I 
PORTO PRAYA 
3 
One day, two of the officers and myself rode to Ribeira 
Grande, a village a few miles eastward of Porto Praya. Until 
we reached the valley of St Martin, the country presented its 
usual dull brown appearance ; but here, a very small rill of 
water produces a most refreshing margin of luxuriant vegeta¬ 
tion. In the course of an hour we arrived at Ribeira Grande, 
and were surprised at the sight of a large ruined fort and 
cathedral. . This little town, before its harbour was filled up, 
was the principal place in the island : it now presents a melan¬ 
choly, but very picturesque appearance. Having procured a 
black Padre for a guide, and a Spaniard who had served in the 
Peninsular war as an interpreter, we visited a collection of 
buildings, of which an ancient church formed the principal part. 
It is here the governors and captain-generals of the islands 
have been buried. Some of the tombstones recorded dates 
of the sixteenth century. 1 The heraldic ornaments were the 
only things in this retired place that reminded us of Europe. 
The church or chapel formed one side of a quadrangle, in the 
middle of which a large clump of bananas were growing. On 
another side was a hospital, containing about a dozen miserable- 
looking inmates. 
We returned to the Venda to eat our dinners. A con¬ 
siderable number of men, women, and children, all as black as 
jet, collected to watch us. Our companions were extremely 
merry ; and everything we said or did was followed by their 
hearty laughter. Before leaving the town we visited the 
cathedral. It does not appear so rich as the smaller church, 
but boasts of a little organ, which sent forth singularly in¬ 
harmonious cries. We presented the black priest with a few 
shillings, and the Spaniard, patting him on the head, said, with 
much candour, he thought his colour made no great difference. 
We then returned, as fast as the ponies would go, to Porto 
Praya. 
Another day we rode to the village of St. Domingo, situated 
near the centre of the island. On a small plain which we 
crossed, a few stunted acacias were growing; their tops had 
been bent by the steady trade-wind, in a singular manner— 
some of them even at right angles to their trunks. The direc- 
1 The Cape de Verd Islands were discovered in 1449. There was a tombstone 
•of a bishop with the date of 1571 ; and a crest of a hand and dagger, dated 1497. 
