177*:
A ugust« are perfectly naked till the age of puberty. Defpotic
governors, bigotted priefts, and indolence on the part of
the court of Lifbon, will always keep thefe people in a
wretched fituation, beneath that of any community of
negroes in Africa, and prevent them from increafing their
numbers, which are the real wealth of a nation. It is
natural for people whofe folids are relaxed in a fervid climate,
to incline to floth and lazinefs; but they are confirmed
in thefe vices, and muff become indifferent to improvement,
when they know the attempt would only
make their fituation more irkfome. With a kind of
gloomy infenfibility they give themfelves up to beggary,,
the only ftate which can protett them from the greedy
clutches of tyrannical mailers; and they Chun every labour,
which mull enereafe the treafures of others- without
benefit to themfelves -r and which only breaks' in upon«
thofe hours of reft, that are now the folace of their precarious
condition. Such clouded profpedtsj that never
admit a gleam of happinefs, cannot be incitements to
marriage, and the difficulty of fupporting a wretched ex-
iftence, is a fufficient reafon to decline the cares annexed1
to the relation of parents. Let us add to this, that the
dry foil, whofe fertility depends on the Hated return of
annual rains, is parched up whenever a drought takes
place; all vegetation is then deftroyed, and an inevitable
famine fuceeeds. It may be reafbnably fu-ppofed, that the
experience
experience of fuch fatal periods, deters the inhabitants from augo’V
indulging in the fweets of conjugal conneiftions, when
they mull apprehend that mifery, and perhaps the horrors
of llavery, await their unhappy offspring R
The Cape-Verd illands in general are mountainous,
but their lower hills, which are covered with a fine verdure,
havé a very gentle declivity, and extenfive vallies-
run between them. They are ill fupplied with water,
which in many of them is only found in pits or wells,
Sc Jago has, however, a tolerable river running into the
fea at Ribeira Grande, a town which takes its name from-
thence. At Porto-Praya there was only a {ingle well fet
round with loofe Hones, and containing muddy brackilh.
water, in fuch fmall quantities, that we drew it quite dry
twice a day.. The valley by the fide of the fort feems to
have fome moillure, and is planted here and there with
cocoa-nut-palms, fugar-canes, bananas, cotton, goava, and
papaw-trees; but the greateft part of it is over-run with
various forts of brulhwood, and another is left for paftures.
* On our return to the Cape o f Good Hope, in 1775, we were told o f a general
famine which had happened in the Cape-Verd illands in 1773 and 1774,, and:
which had rifen. to fuch a height that hundreds o f people had perilhed for want,
T h e commander o f a Dutch fliip, which touched at St. Jago during this diftrefs-
ful feafon, -received feveral o f the natives, with their wives and children, who
fold themfelves to him,, in. order to efcape the dreadful confequences of want
He carried them to the Cape o f Good Hope, and fold them j but when the G o vernment
there was informed o f it, he was ordered to redeem them at his own.
expence, to carry them hack to their native country, and to bring a certificates
from the. Portugucfe governor,, importing the excution o f thefe orders.
We: