[758] Supposed to be that now called Ferro.
[759] Probably the modern Gomera. In B. iv. c. 36, Pliny mentions them as six in number, there being actually seven.
[760] He does not appear on this occasion to reckon those already mentioned as belonging to the group of the Fortunatæ Insulæ.
[761] The present Isle of Teneriffe.
[762] Supposed to be that now called Gran Canaria.
[763] The smoothness of its surface.
[764] It is impossible to see clearly what he means. Littré says that it has been explained by some to mean, that from the Purpurariæ, or Madeira Islands, it is a course of 250 miles to the west to the Fortunatæ or Canary Islands; but that to return from the Fortunatæ to the Purpurariæ, required a more circuitous route in an easterly direction.
[765] Or Pluvialia, the Rainy Island, previously mentioned.
[766] Salmasius thinks that the sugar-cane is here alluded to. Hardouin says that in Ferro there still grows a tree of this nature, known as the “holy tree.”
[767] Or the Lesser Junonia; supposed to be the same as the modern Lanzarote.