on his mind, that he was baptised and returned to Gran Canaria determined to preach to his countrymen the futility of further resistance. He mounted to the fortress which contained all the shrunken strength of Gran Canaria, the remnant of the army of 14,000 fighting men after seventy-eight years' struggle with sticks and stones against the arms, the ships, and the resources of Europe. He was received with respect, silence, and tears. He urged his point, and he gained it. The Canarians laid down their arms and surrendered. Not so, however, the young Guanarteme of Telde, who was betrothed to the daughter of the chief of Galdar. Going to the edge of the precipice with the old faycar, or high priest, they embraced each other, and, calling upon their God, Atirtisma! Atirtisma!' they perished together by leaping into the abyss. Shortly afterwards the disconsolate bride was baptised and married to a Spanish grandee, Don Ferdinando de Guzman, and thus was consummated the conquest of Gran Canaria.

The Peak of El Teyde, constantly vomiting forth flames and lava, long protected Teneriffe from invasion; but the story of a marvellous and miracle-working image of the Virgin secreted in Teneriffe induced the Spaniards to make a descent on the island with a view to rescue this holy relic from the hands of barbarians. The story of this wonderful image is curious. One day towards the end of the fourteenth century, two Guanche shepherds were driving their flocks down a barrancho, when they noticed that at a certain spot their flocks turned back and showed signs of fear. Unable to compel the sheep to proceed, one of the shepherds went forward to ascertain the cause of alarm, and saw what appeared to him to be a woman dressed in strange and beautiful garments standing in front of a cave. He made signs to her to get out of the way, for it was against the custom of the Guanches for a man to speak to a woman if he met her in a lonely place. As she did not move, he became angry at what he considered the immodest behaviour of the woman, and took up a stone to throw at her, when his arm became immovable in the position of throwing, and was in great pain. The other shepherd, seeing what had happened, went up to the supposed woman, and found her to be an image, the hand of which he tried to cut off with a sharp stone; but, instead of succeeding, he wounded his own hand severely. Much alarmed, the shepherds repaired without delay to the king, and told him what had happened. He assembled his council, and with them and a great concourse of people he went to the spot

where the shepherds declared they would see the image, and they found it standing as before at the mouth of the cave. No one, however, durst touch it, but the king commanded the two shepherds to take it up reverently, and immediately they did so they were cured. At this the king declared that the image was divine and that no one should carry it but himself, and he took it up and set it in a cave, where it remained and became an object of adoration. A hundred years later Diego de Herrara became anxious to possess this sacred image, and, landing from Lancerote with a party of Guanches who knew where the image was, he secretly conveyed it away and placed it in the cathedral at Rubicon.

But the Virgin was faithful to her Guanches of Teneriffe, and to the dismay of Diego de Herrara and his wife, Donna Innes Peraza, the image was found every morning with its face turned to the wall, though it was daily replaced. They decided at last to restore it to Teneriffe, and with this purpose set sail with a fleet of vessels and anchored in a port of Teneriffe. Diego was met by the King of Guiamar with an armed force, but when he found that Diego had only come to return the sacred image he loaded him with gifts and gave him free permission to send vessels to trade with Teneriffe. Acting on this treaty of commerce, Sancho Herrara, the son of Diego, was allowed to land and build a fort at what is now known as Santa Cruz. Disputes presently arose between the two peoples, but it was agreed that when such occurred the delinquent should be delivered to the offended party to be punished as thought fit. On a complaint of sheep-stealing being made against some Spaniards they were delivered to the Guanches, who, after reprimanding them, sent them back to their own people; soon afterwards a complaint of injury was made against the Guanches, who were accordingly given over to the mercy of Sancho Herrara; but he, forgetting the example of clemency shown him by the Guanches, had all the accused hanged. The Guanches were so enraged at this want of generosity that they rose up and drove the Spaniards out of the island, and razed the fort to the ground.

In 1493 Alonzo de Lugo arrived at Teneriffe with a fleet of ships and 1,000 armed men, determined to effect the conquest of the island. There were five kings of Teneriffe, and of these four at once submitted and made terms with the invader. The statues of these traitor kings adorn the market-place of Santa Cruz to

this day. But the King of Taora refused to submit; he rallied his fighting men to the number of 300, and demanded of Alonzo what he wanted; to which the Spanish captain replied that he came only to court his friendship, to convert him to Christianity,, and to make him a vassal of the King of Spain. To this the King of Taora replied that he despised no man's friendship, that he knew nothing of Christianity, and that as to becoming a vassal of the King of Spain, he was born free and he would die free. Alonzo continued to press forward with his troops, and penetrated into the island as far as Oratavo, where he looted the country and was returning with his booty when, in crossing a deep defile or barrancho, the King of Taora fell upon him with 300 Guanches and put him to rout, massacring 700 of his troops. The place is called now Mantanza de Centejo (the slaughter of Centejo) in memory of this battle. Broken and discouraged, Alonzo set sail from Teneriffe, and landed in Gran Canaria, whence he sent to Spain for funds and men. In a short time he returned to Teneriffe with an army of 1,000 foot and 70 horse. He landed at Santa Cruz and marched to Laguna. At Taora he met the armed and united forces of the Guanches, with whom he had several fights. The Guanches were, however, so deeply impressed with the order, fighting qualities, and seemingly endless resources of the Spaniards, that they concluded that it was useless to contend with them, and, assembling all the chief men of the island, they demanded a conference with Alonzo. They asked him what had induced the Spaniards to invade the island, to plunder the Guanches of their cattle, and to carry the people into captivity? To which Alonzo replied that his sole motive was his desire to convert them to Christianity. After due consideration the Guanches decided to accede to Alonzo's wish and to become Christians, and within a few days the whole of the inhabitants of Teneriffe were baptised. So rejoiced was Alonzo at this peaceable termination of the war that he founded a hermitage on the spot, and called it Nuestra Señora de la Victoria.

Umbrageous Palma had long been a coveted possession by the Spaniards, but excepting numerous marauding expeditions in search of slaves, its conquest was not seriously attempted until Alonzo de Lugo took it in hand in 1490. Having borne his part in the conquest of Gran Canaria, Alonzo grew tired of inactivity, and returned to Spain to obtain funds for a fresh adventure, and

received from the king a grant of the conquest of Palma and Teneriffe. He landed at Tassacorta in Palma, and marched inland. The only difficulty met with was at the Caldera, a vast extinct crater with its rugged sides clothed with forest trees and seamed by streams. Here the king and his followers made a final stand against the invaders, who were unable to dislodge them. The next morning Alonzo proposed a conference and promised the king that if he and his followers would submit to the King of Spain, their liberties and properties would be respected and preserved to them. To this the king replied that if Alonzo would return to the foot of the mountain he would come next day and make his submission. But treachery was found a quicker remedy than treaties, and the unsuspecting natives were, on approaching the Spanish troops, attacked and cut to pieces and their king taken prisoner. The anniversary of this day is celebrated in Palma as that on which the whole island submitted to the King of Spain and the Holy Church.

The end of the story of the Guanches is soon told. Their conquerors forgot as soon as convenient the precepts of the holy religion in the name of which the conquest had been made, and the cruelties and oppressions practised by them on the remaining inhabitants of the once Happy Islands are as horrible as any recorded of the sixteenth century. In Gomera, the governor, Hernand Peraza, being detected in an intrigue with a native woman, was killed by one of her relations in the act of quitting her cave. Goaded into rebellion, and encouraged by the murder of their tyrant, the Gomerans rose and imprisoned his widow, the beautiful and cruel Donna Beatrix Bobadilla, in the castle of the port, which was closely invested. Donna Beatrix sent word to Don Pedro de Vera, governor of Gran Canaria, to come and help her, which he did with men and ships; he raised the siege, released Donna Beatrix, and marched against the rebels, who had retired to a mountain fastness. By a stratagem he first made all the non-fighting Gomerans prisoners, and having induced the mutineers to surrender on the promise that they should pass out unharmed, he put all above fifteen years of age to death, 'some being hanged, others drowned, and others drawn asunder by horses,' and the women and children were sold as slaves. On hearing that the Gomerans in Gran Canaria had declared that they would treat anyone who offered an insult to their wives and daughters as

Hernand Peraza had been treated, he seized in one night about 200 Gomerans; the men he put to death, and the women and children he sold as slaves. Thus sadly the Guanches learnt the lessons of civilisation.

Of this interesting race scarcely any trace now remains. In Teneriffe, where the resistance had been less determined, the natives intermarried with their Spanish conquerors, and the type of the modern Teneriffian is obviously that of a mixed race; the Spanish character is also mollified by Guanche blood, and the Teneriffe people are known as being peculiarly gentle and docile. Gran Canaria was so depopulated by the long struggle that it was colonised from Spain, and the lands were divided among the colonists. Hierro became so bare that it was colonised from Flanders. Palma had the same fate. In Gomera the conquerors boasted that in a few years they had reduced the population to 1,000 natives, who were driven into the mountains. Of pureblooded Guanches none remain. Sold into slavery, massacred, robbed of their possessions and degraded, thus perished miserably a race who, though uncultured, had learnt the secret of happiness and good government.