First Battle of Acentejo

Part of the Spanish Conquest of the Canary Islands

Date	May 31, 1494
Location	La Matanza de Acentejo, Tenerife
Result	Guanche victory

Belligerents

Castile and Guanche and European allies

Guanches of Tenerife

Commanders and leaders

Alonso Fernández de Lugo

Bencomo and Tinguaro

Strength

around 1,120

around 300 under Tinguaro and 3,000 with Bencomo

Casualties and losses

around 900–1,000

unknown

The First Battle of Acentejo took place on the island of Tenerife between the Guanches and an alliance of Spaniards, other Europeans, and associated natives (mostly from other islands), on May 31, 1494, during the Spanish conquest of this island. It resulted in a victory for the Guanches of Tenerife.

The Spaniards were under the command of the Adelantado ("military governor") Alonso Fernández de Lugo, who had sold his properties in order to finance his conquest of Tenerife. Fernández de Lugo was aided by the fact that missionaries had already begun to Christianize the Guanches of Tenerife, and several of the Guanches' menceyatos or kingdoms, which included Guimar, Abona, Adeje, and later Anaga, were friendly to the Castilians (and known in Spanish as bandos de paz). Fernández de Lugo landed at Añazo, near present-day Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in late April, and built the fortified camp of el Real de Santa Cruz. Advancing towards the interior of the island, Fernández de Lugo confirmed his friendship with the bandos de paz and attempted to reach the same arrangement with other Guanche menceyatos, including Taoro. Bencomo, the ruler of Taoro, refused Fernández de Lugo's terms, and instead began to form his own alliance against the Castilians, composed of the menceyatos of Tacoronte, Tegueste, Daute, and Icod.

In a state of war, Fernández de Lugo advanced through present-day San Cristóbal de La Laguna to the area known as Acentejo. The Castilians committed the terrible blunder of walking blindly into the ravine now called Barranco de San Antonio (Farfan was its Guanche name), in Acentejo. Despite their technological superiority —the Spaniards, protected with armour and shields, fought with blunderbusses and cannon— the Guanches, fighting naked, attacked them from the slopes with stones and spears of hardened wood (known as banotes). The Spaniards were unable to maneuver with their horses, because these slopes were covered with very thick, arboreal brush, and the Guanches, who numbered some 3,300 men under the leadership of Bencomo and his half-brother Tinguaro, chief of the comarca of Acentejo, made use of their mobility and intimate knowledge of the terrain to gain the upper hand. While Tinguaro with 300 men ambushed the vanguard of the Castilian forces, Bencomo arrived at the battle with 3,000 men, attacking the rearguard of the dispersed Europeans.

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Wikipedia