Poverty in Haria

“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 ever so hungry or faint, in a strange house; as a freedom of that kind would be looked on as that highest degree of vulgarity and ill-breeding: therefore, when I found an opportunity, I made a pretence of going out to speak to my servant, but in reality to try to get some victuals privately. The Tenerife boy I found had suffered as much as myself: however, I gave him some money and sent him to bring whatever he could find that was eatable; and in case he could procure nothing better, to bring me a lump of Goffio-dough, or handful of meal: but his search proved in vain, there being no such thing as bread or any eatables sold there.”

George Glas