Cochineal is a dye-stuff consisting of the dried bodies of the females of a species of insect, the Coccus Cacti a native of the warmer parts of America, particularly Mexico, and found living on a species of cactus called the cochineal-fig. The insects are brushed softly off, and killed by being placed in ovens or dried in the sun, having then the appearance of small berries or seeds. A pound of cochineal contains about 70,000 of them. The finest cochineal is prepared in Mexico, where it was first discovered, and Guatemala; but Peru, Brazil, Algiers, the East and West Indies, and the Canary Islands have also produced cochineal more or less success. Cochineal produces crimson and scarlet colours, and is used in making carmine and lake. Research Cochineal
The canary or canary-bird (Serinus canarius) is an insessorial singing bird of the finch family and native of the Canary islands. They were introduced to Europe in the latter part of the fifteenth century. Many of the caged canaries kept are actually mules produced from cross breeding a canary with an allied species such as the goldfinch, siskin or linnet. Research Canary
The ice-plant (Mesembrynthemum crystallinum) is a procumbent plant covered with glittering spots resembling ice, found in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, and in South Africa. All through the summer it bears white, axillary flowers close to the stems. Research Ice-Plant
Oreodaphne or Ocotea is a genus of tropical trees and shrubs, mostly natives of South or Central America, a few occurring in South Africa and the Canary Islands. The genus is a subdivision of the family Laurineae, and the trees bear generally coriaceous leaves and pendunculate panicles of small flowers. Research Oreodaphne
Visnea is a genus of evergreen trees of the family Ternstromiaceae. The only species is a native of the Canary Islands. It bears small flowers, which are succeeded by indehiscent berries. Research Visnea
The Guanches were the aboriginal people of the Canary Islands. They became extinct as a separate nation long ago, although Guanche blood probably flows in the veins of many of the present inhabitants. They practised the embalming of the dead. The few words of their language which remain seem cognate to the Berbertongue. Research Guanches
A privateer is an armed ship owned and crewed by private individuals but holding a government commission authorizing its use in war, especially in the capture of merchant shipping for financial gain. In general terms, a state authorised pirate ship.
In the colonial wars Great Britain derived great advantage from the colonial privateers. Upward of 400 privateers, which were fitted out in the ports of the British colonies, did great damage to French property, ravaging the West India Islands belonging to France, and making numerous captures along the coast of France herself. After the outbreak of the American Revolution, the Continental Congress decided in March, 1776, that permission be accorded to citizens to fit out privateers against the British.
Privateers were therefore fitted out at Salem, Cape Ann, Newbury-port, Bristol and other seaport towns, and greatly aided by their ravagings the revolutionary cause. During the year 1776 American privateers captured 343 British vessels, and these privateer adventures became so lucrative that the sailors could scarcely be induced to enter the national service.
On January the 28th, 1778, an American privateer assailed in the night the British fort of New Providence, in the Bahamas, capturing the fort and a sixteen-gun man-of-war. Hardly had the War of 1813 been declared when privateers began to be fitted out, small vessels most of them, which chiefly infested the West Indies, capturing British craft of every description.
The American privateers were usually schooners or brigs of 200 or 300 tons, carrying from 80 to 100 men. Twenty-six were fitted out in New York in the summer of 1812. The list of all private armed vessels during the entire War of 1813 numbers more than 500. In 1813, of 400 British vessels captured, four-fifths were taken by privateers. The Reindeer, Avon and Blakeley, built near Boston in 1814 in an incredibly short time, were fair samples of the privateers of the later years of the war. They were larger and better equipped than the earlier privateers. They did not confine their captures to merchant vessels, but boldly attacked and often defeated British war ships. They lurked about the coasts of the West Indies and the Canary Islands and even of Great Britain and Ireland, doing immense damage to the British cause. Research Privateer
The Canary islands (formerly known as the Fortunate Islands) are an archipelago in the Atlanticocean off the north west coast of Africa. They are thirteen in number, seven of which are considerable: Palma, Ferro, Gomera, Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Fuerteventura, and Lancerota. The other six are very small: Graciosa, Roca or Rocca, Allegranza, Sta. Clara, Inferno, and Lobos. All are volcanic, rugged and mountainous, frequently presenting precipitous cliffs to the sea. Of the Guanches, the mysterious tribe who originally inhabited these islands, we know little. The islands were discovered and conquered by the Spaniards between 1316 and 1334; they then passed into the hands of the Portuguese, but were reconquered toward the end of the 15th century by the Spaniards, who extirpated the inhabitants, and now constitute the great bulk of the population. Research Canary Islands
Abbreviations
Research Canary-Wood
