An Ecohistory of the Canary Islands: A Precursor of European Colonialization in the New

World and Australasia

Author(s): Alfred W. Crosby
Source: Environmental Review: ER, Vol. 8, No. 3, Special Issue: International Dimensions of
Environmental History (Autumn, 1984), pp. 214-235
Published by: Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental History
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3984323 .
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 An Ecohistory of the
Canary Islands:
A Precursor of European
Colonializationin the
New World and Australasia

Alfred W. Crosby
Universityof Texas

In the 1400swesternEuropeans,in a rush of ingenuity,broughtto

its classic form the three masted, maneuverable,seaworthysailing ship
that would with reasonablesafety carrythem acrossoceans. Then- im-
mediately,in fact, accordingto the usuallystatelypace of the age - Col-
umbus and Da Gama and the rest chargedout of the ports of Iberiato
find the East Indies,Cathay,Cubaor whateverelse mightheaveover the
horizon. But the precipitousnessof events- the seizuresof Goa, Malac-
ca, Tenochtitlan,Cuzco, the discoveriesof Americaand the Pacific -
is illusory. Columbus,Albuquerqueand Magellanwere not the first of
theirkindbutthe heirsof a hundredyearsand moreof Atlanticvoyaging
and experimentalcolonizingin the islandsof the easternAtlantic. Their
predecessorshad testedthe new vesselsand the newtechniquesof naviga-
tion all the way south to the tropics and beyond, and all the way west
to the Azores;and therewereccnquistadorsbeforethe generationof Cor-
tes and Pizarro.'
In 1492 Columbusdid not sail due west from Spain because his
predecessorshad learnedthat to do so would be to sail straightinto the 215
eye of the prevailingwinds in those latitudes.He droppedsouth to the
CanaryIslandswherethe tradewindsprovideaccessto the other side of
the Atlantic.Whenhe madecontactwithnativepeoplesthereand found-
ed colonies, he did not haveto improvisewaysand meansout of the thin
air. Precedentsfor all this had been set in Iberia, as Spanishand Por-
tugueseChristianshad conqueredMoorishlandsand peoples, and in the
easternAtlantic,as Europeanexplorersand settlershad seizedthe islands
of Macaronesia:the Azores, Madeira,the CapeVerdesandthe Canaries.
When Columbusstoppedat the Canariesfor repairsand victualson his
firstvoyageto America,the conquestof thoseislandswas stillin progress.2
Guanches,the indigenesof the Canaries,stillcontrolledtwo of theirhome
islands, including Tenerife, the largest member of the archipelago.
Originally"Guanche"referredonly to the aboriginesof Tenerife,but now
it is often usedto referto all the originalinhabitantsof the CanaryIslands.

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 CANARY ISLANDS

IOTE

^ I ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
' b.__
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Boj

{X>~~~AL lkA
Pasl t" V. TENERI E.
j
'a,

p4. ..... ;

nO :r IL , j
XE

24 -E ox,J.4
p-rssoeJ4p ,<_,r

18 16 16
Map from Jean de Bethencourt, The_Canarian (London: Haklu
1st Series,? No. 46, 1872) .

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 The reach of the ancient Mediterraneanpeoples - Phoenicians,
Greeks,Romans- may have been sufficientfor them to have touched
but not to havegraspedMacaronesia.Plutarchspeaksof a pairof islands
beyond Gibraltarwith good soil and mild climate that may have been
Madeiraand its companion, Porto Santo. Pliny mentions a group of
severalAtlantic islands with fertile soil, moderateweather,dogs, large
lizardsand much fruit.3These FortunateIsles, as he called them, were
probablythe Canaries,but even if the ancientsdid reachthem, they had
littleinfluenceon the islandsor vice versa.TheEuropeanswho discovered
or rediscoveredMacaronesiain the 14thcenturyhad to sail rightoff the
edgeof the worldas theyknewit,4andtheyfoundthenativesof the Canary
Islandsto be just as foreignas the AmericanIndians,Australianaborigines
and Polynesiansappearedto be when their time arrivedto be bundled
into the main currentof world history.
The Canariesare indeedfortunateisles. Theirvolcanicsoils are rich
and the climatekind, thoughthe rainfallin the easternpartof the group
is too slightfor muchfarmingandsummerdroughtis standardeverywhere.
They lie in the latitudesof the Sahara,but the cool CanaryCurrentand
tradewindsrenderthemMediterraneanin temperature,and, to a degree,
in flora and fauna. Plant and animalgeographersboth put the Canaries
not in the samecategoryas tropicalAfrica, but as the Mediterraneanlit-
toral far to the north.5
The Canaryarchipelagois the largestin area, highestin altitudeand
most complexbiogeographicallyof all the Macaronesiangroups. It also
lies closest to the mainlandand is the only Macaronesiangroupto have
had humaninhabitantsbefore the coming of the Europeans.6Thereare
sevenCanaryislandsstretching400 kilometersfrom La Palmaand Hierro
in the west, throughGomera,Tenerifeand Gran Canariato Lanzarote
and Fuerteventuraabouta hundredkilometersoff the coast of Morocco.
7
TABLEI
Total,
Lanza- Fuerte- Gran Tene- Go- La All
rote ventura Canaria rife mera Palma Hierro islands

Area (sq km),

Total 873 1725 1534 2060 378 728 277 7575
Below cloud
216 belt 873 1725 1030 1170 208 363 194 5563
In cloud
belt - - 470 445 170 260 82 1427
Above 1500
meters - - 34 445 - 105 1 585
Highest point,
meters 670 807 1950 3711 1484 2423 1520 3711
No. of species,
vascular plants 366 348 763 1079 539 575 391 1531

The islandsfall into two categoriesby size. Tenerife,Fuerteventuraand

Gran Canaria are the largest, and the rest are considerably smaller. In
variety of life forms Tenerife and Gran Canariaexceed all the others
becauseof their size and their greaterelevations,which providegreater
varietyof micro-climates.Snowaccumulationis commonin the highlands
of both. Thesetwo had largepopulationsof aborigineswho ferociously
resistedthe Europeaninvaders.8

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 Hewyoodilla oligocep.ala Svent. & Bramwell, endemic to a single cliff-face on
the north-west coast of Tenerife.

After David Bramwell, "The Endemic Flora of the Canary Islands," in

Biogeography and Ecology in the Canary Islands, ed. by G. Kunkel (Hague:
Dr. W. Junk b.v., 1976), p. 211.

The CanaryCurrent,flowing from north to south, and the trade

winds, blowing from the north and the northeast, ensuredthe nearly
perfectisolation of the Canariesuntil the surgeof maritimeinnovation
and adventurebrokethat isolationsome six hundredyearsago. It is easy
to sail from Africa or Europeto the Canaries,but very difficult to sail
back. For the sailorwithouta lateenor fore-and-aftsail, a voyageto the
Canariescan be a trip into a tunneltoo tight to turn aroundin. The an-
cientsmay havetakentheirgalleyswithgreatsquaresailsto the Fortunate 217
Isles, but if they did, they had the devil's own time gettinghome again.9
Despitethe nearnessof Africaandthe occasionalHarmatan(another
one-way wind, this one directlyfrom the Sahara),the flora and fauna
of the Canariesare quite distinctive.When humansfirst set foot there,
long beforethe Christianera, it seemsthat the only animalspresentwere
birds,rats, largelizardsand turtlesor tortoises,and the flora was largely
unlikethat of any placeelse on earth,exceptMadeiraand, to a lesserex-
tent, the otherMacaronesian islands.The 19thcenturybotanist,SirJoseph
Dalton Hooker, declaredthat therewereno islandsin the world as close
to a continentthat had a selectionof plants so differentfrom the adja-
cent mainland's.470 of today's total of 1600to 1700 plants are unique
to the Canaries,and 110 more are found only in Macaronesia.We can
assumethe flora was even moredistinctivewhenhumansfirst arrivedon
Canaryshoresand even when, milennialater, the Europeansdebarked.IO

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 The first humanscameno laterthanthe secondmilenniumB.C. and
the last wave of Guancheancestorsno laterthan the first centuriesA.D.
These people were sea-going contemporariesof the great Polynesian
navigators,but unlike them, afterwardsforgot whateverthey knew of
seamanship.Whenthe Europeansarrived,the Guancheshadveryfew or,
more probably,no boats whatever- certainlynone capableof voyages
to the mainland."' Like Darwin'sGalapagosfinches, the Guancheswere
in all likelihooddescendantsfrom a very few ancestorsand had evolved
independentlyon theirseparateislands.The finchessurvivedthe coming
of the Europeansandaffordedbiologistsa greatopportunityto learnabout
divergentbiologicalevolution. The Guancheswould have providedan-
thropologistswitha classicexampleof divergentculturalevolution,if they,
too, had survived.
We know only a little about the Guanches.Some were ruggedand
some gracile,some swarthyand some light, evenblond, accordingto ear-
ly accounts.(Columbussaid they wereneitherwhite or black - no help
there.) Tissue taken from their dried mummiesinforms us that eighty-
five, ninetyand even higherpercentagesof them, like manyotherisolated
peoples, had 0-type blood.'2 Like the Polynesians,they had waited for
the NeolithicRevolutionbeforelaunchingintothe surf,andthereforeknew
somethingof that immenseevent. They raised barley, probablywheat,
and othercropssuch as beansand peas, and tendedherdsof goats, pigs,
probablysheep, and they had dogs, but no cattleor horses.Theydid not
spinor weaveandhadno metaltools, weaponsor decorations.The Canary
Islandshave no metal ore whatever,whichrenderedirrelevantwhatever
knowledgeof metallurgythe Guanchesmayhavebroughtwiththemfrom
the mainland.'3
IN

218

TumuiS 'OfL4 GuwhcM,Gre, C-ane,r (Scale:4mn)

After John Mercer, The Canary_Islaqnders (London: Rex Collings, 1980), 92.

They werenot an advancedpeople, not even as comparedwith their

probable near relations, the Berbers. They had only one foot in the
Neolithic - the other was still in the Paleolithic- yet they must have
had a drasticeffect on the islands' ecosystems.They had fire, and fires
spread,openingthe way for erosionand new plants. Theywerefarmers,
meaningthattheyuprootednativegrowthoverwideexpansesandreplaced
it with importedplants. Moreimportant,they werepastoralistswith vast
flocks - in the early 15thcenturyone witnesstells us that 60,000 goats
in a yearcouldhavebeentakenfromFuerteventura alone'14 andlivestock -

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in such legions transformsecosystemsas effectivelyand often more per-
manentlythan fire. Pigs root up young trees and forests shrinkfor lack
of replacementsfor old trees; sheep and goats eat up the tastiestplants
- in bad yearsall the plants - and othersless tasty or fasterto recover
spring up.
Erosion, fire's ever loyal colleague, follows after humansand their
animals, in time moving hills and filling valleys. We have no recordof
the ecologicalinfluenceof the Guanchesand their animals,but what we
know of the firstcomingof farmingand/or pastoralismelsewhere- for
instance,to the HawaiianIslands- suggeststhathumanpresenceradically
changedthe Canariesin prehispanictimes.'5
By the time the first Europeansarrivedin the 14thcentury,time had
dampedwhateverwild swingsof the islands'ecosystemsthe initial com-
ing of humansmayhaveset off. The FortunateIsleswererichin livestock,
and thereforein hidesand tallow, and in a sort of moss calledorchilthat
broughta high price from Europeandyers;and rich in people to sell as
slaves.Theywereislandswellworthraidingandworthhaving,if one were
of a mind to settle down.
A Frenchmanshoppingfor new conquestsnoted about 1400that the
Canarieslay less than a fortnight'ssail from Rochelleand only five or
six daysfromSevilleand "theinfidelshaveno armour,nor anyknowledge
of warfare,and they can receiveno help from their neighbors."'6
At the end of the 13thcenturythe design and riggingof European
vessels were not yet equal to the rigorsof the Atlantic, but Europeans
had the compass and sternpostrudderand a seamanlyself-confidence
unknownin Mediterranean sailorssinceat least Pliny'stime. In 1291two
audaciousGenoese,Vadinoand UgolinoVivaldi,planningto circleAfrica
fromwestto east, sailedinto the Atlanticand, not surprisingly,werenever
seen again. They were followed by less ambitiousand longer-livedcap-
tains who crept south along the coast of MoroccanAfrica.
In 1336LanzaroteMalocellocameupon the islandnamedafterhim,
Lanzarote,where he eventuallysettled and where the Guancheskilled
him.'" In 1341 the king of Portugal dispatchedan expedition to the
CanariesunderNiccolosoda Ricco, anotherof the illustriousItalianswho
precededColumbusinto the Atlantic. He took on a cargo of skins, fats
and oils, dyestuffs, and a few slaves,and returnedhome. Majorcansand
Catalanscame next, followed by French, Spanish, Portuguese- even 219
Scots. None establisheda permanentfoothold in the 14thcentury,except
in so far as the Guanchesallowed.'8
The rude process of Europeanconquest began in 1402, a date we
mighttake as the birthdayof modernEuropeanimperialism.In that year
a Frenchexpeditionof a few hundredmen went ashore on Lanzarote.
Withina few monthsthe Europeanswon the island,in spite of theirown
internalsquabblesand the resistanceof the 300 natives.The invadersnow
had a securebasein the archipelago.Fuerteventura and Hierrofell within
a few years. All of these were islands with small populations.'I
For the next few decades the history of the Canariesis obscure,
sometimesevenblank,but we knowthatthe EuropeanshadtakenGomera
by mid-century.A few free Guanchesmaintainedthemselvesin the high
countryof the conqueredislands,andin timeevenmanageda realrebellion
on Gomera,but all in all werelittlemorethannuisancesto the invaders.20

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 At the openingof the last quarterof the 15th centurythree islands
remainedin Guanchecontrol:La Palma,TenerifeandGranCanaria.The
firstwas one of the smallerislands,withonly a few hundredfightingmen.
Tenerife,the largestof the seven Canaries,and GranCanaria,the third
largest,had thousandsof warriors.Accordingto the French,at the begin-
ning of the centurythe people of Tenerifehad the reputationof being
the hardiest of the Guanches: ". . . they have never been run down or car-
ried into servitudelike those of the other islands." The Gran Canaria
Guancheswere so fiercethat they earnedtheir island the name grande,
bestowed not for its size but for their valor and skill.2'
Europeanshad severaltriesat invadingGranCanariaduringthe first
three-quartersof the 15thcentury,and alwaysended by taking to their
boats, usually in a downpourof missiles. Then, in 1478, the struggle
entereda new phase. Ferdinandand Isabellaof Spain, covetous of the
entire archipelago,sent to Gran Canariaan expeditionof hundredsof
soldiers with cannon, horses and all the paraphernaliaof European
warfare.
The campaignfor the islandlastedfive bloody years.The Guanches
quicklylearnedtheir limitation,and fell back into the mountains.They
resortedto guerrillatacticsandevenmadean alliancewiththe Portuguese,
who sent sometroopsashoreand attemptedto cut the Spaniardsoff from
suppliesand reinforcements.Spain, however,was now dedicatinga full
measureof its power to taking the island, and Portugalwas not strong
enoughto frustrateit. The Guanchesdid win battles, but had no chance
of winninga long war.Thestruggleendedin Aprilof 1483when600Guan-
che men, 1500womenand a numberof children,besiegedin the highlands,
surrenderedto the conquistadorof GranCanaria,Pedro de Vera. Friar
Abreu de Galindo, the 16th centuryhistorianof Gran Canaria,claims
that it cost morein labor and blood to reducethat islandto the Catholic
faith than any of the other Canaries,even Tenerife.22.
Now only La Palma, the second smallest of the Canaries, and
Tenerife, the largest, remainedfree. In 1488 a numberof the former's
leadersacceptedbaptismand thereaftertheir subjectsdid not resistthe
Christianinvaders.Alonso de Lugo invadedin Septemberof 1492and,
astutelymixingmilitaryforce, persuasionandtreachery,attainedvictory
in the following spring.23Tenerife, a much toughernut to crack, took
220 another three years.
The first generationof would-beconquerorsof the CanaryIslands
had, by andlarge,avoidedTenerife.Itsdefenders,numerousandbellicose,
pushedone set of invadersinto the sea in the 1460sand anotherabout
1490. Then, in 1494, Alonso de Lugo landed with 1,000 infantry, 120
horsemenand artillery.Ignoringthe advice of Guancheallies, he led a
largepart of his armyinto ambushin the highlands,wherehe lost hun-
dredsdeadandmanyscorewounded.The battlefieldwasafterwardscalled
La Matanzade Contejo, the Massacreof Contejo. Lugo retreatedto La
Palma.24
Lugo, a Spaniardout of the samemoldas CortesandPizarro,return-
ed in Novemberof 1495with 1,100menand seventyhorses,plus firearms.
Ten months later the Guanches,hungry, appalledat the depth of the
resources the Spanish could draw upon, and drasticallydepleted in
numbers,surrenderedat the end of September,1496.25

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 Was the Guanche defeat inevitable? In the long run, of course it was;
but what about the short run? Was it preordainedthat the Spaniardswould
conquer the Canaries less than twenty years after they decided in earnest
to try? It seems so now because so many similar surrenders happened in
the following four centuries, but we are not talking here of Maxim guns
versus spears, nor even of muskets versus spears. As in the invasions of
Mexico and Peru, the war for the Canaries was a matter of hundreds of
Europeans with a few inaccurate, slow firing, often misfiring guns, a larger
number of crossbows and lots of metal swords, axes and lances versus
thousands of courageous warriors armed with weapons which, though
made of mere wood and stone, were murderous enough. A steel axe may
split a head much more neatly than a stone axe, but the owner of the head
is no more dead in the first case than the second, just more comely.
The Guanches were fierce, numerous and their techniques of war-
fare very effective in the extensive highlands where they took refuge when
invaders arrived in force. George Glas, an 18th century British resident
in the Canariesand translatorof a history of the conquest of Gran Canaria,
examined the written record, examined the terrain, and marvelled that the
Spaniards ever won. All the islands, except Lanzarote and Fuerteventura

are so full of deep narrow vallies, or gullies, high rugged moun-

tains, and narrow difficult passes that a body of men cannot
march into any of them the distance of a league from the shore,
before they come to places where a hundred men may easily
baffle the efforts of a thousand. This being the case, where
could shipping enough be found to transport a sufficient
number of troops to subdue such a people and in a country
so strongly fortified by nature?26

The French won Fuerteventura easily because it had few defenders,

but noted respectfully that these "were tall and formidable, and Chris-
tians have to kill prisoners if they turn on them." The Guanches' only
projectile weapons were stones, but they made good use of them, especially
in the mountains where they usually arranged to hold the high ground.
They hurled their stones, testified the Europeans, with the velocity and
accuracy of crossbows, "breaking a shield in pieces, and the arm behind
it. " And while the invaders bumbled slowly amongst the crags and ravines, 221
the defenders scrambled about with miraculous speed, as if they had ac-
quired their nimbleness "in sucking the milk from their mothers'
breasts."27
Even communicating, much less marching, across the broken and
cratered interiors of the Canaries was and is very difficult. This probably
explains how it is that the Guanches, most clearly those of Gomera, devised
an actual articulated language, not just a simple system of signals, of very
loud, finger-aided whistles. This enabled them to speak across wide ca-
nyons and, it is likely, was of great help in the tumult of battle.28
The Guanche chiefs could whistle up armies of many hundreds, if
not thousands, of men. In the mid-15th century Gomes Eannes de Azurara
estimated Tenerife to have 6,000 fighting men and Gran Canaria 5,000.
(In order to get the approximate total population one should multiply his
numbers by - what? - four or five?) His estimates for the other Canaries

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 are much lower, but then these islands are much smallerand/or had already
gone through the trauma of conquest.29 No one, of course, actually
counted the Guanches, and Azurara was certainly not of a statistical bent
of mind, not by our standards, at least, but neither was he a silly fool.
The aborigines of the Canaries were grain farmers with a steady supply
of animal protein and fats from shellfish and vast herds of livestock, and
they lived on large islands "abundant of all things necessary for the life
of man..."30 We should not be surprised to be told that there were
thousands of them.
Europeans, such was the paucity of their speculation capital and their
available shipping, could bring to bear in the Canaries only armies of a
thousand or so, at most. Yet they did win, as they were to in so many
lands outside of Europe for the next four centuries. Their advantages must
have been considerable. What were they? Superior weaponry we've already
mentioned, and decided that it is not sufficient answer in itself, especially
in the early stages of European expansion. Supremacyat sea gave the Euro-
peans a sure place of retreat and access to greater resources than the Guan-
ches, but just how available would those resources have been if Guanche
resistance had been more effective? Lugo did find backing for his second
invasion of Tenerife, but would he for a third or a fourth... or a tenth?
Repeated failures of expeditions to tropical Africa discouraged invasions
of Nigeria, Kenya, etc. until the latter part of the 19th century, 400 years
after Lugo's successes. European monarchs, bankers and merchants in-
vested in imperialism for quick victories and quick profits, and had little
taste for interminable struggles.
Did the Europeans have allies we haven't given credit? Were the Guan-
ches weaker than we've noted? The Europeans were often disunited, but
the Guanches always were; they lived on seven islands and lacked even
the rudiments of seamanship. They spoke a number of different dialects
and possibly languages. The invaders were often able to recruit natives
of one or two or three or even four islands to join them in fighting the
natives of another. On Tenerife the invaders were even able to recruit allies
from one part of the island against the people of the rest of the island.3'
Disunited Guanches found it difficult to defend themselves against
the Europeans who took advantage of their superiority at sea to raid the
Canaries for slaves. We do not know how many people were taken off
222 to the slave marts, but apparently the number was considerable. In 1385
and 1393 slavers seized at least several hundred Guanches from Lanzarote
and put them up for sale in Spain, leaving only 300 behind.32Other popula-
tions also suffered decimation, but those of Gran Canaria and Tenerife
were probably too big to be critically weakened by the slavers. Abreu de
Galindo, however, offers the puzzling information that women far out-
numbered men on Gran Canaria before the conquest, an imbalance which
could have existed only if something were killing or taking off many males,
as compared to females. This sort of sexual bias has often characterized
slavers collecting workers for plantation labor.33
The success of the slavers was part and parcel of what may have ap-
peared to the Guanches to be a general superiority of the Europeans. Their
metals, their gear, their gods and their very selves must have fascinated
the native Canarians and tended to sap the resolve of the latter to reject
utterly - and violently, if necessary - all contact with these dangerous

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aliens. The people of GranCanarialearnedthe wisdomof treatinggold
and silverwith contempt,but could not resistiron, whichthey beat into
fishhooks. On Tenerife the Guanchesallowed the Spanish to build a
tradingpost, and thereit remained,a sourceof miraclesand puzzlement,
until the Europeansusedup all theirwelcomein one fell swoop by hang-
ing severalof the locals.34
The Guanchesmusthavewonderedif superiorfishhooksdidn'tmean
superiorgods. On Hierro,saidthe indigenesafterconquest,a wizardnam-
ed Yone had lived who predictedthat after his deathand whenhis bones
had crumbledinto dust a god called Eraoranzanwould come in a white
house, and that they should not fight him or run from him but should
worshiphim. The Europeansdid take the island with little struggle.35
The people of Gomeratold of a Christianpriest who had come to
their island before conquestand baptizedmany of them, and who had
persuadedthem to acceptconquestwithoutresisting.The people of that
island, too, succumbedwith a minimumof violence, althoughthey did
manage a revolt later with Portuguesehelp.36
The most famous example of - what should we call it? - cultural
"softeningup" of the Guanchespriorto conquestoccurredon Tenerife.
Accordingto oral tradition,in 1400or so the VirginMary appearedto
Guancheshepherdsof Guimar,a divisionof Tenerife.She left behindan
image of herself, the statue called Our Lady of Candelaria,which was
involved in a numberof miraclesuntil its destructionin a flood in the
19thcentury.Aroundthe hem of Her mantleand on Her belt weremany
lettersspellingwordsthat no one has beenableto deciphersatisfactorily:
TIEPFSEPMERI,EAFM, IRENINI, FMEAREI,etc. The thought oc-
cursto the unbelieverthat thesewords, if not necessarilythe statue,were
the productsof a Guanchewho hadhad sufficientcontactwithEuropeans
to realizethepower,themana,of the alphabet,butwho remainedilliterate.
OurLady'sfirstcelebranton Tenerife,long beforeconquest,was a Guan-
che who as a boy had been kidnappedby Europeansand trainedas an
interpreter.He receivedbaptismand the nameAnton Guanche,and then
escapedback to Tenerife,wherehe attendedOurLadyof Candelariafor
the rest of his life.37Whatevermay be the truth about Our Lady of
Candelaria,it is apparentthatChristianityin someformexistedin Guimar
for severalgenerationsbefore the conquest.Therethe Europeansfound
friendswhilethe restof the islandwashostile,andtherethe invadersfound 223
warriorsto fight alongsidethem in the final subjugationof Tenerife."
The most importantalliesof the Europeanswerenot, however,con-
ceptualbut actualand animate.The Europeansbroughtwiththemfellow
life forms - plants, animals and microlife - descendants of organisms
whichhumanshad firstdomesticatedor whichhad first adaptedto living
with, in and on humansin the hearthlandsof Old Worldcivilization.In
addition,no doubt, therewerenew acquisitionsbroughtto the Canaries
by slaversand tradersworkingthe African coast.
Europeanscrossedthe watersto the CanaryIslandswitha simplified
versionof the ecosystemof the Mediterraneanlittoral.This portmanteau
ecosystemwas crucial to their successes- and failures- as colonists
in Macaronesiaand elsewhere.Whereit "worked," whereenough of its
membersprosperedandpropagatedto createversionsof Europe,however
incomplete and distorted, Europeans themselves prospered and
propagated.

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 l _
t r~~~~~e/a c^xan Z a-

PORTRAIT OF OUR LADY OF CANDELARIA,

BY JUAN PEREZ, 1703.
In Mr. Orenvite's coPyf julas Nss;ses deIt s Pe;a , Conqisisit Ac.. 1676.
Rejoodced a,.d torinted lor the HMahiuytSociety by Donpa ,dJacbeth.

Frontispiece from Clements Markham, The Guanches of Tenerife (London:

Hakluyt Society, 2d Series, No. 21, 1907).

The Canarieswere destined to become Atlantic versions of such

Mediterraneanislands as Crete, Sicily and Majorca,and the organisms
that did well on those islandsdid well in the Canaries.The most obvious
examplewas the horse. Guancheswere intimatelyfamiliarwith smaller
livestock - goats, sheep and pigs - but had never seen any animals as
largeas horsesnorany whichcarriedmenon theirbacksandobeyedorders
in battle. Soldierson horsebackplayeda vital role in the conquestof the
last two Canariesto fall, and probablythe othersas well. The European
centaurwas worth a score and more of his pedestrianbrethren.For ex-
ample,the storyof Lope Fernandezde la Guerra,a knightand mounted,
of course. He went out on reconnaissancealone in the final stagesof the
Tenerifecampaignand fifteen or twenty Guanchesambushedhim. An
infantrymanwouldhavebeenswarmedoverandkilledinstantly,but Lope
Fernandez

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 put spurs to his horse, as the spot where he was appeared to
be dangerous, until he reached an open space. There he turn-
ed with his horse, so as not to show cowardice, and having
knocked over six of the natives, the rest fled towards the woods.
Feeling that he had done little unless he got one of them into
his hands to make him disclose the designs and intentions of
the others, he got in front of a fugitive in a narrow place, got
hold of him by making the horse knock him down, secured
him, and brought him into the camp, where Lope Fernandez
was well received.39

The Guanches sensibly surrendered all flat and open country (and
therefore most of their grain fields and, to some extent, their flocks) as
soon as they learned the power of horsemen. "It was the mounted
soldiers," said Friar Alonso de Espinosa, historian of Tenerife, "that the
natives feared most, and this was the main strength of their enemies."40
The conquistadors of the Canaries were admirers of horseflesh and
fascinated with knightly derring-do, and we hear much of both from them;
but they were inobservant as naturalists and recorded little about the
ecological impact of their invasions. Some examples, however, were im-
possible for even the invaders to miss. These instances combined with what
we know of the influence of later European arrivals on remote islands
- dodos plunging to extinction on Mauritius, mongoose swarmings in
Hawaii, epidemics raging among the native peoples of Samoa and New
Zealand - must convince us that the coming of Christians to the Canaries
set off wild ecological oscillations.4'
The balance wheel of nature spun erratically in 15th century Gran
Canaria. As noted, the number of women unnaturally exceeded that of
men, for whatever reason and with whatever influence on family struc-
ture, birth and death rates we cannot be sure. Abreu de Galindo tells us
that a few years before the conquest births on the island so exceeded deaths
that population growth outstripped food supply. Did an improvement in
the food supply suddenly boost the birth rate and lower the death rate?
Abreu de Galindo tells us that the Majorcans, who came early to the island,
brought the fig tree or perhaps a new variety of fig tree with them. The
Guanches liked the fruit and planted the tree which also spread by natural
means, extending over the entire island. In a matter of a few generations,
figs became the principal food for the people of Gran Canaria.42 Such
an addition to the food supply might well set off a population explosion,
but we will never know the truth. Perhaps the tale of the increased birth
rate is a garbled version of the truth that something happened so to reduce
the food supply as to present the Guanches with the problem of abruptly
excessive population. For whatever reason, the problem did arise, and the
Guanches, to avoid or limit famine, began to kill all new babies or all
new female babies (the two accounts differ on this point), except the
firstborn of each mother.43
Mother Nature always comes to the rescue of a society stricken with
the problems of overpopulation, but her ministrations are not gentle. The
Canary aborigines had lived for a very long time alone with what we may
assume was a narrow selection of parasitic organisms, macro and micro.
The Guanche populations were small, their contacts with the mainland

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 nil, theirislandecosystemssimple:it is unlikelythatthey sufferedanything
like the range of parasitesthat preyedon humansin Europeor Africa.
At the openingof the 15thcenturythe Frenchinvadersnotedwith delight
the salubrityof the Canaries:"duringall the long time that Bethencourt
and his companyremainedthere, no one sufferedfrom sickness, which
surprisedthem greatly."44Their state of health was largelya matterof
the Edenic condition of the Guanches,who were still living before the
Fall, i.e. mostof the infectiousmaladiescommonamongthe densepopula-
tions of Eurasiaand Africa were unknownto them.
Every Eden has its snake, and that is the role Europeansplayed in
the Canaries.Any group from the advancedsocietiesof the Old World,
whatevertheirattitudetowardthe Guanches,wouldhaveplayedthe same
role. The Europeans,naturally,did not see themselvesas such. They
observedtheireffect on the people of the Canariesas a manifestationof
the wrath of God, who has so often been blamed or credited with
catastrophes.After the Guanchesof GranCanariabeganto practicein-
fanticide,God "sent amongthem la peste, whichin a few daysdestroyed
three-quartersof the people" - so says LeonardoTorriani,one of the
two earliestsourceswe have on the event. FriarAbreu de Galindo, the
other, tells approximatelythe same story, puttingthe death rate at two-
thirds.45The next importanteventin the historyof the islandwas the col-
lapse of Guancheresistanceand the completionof the Spanishconquest
in 1483.
Alonso de Lugo's first invasionof Tenerife, 1494, ended in disaster,
the worst the Guanchesever dealt Europeans.His second, 1495, began
withSpanishvictoriesandthensettledinto a stalemateas bothsideswaited
for the end of the winterrainsand snows.The seasonwas excessivelycold
and wet, and both invadersand defenderssufferedfrom hungerbecause
the hostilitieshad preventedsowing. The Guanches,in greaternumbers
thanthe Spaniardsandisolatedin the mistyhighlandsfor fearof the Euro-
peans'horses,musthavesufferedmoreseverely.God, as everon the side
of the Spaniardsand offendedby the numberof Christiansthe Guanches
had killedat La Matanzade Contejo,visiteda pestilenceon the defenders
of Tenerife,a diseasecalledmodorra."A womanof the islandannounced
the pestilencefroma precipitousrock, makingsignsto the Spaniards,and
when they came near enough, declaringit to them; askingwhy they did
226 not come up and occupy the land, for therewas no one to fight, no one
to fear - all beingdead." The Spaniardswarilyadvancedand foundcon-
firmationfor her words. In fact, therewereso manycorpsesthat Guan-
ches' dogs werefeedingupon them, and Guanchestravelingbetweentheir
mountainstrongholdshad to sleep in trees for fear of the feral animals.
"The mortalitywas so great," says FriarEspinosa, "that the island re-
mained almost without inhabitants,they having previouslynumbered
15,000."46 The final battletook place the following September,and the
moppingup took threeyearsmore. "If it hadnot beenfor the pestilence,"
Espinosarecords, "it would have taken much longer, the people being
warlike, stubborn and wary."47
What wereGranCanaria'speste and Tenerife'smodorra?We have
no recordof their symptomsor of the patternsof their spread, and so
no clues to their identitiesbeyond their names. Peste means bubonic
plague,but, likeplaguein English,it canbe usedto referto anypestilence.

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Modorrais a wordof evenlessspecificity.As an adjectiveit meansdrowsy,
sleepy or pulpy. As a noun it refersto a diseaseof sheep." We can only
speculateas to what diseaseor combinationof diseaseseach could have
been. Our choice is broad. Europe'sports seethedwith the organismsof
bubonicplague,typhoidfever, smallpox,typhus,measles,etc.49Negative
evidence(that frail perennialon which historianslean so hard)suggests
that Spanishadults, i.e. the soldiersof Veraand Lugo, wereimmuneto
la peste and modorra,and that the diseaseswere,therefore,probablyill-
nesses commonlycaught in childhood by Europeans.
We don't haveto identifythe maladies;many,perhapsmost, of those
availablein, say, Seville,could have done the job. We do haveto decide
whetherthe death ratesclaimedfor the two epidemicswereaccurate.If
they were,thenthe diseasesweredecisive,possiblythe most decisive,fac-
tors in the final defeat of the Guanches.Virginsoil epidemics(as out-
burstsof communicablediseasesamongpreviouslyuntouchedpeoplesare
called)have the followingeffects: one, the impactof the infectionupon
individualsis extremeand death often occurs;two, nearlyevery single
personexposedfalls ill, so the death rate of the sick is the death rate of
the entirepopulation;three, very few are well enoughto care for the ill,
and manypeopledie who mightverywell recover,given a bite to eat and
a mouthfulof water;and four, crops are neitherplantednor harvested,
flocks are not tended, home fires are not built, and many of the ill die
of hungerandcold.50Epidemiologically cosmopolitanpeople,be they 15th
centurySpaniardsor 20th centuryBrazilians,practicebiologicalwarfare
veryefficientlywhenevertheycontactisolatedpeoples,whethertheymean
to or not. Thesharpdeclinein elanand in the sizeof the victimizedpopula-
tions opens the way for the invadersto work their will on the survivors
and on their land.
As soon as Europeansgaineda foothold on a given Canaryisland,
theyset to transformingthatislandinto a machinefor makingthe invaders
wealthy. First they sold off the orchil to the Europeanmarket, and as
much grain, vegetables,timber,skins, tallow and as many of the Guan-
chesas could findbuyers.Thenthe conquistadorsset to alteringthe island
ecosystemso as to assurelastingincome. They importedspeciesof Old
Worldplantsand animalsthat werealreadydoing well in Mediterranean
lands and on the other islandsof Macaronesia.Severalof the more im-
portantof these species- dogs, sheep, goats, pigs, barley,wheat, peas 227
- werealreadypresent.TheEuropeansaddedhorses,cattle,asses,camels,
rabbits,pigeons,chickens,partridges,ducks,grapevines, melons, pears,
apples and - most important - sugar.5'
Most of the newcomersdid verywell. La Palmahadrabbits"without
number"by the 1540s.By the end of the centuryHierrohad even more,
and the pasturageof both showed effects of multitudesof hungryrab-
bits. In neitherislanddid the problemget as far out of handas on Porto
Santo, to whichBartholomewPerestrello,futurefather-in-lawof Colum-
bus, broughtthe first rabbitsabout 1418.There, free from the exactions
of predatorsand disease, the rabbitsreproducedat a villainousrate and
ate everythingthe humansettlerssowed, whereforethe latter"abandon-
I
ed that island and passed over to the other isle of Madeira... s52
Fuerteventura,largeand relativelyflat, becamea vast ranchdotted
with herdsof severalspeciesof animalsfrom the continents.In the last

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 decades of the 16th centurythese includedcamels, 4,000 of them, and
brayingmultitudesof wild asses. The asses wereconsumingso much of
the grassand herbagethat they threatenedthe island'svalueto otherim-
migrantspecies, especiallythe Europeanhumans. In 1591 the humans
struck back, killing 1,500 asses and leaving them for the ravens. The
humansrecruitedtwo otherspeciesto assistin the slaughter,horses,which
they rode, and greyhounds,which helpedin locatingand runningdown
the overabundant species."
The honey bee, Apis mellifera,was anotherimmigrantwho spread
widely, but to humanity'sadvantage.In the 16th centurythe Canaries
exportedquantitiesof honey, a substancestill importantto a society in
the first stages of taking up sugar as its favorite sweetener.The honey
bee may have lived in the islandsbefore the coming of the Europeans,
butit seemsmorelikelythatthe invadersbroughtthem.Honeybeesseldom
swarmfurtherthan ten kilometers,neveras far as the distancefrom the
mainlandto the Canaries,and transportingthem for long distancesis a
trickybusiness.La Palmaand Hierroprovedespeciallysuitablefor these
insects, but Tenerifeis supposedto have been withoutthem, at least in
the 15thcentury,obligingOurLadyof Candelariato produceby miracle
the beeswax for candles neededin church.54
The New World burst upon the Old before the conquest of the
Canarieswas completed,almost immediatelyoutshiningthese islandsin
Europeanperception;yet the discoveryof Americagreatlyenhancedtheir
importance.The Canariesbecamethe first stop on the way to the New
World, the place to make last minuterepairs,enlist crewmen,and take
on supplies,especiallylivestock. It is probablethat the first horses, cat-
tle, sheep,goats, pigs, chickensand honeybeesto arrivein Americacame
fromthe Islands,as well as the first wheat,bananasand manyothercrop
plants - and, unintentionally,the first Old Worldweeds."
The first sugar cane in the West Indies, for instance, was surely
Canarian.There was no sugar cane growingin Macaronesiawhen the
Europeansfirstcame, but experiencestretchingfrom the Crusaderstates
in PalestinethroughCrete,Sicilyand other Mediterraneanislandsto the
areasin southernIberiarecentlyseizedfromthe Muslims,andmostrecent-
ly to Madeira,had taught Europeansthat a way to become wealthyin
a warmclimatewas to raise sugar. The conquistadorof Gran Canaria,
228 Pedro de Vera, probablythe first to introducethe sugarindustryto the
Canaries,builthis firstsugarmill on his conqueredlandsin 1484.Others
followedhis exampleand sugarbecamethe most importantcrop and ex-
port of the Canaries.56Sugar was the catalyst of social and ecological
change. The islandelites importedthousandsof laborers,some free and
manyslaves,fromEuropeandAfricato workin the cane fieldsand mills,
and transformedthe Canarianecosystemsin the driveto producesugar.
The archipelago'sforestsgavewayto canefields, pasture,andbareslopes
as trees fell before the need for timberfor the many new buildingsand
especiallyfor fuel to boil the fluid squeezedfrom the cane. The cut cane,
explainedan Englishmanfamiliarwith the Canaries,"are carriedto the
sugarhousecalledIngenio,wherethey aregroundin a mill, and the juyce
thereof conveyedby a conduct to a great vessell made for the purpose,
whereit is boiledtill it waxe thicke. . . " The appetitefor wood of the in-
genioswas insatiable,andour Englishmansaidof GranCanaria,an island

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of thickforestsin Guanchetimes, "Woodis the thingthatmost wanteth."
The governmentof Tenerifeissuedregulationsin vain to protectforests
from the lumberjacksas early as the first years of the 16th century.57
Wherethe invadersleveledthe forests, overgrazingby hugeherdsof
livestockmade it unlikelythat trees would returnas the dominantplant
species.Deforestationencouragederosion,madestreamflow a matterof
flood or famine, and may even have lessenedrainfall.Watercourseson
Fuerteventura,whichthe Frenchat the beginningof the 15thcenturyhad
judged to be likely power sourcesfor mills, have been bone-drygullies
in summermonths for centuriesnow.58
Foreignplants,often weeds,rushedonto the barelandswhereforests
once stood. Most of the plant pests of the Canarieshave come from the
mainlands,especiallyfrom southernEuropeand NorthAfrica. Onlytwo
on a list of the Canaries'worst plant pests now are natives. Perhapsthe
worst of the weeds is the Mediterraneanbrambleor blackberry,Rubus
ulmifolius. It may or may not be prehispanicin these islands, but there
is no doubt as to its origin - the Mediterraneanlittoral - nor to the
fact that sincethe conquestit has spreadlike a plagueoverthe traumatiz-
ed lands of the Canaries.59
The Guanches declined even faster than the forests, and their
replacementsspreadfasterthanthe weeds. Someof the nativesran to the
mountains and lived as rustlersand bandits and occasionallyrose in
rebellion,but this sort of behaviorsoon dwindledand ceased.Resistance
in some form probablylastedas long as did the pure-bloodedGuanches,
but that was not long. In the 1530sGonzalo FernandezOviedoy Valdes
wrote that very few wereleft. GirolamoBenzoni, an Italianwho visited
the islandsin 1541,found the Guanchesto be "nearlyall at an end.... "
At the end of the centuryFriarEspinosarecordedthat on Tenerifea few
survived,but they were all mixed-bloods.60
The Guanchesdied of a multitudeof causes.Theylost theirland and
with it theirwaysof makinga living. Whenthe Spaniardsallocatedland
and flocks now theirsby rightof conquest,they grantedvery little even
to theirGuancheallies, and that little was usuallythe least desirable.Of
the 992 allocationsmade of land in Tenerife, only fifty went to Guan-
ches, and few of those stayed long in native hands.6'
SomeGuanches,seeinglittlehope for themselvesat home,joinedthe
ranksof Spanishsoldiersto fight in America,Africa and elsewhere,and 229
soon disappearedfrom history. They died without reproducingor scat-
tered their seed in alien wombs.62They left the Canaries"voluntarily"
because for most Guanchesleaving was inevitable, anyway. The con-
quistadorsdeportedmany in order to stymie rebellions,and sold many
as slavesto workthe plantationsof Madeiraand elsewhere.The fates of
mostwerethe same:exilesfromthe Canarieswereinfamousfor highdeath
rates. We may assumethat familieswerebrokenin the processesof exile
and enslavement,whichwouldhavetendedto increasethe deathrate, on
the one hand, and sharplydecreasethe birthrate of pureGuanches,on
the other. In the 1480sand 90s a flood of slaves departedthe Canaries,
but only a tricklethereafter,not becauseof a declinein demandbut of
supply.63
The Spaniardshad two of the three items they needed to make
themselvesrich in the Canaries.They had the land and the sugarcane,

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 and lackedonly workers.Presumablythey wouldhavebeen happyto use
native labor in the cane fields and ingenios, but the indigeneswere too
ready to run away, too ready to rebel, and too frail, too apt to die.
Modorrareturnedagainandagain,dysenterywascommonandsomething
calleddolor de costado("pain in the side" - pneumonia,tuberculosis?)
carriedoff many Guanches.Europeanmales, we may assume,exploited
Guanchewomensexually,infectingthem with veneraldiseases,especial-
ly with syphilis,an epidemicof whichsweptEuropein the 1490sand ear-
ly 16thcentury.That curseand othervenerealinfectionswould not only
have shortenedthe women's lives but would also have destroyedtheir
fecundity."

Symbolism,Gran Canaria: clay 'idol' (a, Sta. Lucia)

After John Mercer, The Canary Islanders (London: Rex Collings, 1980), 76.

Some Guanchessurelydied of the psychologicaltraumaof subjuga-

tion, the loss of so many kin and friends, and the swift obliterationof
theirculture.Theirlanguage,the beatingheartof theirculture,died out
sometimein the 16thcentury.Suchlossescanbe mortal.Oneof the leaders
of the resistanceon La Palma, a captainTanausu,exiled to Spain soon
after the Europeans'conquestof his island, died there of self-imposed
starvationand despair,"a thing very common and ordinary... " When
GirolamoBenzonivisitedLa Palmain 1541he found only one Guanche,
an eighty-year-old,who stayed drunk all the time. The Guancheshad
becomea paltryfew, stumblingalongthe edge of doom, numblyobserv-
ing their own extinction.65
230 TodayGuanchegenessurviveamongthe inhabitantsof the Canaries,
showingup as certainshadesof complexion,shapesof head, and body
builds; but so slight is the strainthat it probablywould not be noticed
but for a sortof nostalgiaamongthe presentday inhabitantsof the islands.
This scatteredgeneticevidence,some ruins,mummies,potteryshards,a
numberof wordsand nine sentencesof the Guanchelanguageare all we
have as proof that the CanaryIslandsonce had a nativerace." Veryfew
experiencesare as dangerousto a people's survivalas the passagefrom
isolationto membershipin the world-widecommunitythatincludesEuro-
pean sailors, soldiers and settlers. ER

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 ENDNOTES

1. J.H. Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance (New York: The New American
Library, 1964), 33-130.

2. Christopher Columbus, The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus, ed.

and trans. J.M. Cohen (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1969), 40.

3. Plutarch's Lives, trans. Aubrey Stewart and George Long (London:

G. Bell and Sons, 1924), III, 103-04; Pliny's Natural History in
Thirty-Seven Books (London: George Barclay, 1848-49), II, 165-66.

4. Boies Penrose, Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance, 1420-1620

(New York: APtheneum, 1962), 46.

5. John Mercer, The Canary Islands, Their Prehistory, Conquest and

Survival (London: Rex Collings, 1980), 2-13; W.B. Turrill, Pioneer
Plant Geography, the Phytogeographical Researches of Sir Joseph Dalton
Hooker (The Haguie: Martinus Nijhoff, 1953), 2-4, 206, 211.

6. Sherwin Carlquist, Island Ecology (New York: Columbia University

Press, 1974), 180.

7. Ibid., 181.

8. Mercer, Canary Islands, 4, 7, 18.

9. Ilse Schwidetzky, "The Prehispanic Population of the Canary

Islands," Biogeography and Ecology in the Canary Islands, G. Kunkel,
ed. (The Haque: Dr. W. Junk b. v. Publishers, 1976), 16; Raymond
Mauny, Les Navigations M4di4vales sur les Cotes Sahariennes Anterieures
a la D6couverte Portugaise (1434) (Lisbon: Centro de Estudos
Hist6ricos Ultramarinos, 1960), 11-16, 21.

10. Mercer, Canary Islands, 10; Leonard Huxley, Life and Letters of Sir
Joseph Dalton Hooker (London: John Murray, 1918), II, 232; David
Bramwell, "The Endemic Flora of the Canary Islands; Distribution,
Relationships and Phytogeography,n Biogeography and Ecology in the
Canary Islands, G. Kunkel, ed. (The Hague: Dr. W. Junk b.v.
Publishers, 1976), 207. 231
11. Schwidetzky, "Prehispanic Population," Biogeography and Ecology in
the Canary Islands, 20; Mercer, Canary Islands, 17, 18, 59, 64, 65, 112.

12. Columbus, Four Voyages, 55; Mercer, Canary Islands, 59, 60, 64;
Schwidetzky, "Prehispanic Population," Biogeography and Ecology in
Canary Islands, 23; Ilse Schwidetzky, La Poblaci6n Prehispanica de las
Islas Canarias (Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Publicaciones del Museo
Arqueologico, 1963), 127-29.

13. Mercer, Canary Islands, 115-19.

14. Pierre Bontier and Jean Le Verrier, The Canarian, or, Book of the
Conquest and Conversion of the Canarians, trans. Richard H. Major, The
Hakluyt Society, Ser. 1, XLV. (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1872),
137.

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 15. Storrs L. Olson and Helen F. James, "Fossil Birds from the Hawaiian
Islands: Evidence of Wholesale Extinctions by Man Before Western
Contact," Science, CCXVII (13 Aus 1982), 633-35; Sherwin Carlquist,
Hawaii, A Natural History (Garden City, New York: Natural History
Press, 1970), 177, 179.

16. Bontier and Verrier, Canarian, 92.

17. Mauny, Navigations Medievales, 44-48, 92-93, 94-96.

18. Mercer, Canary Islands, 155-63, 198, 217.

19. Ibid., 160-68, 177, 178; Bontier and Verrier, Canarian, 123, 131.

20. Mercer, Canary Islands, 180-83.

21. Gomes Eannes de Azurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and

Conquest of Guinea, trans. and ed. Charles R. Beazley and Edgar
Prestage, The Hakluyt Society, Ser. 1, C. (London: The Hakluyt
Society, 1899), 238; Bontier and Verrier, Canarian, 128; Juan Abreu de
Galindo, Historia de la Conqista de las Siete Islas de Canaria, ed.
Alejandro Cioranescu (Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Goya Ediciones, 1955),
145-46.

22. Mercer, Canary Islands, 188-93; Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la

Conuista, 145.

23. Mercer, Canary Islands, 195-96.

24. Ibid., 198-203; Alonso de Espinosa, The Guanches of Tenerife,

trans. and ed. Clements Markham, the Hakluyt Society, Ser. 2, XXI
(London: The Hakluyt Society, 1907), 93.

25. Mercer, Canary Islands, 207-09.

26. Juan de Abreu de Galindo, The History of the Discovery of the

Canary Islands, trans. and ed. George Glas (London: R. and J. Dodsley,
1764), 82.

27. Bontier and Verrier, Canarian, 135, 149; Espinosa, Guanches, 102;
Azurara, Chronicles, 209.

28. Mercer, Canary Islands, 66-67.

232
29. Azurara, Chronicles, 238.

30. Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes, Historia General y Natural de

las Indias (Madrid: Atlas Ediciones, 1959), I, 24.

31. Mercer, Canary Islands, 65-66, 201; Espinosa, Guanches, 89, 96-97,
99-100, 103.

32. Mercer, Canary Islands, 148-59; Bontier and Verrier, Canarian, 137.

33. Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la Conquista, 169.

34. Azurara, Chronicles, 240; Espinosa, Guanches, 83.

35. Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la Conquista, 93; Mercer, Canary

Islands, 178.

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36. Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la Conquista, 80; Mercer, Canary
Islands, 182-83.

37. Espinosa, Guanches, x, 45-73; Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la

Conquista, 41, 301-13.

38. Espinosa, Historia de la Conquista, 89, 96-97, 103.

39. Ibid., 106-07.

40. Ibid., 92; Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la Conquista, 183.

41. Charles S., The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants

(London: Methuen and Co., 1958), Chap IV; D. Ian Pool, The Maori
Population of New Zealand, 1769-1971 (New Zealand: Auckland University
Press, 1977), 116-22; Alfred W. Crosby, Epidemic and Peace, 1918
(Westport: Greenwood Press, 1976), 235-36.

42. Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la Conquista, 161.

43. Ibid., 154-55, 169; Leonardo Torriani, Descripcion e Historia del

Reino de las Islas Canarias, trans. and ed. Alejandro Cioranescu (Santa
Cruz de Tenerife: Goya Ediciones, 1978), 115.

44. Bontier and Verrier, Canarian, 92.

45. Torriani, Descripcion, 116; Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la

Conquista, 169.

46. Espinosa, Guanches, 104-08; Jose de Viera y Clavijo, Noticias de la

Historia General de las Islas Canarias (Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Goya
Ediciones, 1951), II, 108.

47. Espinosa, Guanches, 108.

48. Diccionario de la Lengua Espanola (Madrid: Real Academia Espa?iola,

1970), 886, 1016; Elias Zerolo, Diccionario Enciclop4dico de la Lengua
Castellana (Paris: Casa Editorial Garnier Hermonos, n. d.), II, 324.

49. For instance, see Eduardo Garc?a del Real, Historia de la Medicina
en Espana (Madrid: Editorial Reus (S.A.), 1921), 210; Robert S.
Gottfried, Epidemic Disease in Fifteen Centur; England, The Medical
Response ancl the Demographic Consequences (New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press, 1978), 35-57.
233
50. Alfred W. Crosby, "Virgin Soil Epidemics as a Factor in the
Aboriginal Depopulation in America," The William and Mary Quarterly,
3rd Ser., XXXIII (April 1976), 289-99. For a recent example, see
Robert J. Wolfe, "Alaska's Great Sickness, 1900: An Epidemic of
Measles and Influenza in a Virgin Soil Population,' Proceedings of the
American Philosophical Society, CXXVI (8 April 1982), 92-121.

51. Torriani, Descripcion, 46; Richard Hakluyt, Voyages (London:

Everyman's Library. 1907), IV, 26.

52. Girolamo Benzoni, History of the New World, trans. and ed. W.H.
Smyth. The Hakluyt Society, Ser. 1, XX (London: The Hakluyt Society,
1857), 262; Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la Conquista, 267; Azurara,
Chronicle, 245-46; Turrill, Pioneer Plant Geography, 206.

53. Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la Conquista, 60.

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 "De l'ille qui s apelle l'ylle (Tonerfiz) aucuns 1 apellent l'ille
d'Enfer," from Le Canarien, Cronicas Francesas de la Conquista de
Canarias, tr. & ed. by Elias Serra and Alejandro Cioranescu (La Laguna
de Tenerife: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones de La Laguna, Fontes
Canarium, 1960-1964), vol. 2.

54. Thomas D. Seeley, "How Honeybees Find a Home," Scientific American,

CCXLVII (Oct. 1982), 158; Espinosa, Guanches, 61, 63; Abreu de Galindo,
Historia de la Conquista, 83, 262, 312; Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, The
Canary Islands After the Conquest, The Making of a Colonial Society in
the Early Sixteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), 86.

55. Viera y Clavijo, Noticias, II, 149.

56. Fernandez-Armesto, Canary Islands After Conquest, 70; Abreu de

Galindo, Historia de la Conquista, 239.

57. Hakluyt, Voyages, IV, 25, 26; FernSndez-Armesto, Canary Islands

Af ter ConT!est, 74.

58. Mercer, Canary Islands, 219; Bontier and Verrier, Canarian, 135;
Fernandez-Armesto, Canary Islands After Conquest, 219.
234
59. Gunther Kunkel, "Notes on the Introduced Elements in the Canary
Islainds Flora," Biogeography and Ecology in the Canary Islands, 250,
256, 257, 259, 264-65.

60. Fernandez Oviedo y Valdes, Historia General, I, 24; Benzoni,

History of the New World, 260; Espinosa, Guanches, 120;
Fernindez-Armesto, Canary Islands After Conquest, 6.

61. Ibid., 39-40; Mercer, Canary Islands, 215, 230.

62. Ibid., 213; Viera y Clavijo, Noticias, II, 394; Rafael Torres
Campos, Caracter de la Conquista y Colonizaci6n de las Islas Canarias
(Madrid: Imprenta y Litografla del Dep6sito de la Guerra, 1901), 71.

63. Mercer, Canary Islands, 222-32; Oeuvres de Christophe Columb, trans

and ed. Alexandre Cioranescu, (n.p.: :ditions Gallimand, 1961), 241;
Fernandez-Armesto, Canary Islands After Conquest, 20, 40, 127-29, 174.

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64. Ibid. , 11; Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la Conquista, 298;
Espinosa, Guanches, 34; Viera y Clavijo, Noticias, II, 156, 290, 348,
496-97, 511, 538; Alfred W. Crosby, The Columbian Exchange, Biological
and Cultural Consequences of 1492 (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1972),
122-64.

65. Abreu de Galindo, Historia de la Conquista, 387; Benzoni, History

of New World, 1, 260.

66. Mercer, Canary Islands, 27-41, 241-58; Espinosa, Guanches, xviii;

Fernandez-Armesto, Canary Islands After Conquest, 5.

235

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