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.