has taken nothing from the barbarian conquerors who 
overran Spain ; and in spite of several centuries of foreign 
occupation, only a few foreign words have retained a place 
in the language ; it is homogeneous. Much more Latin 
than Italian is, it does not disfigure its words either by 



ï68 ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 

elisions more or less arbitrary, or by illogical constructions, 
and its syntax is strictly laid down ; it does not easily 
lend itself to the caprices of fashion or the whims of 
authors; it still remains what the sixteenth century 
authors made it. 

Even in the Middle Ages the language of poetry was 
already formed, and required only the necessary lapse of 
time to polish it ; Spanish literature flourished from that 
period, and Cervantes found ready to his hand the marvel- 
lous instrument which was to create the first masterpiece 
of really European literature. 

The most singular feature of the Spanish language ie 
its capability of being a perfect instrument at once for 
prose and poetry. In this respect it surpasses all others ; 
Greek alone can be compared to it. As if this marvellous 
language were destined to be perfect in every way, it is 
as well adapted to the portrayal of the most vigorous 
passions as to that of the tenderest sentiments. In 
prose, as in verse, the language shapes the idea, and, as it 
were, carves and moulds it. The great poet Villegas had 
already, in 1500, adapted it to every variety of Greek 
rhythm and metre ; Ercilla, one of the c(ynj(iuiBiadoT€s^ 
about the same time, wrote his epic poem ^Araucana' 
in language as delicate and flexible as his own sword ; 
Quiros, and Cervantes himself, drew poetical arabesques 
which throw the modem romantic school into the shade. 

But let us leave these highly-educated authors, dis- 
tinguished Latinists, Hebraists, and Hellenists, and let us 
seek the foimtain-head, the unknown, popular, simple, 
imeducated authors, the romaTioeToa (ballad singers). In 



THE ROMANCEROS. 169 

those times — more glorious, perhaps, than we think — 
whether war were carried on against Groth or Vandal, 
Saracen or King, the roTnxincero sang of everything — a 
romance of religion or love, a rustic song, an heroic deed, 
a ballad, civil or political history, celebrated paladins, 
noble ladies, provincial rights, liberty, famous palfreys, 
the Gid Buydiez de Bivar and Ximena, Ogier and 
Durandarte. A fine and copious stream of poetry, drawn . 
from the very fountain-head — ^the heart, the head, and the 
arm I What sap, what vigour I History may break off, 
monks may impose silence, but history will live on in 
ballads — true national history, the progress of civilisa- 
tion, exalted faith,/uero8 (charters), gallantry, chronology, 
sieges, dynasties, marches and provinces, bishops and 
clergy, civil rights and canon laws, political life, — all 
these the ballad treats of, and the language allows of it. 
Without a settled language, it would have been impos- 
sible. We may judge of the glorious artists Spain pos- 
sessed in those days when she outshone all Europe by 
the works they have bequeathed to us. 

After the resplendent talents and literary genius of the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries came, alas I the wretched, 
passionless classicists ; conventional poetry, more varied, 
more regular, assimilated the literature of Spain to her 
Kings, swathed in etiquette, stiffened in ceremonial. It 
no longer attracts by its national vigour ; poetical origi- 
nality fades away ; authors seek rather to imitate, to draw 
from Grreek and Latin sources ; impotent, rules of poetic 
art can only supply lifeless forms, as is always the case 
where inspiration is wanting ; art vainly seeks to support 



I70 ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 

talent. All the works of these authors of the decadence 
hare been preserved, and are still admired. Why ? The 
language has saved them ; it has given a Twdy to the 
feeble idea, like those preparations which give substance 
and firmness to vaporous gauze. 

Essentially poetic in character, being essentially dreamy 
and contemplative, the Spaniard still preserves his ancient 
gravity, and his language is the most solemn as well as 
the most poetical in Europe ; it sings in a serious manner 
the subject which inspires it, and this seriousness adds to 
its grace; strength, grace, and dignity, are the principal 
characteristics which render it a language worthy to be 
spoken by the gods. 

In the Middle Ages — ^the ages of gigantic wars— hero 
and poetwere in Spain synonymous words. Those sublime 
ballads, composed in the camp during a campaign, or 
before a battle, were composed by unknown heroes whose 
minds overflowed in poetry, and who found in their sono- 
rous, rhythmical language a well-adapted frame for their 
thoughts. Long before those romanceros who were con- 
temporary with Charlemagne, there were others whose 
works, alas 1 are lost; we shall never know, except by new 
discoveries not very probable, what was the language 
spoken in Spain about the year 500 of our era, interme- 
diate between Latin and modem Spanish. Previous even 
to this transitional language, a great Iberian poem was 
written on the expedition of Augustus against the coimtry 
of the Cantabri. It is the most precious ïelic of which a 
nation can boast, for it is the only poem written in a 
national idiom, anterior to the Latin language. 



SPANISH ISOLA TION. 1 7 1 

The literary and artistîc genius of Spain was original, 
from its isolation. The barrier of the Pyrenees and the 
girdle of the sea separated the country from the rest of . 
Europe, which, besides, followed a different course. Spain 
for 2,000 years lived an isolated and armed existence. 
No foreign moral or intellectual element penetrated there 
during successive occupations; Spanish literature formed 
itself alone. It possessed from the first a proud kind of 
bearing, the grandeur of which is more striking than the 
beauty, the severity than the elegance. As Spain was 
always the country of heroes, poetry there became epic 
even in its details ; its deep blue sky, its severe, abrupt 
mountains, its scorching sun, have all helped to give its 
poetical genius that vigour of form, loftiness, and vivid 
colouring which characterise it. The liberty of action 
enjoyed by the Spanish race has given the language a 
freedom of form which renders thought clearly, without 
circumlocution ; vague thought, dreamy — German if you 
will—could not express itself in Spanish. 

The Italian language, flexible and delicate, adapted to 
machiavelian ideas and witty conceits, spoken by a people 
among whom the head rules the heart, was beaten by the 
Spanish language. A strange state of things took place 
in Italy in the seventeenth century. Although protesting 
all the while against Spain and her influence, the Italian 
poets and prose writers yielded to it, and, tired of wit, 
weary of poetical prowess, they formed the Hispano-Italie 
style, in which the gravity of the Spanish tongue pre- 
dominated. It was an extraordinary mixture of subtilty 
and emphasis, £Etcility and grandeur, brilliance and ob- 



172 ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 

scurity. In the realm of poetry, this style, adopted by 
Marino, made of him a universal poet, crowned, triumph- 
ant, everywhere quoted, wealthy, and of great renown. 
Even in France, the Cavalier Marin was venerated from 
1620 to 1640; he was the undisputed monarch of the Hotel 
Eambouillet, the father of the poets from D'Urfé down to 
Boufflers ; Germany, England, Spain, and Italy set forth 
his praises, and sang his glory. In 1680 he was, very 
properly, forgotten. His success was due to the unnatural 
alliance of the Spanish poetical character with the witty 
conceits of Italy ; we mention it to show how great was 
the influence of the Spanish language in Europe at that 
time. It was such that while Marot and Sabelais, 
coming from Italy, made use of that horrible Eomano- 
Saxon jargon which was the language of the fifteenth 
century and was to be the language of Bousseau and of 
Bossuet, — Calvin, Malherbe, the Corneilles, and de 
Thou, borrowed from Spain and assimilated all her best 
features. 

We have said that Spanish artistic genius was original, 
from its isolation: in fact, we may say without any 
exaggeration that, before the Eenaissance, Spain had 
already asserted herself, not only by means of her lan- 
guage, but by everything else which may secure a nation's 
supremacy. 

On this point it appears important to observe that the 
influence of the Eenaissance in Germany, England, and 
especially in France, was enormous ; that Poland did not 
escape it ; but that while all the rest of Europe profited 
by the Eenaissance, Spain alone refused to submit to its 



THE RENAISSANCE, 173 

influence, and proved to the astonished world that she 
could stand alone as regarded science, art, and letters. 
Her ballads owe nothing, any more than does *Don 
Quixote,' to the Latin or Crreek traditious of the Renais- 
sance ; they are purely and wholly Spanish. 

What makes this aversion to everything foreign still 
more characteristic is, that it was displayed at the very 
moment when Spain was about to rule the world, and 
would thus be in the very position to absorb and assimilate 
the arts and sciences. She refused to do so ; in letters, as 
well as in the imitative arts, music, painting, and even in 
sculpture, she shows no trace of the Renaissance. The 
Byzantine style of axchitecture was rejected, and the 
Gothic and Moorish styles were retained; painting re-^ 
mained Spanish (as we can easily see at the present day), 
and independent of the Italian and Dutch schools ; music 
flourished, and in 1849 Gevaërt found treasures of old 
music hidden away in Spanish churches and convents; 
the theatre was invented, and the drama discovered, while 
France was still acting mysteries, and Italy confined 
herself to childish attempts, to pantomimes degrading to 
art; finally, the greatest glory of all, history and the 
domestic novel, painting, sculpture, architecture, and the 
theatre were at their zenith : they have never been sur- 
passed ; Spain created her own Renaissance. 

At the same time, Spain was conquering a world — 
America ; she formed the best army in Europe, that army 
of which Bossuet said 'Now the Spanish infantry ad- 
vances I' — a worthy daughter of the national army of 
Viriathus, Sertorius, and Pelayo. We must not forget 



174^ AI^T, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 

that it was with Spanish soldiers that the great Cartha- 
ginian Hannibal held out for thirty years against the 
Romans: the troops who arrested Conde'^s progress had 
noble ancestors! Spain created a navy. Thus, in less 
than a century, we see the Moors driven out, America 
taken possession of, Italy conquered, Flanders subjugated; 
we see Don John of Austria, Ferdinand and Isabella, 
Charles V., Velasquez, Zurbaran, Lope de Vega, Calderon, 
Moratin, Cervantes, Alva, and Gronzalo. What names I 
what deeds I what masterpieces ! Already Spain possessed 
her cathedrals, her quays, her arsenals, and those formid- 
able ships which made Europe tremble, and which, had it 
not been for the tempest, might perhaps have annihilated 
the rising power of England, thus changing the destinies 
of the world, and securing for centuries the supremacy of 
the Latin race. Can we find in the history of any other 
people a more magnificent expansion of national genius ? 
Spain might well look on indifferently while Europe took 
the Eenaissance as a model ; she had brought forth her 
Minerva from her own brain, and created her language at 
a stroke. From the time of Charlemagne, science and 
letters availed themselves of it, and were able to dissemi- 
nate themselves ; every other nation was left behind by 
means of this language — a National work which one 
man by himself, even were he Dante, would have been 
incapable of accomplishing. 

What great difficulties an imperfect language puts in 
the way of genius and talent! The Middle Ages were 
weighed down by a vulgar, inadequate language; and even 
a hundred years after the Renaissance, Eiu-opean ^avan»^ 



THE SPANISH LANGUAGE, 175 



having no formed language, still made use of the Latin 
of the Middle Ages ; France and Italy did not begin to 
throw it oflF until long after Spain. Between the ' Boman 
de Eou' and Bossuet or Pascal, lies a wide gulf; between 
the romancero and Cervantes there is no essential dif- 
ference. For two hundred years the Spanish language 
was predominant in Em-ope as in America, and the Court 
of Spain was for two hundred years the model court. So 
much grandeur turned its head ; kingly majesty fell asleep 
from satiety ; the court sank into ceremonial ; while the 
nation, intoxicated with wealth, power, and glory, lan- 
guished in repose : these splendours gradually became ex- 
tinct, but the language has remained intact, unalterable. 
It approaches the French language in precision, and 
surpasses it in everything else, as it does all modem 
languages. It is the most sonorous, the most flexible, and 
the richest. It adapts itself to music even better than 
Italian. It has but one defect, the j. This guttural, 
however, has not such a bad effect as some pretend. In 
the south of the Peninsula it loses its harshness, and in 
the two Castiles, the very focus of the language and of 
literature, it is made more or less harsh according to the 
word, and the meaning of the sentence, or the sentiment 
which the words are to express ; it is also a letter which 
is comparatively but little used. 

In the Islands, the ladies speak very pure Spanish ; but 
what is most remarkable about their speaking, is the 
eharm of their rhythmic sentences, and the sweet, dignified 
voice ; the tones now slow, now rapid, half passion, half 
languor, which always characterise Creoles, and especially 



176 ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE, ETC. 

Islanders, whose manners are always especially gentle, and. 
whose way of talking is especially sweet. 

' Say what you will, your vaunted Spanish does not equal 
German.' 

' Well, my dear Krauss, I mangle it so abominably, that 
I think it detestable. If you had said Italian, now — that 
is a sweet, musical language.' 

' As cloying as sweetmeats ; English is the only language 
for men — ^ 

' Shopkeepers and children,' said I. ^ Spanish possesses 
everything in which French is wanting; but the latter, 
on the other hand, is clearer and more precise. I stick to 
my own opinion.' 

' So do L' 

« And I.' 

« And I.'. 

' To conclude,' I said, ' the best language is that which 
one knows best ; therefore, as you can only murder Spanish, 
and cannot speak it — ^ 

I was forced to stop. 

The reader may form his own conclusions, so long as he 
is convinced that the Canarians possess a highly artistic 
organisation, and that they speak most beautifully a 
musical language, as sweet as it is forcible. 



THE GUANCHE RACE. 177 



Chapteb X. 

THE GUANCHES^THEIR GOVERNMENT AND ORIGIN.. 

ATLANTIS, 

We have already described the Guanche customs, and we 
hope our readers have been able to form some approximate 
idea of the race. On the one hand, strong, agile, tall, 
handsome, courageous, and loyal ; on the other, childish, 
credulous, easily deceived, leading on the whole a happy 
life in a favoured country ; such were the Guanches. We 
have now to describe their government, to speak of their 
poetry, history, war, art, manufactures, agriculture, their 
civil, judicial, and military adnnnistration ; to study their 
funeral ceremonies, morality, customs, cave life, kings, 
castes, pastoral life, and public ceremonies. We shall see 
the workings of this primitive world in Teneriffe and 
Gran Ganaria, the most densely populated of the Islands. 
We shall then endeavour to find out the probable origin 
of the Guanches, and to give an opinion on the subject of 
Atlantis. 

Teneriffe, the ancient Tchinerfe, possessed, as. did also 
Gran Ganaria, a real poUtical administration. Gomera and 
Palma were governed, according to all accounts, in the 
same manner, with a few unimportant exceptions, which 
we shall mention at the proper time. 

VOL. n. N 



jjS THE G U ANCHES. 

Power was in the hands of one man only ; tradition is 
clear on that point. At some period impossible to define, 
the one sovereign of Teneriffe, named Tinerfe, having 
nine sons, these sons shared the island at his death, yield- 
ing by common consent to the chief or Tnencey of Taoro 
supremacy over the other eight; besides the title of 
mencey he also bore that of quehebi, which meant majesty , 
or very great He exercised an undisputed supremacy 
over the others ; his domains were more extensive, and 
his vassals more numerous. 

The Tahoro was the open temple, the place sacred to 
justice, to the holding of the state councils, and to great 
public rejoicings. The mencey of Taoro was the more 
powerful from having the Tahoro within his territory. It 
appears to have stood in the parish of Guiamar, which is 
now covered with lava; it still bears the name of Tahoror. 

In Gran Canaria there is also the Tagoror, near Gaidar. 
It was here that the Guanarteme or mencey of Canaria 
resided ; Canarian tradition is as clear as that of TeneriflFe, 
and all the accounts are consistent. 

It was in the district of Taoro, Tahoro, or Tagoror that 
the chiefs assembled for deliberation, the principal assizes 
were held, the interests of the country were discussed, and 
the national festivals celebrated ; but each mencey had in 
addition his own especial Tagoror, where he administered 
justice,, .heard complaints, and received petitions and 
visits. An old mencey seated on his bench of basalt must 
have been the image of one of Homer's heroes. Presiding 
over the council, administering justice, or receiving 
guests, he must have exactly resembled the aged Nestor 



CORONATIONS. 179 



receiving Telemachus. This likeness struck all the 
chroniclers. 

On the accession of a prince, the Tagoror was strewn 
with flowers and palm-leaves, and all the people crowded 
to see the ceremonies. The new chief, welcomed with 
cheers, seat-ed himself on the consecrated stone, which was 
covered with sheep-skins dyed scarlet. A deputation 
presented to him in a leather case the sacred bone, the 
insignia of royalty, the thigh-bone of a ram, the royal 
femur \ the prince respectfully kissed this emblem of 
sovereignty, and said : ' I swear to make everyone happy, 
and to follow the example of him who bore before me this 
sacred bone.' Then the chiefs in turn took the royal 
femur and said : ' I swear from this thy coronation day to 
defend thee and thy race.' Here was the feudal system — 
the king and his principal vassals. 

Viana says that the oaths were taken on the skull of an 
ancient king ; but there is nothing to support this asser- 
tion, while, on the contrary, all agree in mentioning the 
oath made on the sacred bone. 

The oaths terminated, the mencey was- crowned with 
flowers, not with the legendary crown invented by the 
annotators of the works of the fathers; by an idiotic 
anachronism they took it into their heads to crown the 
menceys with crowns made of pasteboard, such as you see 
in theatres. The mencey, then, was crowned with flowers ; 
and, this done, he invited his nobles and ^illeins to a feast, 
and took his seat at the banquet. After the banquet came 
wrestling and dancing, which were kept up all night long 
by torch-light. Even in war-time hostilities were sus- 

N 2 



i8o THE GUANCHES, 



pended to allow of the celebration of the festivals ; friends 
and enemies wrestled and danced together. Happy people I 
political antagonism could not make them forget that 
they were bom to be happy, not to tear each other to 
pieces ;• to enjoy life almost without labour, not to weary 
themselves with endless wars. 

When the mencey travelled through the country he 
was preceded by a Guanche carrying his banner or pennon ; 
this was a staflF with the head of a bulrush at the end, 
which reminds one of the Egyptian and Arab horse-tails. 
The prince's subjects saluted him as he went along by 
prostrating themselves. 

On the anniversaries of the coronation day, the dust 
from the chiers shoes was wiped oflF and respectfully kissed. 
These anniversaries were great days. Some brought the 
chief flowers, others fruit, chaplets of green leaves, or 
choice skins ; people of quality kissed his left hand, the 
chiefs and nobles his right hand, the common people 
his sandals ; everyone knelt and cried, ' We are thy 
servants!' 

On such occasions it was really a grand sight to see 
these crowds manifesting their joy by loud cheers, the 
chiefs defiling before the mencey, while the women, stand- 
ing apart, formed the background of the picture. The 
chroniclers were greatly struck by it. 

Thus at the head was the king of all, king also of a 
particular district. 

Under him, but also reigning over a district, were his 
chief vassals. 

Beneath these a happy people. 



-— ■- r 11 ■ 



CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. i8i 

Between the people and the vassals came the nobility, 
and then the wealthy classes. 

The mencey administered justice within the enclosure 
of the Tagoror. When the delinquent — ^a thief for example 
— ^was led before the judge after judgment, he was thrown 
on the ground and beaten with the prince's pastoral staff 
or crook. 

Capital punishment was certainly unknown among the 
Guanches of Teneriffe, at least as a legal institution prac- 
tised by the government ; yet the poet Viana, in his epic 
poem, speaking of those who were guilty of insulting the 
monarch, says : ' The law ordered that they should be put 
to death cruelly, as criminals, generally by stoning.' But 
no historian has ever confirmed the poet's assertion. It 
may be laid down as a general principle that, living under 
the law of nature, the Guanches were, like other primitive 
nations less. highly gifted and in less fortunate countries, 
governed by the law of retaliation. Such a law alone 
could be a safeguard in a primitive state of society where 
neither justice nor the power which sanctions it had as 
yet appeared. We shall find in the smaller islands traces 
of this law, which lingered there, where the dreaded belt 
of sea was too small to allow of the criminal's flight, so 
that justice could in no way remove him out of sight of 
his victim except by putting him to death. In one of the 
smaller islands the adulterer was buried alive ; in another 
the relations of the victim might take the murderer's 
life ; in a third the criminal was put to death by the 
executioner, it having been found that retaliation in cold 
.blood — murder for the sake of revenge — excited reprisals 



i82 THE GUANCHES. 

which it was imperative to prevent. This was not the 
case in the large islands, where the assassin was banished 
to some distant valley, after being in some way civilly 
degraded, and deprived of his property. Adultery was 
pimished by imprisonment. In those great islands life 
was so easy, there was so little distinction between mine 
and thine, manners were so sociable, and the government 
so paternal, that crimes were very rare, and robbery was 
almost unknown. The chroniclers have never in their 
frequently puerile narrations accused the natives of the 
love of plunder, whether excited by envy or mere covetous- 
ness. Female thieves were always pardoned, with the 
exception, perhaps, of the vestals ; male criminals were 
only condemned to follow vile, low occupations, and were 
either made butchers or set to prepare human bodies for 
embalmment. Capital punishment certainly never took 
place in Gran Canaria or TeneriflFe, at least as a state 
institution, during the eighty years and more that the 
struggle lasted between the conquerors and the islanders* 

If the tradition of capital punishment, of retaliation 
carried on in the smaller islands, was perpetuated until 
the Conquest, and if certain chroniclers have imagined it 
to be a general law, it is because the dire necessity im- 
posed on the natives of Hierro and Gomera by the small- 
ness of the islands was taken to be a law common to the 
whole Archipelago. If, on the other hand, some chroni- 
clers have affirmed that the Guanches never inflicted 
capital punishment, it is because they judged only from 
the state of things in the large islands. 

Such is the opinion we should adopt on the subject if 



CASTE. \%% 

it were not for one objection. All the historians, or nearly 
all, mention the existence of a kind of executioner or 
hangman. This fact, which appears clearly proved, 
implies some contradiction, unless we suppose that these 
executioners formed a sort of pariah caste, into which 
certain criminals were forced, not to perform its duties, 
but for the sake of degrading them by a most tenible 
moral punishment, that of being qualified executioners. 

All primitive races have shown us an example of pater- 
nal government, exercised by an immixed race ruling 
over an inferior one. After Noah's deluge the ideas of 
absolute command prevailed, servitude was established, 
and might became right ; the Bible proves it. With the 
Guanches, a primitive race, the practice of right wa& a 
privilege, but might was subordinate to it. As we shall 
presently see, there were two castes, which must not be 
confounded with the division into two parts which we 
have just pointed out, and which indicates not two families 
disputing a share of the power with each other, but 
rather one part of the nation apt to exercise it, and à 
second, far more numerous, destined to servile labours ; 
they were, however, somewhat similar. 

As was the case among all primitive races, power was 
based on theoretic principles. In the beginning of the 
world, said the Gruanches, after the land and sea were 
made, Grod created a certain number of men and women, 
and gave into their hands everything on earth. He then 
created more men, to whom He gave nothing. They 
demanded their share, but Grod said to them, ^ Serve the 
others, and they will give to you.' Thus originated 



i84 THE GUANCHES. 

masters and sexrants, nobles and people. This traditioii 
is constantly met with. 

Thus the nobility sought its origin in divine right, and 
found its strength and stability in religious tradition, 
like royalty. The Guanche sovereigns, as well as others, 
talked of their divine right. 

The nobility was hereditary, but might be attained by 
glorious deeds. It emanated firom the monarchy, and was 
protected by a 9a4yred religion, known only to the hiero- 
phants an<l completely hidden firom the vulgar, just like 
the Egyptian rites. It is impossible to find out what this 
religion was, or what the rites were. Was it in the hands 
of a religious sect like the Templars ? Did that sect in- 
clude the whole of the nobility, or only some isolated 
members of it, a privileged caste ? We shall give our 
opinion on the subject presently. 

Social order, as we have said, was founded on the here- 
ditary principle. The mencey enjoyed an hereditary 
dominion; the nobility, the religious caste, and the 
princes recognised him as sovereign, primus vrUer pares. 
These princes were descendants of the royal &mily — 
archimenceya below the mencey, the great vassals. The 
nobility, in return for its privileges, served the state by 
administering justice, taking the command in war, and 
advising in the council. 

By a recognised fiction, the mencey was the owner of the 
soil, giving the usufruct to his people, among whom he 
divided the land. Very little labour kept them in easy 
circumstances ; large flocks constituted their only wealth. 
These grants of land, proportioned to the family, were only 



PASTORAL LIFE. 185 

temporary ; on the death of the owner they either returned 
to the sovereign, or were increased if the family had in- 
creased. It being thus impossible to acquire property, 
ambition was unknown. Those agrarian laws were there- 
fore advantageous to the sovereign, who could have no 
rival either in wealth or power, and were advantageous to 
the people, to whom they secured a subsistence. In these 
laws we may also discern a barrier against the invasion of 
the privileged castes. Already in possession of a moral 
supremacy based upon a superior education, it was neces- 
sary to prevent their monopolising the public property. 
The Guanche agrarian laws protected the weak. It is 
a remarkable fact that at the time of the conquest of 
Peru it was found that the Incas had the same law— 
the chief distributing land according to the size of the 
&mily. 

The care of the flocks, and the choice of pasturage ac- 
cording to the seasons, were the Islanders' most important 
occupations, of which they made quite a science. These 
model shepherds counted their flocks at a glance, collected 
them at call, knew which was the mother of each lamb, 
and passed their lives under the shade of enormous laurels 
in weaving baskets, playing the flute, singing the loves or 
wars of their ancestors, and dancing : it was the pastoral 
life of the earliest ages of the world. Goat's flesh, milk, 
the shepherd's pipe, basket weaving, all these belong to 
the poetry of Hesiod or Homer ; this life is that of the 
shepherds of old fable, of the Egyptians in primitive times, 
of Persia and Arabia. Let the foaming milk be poured 
on the ground from an amphora of Egyptian make, and 



1 86 THE G U ANCHES^ 

we shall have a perfect picture of the primitive races* It 
is a picture of Guanche life* 

The Guanches apparently formed a kind of. insular 
family, divided into confederate tribes. There were pro- 
bably two castes in this great family. These two castes^ 
which some have considered as forming two nations, or 
even two races, have never afforded either to the philoso- 
pher or the historian a fixed point which might serve as d 
basis for such extraordinary assertions. It is far more 
probable that these two castes, often living side by side iu 
the same island, were two divisions of one family separated 
by political or religious differences. These two castes were 
often at war with each other» Duels and challenges kept 
alive the feeling of antagonism; two champions armed 
with powerful short sticks, called tesseres, killed each other 
for a cause never specified, and which we shall in all proba- 
bility never find out. There may have been at the bottom 
of these quarrels a cause which the spirit of discord per- 
petuated without explaining — the influence of the evil 
principle which is innate in men, and is with difficulty 
kept in. check by the best among them. Baces more 
disposed to evil than to good destroy each other, while 
among those in whom a better nature predominates, war, 
a necessary consequence of the evil principle not yet van- 
quished, is more humane, and takes the form chiefly of 
single combat. From these wars we may conclude that 
the two inimical castes were equal. They differed entirely 
from the castes of India. The Guanches married without 
distinction of caste, which at once proves that they were 
equal. The warriors, althayas or altahay (courageous)» 



THE ARISTOCRACY, 187 

♦ 

were powerful and respected. Those who were renowned 
for peculiarly brave deeds enjoyed certain privileges ; they 
held the highest rank, and their persons were sacred. Was 
this aristocracy a governing one ? No. Was it charged 
with the duty of making the laws respected? Did it 
execute them ? Or was this the office of the chief only ? 
It appears so from certain vague indications. 

The noble caste was not numerous, but was very power- 
ful. 

Each tribe was probably governed politically by a chief 

— dux, rex, or mencey, according to the three words used 

by the chroniclers ; this chief was absolute in matters of 

judgment and of power. Was he pontiflF as well as king ? 

We cannot tell. The worship of nature in her two great 

manifestations, the heavens and the earth, which we seem 

to discover from the form of the temple, necessitated at 

least one pontiff. Even if everyone could enter the 

temple, and pour milk on the earth from the sacred um^ 

pontiffs would still be wanted ; at all events there were 

priests belonging to the temple taken from among the 

nobility and called Faycay. The temple, by its form, 

was the symbol of a patriarchal life given up to nature 

worship. The small inner circle typified the earth ; the 

wide ditch between the two circles, the sea ; the large 

circle, the celestial sphere, the starry sky. As the wealth 

of the tribe consisted entirely in flocks, they offered in 

sacrifice to Mother Earth sheep's milk, poured from the 

ganigOj or sacred urn, upon the earth itself. 

The chronicle of Azurara informs us that the Guanches 
believed in the inamortality of the soul, which is very 



1 88 THE G U ANC H ES, 

possible, although nothing in their religious ceremonies 
proved it; their belief was, perhaps, like that of their 
African brethren, who affirm that men's souls Uve in the 
thickets, and look for them there occasionally ; then, not 
finding them, think no more of them. Azurara tells us 
that the Gruanches believed in a God who rewards and 
punishes men according to their deeds; also that the 
government was in the hands exclusively of the nobility, 
whose number was fixed at, he says, between one and two 
hundred in Grran Canaria. When the number was dimi- 
nished by death, a selection was made from among the 
sons of the nobility, so that the minimum was always 
kept up. ' It is these nobles whose duty it is to preserve 
the traditions of the primitive faith, which they only 
divulge to certain persons whom they deem worthy.' This 
system of secrecy is a characteristic sign of primitive 
religion. From the Druids to the Gruanches, from the 
Gruanches to the Egyptians and the Grreeks, religion was 
in the hands of pontiffs, who, under pain of death, could 
only impart its mysteries to the initiated. As revelation 
forms the basis of all modern religions, so secrecy was the 
foundation of the most ancient. 

The nature of the soil furnished the Gruanches with 
ready-made houses in the shape of caves, citevcw, as they 
are still called, which sheltered them perfectly, especially 
in that mild climate. In summer the Guanches preferred 
the caves among the moimtains, in winter those on the 
coast. Those in the moimtains were the work of nature, 
those on the coasts the work of their own hands. They 
constructed them in the friable tufa, choosing beds of lava 



CAVE DWELLINGS. 189 

five or seven feet thick lying between layers of basalt ; 
the tufa was taken out, and the cave was ready. The 
most celebrated are those of Guiamar ; they have interior 
divisions and square rooms ; the principal room is always 
lighted from the entrance ; the dark rooms, used either 
as sleeping apartments or store-rooms, were provided 
with niches hollowed orut in the stone, in which were 
kept jars of milk, water, or fermented liquor ; other rooms 
contained cheese, a mill, and stores of flour or com ; in 
the large, light room, benches made in the rock afforded, 
seats all round, like a Turkish divan. 

Pliny, who has handed down a portion of the voyage of 
Hanno, sent out by King Juba, says that Juba's envoys 
foimd a small Carthaginian temple in an island which 
they named Junonia, after the name of the tutelary god- 
dess of Carthage; they foimd also the ruins of some 
houses {vestigia œdificiorum) ; these must have been 
built by the Tyrian navigators, who came in search of 
purple. But the aboriginal natives of the Islands were 
troglodytes ; otherwise houses would soon have produced 
villages, and villages towns, and towns civilisation, which 
would not thus have been delayed for thousands of years. 

Yiera maintains that the Gruanches had houses in 
Teneriffe. It is easy to explain this seeming contradic- 
tion, for these buildings were posterior to the advent of 
the conquerors or to the arrival of vessels which had 
touched there. We must not forget that in the fourteenth 
century, and even at the end of the thirteenth, the 
Gruanches had been visited, and had taken some prisoners. 
Some of them had been carried off in 1403 or 1404 to 



190 THE GUANCHES, 

• 

Spain and Portugal, and had afterwards returned to the 
Islands, From a careful study of various writers it appears 
that there were no houses in Teneriffe, and that all the 
inhabitants were troglodytes ; we cannot draw any con- 
clusions from the existence of a few rudinientary buildings 
in TenerifiFe, even if it were proved ; the Guanches always 
preferred caves and grottoes to buildings. The inhabitants 
of Grran Ganaria, where the caves were only in a few 
localities, were obliged to live in places where there were 
none, either for the sake of pasture or arable land ; the 
imperious law of necessity forced them to build caves or 
houses more or less rudimentary. In TenerifiFe this 
necessity did not exist ; the southern belt, a great deal 
of which wa& desert land, possessed an adequate amoimt 
of caves ; the mountains and the northern belt contained 
any number of them. The fathers maintained that the 
Guanches were not troglodytes, because they wished to 
make out that they were not a primitive racej which 
would not have harmonised with their interpretation of 
the Bible. 

The most astonishing fact to all historians, ancient and 
modem, is that the Guanches had no idea of navigation, 
although every circimistance seemed favourable to their 
learning it — their insular position, the proximity of the 
Islands, their innate curiosity or need of knowing one 
another, the skill they displayed in fishing, and their great 
liking for fish, their love of swimming, and the great skill 
as well as strength which they manifested in the exercise. 
But these historians have forgotten to bear in mind the 
origin and history of the race. Terror of navigation was 



INTERNAL WARS. 191 

natural to all primitive races ; those of African or Keltic 
origin did not go on the sea, nor did the Indians ; it was 
a religious dogma among all pre-historical races that 
water was evil, the abyss, the accursed element. The 
American Indians never went on the sea, nor do the Arabs ; 
water is certainly esteemed a blessing by the latter, but 
it is spring or rain water ; salt water is held in contempt, 
and accursed. Among them, as among all other primitive 
races, there is but one opinion : ' Water once covered the 
earth and destroyed everything living; water will one 
day again cover the earth ; water is the instrument, the 
scourge of God.' Perhaps there is no stronger philoso- 
phical proof of the destruction of Atlantis than this terror 
of the water. It was natural to a race living in a land 
gubmerged by the ocean, with the exception of seven 
rocky summits, on which a few shepherds survived. 

Strictly speaking, the Guanches never made war among 
themselves, except in Lanzarote, where they only fought 
for their chiefs, in whose quarrels they took but little 
interest. The Guanches were not of the same nature as 
those American or Australian tribes who destroyed each 
other in their fury or despair, unhappy, inferior races, to 
whom shedding the blood of others was a delight, shedding 
their own blood an unrivalled glory. Their private wars 
were never destructive nor very sanguinary, and except, 
perhaps, in Lanzarote, where a sort of rivalry divided the 
island, it does not appear that there were any national 
animosities, but merely disunion ; and even this disunion 
was engendered by the long wars with the Spaniards, which 
decimated this or that district to the detriment of the 



192 THE G U ANCHES. 

others, and created dissensions among the various chiefs. 
They never destroyed each other, but reserved their lives 
in order to sell them dearly to the Europeans. They 
knew that their unimportant intestine wars ought to 
serve especially as a kind of practice, somewhat more 
violent and exaggerated than their ordinary wrestling 
matches ; they entertained no hatred for each other, and 
never harmed the vanquished. 

Had they an art of warfare ? Probably, for even 
before the successive conquests military tactics were not 
entirely unknown among them ; they endeavoured to take 
up the best strategic positions, and took advantage of the 
nature of the ground during an action, which proves their 
intelligence. The Guanches had no enclosures meant to 
serve as camps, but instead those Pelasgic or Cyclopean 
walls which are the characteristic monuments of primitive 
races. They possessed, like the Eomans, a system of very 
rapid telegraphy, beacons on the mountains, and concerted 
signals visible at great distances ; for important or secret 
messages they establièhed men at certain distances, who 
warned each other by whistling. They knew how to 
divide their forces so that they might be used successively 
without weakening themselves, and that those who were 
disabled might be replaced by fresh troops. This strategy 
appears to have been unknown before the Conquest, and to 
have originated in Gran Canaria, where the Guanches 
were divided into six corps, commanded by six generals, 
taking their orders from the king, and called Guayres. 
The struggle with the Spaniards originated tactics ; al- 
though the struggle with the slave-dealers had given rise 



SPORTS. 193 



to the idea of fortifications among the natives of Lanzarote 
and Fuerteventurd. 

The Guanches were very skiliiil in the construction of 
their weapons — axes made of obsidian, with a sharp edge 
hardened in the fire ; powerful slings ; and arrows which 
they aimed with great skill. Tlie banot, a terrible kind 
of barbed dart, was their best weapon. From the wood of 
the dragon-tree they made shields, which the swiftest 
arrow could hardly penetrate, and from which it could not 
be drawn out. 

They had several kinds of games, such as quoits and 
boxing, but their favourite amusement was wrestling, and 
of this they were passionately fond ; it was hallowed by 
their laws and their religion. The sanction of the mencey 
and the faycan was necessary before any public wrestling 
match could take place. The wrestling matches in Grran 
Canaria were exactly like those of the Greeks. The com- 
batants rubbed their bodies over with grease, and prac- 
tised beforehand with a tree, so as to keep themselves in 
training. There were arenas for the public games ; the 
wrestlers stood within a circle raised a few feet above the 
place for the spectators, so that everyone might see them. 
The judges placed the champions, and seated themselves 
on two stone benches which stood one at each end of the 
arena ; the wrestlers' relations were to remain motionless 
and silent. First of all the athletes were to throw stones 
at each other without moving their feet, and they were so 
skilful in parrying blows that the stones very rarely hit ; 
this was only a formal prelude. Afterwards their move- 
ments were unfettered ; they encountered each other 

VOL. II. O 



494 '^^^ GUANCHES, 

firmed with lances and axes, and the real struggle began. 
No rest or breathing time was allowed until a wound, 
veiy rarely mortal, was inflicted. -As soon as one was 
wounded the judges cried ^Qwmal gama!^ (enough!) 
In some combats the champions stopped when a lance was 
broken ; if they were tired they could rest, and in the 
interval they ate and drank together like brothers. 

The Gruanches were so sensitive on the point of honour 
that this sentiment assimied such proportions as we only 
find in Japan and among Kelts. After a combat where 
the victory was undecided one of the champions said to 
the other : 

« Wilt thou do all that I can do ? ' 

' Yes.' 

^Thou swearest it ?' 

* I swear.' 

The first man calmly threw himself over a neighbouring 
precipice, and the other followed his example. 

The Japanese perform the ' happy despatch,' and the 
Kelts killed themselves merely as a point of honour and 
to prove their courage. 

The morals of the Guanches were pure ; let the reader 
judge for himself. 

* Avoid those whom vice renders contemptible, other- 
wise you will be an offence to your fellows. Associate with 
the good ; help and succour everyone. 

* Be good if you wish to be beloved. 

' Despise the wicked ; love the good. 

' Value the friendship and esteem of the good only, 

* Never tell lies. 



FUNERALS. 195 



' Be an honour to your country through your courage 
and virtue.' 

Such were the general maxims of the Guanche race. 
What can be more simple, more complete, more 
beautiful? Unconscious inheritors of the morality 
of the primitive races, from whom they had as by 
a miracle retained nothing but the grand principles 
of humanity, rejecting all their evil principles of ani- 
mosity, robbery, and ferocity, living in a propitious 
climate, where nature lavished her treasures upon 
them, the Guanches must have been happy with such 
maxims, which they "were compelled to teach their 
-children. 

Now that we know something of this kindly race, 
whose chiefs were the bravest, noblest, and most vir- 
tuous among them, we can enter upon some details relat- 
ing to their funerals, their embalmments, and their 
mummies. 

The chief, or mencey, was entitled to a splendid 
funçraL His position and exercise of authority had 
almost always made him beloved, for his authority was 
but the administration of paternal government, and 
had gained for him the veneration of all his people by 
the practice of public and private virtues ; his body, 
carefully embalmed, was sewn up in dififerent skins, 
laid in a pinewood cofl&n, and placed in a royal niche 
in a cavern high up among the mountains ; in his hands 
were placed the femur, the emblem of royalty, and an 
amphora of milk. 

The Gruanches held the dead of every rank in equal 

o 2 



196 THE G U ANC MES. 

respect, but only the chiefs and those belonging to the 
highest class were embalmed; the common people were 
wrapped in their cloaks and laid in caverns, where their 
whitened bones may still be seen. 

Each island possessed an official body of men, a kind of 
caste — ^that of the embalmers ; they also practised the art 
of enveloping the corpse in bandages, and making the 
xaao^ or mummies, just like those of ancient Egypt. This 
corporation was highly esteemed, while those who prepared 
the body for embalmment were looked on with aversion, 
and were criminals leading an isolated life. The corpse, 
having been disembowelled, was first of all washed twice 
a day in salt water ; the mouth, ears, and nostrils were 
hermetically closed ; then the more delicate parts were 
anointed with butter, aromatic herbs, and ciimamon; 
after which the whole body was sprinkled with resin, 
powdered pine bark, poimded pumice-stone, and various 
astringent and desiccating substances. 

During a fortnight's exposure of the corpse in the sun 
the relations of the dead sang his praises. When it was 
quite dry and light it was wrapped in goatskins or sheep- 
skins, more or less carefully prepared according to the 
rank of the defunct, and a mark was made on the body, 
in order that it might be identified at a future time. 
This operation concluded, the mmnmy was laid in a 
sepulchral cave, set apart for the purpose, and nearly 
always very difficult of access; the bodies which were 
placed in the sepulchres were set upright against the 
walls of the cave, while the mummies were laid down fiat 
on benches, side by side, with their heads to the north. 



EMBALMING, 197 



These benches were made of excessively hard, imperishable 
wood, the wood of the juniper-tree or rrwcan. 

How was the embalming done ? Only some incomplete 
formulas have come down to us ; firstly, because the art 
of embalming was a sacred office, not to be confided to 
the profane ; secondly, according to Sprat, because after 
the Conquest the Spaniards destroyed the priests and 
embalmers, in order to decapitate, as it were, Gruanche 
society and to prevent the heads of religion from exer- 
cising any influence over those Guanches who had fled 
to the mountains. So that sources of information on the 
subject are wanting. However, we know for a fact that 
the embalmers used butter mixed with grease made for 
the purpose ; they boiled this with certain plants, especially 
a kind of lavender which was very abundant ; they also 
used a herb called lara, which yielded a gununy, glutinous 
substance, cyclamen, and sage. These unguents served, 
after the body had been washed as we described, to 
anoint the flesh, which gradually disappeared from the 
action of the sun ; the anointing was repeated imtil 
the body became extremely light, which was a certain 
sign of the successful termination of the operation. 
Nothing now remained to do, except to wrap the body 
in skins and bandages; the skins had the hair taken 
ofiF. 

As for the poor, their heads were separated from the 
body and not dried ; the skins in which they were 
wrapped retained the hair, and they were not bandaged. 

According to Scory the Gruanches had a sort of 
mourning, which lasted while the mummy was being 



içS THE G U ANCHES, 

prepared, and ceased as soon as it was deposited in the 
sepulchre. 

Purchas says that he saw two of these mummies in 
London in the year 1700 ; he says that they were more 
than a thousand years old, but does not inform us how he 
knew this. 

All the chroniclers contemporary with the Conquest 
assert that the time the mummies lasted was incalculable* 

Sprat, an English traveller, tells us that in 1650 he 
visited a sepulchral cave where there were more than 
300 bodies in a state of perfect preservation. 

Edens, an EngUsh physician, who visited the island in 
1652, obtained from some Gruanches who still survived 
permission to visit the cave of Guiamar; he owed this 
permission, he says, to his being a physician. He found 
nearly 400 bodies perfectly preserved; hair, beard, and 
eyebrows were all perfect. The next year, while out 
shooting with two Englishmen, one of them found an 
entrance to another cave behind some bushes ; he 
entered and was lost in astonishment. He was so terrified 
that his voice trembled even the next day. He declared 
that the skin of these bodies was as soft as a kid glove. 
Sprat asserts that the nerves, tendons, veins, and arteries 
looked like small cords. 

A hundred years later Beckman and some English 
travellers went into a cave containing more than 300 
bodies which had escaped destruction. They mention the 
perfect condition of the mummies, and say that the skin 
had become as dry as parchment. Charles Middleton, in 
his * Grreat Dictionary of Voyages,' published in 1778^ 



MUMMIES. . 199 



gave a drawing of a cave at Gruiamar, in which hardly 
any mummies remained. 

Since the year 1660 mummies have been sought for in 
vain, except once or twice. In the eighteenth century 
only a few Gruanches survived, who, in consequence of the 
frequent intermarriages with other people, were by no 
means of the pure race ; they were ignorant of the 
Gruanche burial-places : a few years later it was impossi- 
ble to find one. If any still exist in some forgotten cave, 
they may, perhaps, one day be discovered* According to 
tradition the Gruanches affirmed that there were more 
than twenty sacred caves in Tenerifie alone, and as many 
in Gran Ganaria, but that they did not know where they 
were, the priests and embalmers, who were the only ones 
in the secret, being dead. 

In Gran Ganaria the mummied did not last so well as 
in Tenerifie, on accoimt of the nature of the soil. Â 
number of very strong earthenware vases, shaped like 
those of Egypt, were found in the caves. 

We possess also some very important modem testimonyi 
M. Boryde Saint-Vincent, in 1802, had a perfect mummy 
which he used in his studies, and which he gave back to 
the person who had lent it him ; this mmnmy passed 
from the hands of Brossonnet into England, and is now, 
perhaps, in some private collection, and probably taken 
for an Egyptian mummy, for we have never heard of a 
Guanche mummy in any English public collection. In 
1827 M. Berthelot ofiFered a considerable reward among 
the shepherds in order to procure a specimen. He was 
but partially successful, for the mummy he obtained waft 



200 THE GUANCHES. 

not perfect, and indeed had escaped destruction only on 
that account. This mummy passed from hand to hand, 
and M. Berthelot saw it again twenty years afterwards 
in a museum at Greneva, where it was looked on as one 
of the greatest curiosities in the collection. We may 
add that M. Berthelot has seen a sepulchral cave 
where the bodies and mummies were merely placed on 
logs. 

It is an undoubted fact tliat, after the Conquest, the 
Guanches concealed the sepulchral caves ; but the con- 
querors, who had all heard, about the year 1500, of the 
gold and silver mines of America, examined all the moun- 
tains and discovered these caverns. Out of mere spite, 
furious at not finding gold, they destroyed everything. 
Thus, not content with having sold the Gruanches into 
slavery and slaughtered them during a hundred years of 
warfare, the Spaniards destroyed their dead bodies and 
violated their sepulchres as well. 

In Grran Ganaria and Lanzarote tumuli have been 
found belonging to primitive races anterior to all civili- 
sation. The bodies were buried under stones in the form 
of circular pyramids. The art of embalming mummies * 
was posterior to these. 

The custom of embalming the bodies of sovereigns may 
be accounted for by the prestige of authority and the 
respect it inspired ; but when respect for the memory of 
the dead is general among a people, it is a sure indication 
of an elevated morality ; this piety, whilst giving birth to 
the art of embalming, indicates throughout the nation a 
deep feeling of tenderness and veneration, which is only 



GOVERNMENT. sot 



met with among races capable of strong affections, noble 
ideas, and profoimd morality. 

The Gruanches, then, were under a monarchical govern- 
ment similar to that of France mider Saint Louis, sup- 
posing the States General and Provincial to have been in 
permanent session. This monarchy was supported by the 
great vassals, who reigned over districts of their own. 
There was a body of priestesses, or vestals, and priests, 
forming a sacerdotal family ; a natural religion, a nobility, 
a pastoral people. Nobility, clergy, and kings, all de- 
rived their authority either from hereditary succession or 
from their merit. There was an organised system of 
justice ; laws were handed down by tradition ; the chief 
administered justice publicly. The civil government was 
in the hands of the nobiUty ; the army consisted of all the 
able-bodied citizens. Public instruction was limited to 
the inculcation of moral principles. Land was distributed 
by the chiefs according to a capitation law; men and 
women all had their parts allotted to them. It was, as 
may be easily seen, a regularly constituted society, a true 
type of primitive societies anterior to slavery, which did 
not appear until after the Stone Age, at least as a recognised 
institution; it was the Keltic government, the govern- 
ment of the Caucasian races anterior to the Noachian 
deluge. 

What was the origin of these people ? It is a purely 
ethnographical question, insoluble if one seeks for 
irrefutable proofs based upon incontrovertible facts. 
Such fÎEUîts certainly do not exist, but traces, indications, 
traditions, coincidences, evidences, are numberless, and 



202 THE GUANCHES, 

afibrd a quasi certainty. We have from time to time 
pointed out similarities between the customs of the Guan- 
ches and the Egyptians; these similarities may be ex- 
plained by Egyptian traditions preserved by the Grreekst 
The purest philosopher of antiquity, Plato, who was called 
The Divine, speaks at great length and in two difiFerent 
works of Atlantis and the Atlantes. An extract from it is 
indispensable. 

In the ' Timaeus' Plato relates that during his childhood 
his grandfather Critias, who was then living (old age is 
garrulous), told him : 

' Solon was my master. Now Solon had travelled and 
resided in Egypt, whence he brought back philosophical 
and political information which he taught the Greeks^ 
He learned science from the priests of Sais, a town in the 
Delta, where one of the priests, who was learned in the 
science of history, said to him : " Solon 1 Solon I you 
Greeks are as yet but children, and know not the history 
of Egypt. But we preserve in our sacred books a written 
history of more than nine thousand years I You only 
know of one deluge, but it was preceded by many others ; 
Athens, which you believe to be new, is very ancient, and 
I will tell you how your Greece preserved to us Egyptians 
our liberty by resisting the enormous forces which came 
from the shores of the sea of Atlantis. This sea at that 
time surrounded an island not far from the Pillars of 
Hercules, and larger than Asia and Libya put together ; 
between it and the continent were some smaller islands ; 
this gigantic country was called Atlantis. It was peopled 
and prosperous, governed by powerful kings^ who seized 



PLATO AND ATLANTIS, 203 

■ - - - — - - . ■- — 

the whole of Libya as far as Egypt, of Europe as far as 
the country of the Tyrrhenians ; they reduced all the 
nations on this side the Pillars of Hercules to slavery. The 
ancient Greeks then rose up, defeated them, and delivered 
Europe from slavery. 

* " But a still greater misfortune awaited the Atlantes ; 
for at that time, when there were eartliqudkea and 
vaundationSy the island was swallowed up. The inhabit- 
ants of the island, which was larger than Europe and Asia 
together, disappeared in a single night. This is why that 
sea is not navigable, on account of the shoals formed by 
the submerged land." ' 

In his ' Dialogues ' Plato says again : 

* Neptune had for his share Atlantis, which at his death 
he divided among his sons ; but Atlas, the eldest, had 
the largest share, on which account this celebrated king 
and astronomer gave his name to the country. Never 
was prince more wealthy ; his land abounded in riches, and 
people found there an adequate sustenance ; it was fertile, 
healthy, beautiful, marvellous; it was terminated by a 
range of mountains yielding gold.' 

A description of its treasures follows : 

* But states decay, nations become corrupt, and govern- 
ments also; the Atlantes grew impious and depraved. 
They angered the gods by their crimes. Jupiter called 
the other gods together to the celestial abodes which are 
situated in the centre of the universe, in order — ' 

The rest is lost, and has not come down to us. 
We may without hesitation conclude from this historical 
picture that the Atlantes were anterior to the Greeks and 



ao4 THE G U ANCHES. 

even to the Egyptians, and that they carried civilisation 
to the nations of Africa and Europe. The vestals, miun- 
mies, stone temple, the numerical system, the calendar, 
astronomy, division into tribes, their shoes, the way they 
dressed their hair, the priests' caps, some words of the 
language carried into Egypt and Grreece, consecrated 
stones, the circular temple, all these come from Atlantis, 
not from Caucasia. The Atlantes were masters of Libya, 
and there we still find the race, the language, the tribe, 
and the name, the banner or pennon, and the pastoral 
life. The Gruanches were therefore a branch detached or 
isolated, by some ^cataclysm, from a stem of which the 
Berbers are the. last representativeSé 

The reader will doubtless not have forgotten that we 
have already discovered names of tribes, rivers, mountains, 
districts, and even the very name of the Canary Islands 
(Kanar or Canarr), on the Barbary coast, now part of 
Morocco ; the Gruanche language was the ancient language 
of Barbary, the ancient language of Atlantis ; in the same 
way the Islands are nothing but a portion of the kingdom 
of Atlas. It is true that isolation so far impoverished the 
Guanche language as to make the native words differ in 
some degree from the Berber words, and caused those 
which designated things no longer seen to disappear — 
such as }iX)TBe and shvp^ for example. 

We have given the Gruanche names for various objects, 
and these names will suffice to give some idea of that 
sonorous language, in which the vowels and consonants 
were properly balanced ; it was also an easy language, 
and during the first century after the Conquest it was 



THE BERBER LANGUAGE. 205 

spoken by a great number of soldiers ; both Normans and 
Spaniards learned it very rapidly, especially the Normans; 
How ought we to classify it ? 

According to ethnography there are five great classes 
of languages ; in the third, called the African class, we 
find the language of Atlas, known as the Berber language, 
anterior to the language of the NUe (Egypt, Nubia, and 
Abyssinia). At the present day the Berber language, still 
a living one as it was in the heroic ages, is spoken within 
the African triangle, as it was nine thousand years ago, 
according to the priest of Sais. 

The Arab and the negro have invaded the Berber terri- 
tory, but they continue isolated foreigners. In Morocco, 
Algiers, and Tunis, the Berbers are divided into numerous 
tribes, whose customs resemble those of the aboriginal 
Atlantes ; this race has many branches, and in these 
branches the language has undergone important altera- 
tions, while at the same time preserving its Berber cha- 
racter, among the Kabyles in Algiers, the Tibbous and 
Touaregs in the Sahara, and the Amazighis in Morocco. 
The Berber is distinguished from the Arab by having a 
fixed habitation. If the Gruanches were troglodytes, they 
became so from local exigencies ; they were never nomadic 
any more than the Berbers. 

The Gruanche race is beyond dispute a white race ; their 
name proves it, for both in the Keltic and Gruanche 
languages gwuem, or guam, means white. The skin is 
neither brown nor yellow ; the type is perfectly white, and 
the Caucasian race itself is not finer. Indeed, with the 
exception of a somewhat more marked development of 



* • 



7o6 THE G U ANC H ES. 

thè jawbone, it would be difficult to trace any anatomical 
distinction. The facial angle is that of the most highly 
favoured white race, the skull is just as well developed, 
the hair is straight, the eye well placed, the mouth ex- 
pressive ; the stature tall, the face oval, the skin white 
inclining to brown, the hair black. In the technical 
language used in our day to describe races the Gruanche 
race, a white Indo-European race, should, in our opinion, 
be thus described : Facial angle between 80** and 90°; sub- 
division, Indo^Kdtic. Or the Gruanches may be put down 
as exclusively of Keltic origin. 

The early Spanish conquerors were dishonest in de- 
scribing the Gruanches as an African race, yellow, brown, 
or black ; they wanted an excuse for slavery, and the 
colour of the skin was a grand excuse. Happily for truth 
and for history contrary testimony abounds, and the race 
has been preserved down to our own days. We have seen 
in Grran Canaria several heads which were Gruanche in 
shape and appearance ; between Grarachico and the Beal- 
ejos we were shown a descendant of a mencey of TeneriflFe, 
whose head was exactly that given by Messrs. Webb and 
Berthelot ; energy, grace, and intelligence were, it seemed 
to us, its characteristics. The types studied by Messrs. 
Berthelot and Webb cleared up the matter long ago in 
the eyes of scientific men. Besides, not all the chroniclers 
were dishonest ; several mention the whiteness of the race. 
If men have no right to put forward colour as an excuse 
for slavery, still less have they a right to invoke the 
inferiority of a race which is really not inferior. 

Was this Berber or Atlantid race autocthonous, bonj 



GEOLOGICAL FORMATION. 207 

on the Atlantid or Libyan soil? Can we assert the 
existence of Atlantis and describe its geographical 
position? These two questions are closely connected, 
and are too important for us to decide. For 2,000 years 
they have occupied philosophers ; in ancient times they 
aflforded matter for those discussions of which the Greeks 
and Egyptians were so fond, and with which the echoes 
of the Academy resounded. All the ancients believed in 
the country of Atlantis, a belief still retained in the 
East. Thus from Homer, the father of poetry, down to 
Bory de Saint-Vincent, the Canary Isles have been to the 
whole world the remaining fragments of the ancient 
continent of Atlantis, and the Guanches the direct and 
purest descendants of that race of Atlantes who civilised 
Africa and Europe 9,000 years before the Christian era. 
Within the last 100 years doubts have arisen on the 
gubject. ' 

The modem science of geology has thrown a new light 
on these obscure questions. If it bè true that the 
primary strata were more fitted than those that followed 
to receive man, which is reasonable, Brittany, Wales, and 
the submerged land which formerly united them must 
have been the cradle of mankind, of the white race. 
It was on these granitic rocks, the most ancient in the 
world, that that Keltic race of Cymri and Gaels had birth 
which occupies the principal place in ancient tradition. 
Between the Bacchus of the Grauls, Bam, the civiKser of 
the East, and the various Brenns, or chiefs, who pillaged 
Greece and Eome and disappeared in the Scythian wilds, 
more than 7,000 years elapsed. During this interval the 



2o8 THE G U ANCHES. 



Kelts peopled or conquered new countries, in which there 
was not as yet the cohesion which allows of resistance. 
We find them to this day in Asia on the boundaries of 
Thibet with their cromlechs and menhirs, on the shores 
of the Bhine and the Danube, in Spain, Portugal, and 
Morocco. In our opinion, which we give with all reserve, 
Atlantis, a country of either primary or secondary 
formation, was peopled by them in the earliest ages of 
mankind, the Stone Age. When Caucasian civilisation 
gave birth to three invasions — Indian, European, and 
African — one Caucasian branch attacked Libya ; but this 
circumstance, posterior to the Noachian deluge, did but 
modify the race, for we cannot find among the Gruanches 
the customs, habits, religion, or politics of the Cau- 
casians ; on the contrary, everything indicates prior 
invincible civilisation, carried by them into Egypt and 
Asia Minor. This idea, this manner of interpreting 
Gruanche history, would thus agree with Plato's account, 
which we must allow carries great weight with it. 

Some have maintained that the Atlantis of the ancients 
was nothing more than America, which was then either 
joined to Africa or only separated from it by a narrow 
channel ; they have seen in the shape of South America a 
proof of this. If we carefully examine its shape and that 
of Africa, we shall find, say they, the most perfect 
identity ; the west coast of Africa is exactly similar to 
the coast of America ; South America is Africa reversed. 
Thus, according to these philosophers, Africa and America 
were once united, until a violent separation submerged 
that portion of the globe. It is indisputable that a 



THE AUTHORS OPINION, 909 

depression of the submaxine soil divides them; the sea 
has hollowed for itself an enormous and deep channeL 
This depression is a highly important consideration for 
the partisans of this theory. 

If we were now obliged to say what must have 
been the shape of Atlantis, if we were obliged to decide 
between- all the opinions put forth on the sul^ect, we 
should not hesitate to affirm that the continent of Africa 
advanced farther into the Atlantic Ocean than the Islands 
do now ; the shape of Africa appears to prove this. 

We do not believe that Africa was ever joined to South 
America, or only separated from it by a few islands ; but 
rather that Africa, whether in the form of a peninsula or 
of a prolongation of the continent, extended from the 
Straits of Gibraltar to the Azores, and from the Azores to 
the Bissagos, passing westward of Hierro, how far it is 
difficult to say. 

If we decide on the peninsula, we shall have, on a 
larger scale, an outline identical with that of the penin- 
sula of California. 

This is the hypothesis of Bory de Saint- Vincent. 

If, according to our own ideas, we adopt the theory of 
a continent going off into a peninsula, we should have to 
add to the actual very perceptible advance of the west 
coast of Africa, nine hundred miles to the west and an 
extension of Africa to the north for eight or nine hundred 
miles into the sea, starting from the Straits of Gibraltar. 
This hypothesis agrees better than any other with Plato's 
account ; we should thus get an outline similar to what 
that 4f Spain would be if the Biscayan coast extended as 

VOL. II. p 



2IO THE GUANCHES. 

far as opposite Bordeaux, at a distance of six hundred 
miles, and thence went off in a straight line to Portugal, 
Leon, and Asturias. 

It seems to us that this prolongation into the Atlantic 
becomes a necessity if we wish to find an explanation for 
all the traditions, fables, ancient geography, language, 
customs — in a word, everything we have enumerated. To 
this nothing can be objected but Plato's expression, 
'This sea surrounded an island^ &c. To this only 
apparent objection, we may reply that the heights of 
Atlantis formed islands after the cataclyam, and that this 
insular form had attracted attention, so that the priest of 
Sais had on this head confounded the actual and former 
condition of the country. This explanation is worth but 
little. Geology affords a better one. All primary 
countries which emerged in the first ages of the globe 
were islands. Continents are the result of time» 
Atlantis, formed by an upheaval of the Atlas Mountains, 
or by Neptunian action, might have been an island like 
the triangle formed by Britain, the Armorican coast, and 
Cape La Hogue, which repeated convulsions and deluges 
have changed into sea, islands, aud fragments of continent. 

Africa, prior to the great cataclysm which destroyed 
Atlantis, extended, in our opinion, more to the west, and 
comprehended the four oceanic groups or Archipelagoes 
as summits of the prolonged Atlas chain, which are now 
all that remains of the submerged country; just as 
Jersey, in the sixth century of our era, remained as a 
summit when it was detached from the coast of France ; 
just as Gruemsey, Aldemey, Sark, Jethou, Les Mainquiers, 
Les Ecrehos, and Chausey remained after the destruction. 



ATLANTID HISTORY. 211 

at successive periods, of a land which once connected 

England and France. The English Gaels speak the 

Breton language and the Bretons speak Gaelic, just as -^ 

the Canarians speak the Berber language and the 

Berbers speak the Ganarian. This, in our opinion, settles 

the question. 

Let us now give a general sketch of the history of the 
Atlantid race. Prehistoric Africa was inhabited by a 
powerful nation belonging to the Atlantid race. It 
dictated laws to Egypt; and its decadence began 
as soon as it had attained a degree of power sufficient 
to engender civilisation. This is an inevitable neces- 
sity. The Carthaginians were a branch of this race, 
who, having repudiated their primitive religion, lost their 
terror of Neptune, the terror of the sea, and, desirous of 
succeeding Tyre, adopted its god Melkart, the Tyrian 
Hercules, and Moloch or Saturn, imported with Astarte 
from Greece by Dido. The Carthaginians, a branch of 
the Atlantid race, found in the sea that sceptre which ^ 

neither art, manufacture, nor science could give them ; for 
this family, still powerful three or four thousand years 
ago, had made their last effort. Two princes, dukes or 
menceys, governed in Carthage as in Gran Caûaria ; three 
hundred nobles directed public affairs as in Canaria and 
Teneriflfe ; religion was under their management. Their 
marriage customs, worship of nature, wrestling matches, 
language, were all identical — not that absolute identity 
which will never be found anywhere, but that scientific 
identity which comes of analogies, and which suffices 
intelligent men when, through a lapse of time and space, 

r 2 



Jt> 



212 THE GUANCHES, 

they discern striking similarities which cannot be the> 
effect of chance. 

Carthage had its day, and succumbed to Bome. At- 
lantis was by this time only known historically. Two 
centuries elapsed, during which it contained only pastoral 
tribes. After a long struggle with the barbarians the 
most powerful tribes were subdued by the Vandals, 
Visigoths, and Alani. The Arabs and Turks succeeded 
them. In spite of the lapse of centuries and all thesQ 
vicissitudes the Berber race still exists, and occupies the 
same territory : France has conquered a strip ; Tunis 
reigns over what was Carthage ; Morocco occupies the 
coast ; while the Sahara is peopled by Berbers. 

Their language, as we said before, is identical with the 
Guanche language. Not that the Egyptians, Grreeks, 
Vandals, Visigoths, Arabs, and Moors have not in passing 
left their mark upon it. This must necessarily have 
been the case ; these signs of the passage of one people 
across the path of another corroborate history ; thus the 
Spanish gutturals will testify to the end of time to the 
presence of Arabs in the Peninsula. These Berbers have 
lost their salient angles, but the foundation is indestruct- 
ible. The .Guanches had worn out their language and 
lost their arts and manufactures, but the foundation 
remains ; and these two branches of one tree, compared 
together after nine thousand years, recognise each other 
as brothers springing from a common stock. 

Of these Guanches, so energetic and vigorous in the 
year 1500, only the memory and a few half-breeds 
remain. This race, once so powerful, is extinct in the 
Islands ; language, poetry, manners, customs, monuments, 



THE SLAVE TRADE. 213 

religion, all have perished, save a few fragments preserved 
in books. 

Who are to blame for this ? 

The soldier and the priest. 

The soldier was but the obedient tool of the priest, but 
although his share of responsibility is less, it ought not to 
be passed over. Bethencourt and his chaplains must be 
excepted. Their too short reign ended, the work of ex- 
termination, already begun, recommenced, and only stopped 
when it was complete. The Church had always recognised 
slavery from the first, and afterwards, instead of repu- 
diating, she sanctioned it. During the Middle Ages the 
Islands were depopulated, and kings and priests engaged 
in the slave trade ; the Order of Christ (a Portuguese 
order) had a tenth of the money obtained from the sale of 
Gruanches. A prince even, the chief of this Order, raised 
forces to engage in this white slave trade. The conquered 
Islands were soon depopulated. Then the clergy invented 
the negro slave trade. It originated in the fact that forty 
millions of Indiana bad perished in America under Spanish 
cruelty, and that a noble-minded man, Bartolomé de las 
Casas, seized with pity for these Indians, who were cut in 
pieces and their flesh given to the dogs and pigs, came to 
Madrid to implore the King to allow of the importation 
into America of African negroes. Then the clergy, un- 
disputed masters, ceased to trade in the white men, mo- 
nopolised everything, and became slothful. They absorbed 
all wealth and property ; four-fifths of the soil belonged 
to them, and they levied tithes on the rest ; they went to 
sleep and did nothing. The revolution awoke them. The 
storm over, they went to sleep again ; but in 18.^0 they 



214 THE GUANCHES. 

could no longer resist the march of progress ; they were 
compelled by superior force to abdicate. But the evil was 
done ; the Gruanches were exterminated, and only their 
memory remained. 

After the conquest of the Fortunate Islands, the priest 
and the soldier, if they had been more intelligent and 
more upright, might have preserved the race while at the 
same time enriching themselves. They should have pro- 
tected and helped tlie natives, civilised them, and taught 
them to work; the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, 
and Bomans had done so, and had derived considerable 
wealth from them. They should have allowed them the 
exercise of their religion, customs, and lavrs, and learnt 
from them, by means of their songs, music, and sacred 
traditions, the secret of their origin and their history. 

If the Gruanche traditions had been corroborated by the 
testimony of learned and truthful priests, we might have 
traced with greater certainty the history of this primitive 
race. Ignorant, inconsequent, and fanatical as they were, 
it is from the priests alone that we have received any 
information on the subject — not very trustworthy, it is 
true, but we are able to discover some truths even from 
the very contradictions we meet with. Bory de Saint- 
Vincent and Berthelot have by turns examined this chaotic 
heap, in which their successors may still find some useful 
hints with regard to the history, geography, and customs 
of the Guanches. 

An historian is needed for the African branch — the 
Touaregs and Amazighis. Only when their history is 
written shall we have a full and certain knowledge of the 
secret of Atlantis, which Africa has in her keeping. 



BAROMETRIC PRESSURE. 215 



Chapteb XI. 

GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

We have given in some former chapters the geography of 
each island of the archipelago in general, and shall now 
proceed to supplement those remarks by some meteoro- 
logical observations. 

Barometric pressure is not difficult of observation, and 
we may, without fear of mistakes, fix it at 29 in. Some 
observers, but on insufficient grounds, fix it at 28*217 in.; 
these variations are undoubtedly due to the too great 
elevation of the place of observation, the difference 
of time, or the imperfection of the instrument. For 
several years the universal practice of meteorology has 
obviated the first difficulty by multiplying observations 
at various heights, and improvements in the instruments 
have put a stop to the last ; and now the two kinds of 
barometers, aneroids and the mercurial, by checking each 
other, give such accurate figures as afford only fractional 
differences. 

It is a remarkable fact that, in the various archipelagoes 
off the west coast of Africa, the barometric pressure is 
almost absolutely uniform in the same place in all seasons 
with the exception of times of storm, levante or tempest, 
or rare atmospheric disturbances. Aneroid barometers. 



2i6 GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

not being subject to expansion by heat like the mercunal 
barometer, have greatly aided to prove this fact, as im- 
portant in a therapeutic point of view as it is to medical 
topography. The action of the wind and hygrométrie 
conditions have but a very trifling eflPect on the mercurial 
column ; these unimportant variations are not even cer- 
tain, and cannot be adduced to prove anything. In fact, 
the hygrometer and barometer may be influenced in 
directly opposite ways ; nevertheless a certain d^ree of 
dryness, especially at Santa Cruz, agrees pretty frequently 
with the height of the barometer. 

As regards temperature, we have given some statistics 
in the chapter on the climate of Teneriflfe,. and shall not 
return to the subject. We may remark that European 
invalids are kept in an artificial temperature, where the 
air must to some degree be vitiated, and that it would be 
better, especially in diseases of the respiratory organs, to 
live in a country where the variations of temperature 
never exceed 11°, and where the windows in hospitals 
and invalids' rooms can always be open, even in winter. 
The chief advantage resulting from this equability of 
temperature is that the invalid is able to take exercise in 
the open air, always purer and more invigorating than 
that of a room even with open windows. 

When in sight of Teneriflfe travellers sometimes remark 
that the island is surmounted by a foggy cloud. This 
phenomenon is nearly always seen by those approaching 
Madeira, which is frequently invisible. But there is no 
cause for alarm ; these clouds have no influence on the 
climate of either Teneriffe or Madeira ; it is but too seldom 



ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA. «17 

that they produce rain in winter or spring. In the towns 
and on the mountains, up to a height of 3,000 or 4,000 feet, 
the skj is generally perfectly clear while clouds are over- 
head. These white and almost transparent clouds allow 
the highest peaks to appear, and only cover the inter- 
mediate heights of the Sierras. 

Nearly all the mornings are clear and the nights mag* 
nificent* The sea is then covered with dull white vapour, 
which seems perfectly stationary. After sunrise this 
vapour rises, the wind sends it towards the Islands, the 
mountains attract it, and it tempers the heat; in 
the evening rarefaction takes place, and at night all 
is clear. When the clouds are carried in a certain 
direction by certain winds, in a particular state of the 
atmosphere, the lunar rainbow may be seen ; the solar 
rainbow is more conunon, and often marvellously beau- 
tiful, especially at Madeira, where the atmosphere is 
not so dry. , 

If the clouds, at the approach of winter or spring, 
become opaque and dense, from being strongly condensed, 
and if the south-west wind blows, the clouds dilate, from 
the calorific influence of the wind, and come down in 
deluges of rain. These rains are the greatest blessing to 
the Islands ; they last but a short time, and only take 
place on not more than between forty-five and sixty-three 
days in the year ; in the intervals the streets and roads - 
are quite dry, and become passable inmiediately. 

These various atmospheric movements, under the 
influence of regular causes — trade-winds, mountains, sun, 
and sea — take place at fiixed hours and days, with such 



ai8 GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

perfect regularity that the weather may be predicted 
with almost unfailing accuracy. 

The islands nearest Africa — Lanzarote and Fuerteven- 
tura — are less cloudy, having no high peaks to attract the 
wandering vapours ; the sky there is clearer and the heat 
more intense. During the dry season, sunmier and winter, 
the western islands, although wooded and standing high, 
enjoy a series of cloudless days, when the mountains are 
so clear, and the atmosphere so transparent, that distant 
objects appear close at hand, so as almost to deceive one^ 
especially in the morning on the mountains. 

The amount of rain in the Islands is shown by the 
rain-gauge to be 30*021 in. ; according to some 28*107 in. 
The average would thus be about- 29 incties. Bain almost 
always comes with a south-west wind, less frequently with 
a west wind, with other winds hardly ever. Even when 
it comes down in torrents it is nine times out of ten 
confined to a small surface, and the sun shines while it 
is falling. 

Storms are rare ; hurricanes are still more rare, and 
have never produced the deplorable devastations to which 
the West Indian Islands are subject. Earthquakes are 
unconamon, and their oscillations, impossible to calculate 
from their insignificance, are merely movements of 
consensus appearing at long intervals. 

One of the principal causes of the mild climate of the 
Islands, and also of the easy accessibility of the Canarian 
seas, is that the ebb and flow of the sea are but little felt 
there. The ancients attributed the elevation and depres- 
iiion of the ocean to the wrath of the gods. The first 



TIDES. 219 

men whose history is preserved to us, inhabiting the shores 
of the land-locked Mediterranean, Bed, Caspian, and 
Black Seas, had a horror of the ocean, always agitated by*' ' 
celestial ire. But when the science of astronomy became 
generally known through the Egyptians and Chaldeans, 
the ancients soon ascribed the tides in the Persian Grulf 
to lunar influence. Aristotle and Pliny verify this. In 
mid-ocean — in the Atlantic for example — the tides are very 
low. Bomme calculated that they would not exceed three 
feet round islands which, by their shape and isolation, 
would not in any way interfere with the motion of the 
waves. It has been remarked that the strongest tides are 
found at the bottoms of gulfs, because the water flows 
there more rapidly and with accelerated force ; therefore 
at the Canaries, in the open sea and opposite a straight 
outline of coast, the tides would not rise higher than in 
the middle of the Atlantic, fifteen feet at the most at 
the spring tides. The average height of the tide in the 
Canary archipelago is from seven to nine feet. 

Ships coming from Europe and bound for the Cape of 
G-ood Hope generally stand out to sea and avoid Madeira, 
the Salvages, and the Canaries, passing to westward of 
them. Ships bound for the coast of Africa avoid the 
coast, and only approach it when opposite their destina- 
tion. Although far more favourable to navigation than 
it was 500 years ago, the African channel is still difiBcult 
to navigate, on account of the uncertain winds, varying 
between south-east and south-west. Formerly it was 
impossible to anchor there, according to Pliny, Ptolemy, 
and Callimachus ; the ancient country of Atlantis could 



330 GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

be seen in calm weather beneath the waves, but it had 
sunk considerably some centuries ago, and is still sinking 
by degrees. 

Ships bound for the Islands ought to go to the west* 
ward of Madeira and the Salvages, and then steer for the 
lighthouse on Point Anaga, which is newly built and of 
the first order. Navigators must take account of a 
deviation to the east, which will tend to carry them in the 
direction of Lanzarote. The trade-winds are favourable 
to sailing ships, and an always clear sky will allow of the 
necessary calculations being made between Madeira and 
the Canaries to enable them to avoid the* Pitons, the 
Grand Salvage, and such rocks as are dangerous in 
jiavigating by night. 

Ships bound to the southward from the Canaries 
are often overtaken by the island' calms. These calms 
result from the high moimtains obstructing the trader- 
winds ; they extend over a surface of from eight to ten 
leagues &om Teneriffe, fifteen' from G-omera, and a little 
more from Palma. When you are beyond these cahns 
the sea rises, and you encounter a heavy swell ; the line of 
calms may be distinctly traced. 

The beautiful skies in these latitudes will charm the 
traveller. The transparency of the atmosphere, the 
intense blue of the heavens, and the brilliance of the 
stars are beyond all comparison ; shooting stars are so 
constantly seen that the sky is perpetually streaked 
with them. 

In the Azores and the Cape Yerd Islands, especially 
Fogo, the surf is something terrible. It is very different 



THE GULF STREAM. 221 

in the Canaries ; there the surf never hinders navigation 
on the coast, unless it be during the levante, and even 
then the strong south wind, blowing with sustained equal 
force, never produces those liqmd waUs, many yards 
higher than the level of the sea, which crush ships or 
dash them on the rocks« The tornadoes of the China seas 
and the shoals in other seas are here unknown ; rough 
weather is unusual, in spite of the Grulf Stream — the 
Storm King I 

There is a stream in the midst of the ocean ; it never 
dries up, nor does it ever overflow its boundaries. Its 
shores and its bed are currents of cold water, between • 
which flow warm blue waters — the Gulf Stream. No- 
where else in the world is there such a majestic current i 
it is swifter than the Amazon, more impetuous than the 
Mississippi, and the whole body of these two streams does 
not represent the thousandth part of the volume of water 
it displaces. Maury, perhaps the greatest citizen of that 
America which amazes Europe and affords her the most 
majestic spectacles — ^Maury has traced a chart of this 
current, which plays such an important part in the 
economy of the Atlantic Ocean, and thanks to which 
England and Ireland are not buried in snow and ice, 
nor the western coasts of France exposed to a climate 
like that of fiussia. 

This current of warm water is due to the influence 
of the trade-winds ; these winds, whose movement is 
retarded by the resistance offered them by the waves, lose 
their force, and finally give an impulse to the waves. 
This current has its origin below the equator in the Gulf 



222 GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

of Mexico, and goes towards the West Indies from east to 
west ; having reached the shores of North America, at a 
mean velocity of two leagues an hour, it divides into two 
branches, one of which goes northward to warm Ireland 
and Norway, while the second, bending to the westward, 
goes below the Azores, touches Madeira, the Canaries, 
and the Cape Verd Islands, and returns to the equator. 
Setting aside the branch which goes towards the 
Frozen Ocean, and occupying ourselves only with that 
which bathes the islands of the Atlantic, we shall observe 
that it traces an enormous ellipse in the ocean, of which 
the two extremities extend to the Canaries and the West 
Indies ; this vast circuit includes the Sargasso Sea, that 
immense district covered with a kind of seaweed called 
fucus natavs, which Columbus designated as ' the prairie 
of the sea,' and which alarmed his crews throughout the 
whole of their voyage from Gromera to New Spain ; the 
imagination of Columbus was greatly struck by it. It 
takes three years for the waters of the stream to make 
the circuit of this district, which affords an asylum to a 
marvellous number of molluscs, Crustacea, and plants 
dead and alive. 

The current carries along with it everything that falls 
into it ; and to this cause we must attribute the happy 
chance which showed Columbus at Gromera strange plants, 
seeds, and tools, and even American corpses, which were 
to him so many clear signs of an inhabited world, 
which he had already guessed at from other indications. 
The trees especially were subjects of the greatest 
astonishment and speculation to him. The Mississippi 



THE LEVANTE. 223 



alone brings down every day millions of cubic yards of 
wood into the Grulf Stream, which carries them along 
with it on its course. It throws on the shores of Iceland 
wood enough to supply the wants of the population. 

This great current, the Storm King as it has been 
called, which ravages the West Indies, creates cyclones 
and hurricanes, stirs up the ocean, destroys towns, and 
sweeps bare the fields by means of the winds which it sets 
free or bears along— this current, tamed down, only brings 
blessings to the Canaries ; its warm waters are the cause 
of the evenness of temperature which make them so 
delightful. 

We must add a few words to what we said before about 
the levante^ which ought to be called by its desert name, 
harmattan. It blows twice or thrice a year, from three 
to seven days at a time. The. inhabitants of the 
mountains call it ' the wind from below ;' the townspeople, 
' the south wind ;' it is called levante along the African 
coast, sirocco in Italy and on the Mediterranean ; 
simoom in Arabia ; and harmattan in Senegal. It blows 
from the S.S.E. It blows but seldom, and almost 
always in winter, happily, for in summer it is intolerable. 
The^ thermometer goes up to 85°. It is said to have once 
stood at 90** — the temperature of a hot bath 1 The efifect 
on the nervous system is worse than the heat itself. The 
skin grows dry, a feeling of oppression is experienced, 
the furniture cracks, and the covers of books shrivel up, 
as if exposed to the heat of a fire. While this wind lasts 
one suffers from headache, inertia, loss of appetite, and 
some persons in weak health are apt to faint ; those in 



224 GENERAL SCIEN7JFIC OBSERVATIONS, 

good health are only inconvenienced by the suffocatiiig 
heat. The only remedy is to shut oneself up hermetically. 
The levante is followed by rain. 

In these Islands there is an alternate prevalence of 
land and sea winds, notwithstanding the general sameness 
of direction of the wind out at sea, beyond the influence 
of the capes, gulfs, and Cordilleras ; these local winds 
succeed each other at regular hours, and greatly contri- 
bute to the evenness of the temperature, the softness of 
the air, and the public health. In the daytime, under 
the influence of the sun, the wind comes from the sea, 
refreshes the atmosphere, and keeps up a moderate 
warmth ; between four and five the wind rises and blows 
from the land, carrying oS to the sea the emanations 
from heated surfaces and the miasmas from the towns. 
In winter these winds are less regular than in summer. 
In short, throughout the year the Islands (with the 
exception of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, which are 
more African than the other five) enjoy a most delicious 
climate; the trees never lose their leaves, nor the vege- 
tation its vigour and verdure, nor the flowers their 
perfume. 

* The climate which contributes the most to the growth 
and perfection of everything is that where no one thing 
predominates, where all are in perfect equilibrirmi.' This 
condition of the excellence of a country, pointed out by 
the ancients, is confirmed by modem experience. It is 
also one of the causes of the excellence of the flora. Too 
great a division of vegetable and animal species into 
genera and families produces a kind of monotony ; vege- 



SPECIES AND GENERA. 225 

tation presents a far more varied aspect when a large 
number of genera are represented only by one or two 
varieties ; the abundant vegetation then affords the eye a 
contrast of forms and colours such as could never be 
produced by a great number of congenerous species. The 
proportion between species and genera is therefore very 
important, in considering the vegetation of a country. 
We may form an idea of the characters of different flora j 
by the comparison of their numerical quantities ; thus, 
while in France, for instance, the number of species in 
each genus averages seven and a third, in the Islands it 
only averages one and a half. It is true we must not 
push this too far, for in districts which are undergoing an 
epoch of transition, the number of legumiTiosœ, a^udferœ, 
and œmpoaitœ in the Canaries cannot serve as a guide in 
calculating the number of glumaceous plants, and vice 
versa. These families compose in the temperate zones 
more than a fourth part of the phsenogamous plants, 
while they only constitute a tenth in the Canaries. The 
isolated situation of the mountains surrounded by the 
sea, in some parts the influence of the African continent, 
arid, scorched, and bare of vegetation, the proximity of 
the tropics, the clouds which the mountains attract, 
the maritime atmosphere, and the burning winds of the 
desert, — all tend to place the Canarian flora under peculiar 
conditions, which suiting all families, allow only a few 
congeners to develppe, and do not even suit all of them. 
It often happens also, that congenerous species differ 
from each other, and that the same families are repre- 
sented by different genera, and to this fact we must 

VOL. II. Q 



226 GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

attribute that character of strangeness which the most 
familiar vegetation presents, under forms entirely un- 
expected and singular. The varieties which exist in the 
orography of the Islands, by multipljring the accidents of 
soil, aspect, and temperature, have multiplied contrasts 
without end, by diversifying phytology. From this fact 
result distinct floras and species confined to particular 
localities ; and the mass of plants in each island, although 
composed of species common to all parts of the Archi- 
pelago, never appear under identical conditions. 

It is a noteworthy fact that grafting was unknown 
among the Gruanches. The natural fruits produced by 
virgin trees were excellent, and even now are not improved 
by grafting. Many varieties have indeed been introduced 
in this way, but all those species peculiar to the Islands 
are so delicious that no gardener ever dreams of grafting 
a wild stock ; this fact, although now notorious, was 
unknown to those who formerly pretended that fruits in 
their natural state never possessed such flavour and aroma 
as they do now, and that cultivating and grafting alone 
could supply those qualities. This doctrine may be true 
as regards certain species imported into foreign countries, 
but does not apply to all indigenous species remaining in 
their native country. 

The aboriginal species found in the Canaries belong, 
for the most part, to the genera of the Mediterranean, but 
they are more vigorous, the ligneous part is always more 
developed, and the plant often becomes arborescent : 
certain species assume other forms there ; and many 
are monotypes of genera, to which there are no others 



THE CANARIAN FLORA. ^27 

analogous, as the Visnea, Phyllis, Bosea, Flocama, Cana- 
rina, &c« Some plants assume a remarkable form and 
aspect, as the house-leek {semn/per vivum)^ bystropogon, 
echium, &c. 

Among the various plants which compose the Canarian 
flora, some assume an entirely African character ; for 
instance, the large euphorbia, palms, zygophyllaceae, 
aizoons, and kleinias: a few others sure essentially Ame- 
rican in form and character, as the laurels, ardisiers, boeh- 
meria, drusa, and several ferns. Thus, the Canarian flora, 
Mediterranean in its prevailing character, gives hints of 
an American character, partakes strongly of the African 
character, and seems to form a link between the temperate 
climates and the torrid climate of the tropics. These 
islands in the Atlantic form a bridge between the two 
worlds : from their proximity to the tropics, their climate is 
one of the most favourable to vegetation ; it partakes at 
once of the fierce vigour of the torrid zone, and the mild 
warmth of the temperate zone, while at the same time in 
the high lands it possesses the quiet vegetation of Alpine 
regions. The sun combines with the sea and the moat 
active principles of the composition of soil to produce a 
magnificent vegetation ; the volcanoes, which might be 
supposed to produce sterility, have, on the contrary, de- 
veloped new conditions of productive activity : finally, the 
ambient air, favourable to all cultivation, has allowed the 
plants of both hemispheres to become naturalised there. 
The Archipelago has therefore a strong claim to the title 
it bears, and always will bear — The botanical region. 

On his first arrival . in the Canaries, the traveller ii 

Q 2 



228 GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

informed with a certain pride, that noxious animals do not 
exist there. This is not to be wondered at: in such 
small islands, man could not have survived without de- 
stropng the noxious animals, if there were any ; it was 
easy to do so, for there is no refuge for them, and once 
destroyed, they cannot return. All islands possess this 
advantage. We may however mention the doubtful 
existence of a few vipers. 

Among carnivorous animals, we find the dog and the 
cat ; among rodents, the rat and the rabbit ; among 
pachydermata, the pig and the horse ; among ruminants, 
the goat, the sheep, the ox, the camel, and the drome- 
daiy ; among cheiroptera, the bat, the pipistrel, and bar- 
bastrel ; among annelides, the nephelis vtdgarisj and a 
peculiar kind of leech, which is used in medicine, when 
Spanish leeches cannot be procured. All animals 
imported from Europe are domesticated in the Islands ; 
we need, therefore, say nothing on that head. Animal 
species develope admirably in the Islands under certain 
conditions ; but as their domestication is not carried on 
in general in suitable localities, nor with the intelligent 
care of northern races, their development is less than 
in Europe, and the races are inclined to dwindle and 
die out. 

Ornithology is poor. The scantiness of catalogue is 
such that it has been made a matter of reproach to M« 
Berthelot, who has lived for forty years in the Islands, 
has devoted himself for a long while to the study of 
ornithology, and can affirm that not a single stationary 
species has escaped his observation. No doubt we might 



CANARIAN BIRDS. 229 

add to this catalogue the names of a few occasional birds 
of passage, very few when compared with the habitual 
birds of passage, and nothing to the stationary species* 

This ornithological penury of the Canary Islands is 
owing, in the first place, to the proximity of the African 
desert, and the relative sterility of the islands off the 
African coast; secondly, to their distance from other 
countries ; and the drought in summer is sometimes such 
as to wither the plants on. which some birds live* 

Canarian ornithology possesses, however, five new 
species, at least they are considered so, and of these five 
species two at most find suitable food in the Islands : the 
eoVwmha laurivara^ which lives in the laurel and mocan 
groves, and the frmgiUa teydeoy which lives in the ele- 
vated regions covered with aparto cytisua nuhigenua, of 
which it eats the seeds: the other three species are 
proceUaria colurribinaj fringiUa canaria, and frvagiUa 
tirUiUou. 

We cannot pass over the canary, whose song Bory de 
Saint-Vincent compares (most erroneously in our opinion), 
to the nightingale's. Monte Clara, a small uninhabited 
island, near Lanzarote, formerly possessed the most me- 
lodious canaries. The chief merits of this bird in our 
opinion are, that it is very easily domesticated, will live 
in any cUmate, and has an extraordinary memory for 
sounds. It is a mistake to suppose that wild canaries are 
as yellow as those bred in Europe ; the hen is often quite 
brown, and the cock covered with green and brown fea* 
thers alternately, the effect of which over dull yellow is 
not remarkably pretty. 



230" GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

Mr. Anderson, the naturalist of Cook^s Expedition, says, 
that he saw parrots in the Canary Islands ; they were 
most probably in cages. 

Lizards abound in the Islands, especially the grey 
lizard ; their rapidity of motion is astonishing, and some 
varieties have some interesting peculiarities of skin. The 
green frog and tree frog are not common, and you never 
hear in the Islands the disagreeable croaking of frogs in 
marshes and ditches. 

We have had no opportunity of seeing any specimens 
of the fish of the Canarian seas, and have been obliged 
to content ourselves with drawings. After discussing 
ichthyology with the learned M. Berthelot, who has the 
love for fish of an ardent fisherman, we have come to the 
conclusion that the insular ichthyology is most important 
as regards the deep sea fisheries ; the abundance of fish is 
such that the fishing fleet might be doubled without per- 
ceptibly diminishing it. The channel which separates 
the Islands from Africa is frequented by numerous migra- 
tory fish. 

The most remarkable characteristic of Canarian ichthy- 
ology is that, like the flora, and even in a greater degree, 
it appears to resemble more the marine population of the 
east coasts of America than those of the Mediterranean 
or African coasts. We leave this fact for wiser heads to 
interpret. If it concerned only migratory fish, we could 
understand it: but it concerns sedentary fish; for 
instance, the American priacanthes, beryx, pimdeptera ; 
large carongues and scombera are found in the Canarian 
seas, and the similarity of several species is most 



CONCHOLOGY. 231 



remarkable. The pimdepterua vndaor is, above all, 
remarkable, for the identity is complete. 

It is from Canarian ichthyology that we have learnt 
the homes or countries of certain species, the beryx 
decadactylvsj for example, and it is to M. Berthelot that 
we owe the discovery. 

Canarian conchology does not oflfer many varieties : it 
is not distinguished by anything interesting or remark- 
able. We must however add, that this branch of natural 
science has been but little studied, and for this reason : 
the tides are low, and. as the ebb is therefore low also, the 
explorer doe-s not nnd a sufficient extent of coast laid 
bare ; besides this, the rocks do not emerge much, and as 
the outermost buttresses of the Islands rise perpendicu- 
larly from the sea, the sea is exceedingly deep close to 
land, so that the field of investigation is extremely 
limited. 

We think it unnecessary to enter on the subject of 
mineralogy, because it is unimportant in comparison with 
geology, of which it is but a branch. When we think 
that from the very earliest times Atlantis has played an 
important part in the history of mankind ; when we think 
of all the great men who have successively studied this 
question — ^we can easily understand that it is not worth 
while to speak of the minerals in the Islands, when an 
examination of the distribution of the rocks of which this 
part of the globe is composed, and the share they have 
bad in the formation of its various strata, may serve as a- 
basis on which to foimd an opinion on the period of the 
formation of the '. country of Atlantis, and may perhaps 



132 GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

clear up one side of the question which still divides the 
scientific world. 

The foundation of the country was the first formed 
solid body ; granite, which consista chiefly of quartz and 
mica, blended together by felspar. Next to granite come 
schist (or slate), chalk, and clay ; all these belong to the 
primary formation. Land appeared at the earliest period 
between Wales and Finisterre, forming British and 
French Armorica ; the upheaval of the primary system 
brought into sight Mayenne, the Limousin, the Asturian 
mountains, the Pyrenees, part of Portugal, the Atlas 
chain, and the Atlantic islands. Let it be granted that 
the Atlas mountains and Atlantis, whether continent or 
islands, did not emerge before the Devonian period. This 
is doubtful. We believe that they belonged to the 
primary formation, or the period of transition^ for we 
have found such rocks in the Islands, which have been 
scientifically examined, and do not admit of a doubt. 

These portions of the land being formed, they 
gradually cooled on the surface and parts adjoining, and 
through this successive cooling they became crystallised 
and solidified. A crust once made, the outer shell, 
by virtue of the law which decrees that all bodies passing 
from a liquid to a solid state shall diminish in bulk, 
became larger than was necessary ; it then formed on the 
solid envelope of the globe wrinkles, elevations, and 
depressions. Such is the origin of most mountain chains 
and valleys. Then the solid crust of the globe, being 
thus wrinkled and in folds, possessed less power of 
resistance at certain points, and at those points the liquid 



=E:^^ffÇ!^^ 



VOLCANOES, 233 



mass of internal fire burst forth, and through these 
orifices the first volcanoes made their way. These 
volcanoes threw out on the rocks which surrounded them 
liquid substances at a high temperature ; these in cooling 
became in their turn solidified, and thus volcanic 
mountains were formed. Such was the origin of the 
country of Atlantis, a country of primary or secondary 
formation, or else transitional. 

Afterwards strata of a later formation, sedimentary and 
eruptive, were superimposed; but, by reason of eruptions 
of lava^ trachyte, basalt, and granite ejected by latei^ 
volcanoes, these strata were broken and twisted, and 
formed a kind of chaos about which geologists differ in 
opinion* The submerged land which was the foundation 
of the Islands having disappeared from the effect of a 
deluge important enough to cover half Africa, as may 
be easily proved in the Sahara, it is difficult to decide 
the question; but this fragmentary character may be 
explained by the volcanic nature of the country and the 
torrents of basalt and lava* In that case, Atlantis, a 
country of primary formation, becomes a legitimate 
object of belief* On the other hand, forces like those 
which have hollowed out such abysses as those of the 
Caldera in Palma, las Canadas in Teneriffe, and Freiras 
in Madeira^ must have been stupendous, and capable of 
producing vast extents of country; but when we find 
calcareous and sedimentary rocks upheaved by this plu-» 
tonic action, they are certain indications of a formation 
anterior to that same action, and these facts sanction and 
even necessitate the existence of Atlantis* 



234 GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

Volcanic mountains in the earliest ages were of the 
most varied fonns, while the later ones are always conicaL 
The Island volcanoes are all of the latter kind ; we can 
discern the conical form in all of them. They are, no 
doubt, posterior to the formation which serves as their 
foundation. 

It would be rash to attempt to fix the date of the 
deluge which destroyed Atlantis, but it must have been 
prior to the Nbachian deluge. 

Travellers are astonished at the depth of the barranoos 
or fissures in the rocks, and at the force of some of the 
torrents ; one in Palma, for example, has made a passage 
through a mountain of granitic basalt, forming a ravine 
nearly seven hundred feet deep. It is surprising that 
no one has discovered the identity of these barrancoa with . 
those of the Atlas mountains, and in some points with 
those of the Spanish and Mexican mountain chains. 
People have persisted in attributing them exclusively to 
the action of the water, and have taken the trouble to 
calculate the time it must have taken to hollow them 
out. In Madeira, a stream which has a volume of sixty 
or seventy gallons a minute, runs through a ravine 1,400 or 
1,500 feet deep, and it has been calculated that it must 
have taken 21,000 years to produce it. We do not under- 
stand the basis of this calculation; it has never been 
made public, but is a simple assertion without any proof. 
It is by no means necessary to account by such very 
dubious calculations for the formation of these gorges.* 
There is no reason why they should not be ascribed to 
earthquakes, or to the effect of the coolii)g of the basaltic. 



BARRANCOS, «35 



strata. Bory de Saint- Vincent and Guilbert were of this 
opinion, and their opinion carries great weight. Besides, 
the action of the torrents might have begun at a depth 
of five hundred feet, fiiur above the bottom of the actual 
gorge ; how can you prove the contrary ? 

It has been maintained that these torrents were more 
important formerly ; no doubt they were, but the differ- 
ence could not have been very great, for these gorges are 
so narrow at a great depth that the torrents could never 
have carried much more water to the sea than they do at 
present. 

This question of harrancos is one of those phenomena 
which people will persist in thinking inexplicable. And 
yet nothing can be more simple ; those geologists who 
will not admit the cooling of strata to be a sufficient cause 
for these fissures will, we hope, accept a theory evolved 
from their own maxims : that the Island harranœa may 
have been formed by the action of elastic fluids which 
formed the Islands, and, as they say, moved the strata 
which composed them from a horizontal to a slanting, and 
often vertical position. In one of Dr. Daubeny's works 
we read: ^If we suppose a solid non-elastic stratum 
rising suddenly, it will result that the action of fluids 
will form there crater-shaped openings, causing a number 
of fissures similar to harraficosJ All this is admissible ; 
and the action of water not being so probable, why should 
we invoke it exclusively ? 

It ha£ also- been maintained that these barranœa were 
craters which have been extinct for thousands of centuries. 
We think thia would be difficult to prove from the ex-c 



236 GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

amination of those in the Canaries, which are in no re« 
spect similarto the extinct craters or to those still in action, 
even when, as in the Caldera in Palma, the wall of the 
crater has been broken through bjK the action of spring 
or rain water. The volcanoes still in action, instead of ap- 
pearing likely to form barranooSy assume, while diminish- 
ing in intensity, a course exactly similar to that of the 
changes in the great chain of the Andes ; the formation of 
nuyrUanetas of eruption, cones of scoriœ with or without ori- 
fices, and eruptions of mud. This is the case in Madeira 
and in the Cape Verde Islands, as well as in Teneriffe. 

It is more than probable that, before finally becoming 
extinct, the immense circle of the Canadas which contains 
the cones of Teyde, Chahorra, and Montanablanca, wUl 
again be in eruption. It may some day be possible to 
calculate the time of volcanic eruptions, and even now we 
may venture to affirm that these volcanoes will soon 
become extinct, and that the Cape Verde Islands will have 
for some time the monopoly of Atlantic eruptions. It 
remains to be seen whether this period of repose will not 
prepare the way for a period of fresh upheavals and con- 
. vulsions, in connection with each other, and whether the 
numerous fractures produced in that case on the weaker 
parts of the earth's crust, will not entail the formation of 
fresh mountain chains, and the sinking of portions of the 
land, thus changing the distribution of land and sea» 

On the top of the Canadas, within the old crater, which 
is so large that it has but one rival in the world, that of 
the Mouna Boa in Hawaii, we find rocks similar to those 
generally found at the bottoms of craters. It has been 



THE PEAK OF TEYDE. 237 

asserted that the Peak of Teyde has accumulated these 
rocks by successive eruptions, but this explanation is not 
satis&ctory. These rocks, and even whole strata similar 
to those found at the base of volcanoes, are in the Peak of 
Teneriffe on the opposite slope to that on which volcanic 
matter has been thrown out, and we find no traces of lava 
near them. Some have thought, and we also think, that 
the crater of the Canadas has been re-opened several 
times, even before the upheaval of Teyde ; and in that case 
these rocks may be attributed to one of the early erup* 
tions which the present volcano has covered over either 
wholly or in part. The most probable explanation is that 
which has been put forward with regard to the Caldera in 
Palma and Freiras in Madeira — a &lling in of the prin- 
cipal crater* This phenomenon has been studied else- 
where, and we find that there are two kinds of craters — 

those which break out from fissures and those of elevation. 

• 

In either case it is easy to understand that the soil which 
now forms the circle of the Canadas and has stopped up 
the orifice of the great primitive volcano has been re- 
opened, and that by means of this orifice a new volcano 
has forced its way through the old one. It is to this that 
the Peak of Teyde owes its singularity. An immense 
crater, that of las Canadas, having fallen in, a fresh volcano, 
the Peak of Teyde, has risen up in its centre ; the base of 
this latter is the base of forty-two miles of circumference 
of the former crater. And thus the rocks found at the 
base of the Peak on the opposite side to that on which 
its ejections are thrown out belong, not to Teyde, but to 
the ancient crater. 



238 GENERAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS, 

The question of volcanoes is not, in our opinion, the 
most important: although highly interesting, it must 
give way to the question of formation, and this problem 
may be presented under different forms. Did Atlantis exist 
•before the time of the present volcanoes? Or was it 
formed at the same period ? Did it owe its existence, its 
appearance above the waves, first to primary formations, 
and next to later volcanic forces ? Geology appears to 
prove an affirmative : it admits that the African Atlas 
chain may have joined the Canarian Atlas; that vol- 
canoes and regular upheavals, similar to those which 
produced the Armorican triangle, the Scandinavian moun- 
tains, the Pyrenees, and the African Atlas chain, may 
also have formed the country of Atlantis. Then, as 
the volcanoes continued their work, the great diluvian 
cataclysms ensued, and submerged the land, so that only 
.the summits remained above the waters. This assertion 
is of course controvertible, for every assertion can and 
ought to be made a subject of discussion, but it appears 
so probable, and everything agrees so well in confirm- 
ing it, that we imagine few geological facts rest upon 
such sure foundations ; however, as our opinion ifi of 
little value (if indeed it possess any), it must be left to 
the men of science to decide the question, 

Greology is beyond dispute a modem science, which by 
its rapid development permits us to ascertain facts of 
which tradition had conveyed some idea to a few great 
minds of antiquity. To believe that Atlantis never existed 
as a great country would be not only to commit an act of 
impiety towards the great Plato, whom his contemporaries 



ORIGIN OF THE ISLANDS. 239 

called * the divine,' and to show contempt for the testi* 
mony of all antiquity, but it would also compel us to 
admit that the Azores, Madeiras, Canaries, and Gape 
Verde Islands, are the product of volcanoes relatively 
modem, within pre-historic limits ; and such an admission 
is inconsistent with their form, their geological constitu- 
tion, and the nature of their soil, rocks, and even vegeta- 
tion : in a word, with all the assertions of science, which 
can never consent to see in these islands formations by 
eruptive upheavals, like the islands of Santorini and 
Julia. 



240 CIVIL AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT. 



Chapter XII. 

CIVIL AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT, JURISDICTION, 
DIFFERENT GOVERNMENTS^ 

Thb Canary Islands were governed by the conqueror 
Béthencourt and his successor Maciot as kings of the 
Canaries and vassals of the Crown of Spain. The king- 
dom came to the end of its brief life under Maciot, and 
his successors were styled Governors of the Islands already 
conquered and of those which afterwards became so r 
although holding directly from the Crown, they enjoyed 
a certain independence. These privileges resulted from 
the self-government recognised in the Islands from the 
time of Bethencourt's reign. To this self-government 
was presently added a fresh element of separation, intro- 
duced by the Adelantados, who, in governing the Islands, 
rarely made the laws and ordinances identical with those 
of the mother-coxmtry. From this separating system 
resulted a marked degree of independence. And, finally, 
the royal decrees could only become law in the Canaries 
by the eflfect of the royal will, specially declared in the 
decree itself. 

At first, the four first conquered Islands were governed 
solely by the Norman laws introduced by Béthencourt, 



— ■ Wilf f ma bI 



MACIOTS SUCCESSORS. 2j^i 

but the governors who succeeded Maciot introduced 
changes and abuses, and before long a despotism far more 
oppressive to the inhabitants than if they had been 
governed directly by the mother-country. The governors, 
looking on the Canaries either as a conquered country or 
as a place of banishment, carried on frightful extortions, 
and lived in a state of calamitous indifference to the real 
wants of the country. The assimilation of the Archipelago 
to a Continental province, although long and greatly 
desired, was only carried out under Charles III. 
[1759-1788]. This assimilation would have remedied 
many evils, but it came too late ; for after Charles III.'s 
time the Spanish monarchy entered on a period of change 
and misfortune which has been perpetuajbed by wars and 
revolutions. The mother-coimtry neglected the Archi- 
pelago, and the good results which the Islanders had a 
right to expect from the assimilation were far from being 
realised. However, the state of th*e Islands during the 
last century was happier than that of the provinces and 
other colonies of Spain. Distance, and. the mildness of 
the insular character, tempered and diminished the evils. 
In order to put a stop to the individual despotism of 
the governors, civil and military, Charles III. decreed the 
union of the Islands with the Crown ; as ' a province of 
terra firma^ Captaincy-General, civil province of the third 
class, judicial district with law courts, a maritime province 
united with the department of Cadiz, and suffragan 
diocese of the Archbishopric of Seville.' Consequently, 
the province of the Canaries is ruled by a civil governor 
residing at Santa Cruz de Teneriffe, and a sub-governor 

VOL. II. » 



342 CIVIL AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT 

residing at Las Palmas, in Gran Canaria. They nominate 
the cUcaJdea [mayors], (the Crown reserving to itself the 
right of sanctioning their nomination), and superintend 
public education, the public works, police, civil govem- 
taent, taxes, provincial and municipal administration, the 
public health, hospitals, &c. In order to save appearances, 
since the monarchy became constitutional, twelve members, 
elected by a limited suffrage, form a Provincial Council, 
with very limited powers, to assist the civil governor; 
Teneriffe sends five members, Palma two, Lanzarote and 
Fuerteventura one each, and Gran Canaria three. 

Above these is a Council of State — the Council ; it is 
always composed of three members, two of whom are 
lawyers. If the power of the Provincial Council is limited, 
this has none whatever ; its members are listened to as a 
matter of form, but their advice is only taken when it 
happens to agree with the opinion of the governor. 

A police commissioner and his agents are under the 
control of the civil government. 

This system of government appears simple enough; 
but it is only worked by means of a general secretary, 
and heads of all the various departments, each of whom 
has under his orders more than enough clerks belonging 
to the departments of the province, the state, the taxes, 
the police, the roads, the public health, public order, &c 
In a word, it is a complete government, with as many 
ministers as if it were a separate kingdom. • 

The military government is more complicated : first of 
all, there is the Captain-General, who is the military head 
of the whole province, and governs by means of two 



THE ISLAND DEFENCES, 243 

lieutenants, one in TeneriflFe, the other in Gran Canaria. 
These lieutenants are generals of brigade, and are called 
eegtindo cabo. 

These oflScers command a detachment of two companies 
of artillery, intended solely for the defence of the Islands, 
and only consisting of 180 or 200 men at the most. 
These are all the Spanish troops in the Archipelago, but 
there is also an Island Militia, which we shall describe 
presently. The system of defence comprehends — a battery, 
with casemates armed with rifled cannon ; Fort San 
Felipe, also armed with rifled cannon ; the old castle, a 
mere absurdity from a military point of view ; a park of 
artillery in good order, and a few other insignificant 
defences. In the other six Islands there is nothing worth 
describing. This system of defence, small as it is 
(although in our opinion more than sufficient), serves as a 
pretext for the presence of a body of engineer officers, 
commanded by a general. The reader now knows the 
military positions and the number of the army-— two 
hundred men ; he shall now have a list of the officers who 
command it ; it is absurd and incredible, but it is true. 

The Captain-Greneral of the Islands is also a general 
of artillery, and as such has under his orders a general 
and a colonel in command of the park of artillery ; and 
besides these, an adjutant, a major, and other officials 
belonging to the fortress, just as if he were at Metz, 
Kronstadt^ or Gibraltar. 

The Captain-General has, as we have said, two lieu- 
tenants who are generals ; he has also a staff and aides- 
de-camp. Nor are these all. The clerks of these officers 

B 2 



244 CIVIL AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT. 

have their own offices ; and as some of the officers have 
work to do, real or imaginary, they have other clerks to 
do that work ; all these officials live in the Captain-Gene- 
ral's palace. 

Add to these a general of marines, a military judge, 
a paymaster, an artillery judge, a naval judge, three 
military surgeons, twenty military governors ; these, with 
fifteen staflF officers, make up the respectable total of fifty 
superior officers to 150 or 200 men, covered with gold 
lace at every seam. Spain pays them and gives them 
every imaginable Order ; they are proud, like all useless 
people, and finding themselves out of place and in a kind 
of exile, they look on the Islanders as barbarians, and 
sigh after their mother-country, where they might have 
the opportunity of intriguing for their promotion, for 
another cross, for a better appointment, or for being put 
on half-pay and keeping their appointment at the same 
time. 

People such as these require privileges, and they have 
them in abundance. Military men cannot be judged by 
civil tribxmals, even in civil causes. This anti-common- 
sense idea being admitted, a military judge has been 
appointed to judge these warriors. But sailors will 
not be treated like soldiers ; therefore, as there might be 
a naval station in the Canaries, (although there is not), 
there is a naval judge, who has no sailors to judge ; but 
there maybe some, some time, so the judge is there, with 
a good salary. But the artillery is a special branch of 
the service, not to be confounded with the general army, 
fio there is a judge for the artillery, &c., &c. 



THE MILITIA. 245 



However, if we could understand the use of fifty supe- 
rior officers, it is fax harder to account for the seventeen 
military governors. What do they govern? Little or 
nothing except — appointments. 

Eecruiting in the Islands is carried on after a pa- 
ternal fashion. The Canary Islands require for their 
navy 4,616 sailors, but they have only sixteen ; for the 
army they ought to have 5,515 soldiers who form the 
insular militia, of which 1,100 only are enrolled; 800 in 
the infantry, 300 in the artillery. Between two and three 
hundred are on active service, which service does not 
amoimt to much. When any royal troops are in TeneriflFe, 
the militia is dispensed from serving ; when there are 
none, one battalion is kept on active service for three 
months at a time, during which time the officers and 
soldiers are paid by the Crown. Two hundred and eighty 
men, about a fourth of the whole number, are called out 
at a time. In time of war the mother-country has the 
right of mobilising the militia, otherwise they never 
leave Canarian territory. All the subaltern officers are 
Islanders, but the battalion is commanded by officers of 
the royal army. In case of possible mobilisation, the 
1,130 men who are called out annually are divided into 
battalions and companies, the cadres of which are capable 
of receiving the 5,515 of which the militia nominally 
consists ; these, battalions and companies are commanded 
by three colonels, six lieutenant-colonels, ten command- 
ants, two captains, eleven lieutenants, and two adjutants* 
These are cadres of officers always eligible in case of the 
mobilisation of the militia, and paid by Crovemment. 



246 CIVIL AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT. 

The traveller who sees these men on parade, called out 
for three months at a time, once in three years, will be 
astonished at their soldier-like air, good carriage, and 
strong, active appearance. Any one would take them for 
picked Spanish troops. 

This militia is an old Norman institution, excellent in 
every way, and its working is most satisfactory. We find 
it just the same in the Anglo-Norman Channel Islands. 

The judicial organisation is as follows : Tenerifife hag 
three judges. Gran Canaria two, Palma one, Lanzarote 
and Fuerte Ventura one. The Teneriffe judge takes cog- 
nisance of the lawsuits in Hierro and Gomera. 

The Court of Appeal [audieTida] sits in Gran Canaria ; 
it is divided into two chambers. 

The Supreme Tribunal sits in Madrid. 
By a strange anomaly, foreigners are tried before the 
military judge. 

The Islands possess two Chambers of Commerce, one in 
Tenerifife, the other in Gran Canaria. 

The judges are elected, the Crown making a selection 
from the list of candidates named by the electors. 

All the other law olBîcers are nominated by the Crown 
and paid by the State. 

The judicial administration is far simpler than the 
military administration, from which we may safely con- 
clude that the old proverb cédant arma togœ is not 
followed out here ; in fact, the idea of justice is in Spain 
quite a subordinate one. Might is always right there, and 
there is no might except by permission of the generals, 
who make and xmmake governments. Praetorians rule^ 



ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 247 

and it is notorious that neither axmies nor generals have 
much respect for justice. Not only that, but they cannot 
comprehend it, which is their sole excuse. What is most 
deplorable in a country under military rule is not the 
absence of liberty — ^for one can live without that — but the 
absence of justice. 

In spite of what we have just said, which is strictly 
true as regards Spain, we are glad to admit that in the 
Canary Islands the administration of justice enjoys a 
reputation which, though not what it should be, forbids 
us to liken it to justice in Spain ; yet all the judges are 
Spaniards I This is due to the softening influence of 
the climate, before referred to, and to the independence 
which distance from the capital produces. Justice in the 
Canaries is almost iminfluenced by politics, and is there- 
fore far more impartial than in the mother-country. We 
believe that justice is administered in the Canaries by 
men subject to error as elsewhere, but with more upright- 
ness, independence, and impartiality than in Spain, 
especially than in Madrid. 

Ecclesiastical government in the Canaries is entirely 
independent of the civil government, and is under the 
jurisdiction of the diocese of Seville. There are two 
bishops ; one residing in Gran Canaria, the other at 
Lagima. There is a special ecclesiastical tribunal for 
priests. The clergy are paid by the State. 

The municipal administration is elective, the alcalde 
only being appointed by the Crown. 

Taxes are levied both on real and personal property. 

All administrative power is in the hands of the State ; 



24S CIVIL AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT. 

the clergy alone are independent. Even the local police 
is in the hands of the State. The Islanders forget that it 
is on the police that despotic governments depend, and 
that of all the vexations to which they have been sub- 
jected, those of which the police have been the instru- 
ments have been the most iniquitous. Let them consider 
Champfort's words : * The police system must be something 
frightfully bad, since the English prefer robbers and 
assassins, and the Turks the plague ' ! From which we 
must logically conclude that there is but one honourable, 
good, and legitimate system of police — ^that carried out by 
the people themselves gratuitously. 

The army is nearly its own master, almost independent 
of the State, and totally independent of the civil govern- 
ment. But it has not much influence in the Canaries, 
for the officers have no soldiers, and they do not exercise 
their power more despotically than the clergy — less so, 
perhaps, for the clergy are really more powerful. 

Spain is legally a constitutional country, but in reality 
she is governed despotically by three powers, which devour 
the nation ; the priest, the king, and the soldier. It is 
the very ideal of bad government, and the revolution by 
which it will be overturned is openly preparing. In the 
Canaries it is spoken of everywhere— in casinos, cafés, and 
hotels, even in the streets, and before the government 
agents. Whatever may be in store for the future, we 
wish for the Spaniards an honest government which will 
give them education and liberty — two blessings which 
bring all others with them ; but, above all, we desire one 
thing, without which nothing can be done — we allude to 



PAID OFFICIALS. 249 

a radical measure against the system of salaried officials. 
A nation can only prosper when its youth work and are 
productive. A nation whose youth are always looking 
forward to appointments by favour, or the retirement or 
death of others, and are ready to get up a revolution for 
the Bake of obtaining office, is advancing to its ruin with 
gigantic strides. This plague spot is the plague spot of 
the Latin races, who have delegated individual power to 
central authority, and receive salaries from it ; and thus 
they pursue a most demoralising course, which destroys 
themselves. . Let the reader judge for himself. The 
Canary Islands, with a population of 230,000, have more 
than 400 paid civil officials ; to these may be added the 
fifty superior officers mentioned above. In the Channel 
Islands, which enjoy absolute liberty, the police are un- 
paid, the judges receive no salaries, the municipalities 
are unpaid ; the country governs itself without expense^ 
Great Britain pays only six or seven officials for every 
130,000 of the population. The system of salaried 
officials is bad, not only because it absorbs a large por- 
tion of the revenue, but also because it is demoralising 
and lowering to the character. If the number of paid 
appointments were reduced, those candidates for office 
who would have committed any meanness to obtain it 
will become useful and honourable members of society 
when obliged to live by their labour, whether manual or 
intellectual. 

These remarks, which were written in the Canaries a 
few months before the revolution of September, 1868^ 
have been retained because the new Spanish Government 



250 CIVIL AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT. 

has as yet done nothing for the Fortunate Islands. Some 
old laws were on the point of being repealed by Queen 
Isabella's government, which saw that some adminis- 
trative aûd judicial reforms were absolutely necessary. 
We cannot tell what may be done, but the Islands have 
received permission to send representatives to the Cortes. 
Even that is something ; and perhaps, thanks to these 
representatives, insular interests will suffer less than 
under the Bourbon dynasty. 

The events which have taken place in Cuba should, we 
think, teach the present Government a serious lesson, and 
ought to make it sooner or later resolve on the emanci- 
pation of the Spanish colonies, which, like all other trans- 
marine possessions, are desirous of it. The United States, 
Canada, the Ionian Islands, and Australia have shown, or 
will show, clearly how bad for countries it is to have 
remote possessions. In particular cases the system may 
continue ; but it is easy to foresee at no distant period a 
separation by mutual consent of the Philippines, Cuba, 
and the Canaries from the mother-country, governing 
themselves under the Spanish protectorate. Separated 
from the mother-country, but still Spanish in heart and 
soul, governing themselves, the Islands, under the Spanish 
protectorate, would see the advent of an era of prosperity, 
of which, despite the breadth of their legitimate aspira- 
tions, the inhabitants have no idea. Then, not expecting 
any help from Spain, they would themselves make their 
own harbours, roads, and schools, and would form a 
merchant fleet; and these efforts would produce im- 



SELF-GOVERNMENT, 251 

mediate results, superior to those they would produce in 
less favoured countries. 

Devote yourselves to agricultural labours and to com- 
merce, and remain united, feir Fortunate Isles! 
Foreigners laugh when they hear of the jealousies which 
ruffle the calm of Teneriflfe and Gran Canaria. Eivalry 
in commerce and civilisation is all very well, and is a 
sign of vitality. Live on without intestine wars, de- 
lightful Fortunate Isles! Submit to the home govern- 
ment, as long as it only taxes you ; but if you are to be 
governed despotically, if your efforts to secure education, 
justice, and good government are rendered futile, then 
emancipate yourselves boldly. Spain would be powerless 
against you. Do not fear that you will be at the mercy 
of England, America, or France, as you are told ; with 
what motive it is easy to imderstand. If you ever be- 
come free, remember that England and America respect 
and protect those nations which desire and are able to 
govern themselves. 

Whatever form of government the Cortes may choose 
for Spain, we earnestly hope that that nation, which 
possesses for us so many attractions, may resimie its 
onward course, and may once more find in the vanguard 
of European nations the place she formerly occupied, and 
to which she is once more able to aspire. 

For the Canary Islands we desire self-government. 



252 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT, 



Chapter XIII. 

A CONVERSATION BY STABLIGEf, 

To The Marquis de la Florida^ Orptava. 

Madrid: March, 1869. 

Wb went yesterday to the Cortes, hoping to hear 
Castelar or Margall speak ; as ill-luck would have it, we 
only came in for a ministerial speech, full of reservations, 
vague promises, and puerile exhortations, addressed to all 
parties by one of your most celebrated generals. 

We were scarcely in the street before Briinner, according 
to a bad habit of his, stopped, and taking me by the 
button, said : 

* This is what comes of trying to run with the hare and 
hunt with the hounds; one ought to be either fish or 
flesh.' 

' Very true,' said I ; * but do walk on ; you will be 
overheard.' 

We were in the carrera San Greronimo ; the passers-by 
were stopping to stare at us, when one of them suddenly 
rushed up to us, exclaiming, ^Que tal, TuymbresV 
[* What is all this about, gentlemen ?'] 

You will never guess who it was ; it was Don Antonio 



THE LATIN RACES. 253 

P., the young oflBcer whom the ex-Queen had buried in 
Orotava — a frequenter of the casino, our old chum, your 
friend and Monteverde's. You may imagine how we 
talked about you. While going along the street, we 
bought a newspaper, and on a beautiful warm spring 
night we talked politics while walking to the Fuente 
Castellana. 

Briinner, as you know, is a violent republican. In 
speaking of you to his friend Don Antonio, he said, * What 
a pity that that gentleman is a marquis 1 Without that 
ridiculous title, he would make a good citizen of Saint 
Grail ; but the evil is past remedy I ' Briinner believes in 
the gradual decay of the Latin race, and persists in it. 
I daresay you remember his humorous tirades about Italy, 
where he Hved for three years, and which he says must 
inevitably fall. Spain is, in his opinion, not in quite such 
a bad state as Italy, but still very bad. The Spaniards, 
he says, are indifferent and fatalists. From this state 
of .things he has come to the conclusion that Spain must 
fall, like all Latin nations, but that she will survive her 
sisters. 

' The Spanish people,' said he to us, * possess a power of 
abstraction which enables them to live in a state of com- 
plete indifference to politics ; the uneducated people and 
the peasants, the mob, keep themselves quite aloof and 
isolated. This faculty, extraordinary in a Southern race, 
makes the Spaniard singularly like the Arab, indifferent 
to everything that does not concern him personally.' 

^ Very good ; you make us out Turks or Bedouins,' 
answered Don Antonio. ' But you are wrong, as wrong 



I 



2S4 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT. 

as you can be ; Spain, in driving out the Moors, in rising 
last September, proved that she is not indifferent, and 
that she knows how to free herself from a foreign yoke as 
well as from an arbitrary monarchy.' 

* Excuse me,* said I, * I think you are both in the right; 
for although the mass of the Spanish nation, being unedu- 
cated, is not as yet given to discuss matters of general 
interest and politics, yet it is, I think, embued with a 
strong patriotic feeling. Spain is to the Spaniard a 
imique country ; the most beautiful, the richest, the most 
fertile of all. Uncultivated and poor, you say, Briinner ? 
No, the Spaniard will reply, but rich and fertile : Spain 
can do everything, and knows everything. Ignorant and 
powerless, you say again? No, powerful, and equal to 
any other nation in science as well as in everything else, 
the Spaniard will say. These assertions, absurd on their 
surface, will surprise you ; but if you look closer, you will 
find in them the proof of strong national feeling. It is 
not patriotism strictly speaking, the love of the military 
system, of royalty, of the clergy, of the arts, of the national 
glory or prosperity — it is something more, for it is un- 
bounded and inconsequent, it is a sort of strange, exclusive 
passion, like jealousy in love; a blind, unreasoning, 
instinctive feeling, which supersedes all political knowledge 
without replacing it, although every feeling possesses some 
degree of real power.' 

' I grant up to a certain point,' said Briinner, ^ this blind 
patriotism among the masses, if you will admit that it is 
not shared by the nobility, middle classes, and officials, 
the intelligent and educated portion of the nation.' 



SFANISir REVOLUTIONS, 255 

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ - ■■■_■-_■_ ^ - ■ ^ 

' Alas ! you are right,' answered T)on Antonio ; * I fear 
there is no doubt that the intelligent and educated classes, 
with the exception of a very small number (which, how- 
ever, increases every day), are at the service of the govern- 
ment, of money, of the army ; this explains the eagerness 
for place, which is destructive of all patriotism.' 

' And it also explains,' added Briinner, ' how it is that 
leaders with money find armies, that only generals can 
stir up military revolutions, and that these revolutions 
once made are monopolised by one party, which is soon 
overturned by a league of all the others. Meanwhile, the 
nation, indiffèrent or nearly so, as you yourself admitted, 
has only participated in all these movements by paying, 
obeying, and annulling itself, and the country is in the 
hands of partisans who, when victorious, make haste to en- 
rich themselves, knowing that they will soon be defeated.' 

* Gentlemen,' said I, * since officials are the cause of 
so many evils, you should define the part they play in 
Spain.' 

' That will not be difficult or admit of dispute,' replied 
Briinner. * Tell me, Don Antonio, is it not evident that 
in Spain there are ten different parties, while in Northern 
countries there are generally but two. Conservatives and 
Liberals ? In the North all officials, with the exception of 
the Ministry, remain aloof from party struggles. In 
Spain this is not the case ; there is an army of officials 
for every department of any importance, of whom perhaps 
one-tenth are in office, and nine-tenths without employ- 
ment ; these nine-tenths think only of enrolling themselves 
under some kind of banner, calculating the chances, not 



2S6 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT. 

of improving the general condition of the country, but of 
turning out those in ofl&ce and taking their places. What 
happens then ? Those turned out join those whom the 
incoming party have not been able to satisfy, and the 
struggle recommences. They have tried putting those 
dismissed on half-pay, they have made ceaantes, but all to 
no purpose ; it has only impoverished the Treasury more 
and more, and the army of paid officials is as formidable 
as ever. It is plain that there can be no banner, or name, 
or political programme applicable to divisions which owe 
their existence to such a cause as this, and so it comes to 
pass that parties are innumerable, and this want of cohe- 
sion wastes the moral and material forces of the nation ; 
for these parties are obliged to ask some influential general 
to make a pronundamento at the first opportunity. The 
aim of the insurgents is not power, but salary. The Spanish 
sovereigns since the year 1600 have kept up this order of 
things, which strengthened their own power ; and to this 
fact is to be attributed the eagerness of the triumphant 
revolutionists to give themselves a new master, when by 
force of circumstances the revolution has outstripped their 
intentions and overturned the monarch. This is why Madrid 
has voted for a monarchy; for a republic would have con- 
demned 50,000 or 100,000 idlers who live upon the public 
purse to hard work ; and this is why the generals of the 
Provisional Grovernment demand a king like the frogs in 
the fable, even were he to be a log.' 

I must confess, my dear Marquis, that Don Antonio 
knew not what to say; he remained silent, biting the 
cigar in his mouth ; at last he said : 



THE SPANISH MIDDLE CLASSES. 257 

*But do you mean to say that our educated middle 
classes are not capable of saving the country by the know- 
ledge they have acquired, by determination, by love of 
liberty and independence ? Then the army could not ^ 

^ Not so fast,' said Briinner ; * we are just coming to that. 
The middle classes, which only came into existence at the 
beginning of this century, have gaixied a share of power 
by their education and wealth ; but not being sufficiently 
recruited by a proportionate elevation of the lower classes 
into their ranks, they have been from the very outset a 
privileged class. The middle classes disown their ple- 
beian origin, look upon the lower classes as enemies, and 
rely upon despotism. The liberal professions do not 
suffice for the support of the younger generation, and are 
deserted ; while the greater number, disliking a long course 
of study, hard work, agriculture, and trade, take to place- 
hunting, and care for nothing but salary. Thus it is 
really the educated classes, the middle classes, who create 
parties, and make use of them for their own purposes,' 

' But you will acknowledge,' said Don Antenio, ^ that 
Catalonia and Arragon are exceptions ; the middle classes 
there really do work. In Cadiz, Malaga, and even Seville, 
you will not see the wretched servility of the Madrilenos ; 
there are noble and generous hearts among the middle 
classes which beat for the welfare and freedom of their 
country.' 

' I think, Briinner, you will allow that Don Antonio 
is right; the fact of the minority in the Cortes belonging 
almost exclusively te the middle classes is a clear proof of 
it. You will both agree that this excellent portion of 

VOL. II, s 



258 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT. 

the nation is fax more capable than the anny of guiding 
it on a better course.' 

* And have you not also noticed,' added Don Antonio, 
' that some of the nobility have liberal tendencies ? ' 

' Don't talk of the nobility ! ' cried Briinner ; ' we know 
their ways. In France, on August 4, they threw, basely, 
as I think, to the revolutionary winds the titles which 
they as basely asked for again at the Bestoration ; and 
your Spanish nobles have fallen much lower than the 
ancient French nobility. What is the good of quoting 
exceptions, very likely not genuine ? Privileged people 
like privileges, and wish to keep them, even although 
they may pretend to be ready to abandon them. Whites 
are whites, and will continue so, I maintain. I always 
mistrust democratic marquises. 

' For more than two centuries your nobility have dis- 
played nothing but a sterile pride, puerile vanity, ruinous 
magnificence, and, at the same time, a servility incom- 
patible with their arrogance. Instead of gaining power 
and putting themselves in the place of the clergy, instead 
of forming an oligarchy, which after all would have been 
better than the double despotism of king and priest, the 
nobility have humiliated themselves, being content with 
alms, empty titles, ribbons, and appointments ; they have 
not even cared for military glory, and are thus below the 
Austrian and Eussian aristocracy. Abandoning politics^ 
they are reduced to priding themselves on having horses 
from London, carriages from Paris, and cigars from 
Havana, to cry to tlie dynasty to satisfy their ruinous 
necessities, and to drive stupidly every day round the 



FINIS IBERIA ! 259 



Fuente Castellana in their gilded carriages. These men, 
who, from their position, ought to manage the afifairs of 
the nation, and the officials who govern the richest country 
in Europe, above ground and below, have produced increas- 
ing wretchedness, fatal ignorance, the extinction of com- 
merce, and disturbances in the government, and have 
inspired contemipt in every honest heart. • 

'The Spanish nation, which, only a few years ago, 
seemed on the point of regeneration, has fallen again 
after the efifort, groaning and bowed down ; the national 
credit no longer exists, either at home or abroad ; honour 
is a matter of traffic ; and the clergy force back to the 
reconstituted dynastic despotism the sheep who would 
fain escape the watch-dog, so that there is not a really free 
person in the whole kingdom. The navy is unarmed ; the 
arsenals and harbours, the treasury and the national 
bank, are empty ; while, on the other hand, the theatres, 
churches, promenades, and amphitheatres are crowded ; 
and, to crown all, the throne of Charles V. is occupied by 
an hysterical, bigoted woman! In the midst of all these- 
intrigues and degradations, the people have remained 
aloof and indifferent, participating in these successive 
revolutions only by their increased wretchedness and 
heavier taxes ; in short, you are on the point of depopula- 
tion— ;^ms Iberice 1 ' 

' You are correct in most of what you have said, Briin- 
ner, but you might make the same accusation against the 
same classes in Eussia, for example, and yet you do not 
believe that Bussia is near its end ; besides, do you know 
what a people may endure before it is hopelessly con- 

s 2 



26o A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGH7. 

demned ? These long slumbers, followed by the galvanic 
convulsions which Spanish revolutions display, indicate a 
considerable amount of vitality, and give hopes of rénova* 
tion.' 

* Hopes which, unfortunately, have been always deceived,' 
answered Briinner, * Insurrections stirred up by revenge, 
egotism, jealousy, and ambition, can do no good; they 
have never had any practical aim in view, and could not 
therefore last long. The problem now remains to be 
solved ; we shall be able from what takes place now to 
foretell the future of the Spanish nation. Will it become 
a republic, and remain one ? Or will it go back to mon- 
archy, and abandon its destinies, as it did before, to the 
cunning of every class — ^the army, clergy, nobility, and 
middle classes — and allow the greater part of the national 
treasure to be swallowed up by the 600,000 officials of 
a despotic Government called lAhefral ? 

' Who shall venture to say, " No " ?' 

Briinner was silent ; it was evident that Don Antonio 
felt what he had said deeply : his emotion prevented him 
fro» ^^. 

Presently Briinner took his hand, and said, with his 
sardonic smile — 

^ We are men, and must look the matter straight in the 
face. You judge Spain by its anti-monarchical revolutions, 
which you consider to be the result of a strong deter- 
mination to remain &ee, and this false interpretation of 
facts makes you misunderstand the lesson history teaches. 
Is it true now that, liberty once acquired, the Spanish 
people have abdicated all their power in favour of an 



A LAST CHANCE. 261 



authority appointed by themselves? Is this senseless 
delegation of an authority which the people individually 
feel to be too heavy for their weak hands a fact ? Yes, 
Don Antonio, it is — ^a melancholy fact ; and how can you 
tell that the educated fraction now in power will not 
desert the popular cause to-morrow, and seize on the 
finances as before, and imprison or banish the few too 
liberal recalcitrants ? How can you tell that the mass of 
the people will not return to-morrow to their apathy and 
indifférence, flattering themselves with ideal chimeras ? 
But you may be very sure that if Spain again abdicate 
her right to exercise her power, her last chance will be 
lost, for I believe that her reactionary forces are growing 
gradually weaker, like those of a sick man. The Latin 
nations of Europe and America are exhausted and worn 
out ; they allow themselves to be governed by all manner 
of despotisms — ^absolute monarchies, constitutional mon- 
archies, spiritual monarchies, and despotic republics ; and 
thus each day their awakening is less probable, moral 
energy becomes gradually extinct, and the perception of 
abstract ideas of liberty and equality becomes harder and 
harder to minds long trained to servitude. This is why, 
forgetting that they possess in themselves the power from 
which all other power emanates, the people submit like 
cowards to the despotism which destroys them. 

* There is nothing more melancholy,' resumed Briinner, 
after a pause, ' than this decay of the Latin races ; they do 
not fall gloriously, resisting the invasion of the barba- 
rians with all their might. No ; they die from the annihi-^ 
lation of the individual, from the voluntary and shameful 



262 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT, 

: abnegation of each ; no misfortune has diminished their 
ridiculous military ardour, their base terror of servile 
justice, and their absurd national vanity, which obstructs 
their intelligence, hinders their view, and brings down 
everything to their own level. 

'A melancholy spectacle 1 

^ Â monarchical, credulous, sheeplike race, always 
ready to give itself a master, to yield abjectly to 
force, to follow blindly in the beaten track of its pre- 
decessors ; a servile race which could not exist without 
some leader or head ; a treacherous race, fickle and impres- 
sionable, always deceiving even the master it has chosen, 
upsetting him by a democratic revolution, only to choose 
another king immediately ; a lost race, for it persists in 
looking for its prosperity and freedom to something, to 
someone, to a man or an event, proclaiming itself for 
ever incapable of a firm resolution and of governing 
itself by keeping the freedom it has won. 

* But is that liberty, which is as air and sunlight to 
mankind, necessary for the Latins ? I believe not. If it 
be useless to them, let them say so. In that case, why 
should they perpetually disturb by revolutions, riots, and 
plots, the placid enjoyment of the rich, the selfish quiet 
of the middle classes, the fat pastures of the priests, the 
swaggering idleness of the military, the sterile dogmatism 
of the universities, the secret services of the magistracy, 
and the working of the administrative machine ? They 
had better obey the Grovemment, for every fresh revo- 
lution will entail more taxes. 
' ^ If the Latin race has no need of liberty, and will 



LATINS AND TEUTONS. 263 

give up all attempts to reconquer it, its governors will, in 
exchange, give it a little more prosperity, reduce the 
army to the minimum necessary for guarding the flock, 
and sacrifice fewer millions to satisfy the national vanity ; 
liberal aspirations will be replaced by a system of indus- 
trial and commercial liberty, by the satisfying of the 
people's appetites. Then both governors and governed 
will be fat and well fed, unconscious, without shame, but 
not without pride, looking forward to apoplexy as their 
end, instead of the present misery and decay. That will 
be something like, and the philosopher will no longer be 
saddened by the absurd display of so-callied liberal charters, 
stillborn republics, and constitutions, after the fashion of 
1789, continually violated; melancholy parodies, mere 
jugglers' tricks. The legitimate crowning of the edifice 
will be not liberty, but prosperity. 

* The Latin races abdicate all their rights in favour of 
the Government ; then let the Grovemment feed them ! 
They cry for food ; let it be given them 1 

^The Prussians, Eussians, and English, will indeed 
laugh at them ! 

' IioiLj, thou who art justice, avenge the Northern men 
for all the mischief that the Latin race has done them, 
for all the benefits she has brought them and despised for 
herself I 

* Let the Latins enjoy the fruits of self-abnegations- 
servitude and degradation 1 

* Deliver them from what they fought for for so many 
centuries — liberty and fraternity 1 

* Let the rest of the world despise the Latin races ; and- 



204 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT. 

if they are to survive, let it be on sufferance only, given 
up by their dissensions to hatred and fury; let them 
devour each other like wild beasts I 

^By the arts, you Latins have charmed the world, 
advanced civilisation, and freed the way for progress ; by 
means of science, philosophy, and letters, you have ruled 
over the minds of men ; by your labours, blood, and 
agony, you have created and given to the world the idea 
of liberty and equality ; and what good has it done you ? 
Leave these chimeras ; only one thing is worth anything — 
force I By force, Eome subjugated the ancient world ; 
by force, France imder Charlemagne and Napoleon eon- 
trolled Europe ; by force thou, Spain, hast seen the sun 
illuminating thine empire in both hemispheres. Com- 
pared with Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon, what are 
Dante, Molière, Cervantes, Murillo, Velasquez, and 
Voltaire ? Nothing. 

* Yes 1 let the idolatry of the sword engross you, let a 
blind credulity possess your souls, let the Government 
take from you all individuality; slumber, ye worn-out 
races, the time has come I 

* There must be expiation for Saint Bartholomew, the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the 18th Brumaire, and 
the coup cCétat. 

* Italy has to expiate her crime, the Pope-King. 

^ Spain has to expiate the Inquisition, the Jesuits, the 
depopulation of America, and the slave trade. 

* Then, imder the orders of Bismarck, Nesselrode, 
Mettemich, and Lord Eussell, governing Spain through 
some Coburg or Bourbon, there will yet remain to you 



DOUBTFUL REASONING. 265 

•what will be quite sufficient for the degree of felicity 
which you deserve — the government, the clergy, and the 
army.' 

Long after Briinner had done speaking, we still seemed 
to hear him, A sort of nightmare weighed upon us. But 
I, perhaps from being less immediately interested in the 
subject, and having besides been long cognisant of 
Briinner's theories, regained my composure before Don 
Antonio, who was imaccustomed to such fierce irony. 

* Yes,* I said, *all this is what one would be tempted 
to believe and assert after studying Latin revolutions, and 
the advance towards despotism which has always suc- 
ceeded them ; and yet such reasoning is in my opinion 
unjust, and the conclusions false, or at least forced.' 

* Oh, leave me my delusions I ' cried Don Antonio. * Tell 
me that the liberty I dream of is possible ; that Spain, 
for whose freedom I would give my life, will one day 
possess it ; tell me that Briinner is mistaken I ' 

* There is a certain school, my dear Antonio, which 
maintains that races, like individuals, have a limited 
existence ; that the fatal law of death governs them, and 
drags them inevitably to their fall. Voltaire himself, 
that great preacher of progress, justice, and liberty, might 
have been quoted in support of this theory by Briinner, 
for he says — 

' " Each nation has reigned in its turn on the earth." 
' But while acknowledging the decay of the Latin races, 
it must be admitted that the enormous development of 
the Saxon races makes this decay appear by contrast more 



i66 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT, 

rapid than it'really is. I think that tlie fatal law which 
avenges holocausts and condemns nations and races, only 
applies to those who have vainly attempted the trans- 
formations imposed by the law of progress, and have 
hopelessly lost all sense of the good, the beautifol, and 
the just. The Latin racea have not yet cotne to that, the 
Spanish nation still less perhaps than her sisters. No 
doubt there is a limit after which, when a people has had 
several chances of reforming itself and gaining its 
liberty, and has made no use of them, but still condemns 
itself to perish by the use of fetal institutions, there is no 
longer any hope for it ; but so long as it bas in it any 
power of reaction, this limit has not been reached, and 
despair is a crime. The Spanish nation has this power ; 
let us therefore look not to what it has done, but to what 
it may do in the future.* 

* You have met with your match,' said Don Antonio, 
addressing Briinner. * Spain has been the last to enter on 
a revolutionary career ; she has therefore a better chance, 
and we may expect everything from her. Spain has lost 
only her wealth and external influence, which is of slight 
importance ; her various governments have only injured 
the nobility and perhaps the middle classes, but very few 
of the people ; it is not worth speaking of, for the nation 
is strong, energetic, and patriotic. It is a block of rough 
ore, which must be cleansed from all impurities before it 
can shine in the sunlight of liberty. Let us hear no more 
of brigands and highwaymen and knives^ — they are 
fantasmagoria which trouble none but diseased brains. A 
little prosperity will soon put an end to the sturdy 



SPANISH PATRIOTISM. 267 

beggars who prefer robbing on the highway to robbery by 
cunning ; a little education and hard work will make the 
knives disappear, and begging, gaming, and idleness will 
give way to honest labour. 

* Yes, that which may save Spain, and promises her a 
future more lasting perhaps than that of the other Latin 
races, is that, with few exceptions, the body of thé nation 
is sound. True, it has lived for centuries in a state of 
inertia, but the race is not degraded ; it is exhausted, 
dreamy, and unhappy, but life has not abandoned it, and 
although the Grovemment has been at the last gasp for a 
century, yet the nation is full of physical and moral 
vigour, and may one day astonish Europe by its energy. 
The Spaniards still have in their veins the blood which 
rebels against despotism, whether native or foreign; on 
Spanish soil, all foreigners find every Spaniard their 
enemy ; this is a peculiar characteristic nowhere else to 
be met with in the same degree. There is in this medley 
of Iberian, Cantabrian, Northman, Visigoth, Vandal, and 
Arab blood, a patriotism, passionate, savage, barbarous, 
and ferocious, as might be expected. . Thucydides 2,000 
years ago called the Spaniards "the bravest of barbarians." 
The Carthaginians and the Bomans praised their courage, 
their ardent patriotism, and their poetry; the Greek 
Diodorus, and the Boman Strabo, Florus, and Livy, called 
them " glorious barbarians," '* great patriots ; " and with 
reason. But the series of patriots headed by Viriathus 
and Pelayo was continued by- the Cid, Padilla, and 
Palafox, and the native guerillas will soon make their 
appearance again if they arc needed.. Spain has fallen, 



268 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT. 

but the Spaniard is Uving, and is once more on his feet ; 
be has always been patriotic, and soon, having become 
clear sighted, be will assert his rights.' 

' Bravo, Don Antonio 1 your picture confirms me in the 
disbelief of Briinner's gloomy forebodings.' 

* Well, my friends, even if I be mistaken,' said Briinner, 
' don't let your enthusiasm run away with you just yet* 
I grant, since you maintain it, that the body of the people 
is sound and patriotic ; but you will do nothing until by a 
long course of liberal institutions, which you say you 
will be able to gain for yourselves, you have educated 
this body, at present ignorant of its rights and duties. 
Liberty, at all events at first, entails many hardships and 
diflBlculties. If, in order to avoid final shipwreck, the 
Spanish nation (the most fallen in Europe, considering 
the height from which it fell) by a power of reaction of 
which you say it is capable, sick of clerical and monarch- 
ical tyranny, should resolve to limit the power of the 
Government, to bring back individuality, liberty, equality 
— ^this crisis passed, would Spain take up a definite posi- 
tion, and would the people have the firmness, courage, 
and good sense without which no durable government 
can be founded ? I would not answer for them.' 

'Be it so,' replied Don AntoniOé 'But, after all, it is 
possible; and if you have decided against us from the 
evidences you have collected, we may be allowed to look 
out for facts which shall lead us to a favourable conclu- 
sion. For instance, can you help acknowledging that 
Spain is now entering on a fresh epoch, with the chances 
wonderfully in her &.vour; is she not freed from the 



REPUBLICANISM. 269 

• 

*' social question," that terrible bugbear which rallies 
alarmed Conservatives round despotism ? While treacher- 
ous men, or those interested in upholding the throne, hold 
up this red spectre before the masses, to frighten them 
back to despotism, such a manoeuvre is impossible among 
us, for political questions of government and administra- 
tion alone occupy the Spaniard, and present fewer diffi«^ 
culties, being more easily solved than in any other Latin 
country. To lead us to a republic, we have • local 
patriotism, provincial privileges, different customs, pe- 
culiar dialects, and the memories of the past, which 
produce in Spain a certain peculiar provincial life, which 
is a solid foundation for a confederation. It is clear 
that absolute unity has never existed in Spain, and that 
different privileges have belonged to different provinces. 
This variety in imity actually exists ; it would therefore 
suffice to form a general constitution, and to charge the 
central power with the duty of making it respected 
throughout the Iberian territory. Cadiz and Madrid 
have already sketched out the general principles essential 
to all nations in these days. Each province might also, 
according to the American or Swiss plan, have laws of 
its own, which would give the nation a stability and 
power such as can be found nowhere else except in 
America or Switzerland. There would be not one 
nation to be defeated at one blow, but ten provinces 
one after the other, which would be impossible; 
one bold soldier could no longer destroy in one day 
the work of centuries.' 

*Not so fast, my dear Antonio: you have already 



270 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT, 

__^ - » ■ 

reached your republic ; but tell me, do you not see that 
Spain, contrary to your wishes, is preparing for a mon- 
archical government? Let us consider this probable 
state of things. In that case all is lost, unless this 
government were disarmed. Theoretically, we may 
imagine a centralised, democratic — ^that is, disarmed — 
monarchy ; but as a matter of fact, it can only exist on 
the condition of strong decentralisation, and of being 
deprived of all active authority, as is the case in England. 
Contemporary history proves that no constitutional mon- 
archy can govern without monopolising authority, and, 
therefore, without destroying national liberty. If this is 
not the case in England, it is because the British mon- 
archy is a fiction, the government being really in the 
hands of an oligarchy. It is impossible to allow that a 
monarchy without real power, without money, without 
influence, can exist ; yet I may be mistaken, owing to my 
preconceived republican feelings : let us allow, then, from 
a purely philosophic point of view, that the words, re- 
public, empire, monarchy, are only empty names, and 
that in reality there are but two kinds of governments — 
those where the citizen rules, and those where he delegates 
his power. This admitted, the first is a republic, by 
whatever name it may be called, the second is a despotism. 
A monarch who is at the head of a constitution, as Queen 
Victoria is, corresponds to a president of a republic. A 
president of a despotic republic, as Lopez, for example, 
corresponds to Napoleon or Louis XIV. If the monarch 
whom Spain is going to elect is to carry out the consti- 
tution by the sole force of his will, he will correspond to 



THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 271 

Queen Isabella; the constitution ought to govern even 
the king himself. Then this king will for a time corre- 
spond to the President of the United States, and the choice 
might turn out to be a fortunate fiction. The English 
have proved that this system is a good one ; their monarchy, 
which they overturned when it was despotic, now ac- 
commodates itself to monarchs of either sex, whether 
possessing any capability or not; no English monarch, 
were he a Caesar or a Napoleon, could take away an atom 
of English liberty — .' 

* That is exactly the reason,' said Don Antonio, ' why 
nothing hinders the establishment of a monarchy like that 
of England, if we cannot get a republic ; we should thus 
have English liberty, and a code, equality, a free Church, 
&c. &c. as well.' 

' In theory,' answered Briinner ; ' but, practically, do 
you think matters are managed so easily ? Think of the 
length of time between the death of Charles I. and 
William of Orange ; how many wars, how much bloodshed, 
and what trouble William himself had to teach constitu- 
tional ideas to the aristocracy and the people. Finally, 
the system prevailed in England, and it was this example 
which first opened the eyes of observant Europe. But is 
your aristocracy trustworthy, liberal, constitutional ? No. 
Or can the Spanish nation throw off the old man all at 
once, casting to the winds in an instant its innate servility 
and love for all that is strong, powerful, and glorious ? 
Nations are not like individuals, capable of being trans- 
formed in a moment. And so you have once more the 
insoluble problem, the key to which the nation alone 



272 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT. 

possesses, without perhaps being awaxe of it, and certainly 
without understanding it.' 

'Well, but,' said I, 'experiences such as this must 
enlighten a nation, however blind you may think it. 
However ignorant it may be, it cannot but see that as a 
republic Spain is more free than under the monarchy, 
and that papal thunders are harmless. I go farther than 
this ; I believe that even if Spain, after this energetic 
effort, were to go back to a monarchical government, 
we need not despair ; she would be thrown back for ten or 
perhaps twenty years, at the end of which a new revolution 
would enable the nation to see the truth more clearly 
than it does at present. No, even in the event of another 
fall, I cannot believe in Spain's absolute decay ; there are 
two reasons against it — ^modern science and the progress 
of mankind. 

' The sea ploughed by ships obeying the will of man ; 
Europe, America, and Asia brought into almost instanta- 
neous connection by the electric telegraph; isthmuses 
pierced ; steam throwing its white banner to the winds on 
Alpine summits, crossing glaciers, and passing through 
stupendous tunnels; locomotion urged to its utmost 
limits, and even the light obedient to man's caprice ; 
machinery, subdued to the docile servant of man, applied 
to trade and agriculture; works of art multiplied ad 
infinitum ; chemistry, geology, and almost all the physical 
and natural sciences carried in fifty years to a fabulous 
pitch; history re-discovered and re-written; political 
economy created, taught, and propagated ; poetry, music, 
and literature every day producing chefs-d'œuvre — in a 



INVENTION AND APPLICATION 273 

word, all the recent conquests of the human mind, — assert 
the vitality of the Latin races, which have for the most 
part created these marvels. Yes, the Latins search, 
invent, and discover, while the northern races perfect and 
apply their inventions. And beyond the material region 
also, the Latins have sought and found the great social 
principles, and have given them to the world; the 
northern races have applied them. Agitated by strong 
aspirations after good, the enslaved and wretched Latin 
races have eagerly snatched at opportunities of exercising 
their inventive powers ; and they assert that, possessing 
as they do these creative powers, they are still capable 
of aiding the progress of the world.* 

* I see what you are driving at,' said Briinner, * and I 
know the answer. It is precisely what sovereigns say to 
their oflScial writers. " Go," say they, " and lull the silly 
sheep with pleasant songs of their industrial and artistic 
glories, that they may forget their slavery and allow us 
to rivet their chains ;" there you have the demoralisation 
and pernicious influence of the progress of science on the 
public character which Bousseau predicted and which we 
now see.' 

* How do you know that if Bousseau could now apply 
himself to searching out facts condemnatory or approba- 
tory of the influence of the development of art and science 
on the public character, he would not, on the contrary, 
find that this development has aided social progress ? ' 

*But,' said Briinner, *is progress in science and art 
capable of producing a high state of morals, and democracy ? 
Can a nation at the same time reform itself in material 

VOL. II. T 



274 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT. 

matters, and develope intellectually ? I do not myself 
think it can ; but it is an important question.' 

* No doubt it is ; but however that may be, you must 
acknowledge that many times at the very moment when 
the Latin races were thought dead, they have had times 
of awakening, of renaissance— when in art, poetry, and 
thought they have sought and found a compensation for 
their woes, and sometimes sti^ngth for fresh political 
action. 

• Is it then clearly proved that they have no longer 
any power of action, and that they may not once more 
find a propitious hour, in which, abandoning for a time 
material interests and artistic needs, they may resume- 
the exercise of self-government ? They have attempted it 
twenty times ; and progress, more and more accelerated, 
and penetrating deeper than in former times, will every 
day make the success of these efforts more possible.' 

' I agree with you,' said Don Antonio, ' and everything 
seems to prove that this result is imminent. We blush 
for ourselves, that is something, and I believe we are 
about to resume the work interrupted in '92.' 

' The present abnormal situation certainly cannot last. 
Before this century is over, the question must be solved : 
every outlet is stopped, except that of republicanism; 
sooner or later, that must be accepted. As we agreed, 
the Latin race has reached the culminating point of 
artistic and industrial development; its superiority is 
indisputable, and its intellectual sovereignty is acknow- 
ledged. It may share this sovereignty with the northern 
races, but cannot abdicate it ; it has traced the path, but 



PERSONAL LIBERTY. 275 

has been forestalled in the use of it, that is all. It must 
necessarily re-enter on the possession of the benefit^ it 
has given to the world/ 

* You come back to your old argument,' said Briinner, 
* and it is very evident that Spain has only to will ; Italy 
and France the same. But will they do so ? that is the 
question. Do you think you approach the solution by pro- 
claiming your monarchy ? The individual royalty of every 
man is, I grant, a guarantee of progress, but this royalty 
can only be exercised by the constant development of 
personal liberty ; its only justification lies in the vigorous 
exercise of every faculty. The American and Swiss 
republicans strive after this, and to this they owe their 
prosperity and liberty, and a future of peace, power, and 
)nrealth, such as the ancient world never dreamed of.' 

' I assure you,' said Don Antonio, ^ that all the efforts 
of the young, intelligent, and upright Spaniajds are 
directed to this end; that education is spreading, and 
priestly influence declining ; that through the freedom of 
the press and the right of assembly, an active propaganda, 
is at work, and already stirring the masses who have 
hitherto lived in the indiflference you so justly reproached 
us with ; the system of paid oiBBcials is threatened — ^what 
Ninore shall I say ? It seems to me that we are progressing ; 
nay, I am certain of it ; if you had known Spain some 
years ago, you would perceive the difference. 

^ You take too gloomy a view of our future, Briinner ; 
the volcano which from time to time sends out sparks 
cannot be extinct.' 

*I admire your confidence,' said I, 'and share it, for it 

T 2 



276 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT. 

is when the horizon is the darkest, that we may expect 
the most from the Latin races. While the northern 
i^ces condnct their revolutions with a calm and délibéra- 
<tion which I admire, those of the south delight in 
tempests, and carry on their revolutions amidst thundeifi 
:and lightnings.' 

*As for me,' said Don Antonio, * I see through the dark 
<night a white apparition ; it is not the phantom of the 
last hour of the Latins, it is liberty, the spirit of progress 
,and of the gradual enfranchisement of mankind.' 

' And as for me,' said Briinner, * I think you are both 
•^mad, suffering under an hallucination. Leave your 
•phantoms to visionaries, and your progress coming ont of 
£re and flames to the credulous. Nothing comes from 
your volcano ^except ashes, which foretel misery and ruin, 
and what came from it yesterday will come from it to- 
morrow. You, my friends, are like all the sentimental- 
ists, the oppressed^ the banished, and the conquered, who 
îiave all seen the goddess of liberty. What is coming is 
islavery and ruin ; liberty has gone across the Atlantic ! 
Let us reason Uke jsober men, and not like Utopians. The 
vitality you asse;rt, and the immense progress made in 
art, science, and trade, eoincide with a moral decay and 
loss of energy which vindicates the fatal law of the fall 
of races from over-«ivilisfttion ; you must allow this, for 
it is a fact.' 

^ You fall back on Bousseau's conclusions,' remarked 
Don Antonio. 

' I accept the discussion on these premises,' said I ; 
*i was comin to it when vou interrupted me just now. 



1749 ^^D 1869. 277 



I diflFer from Briinner's illustrious countryman; forgive 
my boldness. The upper classes are demoralised, granted ; 
these two castes dreading changes are devoted to the 
Government which protects them ; the Grovemment, in- 
different to what is good, energetic against anything that 
opposes it, wavers between street massacres and illusory 
liberty ; there is decay, and this coincides with an excessive 
development of the intellectual powers ; therefore, you say, 
Eousseau was right. Eight in 1 749, perhaps, but wrong in 
1869, for the condition of things is altered ; '89 separates 
the two epochs. You have been so blinded by the progress 
of science and art that you cannot see that there is a very 
perceptible movement among the masses by means of edu- 
cation, prosperity, and material and intellectual progress ; 
this movement, which leads to the moral perception of 
right, duty, justice,liberty, and equality, began throughout 
Europe in 1789; from 1815 to 1850 it has spread and 
expanded immensely, it is working now, and the seed is 
germinating ; it will soon spring up, for it has fallen on 
good ground, the lowly, the strong, the people in a word. 
It is to steam, electricity, cotton, paper, &c., that we must 
for the most part attribute it, and this fact proves the 
salutary effect of the progress of art and science on the 
public character. Even wars have aided this movement, 
as well as bad kings, despotic tyrants, adventurers, and 
the most evanescent revolutions ; banishment, which has 
been so largely practised in this century, has sent men to 
schools of liberty, who have thus returned enlightened to 
their own country. And who know these things better 
than the Spaniards ? who have proved them more than the 



273 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT. 

Latin races ? Prior to 1749, the date of Eousseau's para- 
doxical discourse, had any nation on the face of the globe 
any precise idea of right, duty, justice, liberty, and 
equality ? No, they are absolutely modem ideas, and the 
only ones whiph can stop nations from entering on a 
retrograde course, and guide them in the right path« Was 
there ever such a condition of affairs before ? What is the 
idea which agitates Germany? Self-government, enfran- 
chisement. And Hungary, and the Danubian Provinces ? 
Self-government, and enfranchisement. And Greece, 
Spain, Italy? All Europe in short? Did these ideas 
occupy her mind a hundred years ago ? Not in the least ; 
dynasties, the possession of lands and men, religious wars, 
these were all. Now — the question is how to gain more 
liberty, not territory; of the rights of citizens and the 
augmentation of their power, not of their numbers. 
Certainly, there were revolts against despotism in former 
times, but the rebels were never guided by duty and right. 
These ideas axe modem, the nations are beginning to use 
them for the first time, and you cannot help admitting it, 
my dear Brunner.' 

' I am quite ready to admit it ; but can this movement 
stop decay ? ' 

'Eevolutions are never unfruitful; they are not, as 
some assert, devastating torrents, but fertile, salubrious 
streams, which cover kingdoms with fertile institutions, as 
the Nile covers Egypt with harvests. Whilst the Missis- 
sippi rolls along, and like the Latin race is carried on to 
the abyss, the sea — the tide goes up quietly and deposits 
fertile alluvium on the banks ; so the ideas of liberty. 



MURAT AND JUNOT. 279 

equality, right, and duty ascend the course of Latin decay, 
and give the first-fruits of association and solidarity — 
pubUc Ubraries, primary instruction, coK)peration, right 
of suffrage, abolition of primogeniture, prolongation of 
life, religious toleration, abolition of capital punish- 
ment, &c. — all enormous, stupendous changes, which we 
do not perceive because they constitute the very air 
we breathe, but which would astonish and stupefy the 
great Grenevan.' 

' All of which we intend to make use of in Spain, and 
in such a way as may perhaps astonish our Latin brothers 
in France and Italy.' 

* And you will do well,' said Briinner. * I give in this 
time ; besides, it is two o'clock in the morning ; let us go 
to bed.' 

' I am quite ready,' said I, ^ but on the way you may 
listen to me, for there is a great deal to be said about the 
liberal and revolutionary counter- current, and for brevity's 
sake I will only quote dates and facts. 

'Look, my friends, it was on that mound which is 
being levelled that a cavalry officer, in obedience to a 
chief who was then alL powerful, settled by a massacre 
the exact date of the superiority of right over triumphant 
force. The cannonade from the Buen Eetiro covered 
Spain with republicans. In the year 1812, the Cadiz 
Cortes took their place in the new order of things, by 
means of that constitution which is still the model of 
constitutional charters. 

'There stands an old castle on a rock in Portugal, 
where Moors, Spaniards, Bomans, and Carthaginians have 



28o A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT, 

ruled in turn ; Cintra was to Junot what the Eetiro was 
to Murat,and after having signed his famous capitulation 
there, the blind soldier had no idea that he was giving 
up Portugal to revolutionary ideas. The nation, sub- 
missive until then, had succeeded in 1823, after repeated 
efforts, in putting into practice the ideas of '89. It 
was in vain that the Bourbons struggled against this 
national movement, which finally landed them in 
America. 

* At the beginning of this century, the two Sicilies, a 
prey to decay, were being dragged by the Bourbons 
towards the abyss ; Eome was in the power of Austria, 
and Venice and Milan in the hands of a Viennese viceroy. 
A deceptive state of things 1 The counter-current brought 
ideas of liberty, which have germinated. The Grand- 
Duke of Tuscany was the first in Italy to grant justice, 
liberty, and prosperity, and afforded a refuge to all Italian 
revolutionists. 

* Later on. Piedmont, abandoned by clerical and despotic 
reaction to the current of decay, arose with Charles 
Albert, was overcome at Novara, and the vanquished of 
to-day, by adopting liberal ideas, became the victor of 
the morrow. 

* Spain, long agitated by ideas of political progress, in 
several revolutions, has sown the seed of democracy, has 
just overturned the dynasty, and is entering on the new 
path marked out by modem ideas. 

' What shall I say of France, of Austria, of Grermany, of 
Eussia even, emancipating her serfs ? ' 
, * Let us hear more about Spain,' said Don Antonio. 



A FEDERAL REPUBLIC. 281 

* Well, if Spain, immediately after a military revolu- 
tion, has shown the world the astonishing spectacle of a 
third of the nation behaving with a calmness and good 
sense equal to that of American or Swiss republicans, 
what has produced this miracle? Thq small counter- 
current, too much overlooked by Briinner, unforeseen by 
Bousseau. 

' Spain will learn day by day that men can do nothing 
in finance, agriculture, commerce or trade, without being 
free, protected by justice only ; she will learn that her 
children had better be free red Indians than enslaved 
Spaniards ; that it is better to live without art and 
without trade, than without freedom of conscience, right 
of assembly, and liberty of the press ; she will see that 
when citizens are united, it is impossible to take from 
them the advantages they have gained, and that then 
only can they devote themselves to labour, which gives 
strength, energy, morality, and intelligence; she will 
understand that, as a guarantee, she will need a certain 
political form ; the word has already been mentioned, but 
the thing must be had, a Federal Eepublic, and it must 
be maintained.' 

' So be it,' said Bninner. 

' And supposing that it is not realised now, I am con- 
vinced that Spain is impregnated with the new ideas, and 
that the present generation will see the .birth of the 
Iberian Eepublic' 

Just then, we reached the Hôtel de Russie, at the door 
of which Don Antonio left us. 

As for me, being unable to sleep, I wrote down, for 



282 A CONVERSATION BY STARLIGHT, 

your benefit, this conversation by starlight, which will 
remind you of our political chats at Orotava. 

Be so good as to remember us to all those who welcomed 
us so kindly ; and be assured that, if I love your beautiful 
country, I have also, a sincere affection for you. 

Su seguro servidor, 



OUR HOMEWARD VOYAGE, 283 



Chapteb XIV. 

HETROS^ECnVE HEVIEW. 

After a few months stay in the African islands, we were 
obliged to return to EuropOé The ' America,' a steamer of 
1,000 tons, lay in the roadstead, waiting until the tem- 
pest, which for two days had not allowed any passenger^ 
to embark, should be over. At length the wind abated, 
and about five p.m. we started. We had scarcely doubled 
Point Anaga when the levante rose again, and a fearful 
storm spread over the Atlantic. During long hours of 
day and night, we were able to contemplate the beauties 
of the sea in a storm. The compasses were out of order, 
the helm half broken, the ship, under bare poles, fled 
before the tempest, and, as if by miracle, the fires were able 
to be kept lighted. The ' America,' was a new vessel, 
with a Catalan crew, and we know what sort of sailors 
they are ; so, either by chance or skill, the steamer, after 
five weary days, came into Cadiz Bay. This storm des- 
troyed more than fifteen ships on the coasts of Morocco, 
Spain and Portugal, and amongst others, the ' Ethiopia,* 
the ship which had taken us out to Teneriffe — it perished 
with all hands, on the voyage to Europe, between the 
Cape Verde Islands and the Azores. 



284 RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. 

Divided between joy at returning home, and regret 
at having left the Fortunate Isles, we recalled to mind 
the friendships, broken off perhaps, the principal facts, 
incidents, and annoyances of the voyage ; a last glance 
thrown back, by which we seem to engrave more deeply 
on the memory the general aspect of a picture abounding 
in details. After one has studied men and things near at 
hand, it is as well to survey them from a distance, and 
judge them more impartially than one could on the spot. 
We trust that our readers will be willing to follow us in 
this short retrospective review. 

It was long ago remarked that the most frequented 
places are frequently the least known. This truth is 
especially applicable to the Canary Islands. Surface, 
distances, elevation, nature of the soil— everything which 
we should naturally think safe from erroneous descrip- 
tions, as falling exclusively within the range of geograph- 
ical facts — all these have been abandoned, with few 
exceptions, to error, during long centuries. By adopting 
the most accurate accounts of modem men of science, we 
have been enabled to settle these various questions, and 
to give the correct geography of the Canary Archipelago 
and the seven Islands which compose it. We hope that, 
from this sketch, one fact will have been impressed on 
our readers' minds, namely, that the Islands all resemble 
one another, and that the whole group may be looked on 
as the remains of a submerged country, of that land of 
Atlantis destroyed by a sudden and mighty catastrophe, 
by which the ancient world was singularly impressed, and 
the memory of which, as we have pointed out, has been 



SANTA CRUZ. 285 



handed down to ns by poetry, fable, allegory, history, and 
science. 

We have seen and accurately described the most im- 
portant cities ; and from the very beginning, from our 
landing in Teneriffe, we have given the reader an idea of 
the general aspect of the capital, and shown him its 
public buildings, squares and streets, and its mole. We 
have found in Fort San Cristobal, the first shapeless 
monument of the Spanish possession, an aged witness to 
the glorious history of the Islanders defending their 
country against barbarians, or against the English; at 
Laguna we have found the town the Adelantado founded 
a prey to convents, churches and chapels, and wondered 
at the splendid palaces of the nobles, and the dreary, 
monastic look of the whole place. We have seen the 
decay of this town, formerly so flourishing, now over- 
shadowed by Santa Cruz, the real centre of the Canary 
Archipelago, which has left Laguna nothing but the 
College or Institute, and the magnificent Library; a 
consolation, of which, alas I it makes a too moderate 
use. 

We have foimd the town of Orotava quiet and aristo- 
cratic, with carved balconies to the patrician houses, 
balmy gardens, and the sweet air of perpetual spring. In 
this charming town we took up our abode. Whilst 
collecting useful documents there, we at the same time 
went through the special geography of each island of 
the Archipelago, at the risk of inflicting a few moments 
of &miui on our readers : it could not be helped, for at 
Hierro we were to find Ptolemy's famous meridian, at 



286 RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. 

Gomera Columbus, at Lanzarote and Fuerteventura the 
firat conquistadores. 

Having studied the ground, we followed the Sire de 
Béthencourt from his barony of Grainville la Teinturière 
to La Rochelle, where he took as a companion a noble 
heart and a strong arm, Gadifer de la Salle. We saw 
the bold adventurers at sea, their crews, weary and restless, 
going on shore at Cadiz, and they themselves reaching 
the Islands with but a few faithful followers. There we 
saw brute force subordinated to moral force, Norman 
civilisation represented by justice making an impression 
on the natives, and subjugating them more successfully 
than soldiers and priests could, for Béthencourt had not 
a hundred men with whom to conquer the Islands I In 
order to carry out his undertaking, we saw him gathering 
reinforcements, acknowledging himself the vassal of the 
King of Spain, and receiving in exchange the investiture 
of the crown he had won with his sword. Gadifer thought 
that Béthencourt ought not to reap all the benefits of an 
enterprise which they had undertaken together ; the two 
went together to the Court of Spain to submit the dispute 
to the King's decision ; a noble example 1 Gadifer retired 
satisfied. But Spaniards came with the new king to 
the Islands — priests, monks, and soldiers ; a few more 
years, and the peaceable, benevolent, just rule of the 
Normans was superseded by the treachery, crimes, and 
cruelties of Maciot's successors. Béthencourt did not 
see these disasters* An old adventurer when still young 
in years, he went home after six years of voyages, perils, 
imd cares of every kind, to die in his Norman barony ; his 



THE PEAK. 287 



last words were of good wishes and farewell to the Fortu- 
nate Isles, which he had won by his bravery, boldness, 
wisdom in council, and uprightness of heart. 

Having described the Conquest, and mounting our 
horses, we visited the Eealejos, where Gruanche liberty 
expired after a struggle of a hundred years ; we visited 
Bambla, that charming valley where cascades of fresh 
water fall down to the sea, where plane trees, laurels, and 
palms exceed their ordinary dimensions, although planted 
in the rock ; Eambla I where one knows not which to 
admire most, the boldness of him who created it, or the 
beauties of nature I 

We saw Puerto, that pretty sea-side town on the lovely 
shore where bananas, pyrusjaponica, lemons and oranges 
bathe their roots. Then, before showing Columbus to 
the reader, we were obliged, in order to complete our 
sketch of the western part of the Archipelago, to go to 
Palma and Gomera, but before quitting Teneriffe, we 
made the ascent of the Peak of Teyde. 

Strange, inexplicable subject of mistakes 1 the Peak of 
Teneriffe has been by turns the highest mountain in the 
world and a molehill, the Pagan hell, the Elysian Fields, 
and an astronomical observatory ! On its summit we have 
seen successively. Atlas teaching Hercules astronomy, the 
Greek hierophant, the priest of Sais, the Tyrian, the 
Carthaginian, the Tangerine corsair, Lopez, Prussian 
princes, Humboldt, Bory de Saint-Vincent, Peigné, Borda, 
Anderson, Smyth, Arago, and Berthelot ; from its summit 
we have seen the configuration of the Archipelago and 
the great Sierra^ the jagged framework of Teneriffe, its 



288 RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. 

volcanoes threatening although extinct, Ghahorra,- the 
Montanetas, and the Canadas, its smoking safety-valve, 
its crater still warm although covered with snow. 

Descending from the heights, we have seen the drome- 
dary pacing the field-bordered road or arid plain of 
Fuerteventura, bending beneath its load, and driven by 
an active mountaineer with his red handkerchief at the 
back of his head, gaudy waistcoat, and embroidered 
gaiters; and then, suddenly passing from these prose 
realities to Bomish legends, we saw San Borondon, the 
putative missionary of Pliny's island of Âprositus, the 
island of Borondon of Portuguese pilots and Spanish 
sailors ; we gave the legend, and hazarded an explanation 
of the phenomenon. 

At Gran Canaria we found the island agricultural, with 
a fevourable climate, numerous canals winding through 
its smiling valleys ; and we gave an account of its con- 
quest, On the side of Herrera and the Bishop of Bubicon 
were treachery and cruelty ; on the side of the Guanches 
heroic loyalty. Silva helped his father-in-law in vain : 
the natives triumphed, Herrera ruined his kingdom to no 
purpose, and was on the point of being deposed from his 
governorship, when a soldier left a prisoner in Gran 
jCanaria made a treaty with the natives. Herrera never- 
theless was deposed, and resigned Gomera to his son- 
in-law, while Spain gave to Bejon the task of conquering 
the Islands. Victories and defeats, vicissitudes, quarrels 
among the Spaniards, a frightful mortality among the 
islanders from epidemics and Spanish steel — such was the 
history of the Canarian struggle for independence. But 



THE FISHERIES. 289 

the Spanish captains, being always able to gain fresh 
recruits, were necessarily able, in spite of their defeats, to 
conquer the island in the end ; they triumphed after a 
struggle of ninety years. 

We saw the fort of Lagarte in Grran Ganaria, com- 
manded by Alonso de Lugo, who was to conquer Tenerifife. 
He first conquered Palma, After three successive attacks 
on Teneriffe he fell into the hands of his enemy. Whether 
vanquished or victor, with extraordinary perseverance and 
sagacity he made use of deceptive promises and deep-laid 
treachery; the Guanches were decimated, and at length 
were imable to muster a handful of men. Bencomo, 
belonging to the purest type of heroism, gloriously ter- 
minated the history of this primitive race. The last 
remaining Guanches soon died out, and in 1600 there 
was scarcely a trace of them to be found : the primitive 
race which the most fearful cataclysm was not able to 
destroy perished by the hand of man. 

We saw systematic emigration — that leprosy of modern 
society, the eifect of political, moral, and religious 
tyranny — become the sole resource of the inhabitants, 
oppressed as they were by the clergy and nobility. Now, 
emigration has found its level, it is no longer a necessity, 
and is profitable instead of injurious to the Canaries. 

The fisheries showed us the mixed descendants of those 
Guanches who had a horror of the sea under a new aspect, 
going to sea in badly rigged and badly built boats, 
although with solid hulls, ploughing the great African 
channel from Cape Noun to Cape Çojador. We described 
to our readers the wonderful hauls of fish which will fill 

VOL. II. u 



290 RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. 

a ship in a few days, and the chicharreros whose fires 
light up the shores of Puerto and Santa Cruz. We saw 
that the fisheries might produce an important revenue if 
improvements were introduced, as from the increasing 
prosperity of the Islands we may hope will be the case. 

Then we came to the Guanches, a magnificent race, 
miraculously saved, thousands of years ago, from the 
terrible cataclysm which swallowed up a world. We 
described their dress, their rites, their manners and 
customs ; trifling indications which escaped the Spanish 
priests sufficed to enable us to describe the family and 
individual life. We also described the manners and 
customs of the conquerors, and we found Spain in the 
Canaries, with the additional qualities of agreeableness, 
gentleness, and kindness, and minus the drawbacks of 
pride and hauteur. We found the Canaries in a happier 
state than Spain — ^the climate more favourable, manners 
more refined, customs more orderly, dress more comfort- 
able and decent, life, in a word, easier. If we had to 
regret Creole indolence, we had also to mark a great 
degree of energy among the field labourers. 

. The Fortunate Isles, on which nature has lavished 
her treasures, are less subject than continents to physical 
uilments. If the ravages of elephantiasis are still to be 
met with there, they are diminishing, and it may be 
hoped that by change of air for the patients this disease 
may be put a stop to. The upper classes, who are subject 
to ordinary maladies from their European habits alone, 
are yet very fort\mate,^for diseases are less acute there, 
and generally assume a mild form. As to the mass of the 



EDUCATION, 291 



population, they enjoy such good health as no other race 
on the face of the earth is blessed with. 

Another scourge attracted our attention ; the African 
locusts are an evil against which there seems to be no 
eflBcacious remedy, and to which the Islanders can only 
resign themselves ; at the same time this misfortune is 
one which takes place only at distant intervals, and is 
rarely general throughout the Islands, 

We have given the history of the Gardens of Acclima- 
tisation, which for the last eighty years have attracted the 
attention of the scientific world, and delighted travellers. 
We think that the preservation of this institution was 
eminently the duty of the Canarians ; its former glories 
may be renewed by a little effort, and if, as we think, a 
Garden of Acclimatisation is a Utopian idea, a magnificent 
Botanical Garden ought to take its place ; to open schools 
of botany and agriculture there is a dream impossible to 
realise at present. 

In spite of great hindrances a considerable number of 
public schools have already been established, for the 
Islanders really feel the need of national education ; we 
have no doubt that in order to obtain it they will make 
such efforts as will be crowned with success. We related 
the vicissitudes of the higher order of schools in Gran 
Canaria, Santa Cruz, and Laguna, and found there twa 
establishments tolerably well conducted, but very inade- 
quate to the wants of the people. In the new career now 
open to Spain, means may found be of developing in the 
Canaries, first, secondary instruction, next, the study 
of theology, art, science, and literature, in such a 

Tj 2 



292 RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. 

manner as to satisfy local requirements without neces- 
sitating for the pupils a voyage to Europe. We also think 
that it would be as well to found a school of medicine in 
Teneriffe, as has been done in Madeira ; we have no doubt 
that it would supply a public want, and attract numbers 
of invalids to the island. 

And now we come to the oldest witness of the first ages 
of the earth, the Dragon : fable had animated it, poetry 
gave it a mission, medicine had made a panacea from it, 
history unrolled beneath its shade the various scenes of 
ancient invasions — Syrian, Carthaginian, Eoman, Portu- 
guese, Italian, and French ; its red sap resembling blood, 
its sword-like leayes, its trunk resembling a serpent's skin, 
the mutilated stumps of its branches, rendered it the most 
extraordinary object in creation ; botany has decided its 
age and species, and the fabulous dragon is turned into an 
asparagus plant, ten or twelve thousand years old. The 
hurricane has overthrown it, and its enormous crown now 
lies on the ground beside its still erect though hollow 
trunk ; the guardian of the Golden Apples of the 
Hesperides is no more I Its memory will be for ever 
preserved by means of engravings, paintings, photography, 
science, and books of travel. The ruin deserves respect 
from the sons of the Conquerors who celebrated thanks- 
.giving services and masses for the possession of the Islands 
on this trunk consecrated by paganism ; their fathers 
made of the dragon a capitol, an altar, whence, as from a 
triumphal centre, the great artery of the island proceeded, 
and the territorial divisions allotted to the captains who 
fought and conquered in the magnificent valley of 



THE CLERGY. 293 



which for twelve centuries it formed the glory and the 
ornament. 

The existing population, credulous and superstitious 
like the Conquerors their fathers, could not shake ofif the 
clerical yoke, and for three centuries suffered from the 
disastrous consequences of the system established by the 
clergy. Ignorant credulity made the fortune of the priests 
and the misery of the Islanders; but these evils have 
passed away, and scarcely even the memory of them 
remains. The clergy can never regain their former 
prestige, even if the law permitted it, for the people are 
now as religious as they are, and far more enlightened. 

After the Conquest, the priests blessed the land, and 
took possession of the best part of it, its riches and its 
political power, for they monopolised the civil power ; 
undisputed masters of property and consciences, they 
virtually governed the Archipelago for three hundred years, 
fiercely disputing the prey among themselves ; their 
struggles have enlivened our narrative. The governors 
were as docile as their subjects, and the clergy, absolute 
masters of all, and quiet possessors of three-fifths of the 
land, slumbered in idleness, ignorance, and even more 
degrading habits. Now, thanks to political progress, 
monasteries being abolished, and the clergy brought back 
to active life, they have resumed their place in the parish, 
and if they exercise there an influence over the masses 
which their superior intellectual endowments justify, yet 
this influence diminishes day by day. Let education be 
extended, then the clergy may honourably fulfil in the 
Islands their evangelic mission ; in order to do so, let 



294 RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW, 

I — ■ 

them follow Christ's precepts, let them keep aloof from 
politics and from civil administration — ^their kingdom is 
not of this world. Let them content themselves with 
guiding the consciences of their flocks : there lies their 
real strength and their sole mission. 

The Canary Islands, near neighbom^ of Madeira, the 
most celebrated invalid resort in the world, think them- 
selves capable of rivalling her ; in our opinion, they may 
in some cases be even better adapted for this purpose, but 
they must still supplement Madeira. We examined the 
capabilities of Orotava, Puerto, and Santa Cruz. In the 
capital, during the four winter months, we found the 
warmth greater, the temperature nearly as equable, and 
the atmosphere Brier than at Madeira; in Orotava, a 
delightful spring and autumn residence; in the north- 
eastern valley lovely sites and charming walks. We were 
forced to acknowledge that the comforts to be obtained 
are not what may be hoped for at a future time, but are 
still not to be despised. 

We described the system of agriculture, the culture of 
cochineal, and the way the soil is prepared. Labour is 
remunerative, enaigration has ceased, and public morality 
lias improved. Irrigation used to be the exclusive mono- 
poly of aristocratic society, it is now to a great extent 
made general. The system might still be improved, 
especially on the east side of Teneriflfe, while in Canaria, 
irrigation being more easy is managed better. If, in con- 
sequence of progress in chemical science, the culture of 
cochineal should cease to be profitable, there can be no 
doubt that in five years the groimd could be prepared 



GUANCHE SOCIAL LIFE, 295 

for other purposes, for the soil has already produced sugar- 
cane, cereals, vines, and cochineal, and would produce 
cotton, tobacco, coffee, and even tea, to-morrow; this 
country would produce anything. 

We had before only examined the individual life of the 
G-uanches, their manners and customs, we now had to 
examine their social life and their government. We 
witnessed the coronation of a king, religious festivals, 
wrestling-matches, the civil, military, and judicial systems. 
We described the agrarian and criminal laws, and the two 
great social divisions of masters and servants, or rather of 
masters and subjects. We found castes among the popu- 
lation : the royal family, the nobility recruited from the 
strong, the courageous, and the skilful ; the priesthood, 
the vestals, the butchers, the embalmers, the warriors, and 
the shepherds. We saw the Guanches paying honour to 
tlie dead, and skilfully preserving their bodies ; and we 
described the sepulchral caves; after classifying them 
ethnographically, we found in this primitive society the 
political and social customs and religious belief of the very 
earliest nations ; this race belonging to the stone age gave 
us architectural proofs of its antiquity. Either pure 
Kelts, or partly Keltic partly Libyan, probably descended 
from the Caucasian Armenian branch, we saw the Guanches 
courageous like the Keltic racesj believing like them in one 
God ; we found in their language Keltic roots mixed with 
Semitic and Berber roots. A mystery which is perhaps 
unfathomable, but which would have been long ago cleared 
up, if any idea of the science of observation, of analysis, and 
of the philosophy of history had prevailed among the 



296 RETROSPECTIVE REVIETN. 

priests ; instead of which they were from their ignorance 
and prejudice possessed with a passion for annihilating 
everything, in order the more easily to derive the origin 
of the Gruanches from the Israelites. 

Language, music, and poetry had next to he studied. 
We endeavoured to be as cautious as possible while 
treating on these subjects, knowing how irritating is 
blame and how insipid is praise. We endeavoured to 
fulfil our task honestly rather than cleverly, saying what 
we conscientiously believed to be true, neither flattering 
nor depreciating. We think that from this chapter our 
readers will arrive at a conclusion favourable to the 
Islanders. 

Mostly Andalusians, the present inhabitants are also 
descended from the Cantabri, Carthaginians, and conti- 
nental Kelts, and they derive some primitive Keltic 
blood from the Guanches as well. This mixed descent 
has renovated the race, which is still finer in the Islands 
than in Andalusia. 

It was absolutely necessary to show the reader what is 
the present organisation of the Grovemment in the 
Canary Islands, and we did so, describing all that con- 
stitutes civil, judicial, and military proceedings, public 
works, national education, provincial and municipal 
administration, police, roads, the public health, &c. We 
finished this chapter while the revolution of September 
was preparing in Spain, and therefore we have suppressed 
the political remarks which followed, not wishing to lay 
ourselves open to the reproach of prophesying after the 
event. 



PHYSICAL AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 297 

We thought ourselves obliged to conclude by giving a 
general sketch of physical and natural science ; we did so 
briefly and plainly. A few incomplete nomenclatures will 
give men of the world a sufficient idea of the sciences to 
which they relate. 

In the form of a conversation we have promulgated 
some general ideas on the present state of Spain — a 
digression for which we beg the special indulgence of the 
public. 

And now that we have to take leave of our readers, it 
is due to them that they should know we undertook this 
work to help us to forget ; we owe to it the mitigation of 
severe sorrows. Why publish it ? The manuscript being 
sent to the printer we regretted what we had done, and 
we feel our own shortcomings so keenly that we prefer to 
remain anonymous.^ 



Madeira, April 20, 1869. 

To Monsieur Sahi/a Berthelot, French Consul in Santa 

Cruz de Teneriffe. 

You have devoted forty years of a laborious existence 
to the study of the Canary Archipelago, and greatly con- 
tributed to making the Fortunate Isles, your adopted 
country, known to the world by your great work, the 
fruit of great labour; you have raised an imperishable 
monument which leaves the works of all your predecessors 



* This paragraph occurs in the original French work. To the English 
edition the author's name is attached. 



298 RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW, 

far behind. Who may venture to treat of this subject 
after you ? 

He can do so who, preserving his incognito, has no 
desire of fame ; he to whom you showed everything — your 
beautiful reliefs, maps, drawings, portfolios, and collection, 
permitting him to draw freely from your stores, with a 
generosity only too uncommon, and an almost fatherly 
kindness ; he whom you were good enough to teach and 
advise during the whole time of his stay at Santa Cruz, 
devoting your valuable time to his benefit. 

You encouraged me to write and publish this book, and 
now that I have completed the task attempted, I feel 
that if it be of any value, it is owing to you ; thanks, 
then, my venerated master, thanks from the bottom of my 
heart. 

May your happy old age be prolonged, and allow you to 
give France another valuable work on natural history ; 
equal, surpass Moquin-Tandon, who was your friend and 
my master ; it will be the consecration of the crowning 
point of your renown. 

Accept, I beg, the deepest respect and gratitude, from 



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