Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/90

 64 WEST AFRICA. surprising neatness by means of bone needles. The processes of embalmment seem to have greatly resembled those of the ancient Egyptians. Since the sixteenth century the natives have ceased to exist as a compact nation. For over a hundred and fifty years they had bravely repelled the attacks of corsairs and invaders, although their only weapons were stones, clubs, and darts hardened in the fire or tipped with a sharp horn. They would have remained unconquered but for the policy of employing those already reduced against the still independent islanders. Although they spared their prisoners, and often restored them to liberty, no mercy was shown them beyond the alternative of captivity or death. In the middle of the fifteenth century Gran Canaria and Teneriffe were still independent, with a joint population of 25,000. The conquest of these islands lasted thirty years, during which most of the men were killed or brought to Spain and sold as slaves in Cadiz or Seville. Others committed suicide rather than survive the loss of their freedom, while a large number were swept away by the niodorra, an epidemic like those which have recently carried off so many tribes in America and Oceania. The survivors were baptized, forgot their language and customs, and gradually merged in the Spanish population. The last descendant of Bencomo, last King of Teneriffe, took orders and died in 1828 at the Spanish court. Nevertheless, Guanche blood still survives in the half-castes sprung from alliances between the first Spanish settlers and the native women. Their distinctive features may still be recognised in many islands, where atavism and the environ- ment keep alive the old element amid the Spanish Canarians. Like their Berber ancestors, the present populations are of a cheerful, trusting disposition, slow to anger, without bitterness or resentment, and very gentle, notwithstanding their passion for cock-fighting. In some villages many of the old customs are still preserved, as well as a number of Guanche family names, and terms indicating plants, insects, or implements. The dances also and shouts of joy are the same as among the old Guanches, and like them the present inhabitants throw corn in the face of the newly married to wish them luck. The European elements are variously distributed throughout the archipelago. The Norman and Gascon followers of Bethencourt and Gadiffer were soon lost in the flood of the Spanish population, in which Andalusian blood seems to pre- dominate. After the conquest Moors were introduced into Gran Canaria, while Irish immigrants escaping from religious persecution founded numerous families in Teneriffe. Some of the villages in Palma were also repeopled by industrious families from Flanders, which, however, soon merged in the Spanish population, even translating their Teutonic names into Castillian. Thus the Groenberghe (" Greenhill ") became Monteverde, and notwithstanding their diverse origin, all the inhabitants of the archipelago have long been zealous Spanish patriots. All attacks made on their fortified towns were always successfully repelled. French Huguenots, Barbary corsairs, English buccaneers, and even a Dutch fleet of seventy ships, vainly attempted to take either Teneriffe or Gran Canaria, and in 1797 Nelson himself failed to reduce Santa-Cruz, losing a ship and an arm on the occasion.