26 ST. JAGO CAPE DE VERDE ISLANDS. 



and here and there a valley of great fertility and beauty, but 

 in general the island is barren and mountainous. The coast 

 is high, especially at the southeast extremity. The hills, 

 rocks, soil, and everything about the surface, bear unmis- 

 takable marks of volcanic origin. 



The island is subject at intervals to droughts, and during 

 their continuance the inhabitants suffer greatly from want of 

 food and water. The exports are orchilla,* castor oil, 

 beans, salt, hides, and goat-skins ; the former article is a 

 government monopoly, and forty thousand dollars are paid by 

 the company for the yearly crop. The goat-skins are sen, 

 to the United States and sold at a very profitable rate. 



Porto Praya is the capital of the island ; it is built on a 

 piece of " table land," and looks much more inviting when 

 viewed from the anchorage than when more closely examined. 

 The houses are constructed of a rough stone, without any re- 

 gard to symmetry, and very few are over one story in height. 

 The streets are wide, but are not paved, nor kept clean. 



A church, a barracks, and a jail, constitute all the princi- 

 pal public buildings. The interior of the dwellings is in 

 perfect keeping with their external appearance ; a few chairs, 

 a table, and a bedstead or two, are all the furniture which any 

 of them can boast of. 



The stores are very insignificant, for not only are the assort- 

 ments small, but they are composed of the most common ar- 

 ticles. The population is estimated at 3,000, of which num- 

 ber more than two-thirds are negroes. The women are the 

 ugliest we have ever seen. They are fond of gay colors, and 

 their most fashionable head-dress consists of a figured-cotton 

 handkerchief, tied round the head like a Turkish turban. 



* A species of kelp, or Sea- weed, which, when burned, produces alkaline ashes, used 

 in the manufacture of glass and soap. 



