Page 400 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

400 from Italy to the Canary Islands

Map of the Canary Islands drawn by Louis Joseph d’Hermand,
French Consul in the Canary Islands. 1785.

navigator who overcomes the most turbulent stormy seas and the most
dangerous jungles, always winning against all the fearsome “corsairs”
that the “King of Ceuta” sends against him. The author imagines that a
survivor of the Vivaldi brothers expedition has returned home to tell of
the existence of “islands beyond the Ocean”, so that our hero (leaving in
Genoa his beautiful girlfriend, who was to marry him) leaves immediately
in search of the islands and the Vivaldi brothers, eventually paying homage
to the black King of Ceuta (where he stops for provisions), who then sends
his fierce corsairs against him, because he is evil, a definitely racist but
normal thing to imagine in that time period. After defeating his enemies,
Lanzarotto manages to land on the island (curiously described as a lush
tropical jungle, rather than the dark volcanic rock that it is in reality).
Naturally, our hero manages to defeat the mean natives and plant the flag