The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-02-02
THE CANARY ISLANDS

| The Canary Islands which, today,
owing to the activities of the German
submarines in their waters, are fig
uring prominently in the worlds news,
/ represent one of those lands whose
history is all in the past. 1t is, of
course, question of what constitutes
history. Carlyle, it is almost certain,
would not have agreed with such a
statement, and it is quite certain that
the Spaniard from Santa Cruz de Ten
agree with it. Still, as the world
reckons history, it is true enough. The
history of the Canary Islands "came
to an end" when Alonzo de Lugo COM
pleted the conquest of Teneriffe, in
| 1495. For about hundred years be-
fore that time, however, the story of
the islands had been stirring enough.
The first mention of them comes
through the elder Pliney, who tells
how the Romans learned of their ex-
istence through Juba, King of Maure-
tania, and he gives an account of an
expedition which the King made to
the islands about the year 40 B. G..
Pliny talks of "Canaria, so-called from
the multitude of dogs of great SIZE"
and speaks of it's palms and pine trees;
whilst he mentions also Nivaria, pro-
badly Teneriffe, the land covered
with Clouds"
Thereafter, the Canary Islands,
save that they may possibly be the
Isles of the Blest of Ptolemy and Plu-
tarch, sink back into the unknown for
over twelve hundred years. Arab
navigators, venturing far from the
coast of Africa, visited them, it is
known, in the Twelfth Century; but
it was not until 1884, when a French
vessel, driven cut of its course, came
within sight of the giant peak Of Ten
eriffe, and later of the islands them
selves, that they were really redis-
covered by Europe. Even then Eu-
rope could not be quite sure of the
matter, Portugal, which was, about
that time, beginning to prosecute its
great voyages of discovery, sent out
an expedition to establish definitely
the position of the islands, but failed
to find them at all. Then Spain took
the matter in hand. Entirely disre-
garding the able dictum of Mrs. Bee
ton, in whatever form it was then
available, Juan de la Cerda, a grand
son of Alfonso X of CASTLE, obtained
a grant of these islands, and even went
so far as to have himself crowned
King of them, at Avignon, by Pope
Clement vi. Juan, however, never
got any farther. Lack of means frus-
trated his dreams of conquest. Two
expeditions did, it is true, go out to
the islands from Spain some time af-
forwards, and a monastic mission was
established on one of the group; but
the close of the Fourteenth Century
found the Guanches, the aboriginal
inhabitants, still unconquered and un-
converted, and with no intention, as
far as can be ascertained, of being
either, if they could help il.
In 1402, however, Gadifer de la
Salle and Jean de Bethencourt sailed
with two vessels from La Rochelle,
and landed, early in July, on the is
years or so, the islands made up, in
the matter of history building, for
all the time they had lost. La Sale
conquered Lanzarote and a part of
Fuerteventura; and, after a time,
Bethencourt returned to Cadiz for re-
Inducements. Whilst there he Sc
cured from Henry III of CASTLE the
title of King, and, so equipped, set
sail again for the scene of La Sales
conquest La Sale, however, on the
arrival of the new King, would have
none of him, refused to remain in a
position of inferiority, and returned
to Spain in high dudgeon Bethen-
court himself followed two years lat
er, having assigned the government
to his nephew. Now, whatever else
may be said of this nephew, whose
name was Maciot, he certainly was an
expert financier. After eight years
he sold his office to the envoy of
Queen Catherine of CASTLE, one Pedro
Barba de Campos, and, almost imme-
diately on the conclusion of the bar
gain, set sail for Lisbon, and there
thankfully sold his Office again to
Prince Henry the Navigator, who, he
knew, could never resist such a bar
gain. A few years later he dreamily
discussed with the Count of Niebla as,
maybe, they surveyed together the dis
tant peaks of the Sierras de Aracena
from Niebla itself, the possibility of
being willing to part with it once
more. Anyway, the Count of Niebla
concluded the purchase, and imme-
diately sold his rights to another
Spaniard, who in turn sold them to
Ferdinand Isabella of CASTLE. Twice
did Prince Henry the Navigator try
to enforce his claims, but without sue
cess, and Ferdinand and Isabella
finally became the residuary legatees.
The work of conquest was by no
means easy, but, as already stated,
it was completed in 1895. And there
after nothing of great importance