Of the ancient Inhabitants of Lancerota,

and Fuertaventura.

These two islands were divided into two parts, each of which was governed by its own chief, and separated from the other by a wall of loofe ftones, croffing the island from sea to sea. The inhabitants were humane, focial, and chearful; and very fond of finging and dancing.

Their music was vocal, accompanied with a noise made byclapping their hands and beating with their feet: they were very nimble, and took great delight in leaping and running, which were their principal diverfions; two men took a ftaff or pole, which they held by the ends, keeping it parallel with the ground, and he who leaped over it when it was held higheft, carried off the prize. At this exercise they were fo expert, that many of them could not only leap over the pole when it was held as high as those who held it could reach above their heads, but at three jumps could leap over three fuch poles held one behind another.

The natives of these two islands were of a larger size, and better made than thofe of the others, and fo they are still. Duels and combats were frequent among them, at which they fought with sticks of a yard and an half long, which they called Fizzezes.

It was a custom among them, that if a man entered his enemy's house by the door, and killed him or did him harm, he was not punished: but if he came upon him by leaping over the wall, and killed him, then he was put to death, by placing his head upon a flat stone, and with another of a round form, dafing out his brains.

They were excellent (wimmers, and ufed to kill the fish on the fea coafts with sticks. Their houses were built of ftone without cement of any kind, yet they were yery frong. The entry was fo narrow, that only one perfon could go in at a time. They had alfo places of worship, which they called efeguen; thefe were of a circular form, and conVOL. III.

fifted of two walls one within another, with a space between, these also were built of loose stones, and the entry was narrow. In these temples they offered to their God, for they acknowledged but one, milk and butter. They facrificed to him on the mountains, pouring out from earthen vessels, offerings of goat's milk, and adoring him by litt ing up their hands towards heaven.

The habits of the natives of Lancero. ta were made of goat skins fewed together, and fashioned like a cloak with a hood to it; this cloak reached to the knees, and the feams were very neatly clofed with thongs of leather as fine as common thread, which were cut and prepared with flints or other sharp stones, for they had no metal among them.

Their fhoes were of goat skins with the hairy fide outwards.

They had long hair, and wore their beards plaited. The chief wore a kind of diadem like a bishop's mitre, made of goat's leather, and adorned with feafheils.

When they were fick, which feldom herbs which grew in the country; and happened, they had recourse to the when they were troubled with acute pains, they scarified the part with sharp ones, or burnt it, and then anointed it with goat's butter.

They buried their dead in a cave, ftretching out the body, and laying goat skins under and above it.

Their food was barley-meal roasted, and goat's defh fometimes roasted, and fometimes boiled; alto butter and milk. They eat out of Vellels made of clay, and hardened in the fun.

They obtained fire by taking a flick of dry hard wood, and turning it rapidly round on the point, in a foft dry (pongy thiftle. This custom is kill continued.

they fowed by turning up the ground They had no grain but barley; which with goat's horns; they threshed it out with fticks, and winnowed it with their hands; they then ground it in a handmill, conftructed with two ftones, nearly in the fame manner as is it!!! uled in fome remote parts of Europe.

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The natives of Fuertaventura were cloathed with jackets made of fheep skins, and short breeches that left the knee bare; they wore alfo fhort hofe, that reached to the mid-leg, and the fame fhoes as the natives of Lancerota. They wore their hair and beards alfo in the fame manner, and high goat fkin caps on their heads.

When John de Betancour arrived in this country, the island of Fuertaventura contained 4000 fighting men, among whom were many famous for their virtue and valour, who were distinguished by the appellation of Mahay and Alli hay.

It is faid that Guadarfia, who at this time was king of Lancerota, was defcended from Ruiz de Avendano, a Spaniard, who being sent upon a naval expedition, with five ships, in 1377, by Henry the IId, of Caftile, was driven by a tempeft on this island.

The Spaniards were kindly received by the natives, who treated them with the best that the island afforded; and Ruiz was lodged in the house of Quonzamas the king. The first return this good guest made to his royal benefactor, was to feduce his wife, by whom he had a daughter named Yeo. She was very fair in comparison of the natives, and when he was of age, she was married

to one of the royal family, who became king of the island after Guanarame and Tinguafaya were carried prisoners to Spain by Peraza, in 1385 or 1386. By this prince Yeo, he had a fon named Guadarfia; and after Guanarame's death, fays this author, there was a diffention in the island'concerning the fucceffion; the natives infifted that Guadarfia was incapable, because his mother Yeo appeared by her complexion to be the daughter of a stranger, and not of Quonzamas the king*.

To end this difpute it was determined in council to shut up Yeo with three female fervants in the house of the deceafed Quonzamas, and there to smoke them, and that if she came out alive, the others being dead, the fhould be deemed the genuine offspring of Quonzamas. Yeo, by the advice of an old woman, carried fecretly with her into the room of trial, a fponge moistened in water, and when the fmoke became trouble fome, the put it to her mouth and noftrils, and breathed in it; this expedient was fo fuccessful, that when the door of the room was opened, the three fervants were found fuffocated, and Yeo ftill alive, upon which the was brought forth with great honour, and her fon Guadaria immediately declared king.

It is very ftrange that those who undertake to write hiftories fhould content themselves with piecing fcrap to fcrap, without once reviewing their work as a whole, or appearing to know.in one page, what they have recorded in another; this writer tells us, that John de Betancour first landed on the island of Lancerota in 1400, before he tells us, that he found upon the throne a king defcended from a Spaniard, who firft landed there in 1377; this defcendant of the Spaniard appears to be his grandfon by a wife of Quonzama, and tho' it is poffible that an infant whofe mother could not be born till 1378 might in 1400, only 22 years afterwards, be upon the throne, yet this fuppofition will not render the author?s account probable or confiftent with itself. He tells us, that king Guanarame was carried away captive in 1385, and that when Yeo was of age he was married to one of the royal family, who became king upou the captivity of Guanarame; fhe was of age therefore and married while Guanarame was upon the throne, yet when he was carried away he could be but 7 years old; neither was the king, whom Jolin Betancour found reigning at Lancerota, an infant; for within two years afterwards we find him refenting the behaviour of those whom John de Betancour left behind him, and receiving a pardon from him at his return for hoftilities against him; he alfo at this time rece.ved baptifm, and was the firft of the natives that did fo, and Betancour allotted him the house and lands of Quonzamas. But this paffage is yet farther embarraffed; how came the husband of Yeo, who fucceeded to the throne upon the captivity of Guanarame, not to keep poffeffion of it upon his death, especially as no doubt was made of the right of decent of his fon by the father's fide; and if it was upon his death that the fucceffion was difputed, why are we told it was upon the death of Guanarame? and by what means did these poor Lancerotans learn when their king Guanarame, who was carried away by a Spanish pyrate, died in captivity? Of

Of the Ifland Gomera, and its ancient
Inhabitants.

The derivation of the name Gomera is not known the natives in the 14th century were of a middle ftature, a lively difpofition, very active and dexterous, especially in flinging tones and darts, to which they were trained from their infancy; they alfo acquired the art of eluding ftones and darts thus flung, without changing place, by waving their bodies to and fro, and even by catching the ftones and arrows in their flight. Their other weapons were long poles fharpened at the end.

The apparel of the men, like those of Lancerota, was a cloak of goat skins, reaching fomething below the knee; the women wore a petticoat, and a head-dress that hung down to their shoulders, both which were of goat fkins dried, and curiously painted. A red dye they extracted from a tree called Taginafte, and a blue from a plant called Paftil; all the body between the head-dress and the petticoat was naked: both sexes wore fhoes of hog-fkins.

Of Ferro.

The name of this island before the Spaniards got poffeffion of it, was Efero, ftrong. When the Spaniards fhowed the inhabitants iron, they finding it ftronger than any fubftance they knew before, called it by the name of their ifland, Efero, strong; when they began to speak Spanish, they called iron indifferent Efero, or Hierro, Hierro being Spanish for iron; by a natural confequence they also substituted Hierro for Efero, when they spoke of the island, and the Portuguese following their own dialect, called it Ferro.

The natives were of a middle ftature, and a melancholy turn; all their fongs were on grave fubjects, and fet to flow plaintive tunes, to which they danced in a ring, joining hands together, and now and then jumping up in pairs fo equally, that they feemed to be united. They dwelt in large circular enclofures, the walls of which were of dry stone without cement, each enclosure

having one narrow entry; on the infide they placed poles or fpars against

the wall in fuch a manner that one end rested on the top of the wall, and the other on the ground at a confiderable diftance from it; thefe they covered with branches of trees or fern, and each enclosure contained about twenty families. A parcel of goat skins, upon which they fpread fern, was their bed, and dreffed goat fkins were their bed cloaths.

It was a custom to give new-born childern fern roots, roasted, bruised, and mixed with butter, before they of fered them the breast.

Their food was the flesh of goats, fheep, and hogs, with a few of the roots called by the Spaniards batatas. They had neither wheat, barley, nor any other grain. Their bread was made of fern-roots, which, with milk and butter, made the principal part of their di et. Their drink was water.

Their habits were the fame as thofe of the inhabitants of Gomera, except that the women wore nothing upon their heads, but dressed their hair, which was very long, into a great number of small plaits.

All the inhabitants of this island lived under one king, confequently had no occafion to go to war, nor had any warlike weapon; they carried indeed long poles, but these were only to assist them in leaping from one crag of the rocks to another.

Each man had but one wife (whether in this they agreed or differed with the inhabitants of the islands already mentioned, we are not told.) Every man alfo married whom he liked beit, without regard either to confanguinity or rank, except that he was not permitted to marry his mother or his fifter.

Their only substance was flocks, and it was ufual for a man when he chose a wife, to make a prefent to her father according to his ability.

The king received no ftipulated tribute; but every one made him a present of fheep, according to his ability or Iris pleasure.

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