Part 8

On the western slopes the pine woods soon commence, the splendid trees increasing in size until the sacred Pino de la Virgen is reached--a giant whose trunk measures some 25 ft. round. Hardly a traveller passes the shrine at its foot without dropping a coin, however humble, into the money-box which is kept for its support. How long the pine has been regarded as a holy tree, or for how many generations the lamp has been lighted nightly, I know not; but in 1830 Berthelot wrote: “This beautiful tree, said to be a contemporary of the Conquest, shows no sign of age; a little statue of the Virgin has been placed in the first fork of its branches; every evening the woodcutters of the neighbourhood come silently and reverently to light the little lamp which hangs above the sacred image. At dusk, if one passes near the _Pino Santo_, this lamp, which shines alone in the depth of the forest, casting shadows on the leafy bower which protects this mysterious shrine, inspires one with a sense of deep feeling and dread. The presence of this tree, which has been made sacred and endowed with mysterious powers, caused me to feel for it the very greatest veneration.”

Though the little village of El Paso is situated somewhat nearer to the Gran Caldera, few travellers stop there, as it does not boast of an inn, however humble, and to be taken as a “paying guest” does not appeal to many people. It is better to push on to Los Llanos, a pleasant village reached by a road from Tazaconte, which runs through orange groves, where in spring the air is heavy and sickly with the scent of the blossom, and then passing through almond groves and orchards of every kind of fruit tree, so to the very last the beauty of road is kept up, and the traveller is well repaid.

Though the expedition to the Gran Caldera is always described as a tiring one, the natives would feel deeply hurt if any visitor to their island did not go to see their mighty crater. It is indeed mighty--a vast basin, measuring in places four to five miles across, and some 6500 to 7000 ft. deep; its very size makes it difficult to realise that it is a crater, and it might easily be regarded as merely a deep hollow among the mountains. Though its walls are great bare grey crags, the pine woods which clothe the lower slopes of the hills which rise from the bottom of the crater, in places the bottom itself being clothed with trees, make it all the less like an ordinary crater. Great deep ravines tear the base, and these in their turn have become pine woods, carpeted with soft and slippery pine needles which for centuries possibly have lain undisturbed. The Caldera is recommended as a camping-ground, as water, which in Palma is scarce, is to be found; in fact, innocent-looking dry stony beds may through rainy weather on the higher land suddenly become a roaring stream. Some people might think it too inaccessible a spot, but the solitude, and the sound of the wind whispering among the pines, would appeal to many. That the depth of the crater has altered since a bygone age is evident, as caves of the Haouarythes, the aboriginal inhabitants of La Palma, are now absolutely inaccessible; nothing but a bird could reach the entrance to them. The action of water is said to account for this; possibly underground streams broke loose after a plutonic effort and upheaval of the volcano, and the upper crust subsided.

Peasants are still to be seen wearing the peculiar hood or _montera_ made of dark brown woollen cloth lined with red flannel, in shape like a sou’wester, turned up in front fitting closely to the head, the flap hanging behind lined with red, or sometimes if the flap is not required as a protection against the weather the corners are buttoned over the peak in front. The _mantas_, blanket cloaks, are all made of wool woven in the island. These are both articles of men’s dress. The women’s caps have no flaps, and are very ugly, and the picturesque dress which survived for a time in Breña Baja is now extinct altogether, as are also the tiny round hats made from the pith of the palm.

XII

GOMERA

Gomera is seldom visited by tourists, but a flying visit can be paid to it during the stay of the inter-insular boat which plies between the islands. In summer its higher land and woods would be an ideal camping-ground for a traveller with tents, and the climate is said to be very good. The soil appears to be extremely rich and well repays the cultivator, but the Cumbres are still clad with beautiful woods, which up to now have escaped from the destructive charcoal-burners. The soil of the island is volcanic, but it is one of the few of the group which cannot boast of an old crater, and the highest point is only about 4400 ft. A remarkable feature of the vegetation is the entire absence of pines; there are none at the present time, and old historians always comment on their absence. This in itself showed ancient writers the approximate height of the island, as nowhere is the native _Pinus canariensis_ found in its natural conditions under 4000 ft. above sea level, while in the region below that altitude _Erica arborea_ flourishes. In Gomera the heaths attain larger dimensions than in any other island, and grow into real trees, and on the beautiful expedition from San Sebastian, the port, to Valle Hermoso (the Beautiful Valley), which appears well to deserve its name, the traveller passes through a succession of well-watered and wooded country and lovely forest scenery, said to be unsurpassed in the Canaries. San Sebastian was formerly of more importance than it is now, as in old days its naturally sheltered harbour was much valued by navigators.

It was probably for this reason that it became the favourite anchorage of Christopher Columbus on his voyages of discovery. He first called at Puerto de la Luz, in Grand Canary, in order to repair the damage done to one of his fleet, but leaving his lieutenant in charge of the damaged ship, Columbus himself sailed to Gomera on August 12, 1492. On this occasion he stayed for eleven days, returning to Grand Canary to pick up La Pinta, but he again called at Gomera on September 1. He appears to have spent a week in storing provisions, and several sailors from Gomera joined his expedition. On his second voyage he returned to his old anchorage, this time again picking up sailors, and as he had a much larger fleet of vessels under his command, besides plants and seeds he embarked cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens, all of which he wished to introduce to the country he had already discovered, a fact which has been of great interest to zoologists who had been puzzled to determine the true race of many animals found in the West Indies. Twice again he visited Gomera, so there is no doubt it was his favourite port of call. Some old historians assert that for a time he lived in Gomera. At San Sebastian an old house is still pointed out as having belonged to him. After his marriage in Lisbon with a daughter of the Portuguese navigator Perestrello, for some years little seems to be known of the admiral’s doings. The inhabitants of Madeira claim that he lived in a house in Funchal, while other writers affirm that he lived in Gomera and speak of his return to “his old domicile” after one of his voyages.

In old days the inhabitants were called Ghomerythes, and after the conquest of the island by the Spaniards, which did not prove a difficult matter, as though the islanders were a brave little band they knew little or nothing of the art of warfare, the conquerors enlisted the services of the natives to help them in attacking the other islands. The island was not left entirely undisturbed even after the conquest, as Sir Francis Drake made several attempts to take the island in 1585, and five years later a Dutch fleet under Vanderdoes invaded the town. On the walls of the quaint old church in San Sebastian are paintings showing the repulse of the Dutch fleet in the harbour in 1599. The Moors in the seventeenth century attacked and burnt a great part of the town.

A peculiarity of the island is the strange whistling language, which probably in ancient times was in universal practice, but is now more or less confined to one district, the neighbourhood of the Montaña de Chipude, being very rarely used by the natives in San Sebastian, who have most of them lost the art. The best whistlers can make themselves heard for three or four miles, and in the whistling district all messages are sent in this way, which no doubt is of the greatest convenience where telegrams are unknown and deep _barrancos_ separate one village from another. The greatest adepts in the art do not use their fingers at all, and by mere intonations and variations of two or three notes a sufficiently elaborate language has been invented to enable a conversation to be carried on. The following may possibly be a traveller’s tale, but it shows the use which can be made of the language: “A landed proprietor from San Sebastian with farms in the south took lessons secretly. The next time he visited his tenants he heard his approach heralded from hill to hill, instructions being given to hide a cow here or a pig there, and so on, in order that he should not claim his _medias_ or share of the same.” The writer of the above himself heard the following short message given: “There is a _caballero_ here who wants a letter taken to San Sebastian. Tell Fulano to take this place on his way and fetch it.” This was at once understood and acted upon. If any doubt is held as to the accuracy of the message, the answer comes to repeat, and when understood the receiver answers back, “Aye, aye.” It is to be hoped that the practice will not entirely die out, as I believe the whistling language of Gomera is unique.

XIII

FUERTEVENTURA, LANZAROTE AND HIERRO

The three islands of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, and Hierro, complete the group of seven Fortunate Isles, as the little satellites of Graciosa, Alegranza, Montaña Clara, are hardly more than large rocks, uninhabited and only visited occasionally by fishermen.

Fuerteventura, though by no means a very small island, being over 60 miles long and about 18 miles broad, has remained in a primitive and unexploited condition, because in spite of the fertility of the soil, which is said to be remarkable, the scarcity of water is great and the inhabitants are entirely dependent on the rainfall. In a good year, namely a rainy year, the island grows a very good wheat crop, almost larger than that of any other island, but the absence of fresh-water springs, or the apathy of the natives in not making use of what there are, has prevented any agricultural development. The island has no pine forest and trees are scarce: great parts of it are barren, sandy and rocky plains, and the little vegetation there is, is said to resemble that which is found in certain parts of the northern deserts of Africa. Its highest point is only about 2700 ft. and is called Orejas de Asno (Ass’s Ears), situated in the sandy peninsula at the extreme south of the island. At the present time travellers are warned that drinking water is scarce, nasty, and frequently has to be paid for. Whether the island is even drier than it was at the beginning of last century I know not, but Berthelot and his companion remark that there were many good springs, which even in July, the driest month, were cool and clear, but were allowed to waste themselves, no trouble being taken to collect the water either for irrigation or domestic use.

Both Fuerteventura and the neighbouring island of Lanzarote are given a distinctly African appearance by the extensive use of camels as beasts of locomotion and burden, donkeys even being comparatively uncommon and difficult to procure so communication between the villages is almost entirely carried on by means of camels.

Lanzarote received its name from a corruption of the Christian name of a Genoese, Captain Lancelot de Malvoisel, and in the old Medici map the island is marked with the Genoese coat-of-arms to show that it belonged to that town.

Though not as near the African coast as Fuerteventura, which is only about 60 miles from Cape Juby, the island is very African in aspect in places, the camels, the vast stretches of blown sand and the absence of vegetation being suggestive of the Sahara.

The few springs in the north of the island are utilised for growing crops of wheat and tomatoes, but are not of sufficient size to allow of any extensive plan of irrigation, and in the south the inhabitants depend entirely on rain water.

Lanzarote is almost the most volcanic of all the islands, and between 1730 and 1737 no fewer than twenty-five new craters opened, so it is not to be wondered at that the inhabitants were much alarmed when fresh disturbances were felt in the summer of 1824. In a series of letters written by Don Augustin Cabrera, an inhabitant of the island at the time, an excellent account is given of the eruptions. A slight earthquake preceded the sudden appearance of a new crater in the early morning of July 1, 1824, in the neighbourhood of Tao, in the centre of a plain. The crater, which at first had the appearance of a great crevasse, emitted showers of sand and red hot stones, and did great damage to the surrounding country, destroying some most valuable reservoirs, and it was even feared that Tiagua, though a long distance away, would be destroyed, as a _montañeta_ in the district began to smoke. On September 16, the writer says that after eighteen hours the crater had ceased its shower of hot ashes, but a dense column of smoke spouted forth, and the rumbling could be heard for miles round, and from the _montañeta_, which at first had only smoked, came a torrent of boiling water. “Yesterday,” says the writer, “after there had been comparative quiet for some time, a loud noise was heard, and the boiling water spouted forth in torrents. At times there is dense smoke, which clears away, and then comes the water again.” Writing in October he gives a most graphic and alarming account of an eruption on September 29, when the volcano burst through the lava deposit of 1730, and flaming torrents flowed down to the sea. A noise like loud thunder had continued unceasingly, and prevented the inhabitants from sleeping, even many miles away. No wonder they dreaded a repetition of the disasters of 1730-37, as in two months two new craters had opened. On October 18 another letter says: “There is no doubt a furnace is under our feet. For twelve days the volcano had appeared dead, though frequent shocks of earthquake warned us such was not the case, and true enough yesterday the volcano burst through a bed of lava in the centre of a great plain, sending up into the air a column of boiling water 150 ft. high.” It is also said that for several days the heat was suffocating, and sailors could scarcely see the island because of the dense mist.

The island has been a source of the deepest interest to geologists, and both M. Buch and Webb and Berthelot visited it between 1820-38, spending many weeks in the island. Few travellers seem to find their way there now, as there is no port and no mole passengers have to be carried ashore.

The little island of Graciosa, only five miles long and a mile broad, separated from Lanzarote by the narrow strait of El Rio, is a broad stretch of sand covered with shells, but the three principal cones in the island are said to be volcanic, and show the origin of the island. After autumn rains, the sand is covered with herbaceous plants, and in old days the inhabitants of the north of Lanzarote used to transport their cattle to feed there.

Montaña Clara, hardly more than a rock some 300 ft. high, lies to the north of Graciosa, and Allegranza, the “Joy” of Bethencourt, as it was the first soil on which he set foot, is to the north again, and is really the first island of the Canary Archipelago, so it consequently boasts of a lighthouse. The possession of the island in old days was a matter of much dispute, as the feathers of a bird (_Larus Marinus_) were very valuable, and nearly as profitable as the down of the eider; also puffins, which existed here in vast numbers, were salted and sold, and now a small amount of fish-curing is done on the island at certain seasons. The greater part of the island is taken up by a crater of considerable extent, so even this tiny island is not without its Gran Caldera.

Hierro, the Isle of Iron, is to the extreme south-west of the Canary Archipelago, and for several centuries was probably regarded by ancient navigators as the most western point in the world--beyond lay the unknown. The name is a corruption by the Spaniards of the word _heres_, which in the language of the original Ben-bachirs, whose name was in its turn changed to Bembachos, meant a small reservoir or tank for collecting rain water. As the island is almost entirely dependent on the rainfall these tanks were of the greatest value to the natives, and in old records it is stated that a _here_ was much more valued in a marriage settlement than land. The theory that the island was called _hierro_, meaning iron, because of the presence of the metal in the island is not much regarded, as we are especially told by old historians that when Bethencourt attacked the island the natives were armed with lances which had _not_ iron heads, and the historian adds, the only iron these natives knew was from the chains of their oppressors, who appear to have treated them with great cruelty.

The excessive moisture of the air and the presence of a fair amount of wooded country which attracts the moisture, enables the flocks of sheep to live on the natural vegetation. The only water they get is from eating leaves of plants when saturated with dew, their principal fodder being the leaves and even roots of asphodel, also mulberry and fig leaves. Hierro is especially celebrated for its figs, which are the best grown in any of the islands, and extremely free fruiting. One tree alone may bear 400 lb. of fruit.

The best-known springs are those of Los Llanillos, which furnishes the best drinking water in the islands, being said to be always clear and cold, and the spring of Sabinosa. The latter is warm, smells of sulphur, and has a bitter taste and medicinal properties. One of Bethencourt’s chaplains mentions that it has a great merit: “When you have eaten till you can eat no more, you then drink a glass of this water, and after an hour all the meat is digested, and you feel just as hungry as you did before you began, and can begin all over again!”

There is no sea-port village, the landing-place consisting merely of a small cove sheltered by masses of fallen rock, and the little capital of Valverde lies two hours distant on foot. As practically no accommodation is to be relied on, those who are bent on exploring the island are recommended to provide themselves with a tent. The vegetation is said to be of great interest to botanists, and they appear to be the only travellers who ever visit the island.

XIV

HISTORICAL SKETCH

Few people, until they are proposing to pay a visit to the “Fortunate Islands,” a name by which the group of seven Canary Islands seems to have been known since very early days, ever trouble themselves to learn anything of their history. Beyond the fact that they belong to Spain, a piece of information probably surviving from their school-room days, they have never troubled their heads about them, and I have known a look of surprise come over the face of an Englishwoman on hearing a Spaniard mention a fact which probably dated “from before the Conquest, quite five centuries ago,” entirely forgetting that “the Conquest” could mean anything but the English conquest, instead of the conquest of the Canary Islands by the Spaniards at the latter end of the fifteenth century.

Possibly the reason that so few authentic records remain of their ancient history is that though the outlying islands of the group are only some 80 or 100 miles from the African coast, still they were on the extreme limit of the ancient world. The various theories that they were really the home of the Hesperides, or the garden of Atlas, King of Mauretania, where the golden apple was guarded by the dragon, the Peak being the Mount Atlas of mythology, or again that they were merely the remains of the sunken continent of Atlantis, can never really be settled, but it seems almost certain that they were not entirely unknown to the ancients. The fact that Homer mentions an island “beyond the Pillars of Hercules,” as the Straits of Gibraltar were called, has caused the adoption of the Pillars of Hercules, with a small island in the distance surmounted with _Oce ano_, as one of the coats-of-arms of the Islands, though the more correct one appears to be the two large dogs (because of the two native dogs which were taken back to King Juba about 50 B.C., when he sent ships from Mauretania to inspect Canaria) supporting a shield on which is depicted the seven islands. Herodotus in his description of the countries beyond Libya says that, “the world ends where the sea is no longer navigable, in that place where are the gardens of the Hesperides, where Atlas supports the sky on a mountain as conical as a cylinder.” Hesiod says that “Jupiter sent dead heroes to the end of the world, to the Fortunate Islands, which are in the middle of the ocean.” There is no doubt that the Romans, on re-discovering the Islands, christened them _Insulæ Fortunatæ_, which name has clung to them ever since.

Pliny, in writing about the islands, quotes the statements of Juba, who said the islands were placed at the extreme limit of the world, and were perpetually clothed with fire.

It is unfortunate that the Spaniards, when they conquered the islands, took no trouble to preserve any of their ancient records, and as the natives could not write, any history which might have been handed down from generation to generation was entirely lost. For this reason very little is known for certain as to what happened to the islands in the Middle Ages, though they appear to be mentioned by an Arabian geographer in the early part of the twelfth century, who writes of “the island of the two magician brothers, Cheram and Clerham, from which, in clear weather, smoke could be seen issuing from the African coast.” Various European countries, having heard tales of islands beyond the seas, appear to have made efforts to conquer them. The fate of the Genoese expedition in A.D. 1291 is not known, and though the French are said to have “discovered” them in 1330, it was the Portuguese who took advantage of this discovery, and a few years later sent an expedition to conquer them. They met with no success, and were repulsed by the inhabitants of Gomera, and though they made yet another attempt after a few years, it appears to have been without result.

No doubt the comparative peace which reigned in the islands for so long was owing to the fact that Europe was too much occupied with civil wars and crusades, to explore and conquer far-off lands, but during the fourteenth century a French nobleman of Spanish extraction was made “King of the Fortunate Islands” by the Pope, and told to Christianise them in the best way he could. Nothing much seems to have come of these instructions, though some missionaries were no doubt sent to Grand Canary.