Their only weapons are stones, maces or clubs, and darts or
lances, some of which are pointed with horn, and others have their points
hardened in the fire. They all go naked, except a few who wear goat skins
before and behind. They anoint their skins with goats tallow, mixed up
with the juice of certain herbs, which thickens the skin, and defends
them against the cold, of which they complain much, although their
country is so far to the south. They have neither walled, nor thatched
houses, but dwell in grottos and caverns of the mountains. They feed on
barley, flesh, and goats milk, of which they have abundance, and some
fruits, particularly figs. As the country is very hot, they reap their
corn in April and May.

We learnt all these things from the Christians of the four settled
islands, who sometimes go over by night to the three other islands, and
make prisoners of the natives, whom they send into Spain to be sold as
slaves. Sometimes the Spaniards are themselves made prisoners on these
expeditions, on which occasions the natives do not put them to death, but
employ them to kill and flea their goats, and to cure the flesh, which
they look upon as a vile employment, and therefore condemn their
Christian prisoners to that labour in contempt. The native Canarians are
very active and nimble, and are exceedingly agile in running and leaping,
being accustomed to traverse the cliffs of their rugged mountains. They
skip barefooted from rock to rock like goats, and sometimes take leaps of
most surprising extent and danger, which are scarcely to be believed.
They throw stones with great strength and wonderful exactness, so as to
hit whatever they aim at with almost perfect certainty, and almost with
the force of a bullet from a musket; insomuch that a few stones thrown by
them will break a buckler to pieces. I once saw a native Canarian, who
had become a Christian, who offered to give three persons twelve oranges
a-piece, and taking twelve to himself, engaged, at eight or ten paces
distance, to strike his antagonists with every one of his oranges, and at
the same time to parry all theirs, so that they should hit no part of him
but his hands. But no one would take up the wager, as they all knew he
could perform even better than he mentioned. I was on land in Gomera and
Ferro, and touched also at the island of Palma, but did not land there.

[1] In Grynaeus, this person is called a patrician or nobleman of Venice,
and his