Fuentes documentales en Inglaterra tocantes a la historia de Canarias

              FUENTES DOCUMENTALES EN INGLATERRA TOCANTES
A LA HISTORIA DE CANARIAS
A. Introduction
The availability in England of documentary sources concerning the
history of the Canary Islands is a reflection of England's role as one
of the world's major maritime nations from the sixteenth century
onwards, and the position of the islands at the crossroads of three
continents: Europe, America and' Africa. For Spain, and for Spanish
historians, the commercial and strategic importance of the Canary
Islands is identified primarily by their function as a staging post for
shipping undertaking the hazardous crossing from the peninsula to
America. Christopher Columbus established this as the safest and most
sensible route to the New World, and for more than three centuries
thereafter the virt mijority nf Spnirh ves re!^ undert&ing the DU~WITC!
journey put in at the island ports, notably Santa Cruz de Tenerife,
to take on fresh water and foodstuffs, to undertake repairs, and to
seek shelter from storms and the hostilc attentions of corsairs, priva-teersr
and naval vessels of other European powers. The English came
to the waters around the Canaries both as predators - not always suc-cessfully
as Rear-Admira1 Horatio Nelson discovered in July 1797,
when he lost his arm - but also as traders. In the sixteenth century
they brought cloth - notably the highly-prized paños de Londres - and
took away sugar l. By the seventeenth century, when Canarian sugar
was incapable of competing with that of the West Indies, the emphasis
had shifted to wine, and the choice maluasza; or «malmsey» of Tenerife
occupied a domínant place in the London market 2. Despite competition
from the Portuguese islands, notably Madeira, wine exports to England
continued to grow in the course of the century, and the return flow
brought an increasing number of English merchants to the islands as
1. See FBLIP~F ERNLNDEZ-ARMESTOT, he Canary Islands afler the Conquest (Oxford,
1982), pp. 158-60, 168-9.
2. See GSORCBF . STECKLFI«,T he wine economy o€ Tenerife in the seventeenth cen-tury:
Angldpanish partnership in a luxury trader, Economic History Review, XXIII,
1980, pp. 335-350.
residents: 158 have been identiúed for the period 1600 - 1730, some
in Gran Canaria and Palma, but the majority in Tenerife. By 1694-5
the 15 leading English merchants in Puerto de la Cruz, the busiest
of the Canarian ports, handled 75 per cent of imports, with cloth
accounting for 60 per cent of the totals 3. The English colony aban-doned
Puerto de la Cruz de 1704, during the War of the Spanish
Succession, to be replaced by Frenchmen and other Europeans. By the
1730s the trade had been partially re-established, but the wine eco-nomy
was not to return to the prosperity of the seventeenth century,
even after easier access was provided to the American market in the
period after 1765.
In the second half of the eighteenth century and in the first half
o£ the nineteenth the Canaries were more important to England as the
provider of foodstuffs for vessels engaged in long voyages, and as a
means of penetrating the lucrative trade with Spanish America than
as a major consumer of British gÓods or a major supplier of the
EligEsh lriarkei. As -@-iile pi.o&c-oil cGr:ai!ed by vine diseases iq
the early nineteenth century, cochineal, in demand for the dyeing of
cloth, provided a temporary respite, until this product, too, was hit
by the development of chemical dyes in Germany in the 1870s. It
was at this low point in the economic fortunes of the Islands that
their geographical proximity to the natural route between England
and West Africa again became of major importance - the famous
German explorer, Alexander von Humboldt, had considered them,
indeed, to be part of Africa, writing to his brother from Tenerife on
23 June 1799:
«I am really quite ecstatic at finding myself on African soil
at last, surrounded by coconut palms and bananas» 4.
For hundreds of years ships had always called at either the Canary
Islands or Madeira on their way home to Europe from Africa, primarily
to take on water and provisions: With the rapid expansion o£ trade
from England, mainly through the port of Liverpool, to West Africa
in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the small-scale purchase
of local products - lemons, wine, bananas - by ships crews gave way
in the 1880s to first trial shipments of bananas to Liverpool, and then
to considerable English investment by Elder Dempster and Fyffes,
in both banana production and shipping and marketing. Alfred Jones
3. Ibid., M.
4. Doucus BOTIING, Humboldt and rhe Cosmos (London, 1973).
of Elder Dempster began his long association with the Islands in
1884, when he established his Grand Canary Coaling Station at
Puerto de la Luz, and he went on; of course, to form the Interinsula
Steamship Company, and establish a large marine engineering work-shop,
a cold-storage plant, two hotels, and a patent slip at la Luz.
By the end o£ the century, the value. of exports - mainly bananas and
tomatoes - from the Canaries to the United Kingdom had soared froni
under £100,000 a year in the 1880s to over £1,000,000; in 1919-20
it had reached over £4,000,000. After vrartime interruptions, agricul-tural
exports revived in the 1950s, until eclipsed by tourism as the
rnajor link between the Canaries and Britain.
The documentation available in English archives for the history
of the Canaries reflects this lona and changing association over almost
five centuries. For ease of analysis and comprehension, the paper will
be structured according to the nature and location of documentation,
rather than on a chronological basis. The obvious archive with which
to begin is the Public Record Office.
B. Public Record Offices, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond,
Surrey TW9 ~ D VTh is repository consists essentially of the national
archives, and its existence dates from an Act of Parliament of 1838
which provided for the brjnging together of al1 Public Records derived
frnm (a) the King's Cni'rt and the vario'is hranrhes through which
it discharged its administrative, financia1 and judicial functions and
(b) State Papers from the accession of Henry VIII onwards, together
with records of the Admiralty and other government departments of
later origin. It is from the second source that documents relating to
the Canaries are likely to derive, al-though as the Office contains many
millions of records, it is possible to give only general guidance in this
paper. The documents relating to each department are divided into
classes, and the class lists, some of which have indexes and others
'calendars', containing extracts, are available for consultation in the
search room. The most important sections are:
State Papers Office. This contains the State Papers, domestic
and foreign from 1509 to 1782, when the Home and Foreign
Offices were established. For the early period, see Calendar of
State Papers Spanish 2485-1586 (16 vols, 1862-1896), which
contains many references to the Canaries. The sub-division State
-P -mr -~ -y rF nyeigu, ronsisting of thP genera! cor r~s~ondenrfero m
ambassadors and others abroad, with miscellaneous letters and
5. See Guide to the contents of the Public Record Office (3 vols., London, 1%3-8).
papers, contains no less than 255 volumes relating to Spain
(reference S.P. 94) for the period 1577-1780. There are also
likely to be references to the Canaries in the small class Portugal
(reference S.P. 89), containing 92 volumes. In each case reference
should be made to the detailed registers available on open shelves
in the search room.
Foreign Office
. The records of this department, established in 1782, form
a continuous series with the State Papers, Foreign, although a
certain degree of overlapping does occur.
The principal classes relevant for the Canaries are
( i) General Correspondence of the Foreign Office: o,,"
consisting of original dispatches and reports from British E
diplomatic and consular representatives abroad, of corres- O
poncience with íoreign missions in Engiand, of misceEa- n - m
neoiis correspondence with individuals, and of drafts or O
E
copies of letters sent from the Office. E
2
See Spain (F.O. 72), 1781 to 1905, 2,234 volumes, again E
accessible via detailed registers available in the Office.
For the period after 1906, al1 foreign office materials are 3
classified under subject headings - e.g. Commercial (F.O. -
0
m
368), 1906-1919, 2269 volumes; Consular (F.O. 369), E
1906-1933, 2340 volumes - and detailed annual indexes O
6
provide references to countries and subject headings. n
E
(ii) Embassy and Consular Archives: a
comprising the archives of British diplomatic missions and n
consular establishments overseas, arranged in alphabetical
n
n
order of countries. They are generally classified as (a) 3
correspondence; (b) letter books (entry books of out- O
letters and, less frequently, of in-letters); (c) registers of
correspondehce (sometimes including indexes, registers of
passports, etc.); and (d) miscellanea (the contents being
summarised in each case). The Embassy and Consular Ar-chives
are complementary to the Foreign Office Genera1
Correspondence, containing original letters from the Fore-ign
Office and drafts of dispatches from the envoys abroad.
References to the Canaries will be found in the indexes to the
following :
Spain
Correspondence (F.O. 185). 1783 to 1923. 1,743 volumes, etc.
Letter Books (F.O. 186). 1784 to 1861. 23 volumes.
Regzsters of Correspondence (F.O. 187). 1810 to 1924. 58
volurnes.
Miscellanea (F.O. 227). 1704 to 1906. 17 volumes.
Correspondence respecting maritime jurisdiction in Gibraltar
waters, extraordinary and other disbursements, shipping cases,
claims against the Spanish Government, commercial negotiation,
etc.
The considerable increase in British commercial activitv from
the last quarter of the nineteenth century is reflected in the
composition of 12 further volumes relating specifically to the
Canary Islands:
SPAIN
CONSULATES
Canary Islands (F. O. 772). 1764 - 1770; 1832 to 1931. 12
volumes.
These comprise an entry-book for the Orotava Consulate,
1878 to 1950 and 11 volumes relating to the Tenerife consulate:
an entry book of out-letters 1764-1770, 2 volumes for 1832 to
1842; 2 indexer ~f cn? i r~rp~x! e~fc e~ 1r8 5Q ts 1931, 2nd 7
registers of correspondence for 3 879 to 1931.
Further sections which are likelv to yield references to the Canaries
are :
High Court of Admiralty, which had cognisance of al1 cases af-fecting
piracy, privateering, ships and rnerchandise on the high seas
and overseas (a typescript list is available ir, the office).
Admiralty, which contains the records of the Rogal Navy frorn
1660 (see P.R.O. Lists and Indexes XVIII, 1904, and P.R.O. Lists
and Indexes Supplementary VI : Lists af Admiralty Records to 1913,
2 vols, reprint 1966-7, plus typescript lists.
Board of Customs and Excise: the surviving records of the national
customs system (two typescript lists available)
and
Board of Trade
Original Correspondence (C.O. 388). 1654 to 1792. 95 volumes,
etc. Papers relating to foreign and domestic trade. accounts and es-tablishment~,
claims for losses inflicted by the Spaniards, etc. Refe-
rences to the papers will be found in the general registers of the Board
(C.O. 326) under the headings 'Trades' and 'Miscellanies'.
C. The British Library, Department of Manuscripts 6, Great Russell
St, London The Department of Manuscripts of The British Library
(often referred to by its former name of The British Museum) has
been collecting material by means of purchases, donations, and bequests
since its foundation in 1753. It now possesses valuable documents on
most topics and periods including a considerable number of interest
for the history of the Canaries. The printed catalogues cover accessions
up to 1945 (see T.C. Skeat, The catalogues of manuscript collections
in the British Museum, 2nd ed, 1962), and card indexes in the Students'
Room describe later acquisitions.
The principal sets of documents containing material on the Canaries
are as follows, the individual items being arranged in chronological
order.
The collection o£ Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), purchased in 1753
by the Act of Parliament which established the British Museum as
their repository. They are numbered 1 - 4100.
Correspondence of Viscount Falkland chiefly relating to
Ireland and to the Canary Islands 1610-32, including (ff.204-
49b) Spanish papers relating to the Canary Islands, 16.10-24.
(Sloane 3827.)
Journals by John Smith of voyages to the Canaries, Smyrna,
Venice, ,& C 1664-9. (Sloane 1700.)
Log of a voyage from Madeira to Canary, and thence to
England. 1679-80. (Sloane 1487, ff. 65-103b.)
Journal of a voyage to the Canaries and back. 1681-2.
(Sloane 2504, ff. 174-93b.)
List of trees and seeds from the Canary Islands, by T Sim-mons.
1694. (Sloane 3328, ff. 88, 90.)
Journal of voyages to the Canaries under Captain W. Baker.
1700 and 1701.. (Sloane 3237, ff. 14-26b, 30-38b.)
E
6 . The documentary references in this section are taken from: PUSCUALDE GAYANGOS,
Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Spanish Language in the British Museum (4 vols.,
London, 1875-93).
N. ibfAlTHE~s anci M. ÜORE~~NW A I NWX I ( ~ H ~Á, Guide ¿U %u~u>¿ripisü rrii ,%Xúr i isi i i~
in the British Isles relating to Africa (ed. J . D. Pearson) (London, 1971).
N. MATTHEWSa nd M. Do- WAINWRICHAT , Guide to Manuscripts and Documents
in the British Isles relating to the Middle East and North Africa (London, 1980).
Additional Manuscripts
This is the largest and most varied of the British Library's collec-tions,
and embraces the material other' than specific collections acqujred
since 1753. Its enumeration runs from 4001, following that of the
Sloane Manuscripts, and has so far reached 62,450 (June 1982).
Chart of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, with a portion
of the Atlantic, from the British Islands in the North to the
Canaries in the South; the coast-lines, and :he names of the
principal towns. By Jaume Oiiuer, a native of Mallorca; at Mes-sina,
1559; with coloured figures of the Virgin and Child; the
«Soldan» of Babilonia, St c., representations of animals and
armorial shields.
Vehm roll, xvi. cent. (Add. 21029).
Glossary of Arabic words, with philological notes and ex-tructs,
rrlating chiefIy te the languages ~f ?-?m& Africa and the
Canary Islands, by George Cecil Renouard, English chaplain at
Smyrna; with a fem private accounts, & c. c. 1810-14 (Add.
27619).
«Henriquez Verdadera Fortuna De Las Canarias, 1714.~
«Verdadera noticia de Las Canarias, y Breve noticia de la
milagrosa imagen de Nuestra Señora del Pino de Gran-Canaria.
Dedicala a la misma Reina de Cielos y tierra en todos instantes
de su Concepcion Purissima y siempre inmaculada el R P Fr.
Diego Henriquez minorita, hijo de la Provincia de Sant Diego
de Canaria lector jubilado exdefinidor y calificador del S. Oficio
de la Inquisicion de estas Islas y examinador synodal deste obis-pado.
»
The original work prepared for the press, and preceded by
the ordinary 'aprobaciones' of Fray Thomas de Castro, Fray Do-mingo
Mireles, Doctor Don Joseph BenitÓ de Loretto, Pedro
Cabera de la Mota. Apostolical Notary of the Canary Islands,
Juan Vicentelo, Alexandro Gonzalez de Barcia, and Agustin de
Torres Zavala; al1 of which bear the date of 1714, though the
work seems to have been dedicated on the 15th August, 1725,
to Alexandro Gonzalez de Barcia, of the Roya1 Audiencia of
the Cmaq Islands. !Add. 25326).
«Semi-Historia De La Fundaciones, Residencias O Colegios
Que Tiene La Compañia de Jesus en Las Islas Canarias: Origen,
Progresos y estado presente de ellas. Con una breve descripcion
de aquellas siete islas, un resumen de su conquista y algunos
problemas concernientes a ellas, singularmente a la famosa (isla)
encantada o de San Borondon.»
The original manuscript written shortly after 1740 by Father
Mathias Sanchez, a Jesuit. It is preceded by laudatory verses
from Father Rafael de Cordova and Brother Alonso de la Pena.
(Add. 25090). ff. 221.
Collections of papers of the Board of Trade, including:
Report of trade to Africa and the settlements there; the
African trade; a case against the Governor of Senegal; memoirs
of the Canaries, sent to Lord Shelburne. 1776-82 (Add. 14034).
Ro ya1 Manuscripts
The collection of successive sovereigns of England from Edward
IV, transferred to the British Museum by George 11 in 1757.
Letter from Queen Elizabeth 1 to Philip 11 of Spain on
behalf of the agents of Anthony Hickman, merchant, in the
Canary Islands, 1561. Latin copy. (Roya1 13 B. 1, f. 144b.)
Lansdowne Manuscripts
The collection of William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne
( 1737-1803, purchased from his executors in 1807.
Short history of the Canary Islands. 17th cent. (Lansdowne
79214, f . 97).
Egerton Manuscripts
A collection built around the manuscripts bequeathed to the British
Museum in 1824 by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater
(1756-1829).
'Le Canarien': a history of the conquest of the Canary Islands
by 'Gadifer de la Sale et Jehan de Bethencourt, Chevaliers, nez
du royaume de France' in 1402-4, written by 'Frere Pierre
Bnilder, Mnyne de Szinr Jnnyn de Mzrnes, et Monsieur Jehan
le Verrier, prebstres, chappellains et seruiteurs des chevaliers
desus nommes'. This manuscript probably represents the work
in its original form: the text differs widely from that of the
printed editions. 36 ff. (Eg.. 2709.)
Portolano executed in Italy about 1540, including maps of
the Atlantic Ocean with the East coast of America and all o
Africa (ff. 4b, 5), the Indian Ocean (ff. 5b, 6), the coasts of
Spain, and part of Africa including the Canary Islands (ff. 7b,
8), with a general chart of the world (ff. 13b, 14) and a hemisph-eric
map of the old world (ff. 14b, 15,). (Eg. 2854.)
Portolano made about 1562 with the names in Spanish,
including maps of the South Atlantic from the Canary Islands
to Tristan de Cunha (ff. 4b, 5), and South Africa from Tiera
Negada (Gold Coast) to Strecho de Meca (Straits of Perim) with
many islands of the Indian Ocean (ff. 8b, 9). (Eg. 2860:)
«Papeles y Consultas.De1 Consejo De La Inquisición» (1565-1718).
Tom VII; relating principally to proceedings by the Inquisition of
La Gran Caíiaria ( m e of ;he Canary Islaíids) against forrigixrs, as
follows:
Proceedings against John Sanders, an Englishman, charged with
profaning a sacred image; Feb. 1565. f. 2
Proceedings against Bartholomew Cowel, merchant of Barnstaple;
Dec. 1593, with a letter of the Inquisitor of Canaria (Dn. Claudio
de la Cueva) to the Council, about the confessions made by
Cowel, here caUed Coello. f. 26
Proceedings against Duarte (Edward) Monox, captain of an
English trading vessel; June-Sept. 1604. f. 52
Proceedings against Miguel Hernandez, a Portuguese sailor, born
at San Juan del Puerto in the Algarve, but having his residence
at Porchimua (Portsmouth) in England, 1608-9. f. 64
Proceedings against Gaspar Cla~sen, alias Gaspar Nicolas: a
Fleming; April, 1611 - Jan 1612. f. 125
Proceedings against Juan Tanal or Tanar (John Tanner?), English
ri,erchunt residing iri the islam! ef Terieriffe; c e 1624.
f. 159
«Testimonios de quatro processos contra Henrrique Ysan, mer-cader
ingles que reside en lo ysla de Tenerife;» with various
other papers and orders respecting the prosecution of English
residents in the Canary Islands, 1626-1627. f. 182
Proceedings against Edmund Smith. Engiish consui in the isiands
of Teneriffe; 1699-1700. f. 247
Proceedings against Don Juan de (la) Camara, alias Don Ignacio
Piña,. a Portuguese, equerry to the English ambassador at Ma-drid;
Feb-Dec 1718. f. 490
Original letter of Cardinal ~ i u i i oA lberoni, minister of Philip V
to the Inquisitor D Jacinto de Arana (y Cuesta), directing him
not to make further search for the .person of D. Juan de la
Camara who had fled from Madrid; dat. Balsayn, 4 Oct 1718.
f. 530
Copy of the answer made by Don Jacinto de Arana y Cuesta
to the above; Madrid, 6 Oct 1718, with letter of the president
of Castille (D. Luis de Mirabal y Spinola) to him, and report
made to the Council on the case of Don Juan de la Camara;
holog. f. 532
Original note of the President of the Council of Castille (Don
Luis de Mirabal) to D. Jacinto de Arana y Cuesta; dat. Madrid,
9 Oct 1718; and report of the latter on the orders received at
various times from the king respecting the prisoner Don Juan
de la Camara (see ihnve Nn 10). f. 534
(Eg. 1512) ff. 536.
«Milagio En Tenerife, 1648:u depositions relative to a miraculous
image in the Canary Islands.
«Expediente formado a instancias del capitan de fragata Don Ig-nacio
Pacheco Solis en 22 de Diciembre de 1761, de las diligencias
autuadas para comprobar el milagro acaecido el año de 1648, en que
una imagen de San Juan pintada al olio y colocada en el altar de una
capilla en la Iglesia de Nuestra Señora dz la Concepción, del patronato
de su familia, sudo copiosamente por mas de 40 dias;» orig. (Eg. 466)
ff. 38
D. Miscellaneous Record Offices and Libraries '. The manuscript
holdings of the British Library relating to the Canary Islands are rich
and varied; those of the equivalent institutions in Scotland and Wales
are virtually non-existent, but two items of some interest have been
located:
-T-r-.n-f"t"i.r-h R~rnrAQ flice, H -M Geneysi]R egirter HnfiSe, F&nbfirgh -.--u, -
Polwarth Muniments.
Letter (copy) John Crosse, Consul in Tenerife to the Commis-sioners
for Trade and Plantations discussing in detail British
trade with the Canary Islands including references to West
Indian trade, 28 Dec 1718. (Transcript: H M C 67 11, 9-16.)
7. Sources as for section C. and P. WALNE (ed) A Guide to Manuscript Sources for
the History of Latin America and the Caribbean in the British Isles (London, 1973).
504
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
Lists of the hand of Thomas Pennant (1726-98), naturalist,
traveller and writer, of the flora of Barbary, Senegal, Ethiopia,
the ~anar)r Islands, Madeira and the Azores. Latin, English.
18th century. (MS. 2552.)
Somewhat more important are two County Record Offices and
three further provincial collections in England, which contain indivi-dual
items relating to the Canaries from the seventeenth to the mine-teenth
century:
County Record Office, County Hall, Ipswich
Long Papers.
Letter Book, 'Yilliam Commyns, Tenerife, including references
to trade in cloth with Africa and West Indies 1788 - 91
(S1/13/3.3).
County Record Office, County Hall, Beverley
'The Adventures of Cousin Charlie in the islands of Teneriffe,
Grand Canary and Madeira' with illustrations, photographs and
poems. April 1878. (75124.)
City of Li.verpoo1 Public Libraries, Liverpool
Papers of the Norris family of Speke Hall, including:
Letter from John Hopwood to his brother-in-law Richard Norris,
a prominent merchant, about a trading voyage to the Canary
Islands. 11 July 1693. (920 NOR 41.)
The Prior's Kitchen, The College, Durham
Grey of Howick Papers (NRA 6228)
1. Papers of Charles, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister, 1830-4.
Section C : Subject Files
Canary Islands
1. Memorandum of infcirmation from Captain Brown sent to
search the Canaries. December 1805.
2. Scheme of an attack on the Canaries. n.d.
William Salt Library, Eastgate St, Stafford
Da r tmn~t hP zpers, 1659-1830
(The 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, 1731-1802, held various high
offices, including President of the Board of Trade, 1772-5).
Copy letter from Consul Magra to Earl of Rocheford concerning
imports from various countries to the Canary Islands, and the
state of British trade there. 10 September 1773. (D. 1778 V,
294).
The Commyns and Norris documents, cited above, are from the
collections of merchant families whose trading activities included the
Canaries but were concentrated elsewhere: the Norris family, for
example, had important interests in the Caribbean, notably Barbados
and Antigua; the items in the Grey and ~ a r tmo i t hc ollections are
simply stray manuscripts, albeit of considerable interest, in the ge-neral
papers of great men in public life.
The many Bills, Committee and Commission reports laid before
the Houses of Parliament since 1801 may be consulted in Parliamentary
Papers (1801 + ). But the House of Lords Record Office (West-miniter?
London SW1) cnntain- a wide c~llectinn of pF>prs for the
preceding period. Two items relevant to the Canaries are:
12 February Abstract of the Inspector General's accounts of
imports and exports, from Michaelmas 1696 to Christmas
1699, includes Africa, Canaries, Madeiras, Straits, Turkey.
(H.M.C.N.S. IV, pp. 434, 436.)
19 November Trade '(~rivateers in the West Indies, & C.)
Annex C, Repart of the Commissioners of Trade and
Plantations, includes a report on trade with the Canaries,
and another on proposals for the carrying out of. trade
with Turkey through Germany, exports of the Turkey
Company, ,& C. (H.M.C.N.S. VII, pp. 235-8).
The reference to «H.M.C.» which follows the citations of various
documents mentioned above indicates that transcripts of them have
been published by the Historical Matzuscripts Commission (Quality
House, Quality Court, Chancery Lane, London).
Two further items, both dating from 1599, in private hands may
be consulted in a printed report of the Commission:
H.M.C. Vol 9
1. George Hanger to Sir Robert Cecil about the imprisonment
of Thomas Brough in the Canaries. (Before 25 March) 1599.
1 p. (911).
2. Sir Thomas Leighton in Guernsey to Sir Robert Cecil about
the capture of the Canaries by the Dutch fleet. 27 July 1599.
(71.88).
3. Richard Tomson to Sir Robert Cecil referring to same. 15
August 1599. (179.78).
British Museum (Natural Histovy) Cromwell Road, London, SW7
. The six libraries in the Natural History Museum - (General, Botany,
Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology) - contain a con-siderable
amount of uncatalogued material, and a card index of recent
accessions. Two sets of papers relevant to the Canaries are:
Letters 2nd pprrs writtrc by Si: Charles Lye!!, J Y Johnson,
S B Woodward and Don Maffeotti, relating to Madeira and the
Grand Canary. c. 1855. (Palaeontology).
and
Two note-books by Hugh Scott (1885-1960), F.R.S., containing
journal and notes written during holidays to the Canary Islands
in 1955 and 1959. (General).
E. Business Archives
Many of the documents referred to above concern the activities of
English merchants in the Canary Islands. It is very difficult, however,
for the researcher to locate in England systematic business records of
individual traders or companies for the period before the nineteenth
century. The reasons are twofold : the general explanation is that
notarial record-, whirh in the rases of the Canari-s and th- Hispgnic
world generally have proved during recent decades to be such valuable
sources for the history of the Early Modern period, are not normally
encountered in English archives; the second, more specific, reason is
that the records of many companies engaged in the West African
slave trade - and whose ships regarded the Canaries as a staging post
8. 1 am indebted for information regarding this section o€ the paper to Dr. P. N. Da-vies,
Cmar, Croft Drive, Caldy, Wirral, Merseyside, L48 2JN. England.
in this wider enterprise - were often scanty to begin with, and where
they were kept, were subsequently destroyed during the early nine-teenth
century as part of the process of purging the nation's collective
guilt at having permitted the slave trade.
The position is somewhat better for the period since the 1880s,
when the Canaries' role as the provider of bunkering facilities for
British companies trading with W-est Africa was transformed by (a)
the improvement of port facilities and urban development at El Puerto
de la Luz, and (b) the development of banana and tomato production
mainly in Tenerife for the English market. To a considerable extent
the principal developments of this period are already weli known
because of the availability of a number of valuable, contemporary
published accounts - O M Stone, Teneriffe and its six satellites : the
Canary Ides past nnd present, which was published regularly from m -
1884 to 1930; Osbert Ward, The Vale of Orotava (1903), A Samler E
Brown, Guide to the Canavies (1895), and the same author's Report O
on the social and economical condition of the Canary Islands (1892). n-- m
Two recent monographs by Dr P N Davies of the University o£ O
E
Liverpool should also be consulted: Sir Alfred Jones: shipping entrep- E
2
reneur par excellence (London, 1978) and The trade makers : Elder -E
Dempster in West Alrica 7 852-1 9 72 (London, 1973)' deal respectively
wirh [he iar-sighring individual who was personally responsible for
3
-
the development of El Puerto de la Luz from 1884, and with the -
0
m
major Liverpool shipping company which he built up. The same author E
is preparing an authoritative study of Fyffe's, the London based O
company which as Fyffe, Hridson also began in this period to import n
bananas from the Canaries. -E
a
2
(For further information on actual poduction, purchasing and n
n
loading of bananas i'or Elder Dempster, see A H Stockley, Conscious-ness
of effort : the romance of the banana, 1937, written by the man 3
O
sent out to Las Palmas in 1888 to oversee the whole operation).
Fyjjes archive has clocumcnta~r narcria1l - . Ll - P. - . :-- K-.- AL- "11 rnr UdiidriCb LVL ~11c
period after 1900. It is currently being catalogued by Dr P N Davies,
to whom al1 enquiries should be addressed.
Ocean Transport atzd Tradxg, India Buildings, Liverpool: the
Elder Dempster archives, which contain a small amount of primary
material on the Canaries; are now owned bv this major Liverpool
company. Again, enquiries should be directed to Dr Davies.
Yeoward Brothers, Old Hall St, Liverpool: this smaller Liverpool
company, one of whose representatives is commemorated in the name
of the only British school in the Canaries, also operated its own ships
in the Canaries trade. Its papers contain some useful material, and
again Dr Davies should be contacteá if access is required.
It must be emphasized that there is no automatic right of access
to business archives outside public archive collections, but firms are
usually willing to grant access subject to certain conditions to ac-credited
researchers.
More general information about business archives is available from
the Business Archives Council (Dominion House, 37-45 Tooley St,
London Bridge, London S.E.l, which preserves historical business
records, keeps a register of business archives, and has an extensive
library of business history. The Council has sponsored a survey of
shipping records - P Mathias and A W H Pearsall (eds), Shipping : a
survey of historical recovds (1971) - which provides useful information.
One unrelated source which may be of some interest is:
Tht. Pvst Gfficc, Pest Gffice Reccrds, Eeadq~arters Bdding, S:
Martins - le - Grand, London EC1.
Canary Islalzds
Mail services, 1912 (Post 2911128, 1129)
F. British Library : Newspaper Library, Colindale Avenue, Colindale,
London NW9 5HE
Formerl~ the newspaper library of the British Museum, the British
Library Newspaper Libra. at Colindale holds the national reference
collection of newspapers, except fqr those published in London before
1800, which are held at the British Library Reference Division in
Great Russell St, London. Newspapers are not documentary sources,
of course, and thus strictly speaking do not fa11 within the scope of
this papa. But is is important to draw attention to their importance
as sources for the history of the Canaries, particularly for the period
since the late 19th century, when British shipping and commercial
interests promoted a rapid development of the islands' agricultura1
economy. Local and fruit trade journals are of particular irnportance
in this context : Dr Peter Davies, who, as noted above, is preparing
a major monograph on the history of Fyffes has kindly supplied, by
way of an exarnple, a list of such journals, available at Colindale,
cnntaining v r !dAe infm~n,tic?nm &e hanana imp~rtinga ctivities cf
this leading fruit company:
Covent Garden Gazette G Market Record, 1886
The Horticultura1 Times, 1886
The Liverpool Courier, 1890
The Fruit Grower, Fruiterer, Florist aed Market Gardener, 1896,
1897, 1898, 1901.
Journal of Commerce, 1901, I'he Fruit Trade News, 1901
The Syren 6 Shipping, 1904
The Fruit Trade Mail, 1906
The Surrey Mirror ,G County Post, 1907
Bideford 6 Novth Devon We e ~ l yG azette, 1925
Stroud News 6 Gloucester County Advertiser, 1935
The Stroud Journal, 1935
Diario de Las Palmas, 1929
Fruit, Flower G Vegetable ~ r ~ d e rJso'u rnal, 1961