On leaving the island of Sal, our ships steer next for St Jago, another of the Cape Verd islands. This island is situated in fifteen degrees on the equinoctial and thirty leagues towards the south359.It is seventeen leagues long, and has a city on the coast, with a good harbour called Ribiera Grande, or the Great River, now St Jago. From two high mountains, one on each side, a large river of fresh water flows into the harbour; and, from its source, full two leagues above the city, its banks are lined on each side with gardens, having fine groves of oranges, cedars, pomegranates, several sorts of figs, and the cocoa-nut palm, which has been long planted on this island. It produces all kinds of vegetables in great abundance and perfection; but they do not afford good seeds, so that it is necessary to procure these every year from Europe. The city is on the south coast of the island, and is well built of stone, being inhabited by about 500 families of distinction, Portuguese and Castilians. Its government is entrusted to a corregidor or governor, appointed by the king of Portugal; and two judges are chosen annually, one for the determination of naval and maritime causes, and the other for regulating the police. This island is very mountainous, and is very barren in many parts, which are entirely destitute of wood; but its vallies are fertile and well cultivated. In June, when the sun enters Cancer, the rains are so incessant that the Portuguese call that month La Luna de las Aquas, or the Water Month. Their seed-time begins in August, when they sow maize, called miglio zaburo. This is a white bean, which is ready to be gathered in forty days, and is the chief food of these islanders, and of all the inhabitants of the coast of Africa360. They also sow much rice and cotton; the latter of which comes to great perfection, and is manufactured into striped cloths, which are exported to the country of the Negroes, and bartered for black slaves.
To give a distinct view of the commercial transactions with the Negroes, it is proper to inform you, that the western coast of Africa is divided into several countries and provinces, as Guinea, Melegote361, the kingdom of Benin, and the kingdom of Manicongo. Over all this extent of coast, there are many Negro kings or chiefs, whose subjects are Mahometans and idolaters, and who are continually at war with each other. These kings are much respected by their subjects, almost to adoration, as they are believed to have originally descended from heaven. When the king of Benin dies, his subjects assemble in an extensive plain, in the centre of which a vast pit or sepulchre is dug, into which the body is lowered, and all the friends and servants of the deceased are sacrificed and thrown into the same grave, thus voluntarily throwing away their own lives in honour of the dead. On this coast there grows a species of melegete, extremely pungent like pepper, and resembling the Italian grain called sorgo. It produces likewise a species of pepper of great strength, not inferior to any of that which the Portuguese bring from Calicut, under the name of Pimienta del rabo, or Pepe dalla coda, and which African pepper resembles cubbebs, but so powerful that an ounce will go farther than a pound of the common sort; but its exportation is prohibited, lest it should injure the sale of that which is brought from Calicut362. There is also established on this coast a manufacture of an excellent kind of soap from palm-oil and ashes, which is carried on for the king's account. All the trade of this coast, to the kingdom of Manicongo exclusively, is farmed out every four or five years to the highest bidder. Great Negro caravans bring gold and slaves to the stations on the coast. The slaves are either prisoners taken in war, or children whom their parents have parted with in the hope of their being carried to a more fertile country. For above ninety years after the first discovery of this coast, the Portuguese merchants were accustomed to enter the large rivers by which the country is everywhere intersected, trading independently with the numerous tribes inhabiting their banks; but now the whole of this commerce is in the hands of stationary licensed factors, to whom it is farmed.
On quitting St Jago we steer southerly for the Rio Grande, which is on the north of Ethiopia, beyond which we come to the high mountain of Sierra Liona, the summit of which is continually enveloped in mist, out of which thunder and lightning almost perpetually flashes, and is heard at sea from the distance of forty or fifty miles. Though the sun is quite vertical in passing over this mountain, and extremely hot, yet the thick fog is never dissipated. In our voyage we never lose sight of land, yet keep always at a considerable distance, carefully observing the declination of the sun, and keeping a southerly course till we arrive in four degrees on the equinoctial363, when we suddenly change our course to the south-east, keeping the Ethiopian coast always on our left hand in our way to the island of St Thomas. On this coast, between the tropic and the equinoctial, we never meet with any hard gales, as storms are very rarely found within the tropics. On nearing the land, the soundings in many parts of the coast do not exceed fifty braccia, but farther out the depth rapidly increases, and the sea usually runs high at a distance from the land. When we arrived at Rio del Oro, as mentioned before, we observed four stars in the form of a cross, of an extraordinary size and splendour, elevated thirty degrees above the antarctic pole, and forming the constellation called il Crusero. While under the tropic of Cancer, we saw this constellation very low; and, on directing our balestra364 to the lowermost of these stars, we found it to be directly south, and concluded that it must be in the centre of the antarctic polar circle. We observed the same constellation very high when we were at the island of St Thomas; and remarked that the moon, after rain, produces a rainbow similar to that occasioned by the sun during the day, except that the colours were dim and ill-defined. On leaving the straits of Gibraltar, I did not observe any sensible change on the ebb and flow of the sea; but when we approached Rio Grande, which is eleven degrees to the north of the equinoctial, we observed a considerable tide at the mouth of that river, and the rise in some places was much the same as on the coast of Portugal, whereas at the isle of St Thomas it was nearly the same as at Venice.
The island of St Thomas was discovered above eighty365 years ago, by some captains in the royal navy of Portugal, and was altogether unknown to the ancients. Its horizon or parallel passes at an equal distance between the arctic and antarctic poles, and its days and nights are always equal. The arctic polar star is there invisible, but the guardiani are seen in some measure to revolve, and the constellation which is known by the name of il crusero, is seen in the heavens at a high altitude. To the eastwards366 of St Thomas, and at the distance of 120 miles, the small island called Il Principe is situated. This latter island is inhabited and cultivated, the produce of its sugar canes belonging to the revenue of the kings eldest son, from which circumstance the island derives its name. To the S. S. W. or S. and by W. and in the latitude of almost 2° S. is the uninhabited island of Annobon, on which numbers of crocodiles and venomous serpents are found. Its rocky shores abound in fish, and are much resorted to by the inhabitants of St Thomas on that account. When first discovered, the island of St Thomas was an entire forest, containing a variety of trees, which, though barren, were extremely verdant. These trees were all remarkably tall and straight, their branches all drawn close to the stems, and not spreading out as with us. After clearing away a great part of the forest, the inhabitants built a principal town called Pouoasan, which has an excellent harbour. The principal dependence of the settlers in this island is upon their sugars, which they exchange yearly with the merchants who trade thither, for flour in barrels, wines, oil, cheese, leather, swords, glass beads, drinking-cups, pater-nosters, and buzios, which are a small kind of shells, called by the Italians white porcelain, and which pass in Ethiopia as money. The Europeans who reside on this island depend much for provisions on the ships, as they cannot subsist on the fare used by the Negroes. The slaves employed in their sugar plantations are procured from Guinea, Benin, and Congo; and some rich planters have from 150 to 300 Negroes. These work five days in every week for their masters, and are allowed the Saturdays to themselves, when they cultivate various articles of provision, as the miglio zaburo, a species of bean formerly mentioned, a root called igname, and many species of culinary vegetables, the seeds of which must be imported from Europe, as they do not come to perfection in this climate.
359
This geographical expression is utterly unintelligible, but may be a strange mode of denoting its latitude, which is 15° N. but I know not what to make of the thirty leagues towards the south, unless the author meant that it was thirty leagues in extent from north to south, and seventeen leagues from east to west. –E.
360
The description in the text is not applicable to maize, and must refer to some species of bean, or kidney-bean. –E.
361
Called likewise Maleguette, and named also the Grain-Coast and the Pepper-Coast. Manicongo is obviously the kingdom of Congo. –E.
362
Some of this is smuggled and sold in England. –Clarke.
This Guinea pepper is probably that now known under the name of Jamaica pepper; but the extremely pungent kind must be some of the numerous species of capsicums, usually called Cayenne pepper. –E.
364
Called likewise Balestriglia, being the Venetian name for the cross– staff, or fore-staff, an astronomical instrument which has been superseded by the quadrant and sextant. -E
365
In an after part of this narrative, the pilot informs us, that his first voyage to the island of San Thome was in 1520, and that he made five voyages to that place. If, therefore, the date of his present voyage were fixed to 1530, it would carry us back to 1450, or even earlier, for the date of this discovery, near thirteen years before the death of Don Henry. –Clarke.
In Mr Clarkes note on this passage, he erroneously calculates on the above data that the discovery might have been in 1460, which is only seventy years back from 1530. But the result of the data in the text shews, that either the pilot was mistaken as to the real date of the discovery, or that his narrative has been corrupted, so that no reliance can be placed on his dates. –E.
366
The direction of