4 ° A VO Y A GE ROUND THE WORLD.
aJqust. 'tain fent them his own boat ; but when it came on fhore,
the governor begged to be excufed, becaufe he was always
affedted with ficknefs on board any veiTel, whether
at fea or in harbour. The commandant promifed to come,
but having at firft negle&ed to aik the governor’s leave,
the latter retired to take his JieJla (or afternoon’s repofe)
and no one ventured to difturb him.
The extreme fcarcity of refrefhments made our flay
at Porto-Praya very Ihort. We were therefore obliged to
content ourfelves with a few calks of brackifh water, a
Tingle bullock, a few long-legged goats, with ftrait horns
and pendulous ears, fome lean hogs, turkies, and fowls,
and a few hundreds of unripe oranges, and indifferent
bananas. The refearches we had made the preceding day,
furnilhed us with a few tropical plants, moftly of known
fpecies, with fome new kinds of infedts and of fifh. We
alfo obferved feveral forts of birds, and among them
guinea-hens, which feldom fly, but run very fwiftly, and
which, when old, are very tough and dry eating. Quails
and red-legged partridges are likewife common, according
to the report of the natives, though we did not fee any;
but the mol remarkable bird we found is a fpecies of
Kingfiflier *, becaufe it feeds on large land-crabs of a blue
* T h e lame fpecies is found in Arabia Felix j vide Forfkal Fauna Arabica-.;
as alfo in Abyflinia, as appears frqm the elegant and valuable drawings o f James
jBjruce^ Efq{
and
A V O Y A G E ROUND T H E WORLD. 4 1
and red colour, whofe numerous habitations are round august.
and deep holes in the dry and parched foil. Our failors,
who catch at every thing that may afford them diverfion,
purchafed about fifteen or twenty monkies, known by the
name of St. Jago, or green monkies (fimia fabtza) ; which
were a little bigger than cats, and of a greenifh-brown
colour, with black faces and paws. On each fide of their
mouth, they had a kind of pouch (like many others of
the monkey tribe) which the Englifh in the Weft-Indian
colonies, call by their Spanifh name afarjes. The antic
tricks of thefe little monkies were amufing for fome days,
while their novelty lafted ; but they foon became infipid
companions, were neglefted, fometimes cruelly bandied
about the veflel, and ftarved to death for want of frefh
food, fo that only three of them reached the Cape of Good
Hope. A harmlefs race of animals, dragged from the
happy recefs of native fhades, to wear out the reft of their
lives in continual anguifh and torment, deferve a pitying
remembrance, though humanity would fain have drawn
the veil over all adts of iron-hearted infenfibility, and
wanton barbarifm.
We got under fail in the evening and fleered to the
fouthwatd, having mild weather with frequent fhowers of
rain.on the following days, and the wind blowing from
N. E. by N. to N. N. E. On the i 6 th, at eight qkloclc Sunday
in the evening, we faw a luminous fiery meteor, of an ob--
Vol. I. G Ions