26 



The Cape Yerde Archipelago 



has a foremost strategical importance. 



Their production is negligible. The population is periodically 

 starved by terrible famines. The possibilities, notwithstanding, 

 are very numerous. All tropical and European fruits and 

 vegetables grow there. But capital and technical management 

 have not been available, Coffee is excellent, sugar cane is 

 abundant, certain varieties of tobacco do well, the fatropha curcas 

 grows wild. Orange trees grow beautifully, but hitherto no 

 attention has been paid to agriculture in these Islands. 



Salt and fisheries might well prove remunerative for any 

 capital that should be invested. 



The Cape Verde Islands are living on the bunker coal supplies 

 amounting to 250,000 tons per annum. The number of steamers 

 caUing at St. Vincent in 1913 was 3,822 of 5,747,336 tons 

 displacement. 



Portuguese Guinea 



is one of the richest tracts of land in West Africa, Very little 

 capital has been invested there. Exports are growing. The main 

 branch of trade consists in oil seeds. Direct trade with the 

 United States is progressing. There is no differential tariff. Eice 

 has been cultivated, and not only does the' home production 

 meet the market requirements, but a few hundred tons have 

 already been exported. Skins are offered in substantial quantities. 

 Cotton-growing, sugar, palm and seed oils, fruits, maize, potatoes 

 might be developed there with great advantage, as the colony 

 is only five days distant from Lisbon. 



The Islands of San Thom6 and Principe 



are the most productive of the Portuguese colonies. The 

 annual output of cocoa averages 35,000 tons. The coffee and 

 palm oil exported defray the costs of cocoa production. Great 

 benefits would be derived from the establishment of a free harbour 

 in the Gulf of Guinea, where certain colonial products would be 

 concentrated and distributed to the numerous markets of the 

 West Coast of Africa. 



Some of the estates are models of administration and of 

 cultivation, such as the Companhia Agricola do Principe, with its 

 model plantation of Agua Ize at S. Thome. If a native population 

 could be settled in these islands and water power could be utilised 

 in the agriculture, the future of these islands would be prosperous. 



In addition to cocoa and coffee, some estates export some 

 200 tons of cinchona bark (quinine) per annum. There are 



