THE CANARY ISLANDS, ISLAS AFORTUNADAS

THE CANARY ISLANDS The Fortunate Islands

CANARY ISLANDS A continent in miniature is how Gran Canaria was once described but it can perhaps be better applied to the entire archip~ago of the Canary Islands. The diversity of landscape, from the snowy slopes ofMountTeide onTenerife to the sandy deserts of Fuerteventura and the lushness of la Palma, reflects the special geographical position of the Canary Islands. At their nearest only 54 miles from mainland Africa, in some ways these seven islands can be regarded as part of the Milcan continent. Yet they are situated on the same mid-Atlantic seismic ridge as the Azores. Madeira and Iceland and this volcanic nature has a profound effect on both scenery and vegetation. The fire beneath the surface is only just kept at bay, as witnessed by the heat of the Fire Mountain on ~zarote in the east, where meat can be barbecued over a hole in the ground, and Ia Palma in the west, where the most recent crater was formed by an eruption in 1971. Every island has an area of volcanic badlands cafled rnaipais, distinctive scenery where bare twisted shapes have been formed by molten lava and where precious little grows. The distinctive feature of the islands are their great height in relation to their size. La Palma has the highest ratio of altitude to area of any island in the world, and Mount Teide at 3700 metres (12000 feet) is higher than any mountain in mainland Spain. When the prevailing winds meet these high islands, moisture is condensed bringing life-giving water to the windward side of the islands. This factor is important in understanding the marked contrast in island scenery from lush green valleys in the north to hot and dry deserts in the south. On La Gomera even the trees in the forest mirror this division with their trunks damp and mossy on the windward side while on the other the bark is dry. The two eastern islands, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, are lower in altitude and closer in climate and appearance to neighbouring Africa. Moving west through the archipelago, the islands become increasingly more fertile and the proximity of the Sahara is forgotten. This great diversity, with little seasonal variation during the year, is reflected in the large variety of plants, trees and flowers, which have given the islands the epithet "botanist's paradise". Some of the plants to be found here seem to belong to a fantasy world, such as the candelabra shaped cacti, dragon trees with blood red sap or the strelitzia, a distinctive flower with a bird-like shape. ORIGINAL INHABITANTS Exactly who the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands were and how they got there has still not been fully established and the issue is surrounded by much myth and even more conjecture. When the first outsiders came to the islands, they found a primitive people, dressed in goatsklns, often living in caves. They used no metals and did not travel between the islands. These Stone Age people were living a simple life in the mild climate and fertile land. From skeletons and mummies it appears that they were a tall people with reddish brown hair of a similar ancestry to the Spaniards and Portuguese. The name they called themselves, like their language, has been lost and the term Guanche is used, although strictly speaking this refers only to the inhabitants of Tenerife. From their technique of mummifying the dead and from what is known of their language, it seems likely that they came from North Africa and were possibly Berbers. One theory is that the drying up of the Sahara and the Moslem invasion pushed some Berbers into migrating to the Canary Islands. Prehistoric rock carvings have been found in several of the islands, similar to those found in the Cape Verdes, which might indicate that a seafaring race existed who followed maritime routes connecting these islands in ancient times. This would fit in with the fact that jet beads and stone axes not indigenous to the region have been found in Gran Canaria. Whoever did the sailing it does not appear to be the Guanches, who had completely lost the art of building or using boats. The reason might be quite simple. The climate was so pleasant, life so easy, that they lost all desire to move on. It has been known to happen to modern day sailors as well.		MYTHS AND MYSTERY The early history of the islands is very sketchy, although seafarers must have sailed there and returned to tell the tale, for the islands were known to both the Greek and Roman worlds. A variety of legends grew up about the islands, some calling them the remnants of the sunken continent of Aflantis, some believing them to be the Elysian Fields, abode of all good souls after death. Others made them the site ofthe Garden ofHesperides, where Hercules was sent to bring back a golden apple from a tree guarded by a dragon as one of his labours. In antiquity the islands were known by all these various names, but the Greek writer Plutarch was the frst to refer to them as the Fortunate Islands, when reporting a description of the archipelago by mariners recently returned. The islands were portrayed as mild and pleasant with excellent fruits and the inhabitants described as leading a tranquil and easy life. The Roman writer Pliny in his Natural History describes six of the islands, one inhabitated by large lizards, another topped with perpetual snow and wrapped in cloud. Yet another, abounding in date palms, conifers, fruits and birds of every kind, was called Canaria on account of the multitude of huge dogs roaming about. This is the first known use of the name Canaria, which has its root in canis, the Latin for dog. FIRST CONTACTS The first expedition to the Fortunate Islands appears to have been sent by King Juba II of Mauritania in 60 AD. With the end of Roman expansion, the Canaries passed out of written history. Although the Arabs rediscovered them around 1000 AD, little interest was shown by anyone in these Fortunate Islands. Several Genoese expeditions explored the islands in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, including one led by Lancellotto, who left his name, if nothing else, on Lanzarote. Like the Genoese, ships from Mallorca and Aragon also sailed on 'expeditions' to the islands, but these were little more than raiding parties loolang for slaves and with no aims of conquest or settlement. SPANISH CONQUEST All this changed in 1402 when Jean de Bethencourt set sail from La Rochelle taking with him as guides two Canarian natives plucked from their island by an earlier raiding party. Like many sailors today, Jean de Bethencourt and his fellow Frenchman Godifer de la Salle made their Ilist landfall on the north of ~naarote. It was not long before they had conquered not only Laaaarote, but also Fuerteventura and El Hierro, acknowledging the King of Castille as the overlord of this new realm, because he had given them a ship and supplies. These medieval Norman adventurers were not bothered about national pride. A base was also established on La Gomera, but the island was not completely subdued for another 80 years. The inhabitants of the other three islands, Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Palma, fiercely resisted the Spanish conquest for almost a century, and only in 1495 was the last resistance crushed. It was a period of intense rivalry and intrigue between the different adventurers, several of whom met a violent end. Alonso de Lugo was the local commander who eventually carried out the final conquests of Tenerife and La Palma. ATLANTIC STEPPING STONES About this time Christopher Columbus came to the islands, spending some time there before leaving La Gomera in 1492 on his momentous voyage. In all he made four voyages back and forth across the Atlantic, and without doubt, opened up a new era, which was to make a big impact on the future of the Canary Islands. Their geographical situation made them the logical staging post between Europe and the Americas. The islands thrived, developing as a centre for repair and provisioning, and many merchants and traders settled. Despite attacks from pirates as well as the Dutch and English, the islands remained Spanish. Over the next two centuries, trade and commerce flourished and in 1823 the Canaries became incorporated as a full province of Spain with the capital at Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In 1852 a law made them into Free Ports and they have remained a duty free zone ever since. In 1927 the Canaries split into two provinces, eastern and western, but were reunited in recent years under their own regional government. The Canary Islands today enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy.