PORTO PRAVA 



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

 Grande, a village a few miles eastward of Porto Praya. Until 

 we reached the valley of St. Martin, the country presented its 

 usual dull brow^n appearance ; but here, a very small rill of 

 water produces a most refreshing margin of luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion. In the course of an hour we arrived at Ribeira 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 melan- 

 choly, 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 the governors and captain-generals of the islands 

 have been buried. Some of the tombstones recorded dates 

 of the sixteenth century.-^ The heraldic ornaments were the 

 only things in this retired place that reminded us of Europe. 

 The church or chapel formed one side of a quadrangle, in the 

 middle of which a large clump of bananas were growing. On 

 another side was a hospital, containing about a dozen miserable- 

 looking inmates. 



We returned to the Venda to eat our^inners. A con- 

 siderable number of men, women, and children, all as black as 

 jet, collected to w^atch us. Our companions were extremely 

 merry ; and everything we said or did was followed by their 

 hearty laughter. Before leaving the town we visited the 

 cathedral. It does not appear so rich as the smaller church, 

 but boasts of a little organ, which sent forth singularly in- 

 harmonious cries. We presented the black priest with a few 

 shillings, and the Spaniard, patting him on the head, said, with 

 much candour, he thought his colour made no great difference. 

 We then returned, as fast as the ponies would go, to Porto 

 Praya. 



Another day we rode to the village of St. Domingo, situated 

 near the centre of the island. On a small plain which we 

 crossed, a few stunted acacias were growing ; their tops had 

 been bent by the steady trade-wind, in a singular manner — 

 some of them even at right angles to their trunks. The direc- 



1 The Cape de Verd Islands were discovered in 1449. There was a tombstone 

 of a bishop with the date of 1571 ; and a crest of a hand and dagger, dated 1497. 



