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.
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