ISLAND OF ST. VINCENT. 359 



In the afternoon of August 4 we made out the 

 picturesque outHne of the Cape Verde Islands, and 

 before sunset entered the channel between St. Vincent 

 and St. Antao, finally dropping anchor for the night 

 in the outer part of the fine harbour of St. Vincent. 

 Having been selected as a coaling station, this has 

 become the chief resort of steamers plying between 

 Europe and the Southern Atlantic, and we were led 

 to expect that the operation would take up great part 

 of the following day. Here a fresh disappointment , 

 awaited me. I had confidently reckoned upon spend- 

 ing several hours ashore, and seeing something of the 

 curious vegetation of the island, w^hich includes a 

 scanty representation of tropical African types, with 

 several forms allied to the characteristic plants of the 

 Canary Islands. 



I had not duly taken account of the perverse 

 temper of the officers of health, whose chief object in 

 life seems everywhere to be to make their authority 

 felt by the needless annoyance they cause to un- 

 offending fellow-creatures. We had left Rio with a 

 clean bill of health ; not a single case of yellow fever 

 had occurred for months before our departure ; but 

 Brazil is regarded as permanently " suspected," and 

 quarantine regulations were strictly enforced in our 

 case. 



I am far from believing that in certain conditions, 

 and as regards certain diseases, judicious quarantine 

 regulations may not be effective ; but, reckoning up 

 all the loss and inconvenience, and the positive 

 damage to health, arising from the sanitary regula- 

 tions now enforced, I question whether it would not 



