68 S T. J A G O. 
bj government of persons on this and all the other islands 
perishing for want of the common necessaries of life. On ex- 
pressing my surprize to the secretary, that the mother country, 
so far from employing precautions, had taken no steps to pro- 
cure succours, against a calamity so dreadful and of such 
long continuance, he observed that the Court of Lisbon con- 
sidered these poor islands, and the few black subjects scat- 
tered over them, of too little importance to demand any part 
of its care or attention ; that they produced very little 
revenue to the Crown, which arose chiefly from a monopoly 
of the slave trade on the coast, and from the sale of an ex- 
clusive privilege for supplying the Brazils with salt. 
Deplorable as the state of the island certainly was, I sus- 
pect, however, that the inhabitants were not without design 
in representing it in the worst point of view. They endeavour 
to excite your pity, as the surest way to obtain your charity ; 
for they are all beggars from the highest to the lowest. Ta 
the Governor, the commandant of the forces, and the priests, 
a pair of black silk stockings is an acceptable present ; and 
all kinds of old clothing, as jackets, breeches, pantaloons, 
shirts, trowsers, drawers, hats, and in short every article of 
cotton and linen, they strive to procure with infinitely more 
avidity than money, which indeed is of little use where little 
or nothing is to be purchased with it. Bread, biscuit, or 
flour, were also anxiously sought after. One of the whalers, 
in the island of Buonavista, had exchanged one sack of wheat 
against fifteen of salt. Yet, notwithstanding the famine, there 
did not appear to be any deficiency of a considerable variety 
7 
