CHAPTER LXXIX

.

Which speaketh of the Island of Canary and of the manner of living there.

Meseemeth I ought to give an account of many things in this book, for if I speak of them so briefly, those that read the history will remain still in desire and wishful to learn the details by which to perfect their knowledge. And since I told in the beginning of this book how the Infant Don Henry despatched an expedition to the Canary Islands, and afterwards how the ships sailed there to make some captures, I would now set forth the number of these islands and the manner of their inhabitants, and of their beliefs, and after that, everything that pertaineth to them. And, as I have found in ancient writings, in the time that the King Don Henry reigned in Castile, who was son of Don John the first, who was vanquished at the battle of Aljubarrota, a certain nobleman of France called Monsieur Jean de Béthencourt, who was a noble and Catholic man, and desired to render service to God, having learnt that these islands belonged to infidels, set out from his country with the purpose of subduing them. And coming into Castile he obtained ships and men, more than he brought, and he went against them and had great toil in their conquest; but at last he made subject three, and four remained to be subdued. And for that Monsieur Jean had now used all the provisions and money which he brought with him, he was obliged to go back to his country with the intention of returning again to finish the conquest of the whole number; and in those three which he had already conquered he left as captain a nephew of his, called Monsieur Maciot.[N197] But Monsieur Jean, when he arrived in France, returned no more to this land; some said because he fell ill of grave disorders which prevented him from returning to accomplish his good purpose; others again declared that he was kept back by the King of France on account of the wars in which he was engaged, in the which he needed his services; so the said Monsieur Maciot remained there for a time until he passed over to the Island of Madeira, as will be related further on. And the peopling of these three islands, at the time of the putting together of this book, was as follows: in the island called Lançarote there dwelt sixty men, and in that of Fuerteventura eighty, and in the other, called Ferro, there would be twelve men. And these are the three which were subdued by that great lord of France. And all their inhabitants are Christians, and carry out among them the divine offices, having churches and priests. But there is another island called Gomera, which Monsieur Maciot laboured to conquer with the aid of some Castilians whom he took in his company, and they were unable to perfect their conquest, although among those Canarians there are some Christians. And the number of its inhabitants will be seven hundred men, and in the other island of Palma there dwell five. And in the sixth island, which is that of Teneriffe or Inferno, because it hath on the top a chasm through which fire continually issueth forth, there dwell six thousand fighting men. The seventh island they call Grand Canary, in which there will be five thousand fighting men. These three islands, from the commencement of the world, have never been subdued, but many men have already been carried off from them, and by means of these nearly all their manner of life hath been learnt. And because they seemed to me very different from the usage of other races, I would here discourse a little about it, so that those who have received such grace from the Lord that they are outside the tale of such bestiality, may praise the Lord for it, because it pleased Him that all things should be made in such different manners, and that those who are placed in the holy law of Christ, and for His love would suffer some hardness of life, may get them great courage to enable them to support it well, when they recollect that these others are men likewise and that they spend such a hard and rough life with pleasure and delight to themselves. Now of all these islands which I have already named Grand Canary is the largest, and it will be in circumference six-and-thirty leagues. Its people are not without cunning, but of little good faith; and they know that there is a God from whom those who work good will receive good, and those who work evil will receive evil. And they have two men amongst them whom they call kings, and one duke, but all the rule of the island is in the hands of certain knights, who cannot be less than one hundred and ninety in number, nor as many as two hundred. And when five or six of these are dead, the other knights meet together and select as many more of them who are also the sons of knights, for they must not choose others, and these they put in the place of those who are dead, so that the number may always be full. And some declare that these men are of the noblest birth recorded, for they have ever been of the lineage of knights without admixture of villein blood. And these knights know their creed, but the others know nothing of it, but say only that they believe what their knights believe. And they must violate all the virgin girls, and after one of the knights hath slept with the girl, then her father or he may marry her to whomsoever he pleaseth. But before they sleep with them they fatten them with milk until their skin is wrinkled like that of a fig, for they hold that the thin girl is not as good as the fat one; and they say that so the womb is enlarged, enabling them to bear big children. And so, when she is stout, they exhibit her naked to those knights, and he who hath a mind to violate her, telleth her father that she is now fat enough. And her father or mother maketh her enter into the sea during some days for a certain time in each day, and she is then relieved of some of her excessive fatness, and then they take her to the knight, and when she hath been violated her father taketh her home.

These people fight with stones, and have no other arms save a short stick to hit with. They are very daring and strong fighters on the land, which is very stony, and they defend it well. All of them go naked and only wear a fork of coloured palm-leaves round about them by way of breeches, which hideth their shame, but many of them lack even this. They possess neither gold, nor silver, or money, nor jewels, nor any engines of warfare, save some things they make with stones, which they use in the place of hangers, and with which they also construct the houses wherein they dwell. They hold all gold and silver and every other metal in disdain, counting it folly in him who desireth them, and commonly there is none among them that hath a different opinion from the others. Neither care they for clothes of any kind, much or little; but rather they mock at the man who prizeth them, as they do with one who prizeth gold and silver, and all the other things I have mentioned; only they set great store on iron, which they fashion by the aid of these stones and make hooks of it to fish with. They have wheat and barley, but they are without the wit to make bread, and only make meal which they devour with flesh and butter. And they have many figs and dragon's blood trees, and dates, though poor ones, and they have also herbs which they eat. And they possess moreover sheep and goats and a sufficiency of pigs. And they number five thousand fighting men, as I have said above. They only shave with stones. Some of them call themselves Christians; and after the Infant sent Don Fernando de Castro there with his fleet, in the which he carried two thousand and five hundred men and one hundred and twenty horses, many of them became Christians; and because Don Fernando was fearful that the victuals he carried would not last, he left without conquering them altogether. And afterwards the Infant wished to send another expedition there, but the King of Castile interfered in the matter, saying that the Islands belonged to his conquest, which of a surety is not so. And hereby this very pious undertaking, to wit, that this people might live under the law of Christ, still remained to be accomplished. But this fleet was dispatched there in the year of Christ one thousand four hundred twenty and four. The inhabitants of the island think it a great evil to kill flesh or skin it, and so if they get a Christian from abroad, they are rejoiced for him to be their butcher. And when they cannot obtain as many as they need for that trade, they seek out the worst men in the island for this charge, and the women will have nothing to do with these persons, and the men will not eat with them, for they hold them to be worse than lepers among us. They light fires by sticks, rubbing one against the other. The mothers suckle their children with disgust, so that the greater part of the rearing of their babies is done by the teats of she-goats.

##