Early Inhabitants The Guanches
It is difficult to gain much firm information about the earliest inhabitants of the Canary Islands and there is some doubt about their origins. Some sources suggest that they may have come from the
south of Spain whilst others suggest that they came from North Africa. The early inhabitants certainly had some resemblance to the darker skinned peoples of North Africa.
The inhabitants of the islands were known, collectively, as Guanches.
The inhabitants of all seven Canary Islands spoke a similar language, but with slight variations. We are told that they had a highly developed political and social structure.
One unusual, but intriguing, development in communication has
been on the island of Gomera. Here, the mountains are so steep and the valleys so deep that the people of the island developed the habit of whistling to each other across the ravines. By this means they were able to 'talk' to each other. I was
once priviledged to witness this 'talking' in action and was most impressed. The whistling 'language' has lived on, but with all the modern innovations, is now likely to die out.
Volcanic Landscape
The
Guanches were pastoral and worked the land. Their way of life was very basic - almost 'stoneage' - and the tools which they used were primitive. They had no ploughs and wheels were unknown to them. The clay pots which they used were
moulded by hand. Most were cave dwellers although a few of them did lay stones, one on top of the other, to form rudimentary houses.
The Island Is Discovered
More became known about the island of Lanzarote and
it's inhabitants as various explorers 'discovered' it. One of the first to arrive - in the 1300's - was an Italian seafarer by the name of Lancelloto Malocello. It is possible that the island's name of Lanzarote is derived from Malocello's
first name.
Then it was the turn of the Spanish - or, rather, a Frenchman acting on behalf of the Spanish king.
Jean de Béthencourt (a nobleman from Normandy), acting for Enrique III of Castille, brought the island under Spanish rule
during the first years of the fifteenth century. In his southward venture, Lanzarote was the first of the Canary Islands which he came upon.
Protection Against Pirates.
This castle (Castillo de las
Coloradas in Playa Blanca) was built later - in 1769. The local inhabitants had been at the mercy of raiding pirates and Béthencourt, leading a small troop of men, is reported to have promised the king of the Guanches protection from the
pirates. He, Béthencourt, was allowed to build a fortress on the Rubicón (a plain in the south of the island) to protect the islanders. His conquest of the island is said to have been peaceful.
After Lanzarote, Jean de Béthencourt later
went on to subdue Fuerteventura and El Hierro. He brought settlers out from Spain, who coexisted peacefully with the Guanches. The whole conquest took only four years.
Bethencourt acquired the title 'Lord of the Islands'. Following his
conquest of the islands, he returned to France and was succeeded by his nephew, Maciót.
Whereas Béthencourt had ruled peacefully, his nephew, Maciot, did not. Maciót traded in slaves and exploited his newly acquired land. The king of Spain,
hearing of his deeds, had him removed from the island and exiled to Madeira. Maciót's scheming was still not over, however. One of his subsequent acts was to offer to sell the 'rights' to the Canary Islands to Portugal. As a consequence, a
dispute ensued between Spain and Portugal which was only settled by the intervention of the Pope.
After Maciót had been deposed, a series of feudal lords controlled the island. The Arrival of The Pirates
A period of relative peace
followed. That is - until the appearance of pirates and corsairs from the nearby North African coast. The island was then subjected to repeated attacks and was fought over for nearly four centuries.
Great bloodshed and ruin was caused. Many
inhabitants were carried off to be sold as slaves. Many of those inhabitants who were not murdered or carried off were forced to take refuge in the Cueva de los Verdes in the North.
Friend or Foe ?
As the
capital of the island in those turbulent times, Teguise suffered badly - the church in the main square being repeatedly vandalised, sacked and burnt. Teguise ceased to be the capital of the island in 1852 in favour of Arrecife.
Pirates of
other nations also abounded in Canarian waters. These included Jean Florin and 'Peg Leg' LeClerc from France, together with Sir John Hawkins, John Poole and Sir Walter Raleigh from Britain.
In the middle of the seventeenth century
Lanzarote's population was reduced to a few hundred inhabitants. At this distance in time, and living the comparatively comfortable lives which most of us now do, it is difficult for us to imagine what their lives must have been like. Quite
apart from working hard to win the means to survive, they were at times reduced to living in caves to avoid being murdered or carried off to be sold into slavery. It is hardly surprising that many of Lanzarote's inhabitants emigrated to other
islands of the archipelago and to South America. There is a museum at the Castillo de Guanapay dedicated to displaying souvenirs and other records of the lives of those emigrants.
