2 



Porter's Voyage 



and may be known by a hill that appears in form like a sugar- 

 loaf, on first making the island ; the second has a rugged irre- 

 gular appearance. 



27th. — In the morning, we were between the isles of Mayo and 

 St. Jago. On the sides of the mountains of the latter we could 

 perceive several villages, and large flocks of goats ; but the arid 

 appearance of the soil, scarcely left us the hope that it would 

 afford us the refreshments we required, as no vegetable or tree of 

 any description could be perceived by us, except a few scattering 

 cocoa-nut trees. The island had altogether a most dreary and 

 uncultivated appearance, and I had partly determined in my own 

 mind only to look into the road of Praya, to see if there were any 

 of our ships of war there, as this was tiie first rendezvous fixed on 

 by commodore Bainbridge. 



On the S9th, I dined with the governor, and from that time, 

 until the morning of the 2d of December, we were occupied in 

 getting on board refreshments arid water ; but of the latter we 

 were only enabled to get about five thousand gallons. The beef 

 was very dear, and very poor ; a bullock, weighing three hundred 

 weight, cost thirty-five dollars ; sheep were three dollars, but very 

 poor ; oranges, forty cents per hundred, and other fruits in the 

 same proportion, and in the greatest abundance. It is supposed, 

 that the ship had not on board less than one hundred thousand 

 oranges, together with a large quantity of cocoa-nuts, plantains, 

 lemons, limes, casada, &c. &c. Every mess on board were also 

 supplied with pigs, sheep, fowls, turkeys, goats, &c., which were 

 purchased tolerably cheap : fowls, at three dollars per dozen, and 

 fine turkeys at one dollar each ; many of the seamen also fur- 

 nished themselves with monkeys and young goats, as pets ; and 

 when we sailed from thence, the ship bore no slight resemblance, 

 as respected the different animals on board her, to Noah's ark. 



In the town of Praya there are not more than thirty whites ; 

 the rest of the population is made up of slaves and free negroes, 

 making altogether not more than three thousand, of whom, four 

 hundred are soldiers. All the officers, except three or four, are 

 mulattoes, and their priest is a negro, who possesses considerable 

 polish of manners. The soldiers are generally destitute of cloth- 

 ing, from the waist upwards ; and it can be asserted with a cer- 

 tainty of adhering strictly to the truth, that there are not five 

 serviceable muskets in Praya. Most of them are without any 

 locks, their stocks broken off at the breech, their barrels tied into 

 the stocks with a leather thong, or a cord made of the fibres of 

 the cocoa-nut ; and it was no uncommon thing to see a naked 

 negro mounting guard, shouldering a musket-barrel only. Their 

 cavalry were in a corresponding style, mounted on jack-asses, and 

 armed with broken swords. The governor informed me it had 



