TARAFAL BAY. 
69 
appreciated in a way that can hardly be conceived in our 
colder regions — it was necessary to go to Tarafal Bay, 
in the island of St. Antonio, where we arrived too late 
in the evening to distinguish the watering-place, so as 
to be able to take the best berth for our operations. 
I'Jth . — In the morning we discovered the watering- 
place, marked by a little plantation a short way up the 
hill, on this otherwise barren part of the island. The 
water is found in a scanty little brook, at an incon- 
venient distance from the shore ; we therefore had to 
conduct it to a reservoir lower down ; where, however, 
the soil was of such a thirsty nature, that a large portion 
was lost before we could fill the casks by means of an 
engine and hoses leading to the boats. 
A schooner, of a very suspicious appearance, arrived 
with her decks crowded with men enough for any pirate. 
A boat was sent to examine her, and it appeared by the 
papers, that the vessel — which was a captured slaver — 
had been sold to a Spaniard, on condition that he should 
take the accumulated prisoners from various slave vessels 
to the Havannah. The captain had formerly commanded 
a schooner in this abominable traffic ; but said, that 
having married the daughter of the Governor of Bona- 
vista, who had so great a horror of the practice, he had 
yielded to her prejudices and solicitations, though not 
convinced by her arguments, and had consented to follow 
in future a more legitimate mode of commerce. 
St. Antonio is at once the most beautifully diversified 
and the most productive of the Cape de Verds. It is well 
