Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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On Opening Those Of The Guanches, Remains Of
Aromatic Plants Are Discovered, Among Which The Chenopodium
Ambrosioides Is Constantly Perceived:
The bodies are often
decorated with small laces, to which are hung little discs of baked
earth, which appear to have served as numerical signs, and resemble
the quippoes of the Peruvians, the Mexicans, and the Chinese.
The population of islands being in general less exposed than that
of continents to the effect of migrations, we may presume that, in
the time of the Carthaginians and the Greeks, the archipelago of
the Canaries was inhabited by the same race of men as were found by
the Norman and Spanish conquerors. The only monument that can throw
any light on the origin of the Guanches is their language; but
unhappily there are not above a hundred and fifty words extant, and
several express the same object, according to the dialect of the
different islanders. Independently of these words, which have been
carefully noted, there are still some valuable fragments existing
in the names of a great number of hamlets, hills, and valleys. The
Guanches, like the Biscayans, the Hindoos, the Peruvians, and all
primitive nations, named places after the quality of the soil, the
shape of the rocks, the caverns that gave them shelter, and the
nature of the tree that overshadowed the springs.*
(* It has been long imagined, that the language of the Guanches had
no analogy with the living tongues; but since the travels of
Hornemann, and the ingenious researches of Marsden and Venturi,
have drawn the attention of the learned to the Berbers, who, like
the Sarmatic tribes, occupy an immense extent of country in the
north of Africa, we find that several Guanche words have common
roots with words of the Chilha and Gebali dialects. We shall cite,
for instance, the words:
I doubt whether this analogy is a proof of a common origin; but it
is an indication of the ancient connexion between the Guanches and
Berbers, a tribe of mountaineers, in which the ancient Numidians,
Getuli, and Garamanti are confounded, and who extend themselves
from the eastern extremity of Atlas by Harutsh and Fezzan, as far
as the oasis of Siwah and Augela. The natives of the Canary Islands
called themselves Guanches, from guan, man; as the Tonguese call
themselves bye, and tongui, which have the same signification as
guan. Besides the nations who speak the Berberic language are not
all of the same race; and the description which Scylax gives, in
his Periplus, of the inhabitants of Cerne, a shepherd people of
tall stature and long hair, reminds us of the features which
characterize the Canarian Guanches.)
The greater attention we direct to the study of languages in a
philosophical point of view, the more we must observe that no one
of them is entirely distinct. The language of the Guanches would
appear still less so, had we any data respecting its mechanism and
grammatical construction; two elements more important than the form
of words, and the identity of sounds. It is the same with certain
idioms, as with those organized beings that seem to shrink from all
classification in the series of natural families. Their isolated
state is merely apparent; for it ceases when, on embracing a
greater number of objects, we come to discover the intermediate
links. Those learned enquirers who trace Egyptians wherever there
are mummies, hieroglyphics, or pyramids, will imagine perhaps that
the race of Typhon was united to the Guanches by the Berbers, real
Atlantes, to whom belong the Tibboes and the Tuarycks of the
desert: but this hypothesis is supported by no analogy between the
Berberic and Coptic languages, which are justly considered as
remnants of the ancient Egyptian.
The people who have succeeded the Guanches are descended from the
Spaniards, and in a more remote degree from the Normans. Though
these two races have been exposed during three centuries past to
the same climate, the latter is distinguished by the fairer
complexion. The descendants of the Normans inhabit the valley of
Teganana, between Punta de Naga and Punta de Hidalgo. The names of
Grandville and Dampierre are still pretty common in this district.
The Canarians are a moral, sober, and religious people, of a less
industrious character at home than in foreign countries. A roving
and enterprising disposition leads these islanders, like the
Biscayans and Catalonians, to the Philippines, to the Ladrone
Islands, to America, and wherever there are Spanish settlements,
from Chile and La Plata to New Mexico. To them we are in a great
measure indebted for the progress of agriculture in those colonies.
The whole archipelago does not contain 160,030 inhabitants, and the
Islenos are perhaps more numerous in the new continent than in
their own country.
CHAPTER 1.3.
PASSAGE FROM TENERIFE TO SOUTH AMERICA.
THE ISLAND OF TOBAGO.
ARRIVAL AT CUMANA.
We left the road of Santa Cruz on the 25th of June, and directed
our course towards South America. We soon lost sight of the Canary
Islands, the lofty mountains of which were covered with a reddish
vapour. The Peak alone appeared from time to time, as at intervals
the wind dispersed the clouds that enveloped the Piton. We felt,
for the first time, how strong are the impressions left on the mind
from the aspect of those countries situated on the limits of the
torrid zone, where nature appears at once so rich, so various, and
so majestic. Our stay at Teneriffe had been very short, and yet we
withdrew from the island as if it had long been our home.
Our passage from Santa Cruz to Cumana, the most eastern part of the
New Continent, was very fine. We cut the tropic of Cancer on the
27th; and though the Pizarro was not a very fast sailer, we made,
in twenty days, the nine hundred leagues, which separate the coast
of Africa from that of the New Continent.
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