There are no legal regulations as to illegitimate children; their support therefore falls on the mother. There is a foundling hospital at Laguna in Teneriffe, and another at Las Palmas in Canary; in each a turning-box, and a great number of children are by this means disposed of. In the hospital of Santa Cruz is also a turning-box; the infants left are understood to be sent to Laguna. Children placed in the box have usually some mark by which they may be recognised, and they are given up to parents when claimed. There is no other provision for children.
Cripples, Deaf, Dumb, and Blind.
Live with their parents or relations, or subsist by casual charity. No provision.
Idiots and Lunatics.
No particular establishment; live with their relations. When violent, they are placed in the hospitals or gaols.
Almost all the land in the Canary Islands is cultivated by agreement between the owners of the land and a class of persons called “medianeros” (middlemen), intelligent husbandmen; the conditions are simple: that the medianero shall cultivate the land, and find half the seed, he retaining half the produce; the other half is delivered to the landlord in kind.
The peasantry are a robust and hardy race, laborious and frugal. There is a great deal of family affection among them. Considerable numbers emigrate to the Havannah and Puerto Rico ostensibly, but it is believed that they are taken to Caraccas and other American countries, once dependencies of the Spanish crown.