2 ST. JAGO CAPE DE VEED ISLANDS. [CHAI\ I. 



as beheld through the hazy atmosphere of this climate, is one of 

 great interest ; if, indeed, a person, fresh from sea, and who has 

 just walked, for the first time, in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be 

 a judge of anything but his own happiness. The island would 

 generally be considered as very uninteresting; but to any one 

 accustomed only to an English 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 JPorto 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 lagonesis), which tamely sits 

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

 hoppers and lizards. It is brightly coloured, but not so beaiitiful 

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

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

 difference. 



One day, two of the officers and myself rode to Eibeira 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 

 appearance ; 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 Eibeira 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 



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

 translation of the first edition of this Journal. 



