Gomera
By all accounts, Gomera is the most unspoiled of the Canary Islands, an archipelago apparently known to the ancients as "the Fortunate Isles." Like the other islands of Macaronesia that we are visiting on this voyage they appear, albeit vaguely, on fourteenth-century Catalan and Genoese charts, marked as a navigational hazard. The significance of the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of exploration at the end of the fifteenth century, however, lie in the fact that it was these embryonic Atlantic maritime powers that established European settlement on the islands. For the historian, it is the contrasting nature of that human settlement that is of such interest. Neither the Azores nor Madeira was inhabited when the Portuguese first settled those islands at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Their European credentials have never been in doubt – although our geologist can make a convincing case for the Western islands of the Azores being American rather than European! The Canary Islands, on the other hand, were already settled when the Spanish came upon them. Indeed, for many years, only two Canary islands – Lanzarote and Fuerteventura – were directly controlled by the Spanish; the other islands, including Gomera, were in the hands of Guanche chiefs, a people with origins in north Africa. The presence of a taller and fairer element in the island population is said to be the result of intermarriage with the Guanche, none of whom (or their language) survived the colonial process intact.
Linking the Canary Islands with Africa, however, would be political suicide today. We have been struck on our visits to each of the island communities that we have visited so far on this voyage with the effects of generous European Union investment on the infrastructure of the islands. Their economic development has been accelerated over the past generation so that a way of life that had changed very little for centuries has now been transformed beyond recognition. Yet, as we sail for the African Republic of Cape Verde, we must prepare for the everyday sights of the daily round in the "developing" world: a standard of living as artificially depressed as that in the other islands that we have visited has been enhanced.
Today we toured the island from our port of entry San Sebastian, calling at the village of Hermigua (pictured) to visit a craft museum and workshop and admire the terraces constructed in colonial times for sugar and banana production. Climbing to the very top of the island, the temperature dropped markedly as we passed through the Garajonay National Park, its laurasilva woods enshrouded in mist, before descending again to San Sebastian. The latter was so warm and sunny that we were able to enjoy our first meal on deck prior toe sailing south for Cape Verde in the late afternoon.
By all accounts, Gomera is the most unspoiled of the Canary Islands, an archipelago apparently known to the ancients as "the Fortunate Isles." Like the other islands of Macaronesia that we are visiting on this voyage they appear, albeit vaguely, on fourteenth-century Catalan and Genoese charts, marked as a navigational hazard. The significance of the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of exploration at the end of the fifteenth century, however, lie in the fact that it was these embryonic Atlantic maritime powers that established European settlement on the islands. For the historian, it is the contrasting nature of that human settlement that is of such interest. Neither the Azores nor Madeira was inhabited when the Portuguese first settled those islands at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Their European credentials have never been in doubt – although our geologist can make a convincing case for the Western islands of the Azores being American rather than European! The Canary Islands, on the other hand, were already settled when the Spanish came upon them. Indeed, for many years, only two Canary islands – Lanzarote and Fuerteventura – were directly controlled by the Spanish; the other islands, including Gomera, were in the hands of Guanche chiefs, a people with origins in north Africa. The presence of a taller and fairer element in the island population is said to be the result of intermarriage with the Guanche, none of whom (or their language) survived the colonial process intact.
Linking the Canary Islands with Africa, however, would be political suicide today. We have been struck on our visits to each of the island communities that we have visited so far on this voyage with the effects of generous European Union investment on the infrastructure of the islands. Their economic development has been accelerated over the past generation so that a way of life that had changed very little for centuries has now been transformed beyond recognition. Yet, as we sail for the African Republic of Cape Verde, we must prepare for the everyday sights of the daily round in the "developing" world: a standard of living as artificially depressed as that in the other islands that we have visited has been enhanced.
Today we toured the island from our port of entry San Sebastian, calling at the village of Hermigua (pictured) to visit a craft museum and workshop and admire the terraces constructed in colonial times for sugar and banana production. Climbing to the very top of the island, the temperature dropped markedly as we passed through the Garajonay National Park, its laurasilva woods enshrouded in mist, before descending again to San Sebastian. The latter was so warm and sunny that we were able to enjoy our first meal on deck prior toe sailing south for Cape Verde in the late afternoon.
