38 productions. [1838. 



■ 



toes, yams, bananas, dates, tamarinds, limes, oranges, and the 

 fruit of the cocoanut tree, are usually quite plenty. Sugar 

 and coffee are also raised in small quantities, and an inferior 

 quality of wine, but a small portion of which is exported, is 

 likewise produced. A palatable article of cheese is made 

 from goats' milk. The flour used is imported, principally 

 from the United States ; but a very good kind of bread is 

 prepared from the roots of the manihot, or cassada plant, 

 which are also roasted and eaten like potatoes.* The fecula, 

 or starch, obtained by scraping and washing the roots, is 

 called tapioca. 



Coarse salt, hides, goatskins, wine, and archil, are the 

 main exports. The salt plantations, as they are called, are 

 situated on the level, alluvial ground, near the coast. The 

 land appropriated to the purpose is plotted into vats, by banks 

 of clay, from one to two feet high, which become baked by 

 the heat of the sun. The salt water is then pumped into the 

 vats from wells, and exposed to evaporation. It is not an 

 unusual sight to see a whole family, men, women, and chil- 

 dren, engaged in the " plantation." Considerable attention 

 is paid to neatness, and the walks between the vats are kept 

 scrupulously clean. Archil is a lichen, which grows on the 

 rocks, and is found both in the Canary and Cape de Verde 

 Islands. It yields a rich purple color, which is exceedingly 

 beautiful, but not durable. The blue pigment, litmus, is 

 prepared from it. At the Cape de Verdcs, archil is a govern- 

 ment monopoly ; ninety thousand millreas, — equal to fifty- 

 six thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars, American cur- 

 rency, — being paid by a company, for the annual crop. 



The houses of the Cape de Verdians are miserable huts, 

 built of stone, not six feet high, and thatched with salt hay, 

 or palm leaves. Some are circular, some square, and others 

 oblong. Occasionally one may be seen with a shingled roof. 

 As fuel is scarce, the estiercol of the nss is used in its stead, 



* The bread made from the rrmnihot was the principal article of food among 

 the Caribs, when they were first discovered by the Europeans. They called it 

 Yuca. 



