SUPERSTITIONS. 
4.3 
at some distance from tlie beach; besides which, 
there is no water ; euen the few natives who 
settle here during the fishing season, cannot find 
enough for their wants in the small quantity of rain 
which is left in the rocky cavities, but have to 
substitute the milky juice of the green cocoa-nut, 
or palm wine, — so plentiful and easily procured. 
They come over from St. Thomas’s Island, and 
make a precarious subsistence by catching turtle 
and fish ; the latter are salted and dried in the sun. 
One sort of rock cod, of a fine red colour, is well 
flavoured, and very abundant. Although brought up 
in the Roman Oathohc religion, the negroes we saw 
were as full of faith in grigris or charms, as their less 
educated brethren on the mainland. In several 
places we noticed httle rude objects of clay or wood 
fastened to sticks, near which were placed small cala- 
bashes of palm wine, and bits of fish or yam ; and in 
passing one in a very secluded spot in the woods, the 
native who accompanied us, put his finger to his 
mouth in token of silence, and drew us slowly to one 
side, pointing reverentially to it as an object of 
religious interest. 
On the 23rd we weighed, and stood over to a 
beautiful inlet in St. Thomas’, just opposite to Rollas, 
which had been previously examined in a boat. Hero 
we purposed watering. This little gulf is surrounded 
on three sides by steep and richly-covered hills ; and 
although the Ilha das Rollas lying across the entrance 
