“The gentry are very averse to leaving their country, having not the least curiosity to travel and see the world. Very few of them visit Spain, or even [Gran] Canaria, unless when they are obliged to attend their law-suits in that island. A gentleman...

“The natives of these islands, although their deportment is grave, are extremely quick and sensible. The women are remarkable for their vivacity and sprightly conversation, which far exceeds that of the French, English, or other northern nations. […]...

“None of the Canarians had more than one wife, and the wife one husband, contrary to what some misinformed authors affirm. When the parents were inclined to marry their daughter, they set her apart thirty days, during which they fed her with large q...

“After dinner the religious conversation was revived, when, finding my spirits pretty well recruited, and that I could not well evade the argument as before, I disputed with them a considerable time, and at last told them it was in vain for us to ta...

“Although I left the ship before dinner-time nobody asked me if I had dinned, so that I fasted that day from morning to night. There is a strange sort of delicacy among the gentry here, which is, that one must not ask for anything to eat, though eve...

“The children here are taught in the convents reading, writing, Latin, arithmetic, logic, and some other branches of philosophy. Greek is never learned here, not even by the students in divinity. The Latin authors which scholars read are the classics...

“Each of the Canary Islands, and every town or village in it, has some particular saint for its patron, whose day is celebrated as a festival by a particular service in the church, where a sermon is preached in honour of the saint. On these occasion...