CHAP. II.] MADEIRA TO THE COAST OF BRAZIL. 71 



SoMie of the wells outside the town are almost picturesque. 

 The well building is usually inclosed within a wliite washed 

 stone-wall, and as there is a little moisture and shade within the 

 inclosure, generally two or three trees of respectable dimensions 

 rise over the wall. There is usually a latticed gate of entrance, 

 with an ever-changing group of lively, good-natured beings, as 

 black as Erebus, clustering round it. 



AVe left Porto Grande on the 5th of August, and proceeded 

 on our course toward Porto Praya, the principal town on the 

 large island of San lago, and the seat of the Central Government 

 of the Cape Verde group. On the 6th, the fine peak of the 

 active volcano on the island of Togo w^as in sight, and early on 

 the morning of the 7th we anchored off Porto Praya. Al- 

 though the anchorage is more exposed, and not nearly so suita- 

 ble for the habitual resort of shipping, San lago has greatly the 

 advantage of San Vicente ashore. The town of Porto Praya is 

 tidy and well-ordered ; the Government and municipal buildings 

 are commodious ; and the central Praga is really ornamental, with 

 a handsome fountain in the middle, and an encircling row of ir- 

 rigated and cared-for trees. At one end of the town there is a 

 fine public well. The water is led, in closed pipes, from a stream 

 coming down from the higher land, into a large stone-built reser- 

 voir, from which there is a daily distribution from a long range 

 of ornamental basins and spouts to a constant crowd of applicants. 



The country, although on the whole somewhat arid and bare, 

 is much less so than San Vicente. There is a large grove of 

 cocoa-nut-trees behind the town ; some of the streams are per- 

 manent, and the valleys are consequently much greener, and in 

 some places they are luxuriantly fertile. The day we arrived 

 we rode to the pretty little village of Trinidad ; the first part 

 of our way was very desolate, over an expanse of hot gravel re- 

 lieved here and there by trailing gourds and convolvuluses, and 

 a scrub of castor -oil plant and a low -growing almost leafless 

 Acacia, with long, wicked, white spines. We passed two or 



