S T. J A G O. 67 
perhaps the most probable), is a point which I most wiUingij 
resign for the learned to settle. It is very certain, however, 
that they produced no golden apples until the trees had been 
transplanted thither by the Portugueze, unless, indeed, the 
mala aiirea of the ancients were quinces instead of oranges, 
as some philosophers, and among others Linnaeus, have en- 
deavoured to prove ; in wdiich case they may have been the 
gardens of the Hesperides, as the quince, I imagine, is here 
a plant of native growth. They are supposed, by some 
writers; to have been totally uninhabited when they were first 
discovered ; though others maintain that a race of negroes, 
similar to those on the continent, was thiniy scattered over 
one or two of the largest. The names of Ilhas Verclas the 
Green Islands, and Caho Verde the Green Cape, v.'hich is op- 
posite to them, were not assigned on account of any peculiar 
verdure of lixuriant vegetation that enlivened their surface, 
but because the sea, near the coast of the latter, after a series 
of calm Aveather, was generally covered over with a vegetable 
substance like the Confervce which float on stagnant pools of 
fresh water. Every part of St. Jago, which we had an op- 
portunity of visiting, wore so parched and sterile an appear- 
ance, that Churchill might have observed of this place with 
more truth than of Scotland, 
*' Earth clad in russet scorns the lively green." 
In fact, a drought of three years continuance, and consequent 
famine for almost the same period, had nearly desolated the 
island. While we remained here, daily accounts were received 
K 2 
