22 



cathedral church. Thiago is very much prettier 

 than Sau Vincent ; trees and grass are to be found 

 in the valleys of the island, which does not rise 

 into the barren rocky mountains and ravines that 

 are so mournful a feature in San Vincent. 



We reached Principe Island on 15th July, 

 a week after leaving San Thiago. If San Vincent 

 is the Aden of West Africa, Principe and San 

 Thome might compare with Ceylon. I had never 

 seen anything quite like Principe before. Fer- 

 nando Po and Tcncriffe have far higher mountain 

 peaks, and the wealth of verdure at the former 

 island is much libr what one finds at Principe, 

 but Principe looks as if it had been blown up from 

 the sea, or had blown itself up after rising from it. 

 It is a tumbling mass of bleak jagged peaks and 

 pinnacles and sheer seaward cliffs, all that would 

 make a forbidding Dore picture, if Nature had 

 not come in and covered up the rugged ugly 

 scars with beautiful palms and trees, shrubs and 

 creepers. When we were there, the summit of 

 Principe was always wrapped in cloud, which 

 would break for a moment to show some great 

 black peak and then close again, as if Nature was 

 reluctant to lift the veil from these fantastic 

 shapes and grim precipices. Below the clouds 

 was the lower mountain, verdure-clad and restful, 

 if it were not for the black cliffs rising sheer from 

 the sea, which the mist could not hide the cloven 

 hoof, as it were, of the forbidding cloud-hidden 

 peaks of the mountain summit. 



Principe looks as if it should be full of goblins 

 and cjhosfs ; it certainly wn r -; once haunlcd bv an 



