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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De Churruca And Galleano, At Cape Pilar, Navigators
Considered The Mountains Of The Straits Of Magellan, And Those Of
Terra Del Fuego, To Be Extremely Elevated.
The island of Lancerota bore formerly the name of Titeroigotra.
On
the arrival of the Spaniards, its inhabitants were distinguished
from the other Canarians by marks of greater civilization. Their
houses were built with freestone, while the Guanches of Teneriffe
dwelt in caverns. At Lancerota, a very singular custom prevailed at
that time, of which we find no example except among the people of
Thibet. A woman had several husbands, who alternately enjoyed the
prerogatives due to the head of a family. A husband was considered
as such only during a lunar revolution, and whilst his rights were
exercised by others, he remained classed among the household
domestics. In the fifteenth century the island of Lancerota
contained two small distinct states, divided by a wall; a kind of
monument which outlives national enmities, and which we find in
Scotland, in China, and Peru.
We were forced by the winds to pass between the islands of
Alegranza and Montana Clara, and as none on board the sloop had
sailed through this passage, we were obliged to be continually
sounding. We found from twenty-five to thirty-two fathoms. The lead
brought up an organic substance of so singular a structure that we
were for a long time doubtful whether it was a zoophyte or a kind
of seaweed. The stem, of a brownish colour and three inches long,
has circular leaves with lobes, and indented at the edges.
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