1772.
August.
experience of such fatal periods, deters the inhabitants from indulging in the sweets of conjugal connections, when they must apprehend that misery, and perhaps the horrors of slavery, await their unhappy offspring[1].
The Cape-Verd islands in general are mountainous, but their lower hills, which are covered with a fine verdure, have a very gentle declivity, and extensive vallies run between them. They are ill supplied with water, which in many of them is only found in pits or wells. St. Jago has, however, a tolerable river running into the sea at Ribeira Grande, a town which takes its name from thence. At Porto-Praya there was only a single well set round with loose stones, and containing muddy brackish water, in such small quantities, that we drew it quite dry twice a day. The valley by the side of the fort seems to have some moisture, and is planted here and there with cocoa-nut-palms, sugar-canes, bananas, cotton, goava, and papaw-trees; but the greatest part of it is over-run with various sorts of brushwood, and another is left for pastures.
- ↑ On our return to the Cape of Good Hope, in 1775, we were told of a general famine which had happened in the Cape-Verd islands in 1773 and 1774, and which had risen to such a height that hundreds of people had perished for want. The commander of a Dutch ship, which touched at St. Jago during this distressful season, received several of the natives, with their wives and children, who sold themselves to him, in order to escape the dreadful consequences of want. He carried them to the Cape of Good Hope, and sold them; but when the Government there was informed of it, he was ordered to redeem them at his own expence, to carry them back to their native country, and to bring a certificate from the Portuguese governor, importing the execution of these orders.
