2 ST. J AGO CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS. [CHAP. i. 



landscape, the novel aspect of an utterly sterile land possesses a 

 grandeur which more vegetation might spoil. A single green leaf can 

 scarcely be discovered over wide tracts of the lava plains ; yet flocks 

 of goats, together with a few cows, contrive to exist. It rains very 

 seldom, but during a short portion of the year heavy torrents fall, 

 and immediately afterwards a light vegetation springs out of every crevice. 

 This soon withers ; and upon such naturally formed hay the animals 

 live. It had not now rained for an entire year. When the island 

 was discovered, the immediate neighbourhood of Porto Praya was 

 clothed with trees,* the reckless destruction of which has caused 

 here, as at St. Helena, and at some of the Canary Islands, almost 

 entire sterility. The broad, flat-bottomed valleys, many of which 

 serve during a few days only in the season as watercourses, are clothed 

 with thickets of leafless bushes. Few living creatures inhabit these 

 valleys. The commonest bird is a kingfisher (Dacelo lagoensis), which 

 tamely sits on the branches of the castor-oil plant, and thence darts on 

 grasshoppers and lizards. It is brightly coloured, but not so beautiful 

 as the European species : in its flight, manners, and place of habitation, 

 which is generally in the driest valley, there is also a wide difference. 



One day, two of the officers and myself rode to Ribeira Grande, a 

 village a few miles eastward of Porto Praya. Until we reached the 

 valley of St. Martin, the country presented its usual dull brown appear- 

 ance ; but here, a very small rill of water produces a most refreshing 

 margin of luxuriant vegetation. In the course of an hour we arrived 

 at Ribeira Grande, and were surprised at the sight of a large ruined 

 fort and cathedral. This little town, before its harbour was filled up, 

 was the principal place in the island ; it now presents a melancholy, 

 but very picturesque appearance. Having procured a black Padre for 

 a guide, and a Spaniard who had served in the Peninsular war as an 

 interpreter, we visited a collection of buildings, of which an ancient 

 church formed the principal part. It is here the governors and captain- 

 generals of the islands have been buried. Some of the tombstones 

 recorded dates of the sixteenth century.f The heraldic ornaments 

 were the only things in this retired place that reminded us of Europe. 

 The church or chapel formed one side of a quadrangle, in the middle 

 of which a large clump of bananas were growing. On another side 

 was a hospital, containing about a dozen miserable-looking inmates. 



We returned to the venda to eat our dinners. A considerable 

 number of men, women, and children, all as black as jet, collected to 

 watch us. Our companions were extremely merry ; and everything 

 we said or did was followed by their hearty laughter. Before leaving 

 the town we visited the cathedral. It does not appear so rich as 

 the smaller church, but boasts of a little organ, which sent forth 

 singularly inharmonious cries. We presented the black priest with a 



* I state this on the authority of Dr. E. Dieffenbach, in his German 

 translation of the first edition of this Journal. 



j" The Cape de Verd Islands were discovered in 1449. There was a 

 tombstone of a bishop with the date of 1571; and a crest of a hand and 

 dagger, dated 1427* 



