Star.
London, England, 1821-11-23 00:00:00

nOll THE SIERRA LEONE GAZETTE.

ST. JAGO, APRIL SO.

The inhabitants of this island are evidently of the
African race: they are generally tall and meagre in
their persons, and seem as if they were miserably
poor. They all speak Portuguese, and those who
have much intercourse with the shipping chatter l,
English tolerably well. The island . presents a most
dreary, barren, and burnt-up appearance; and clouds
ofblackish sand, driven by the strong winds now
prevailing, are quite intolerable. Cultivation is car-
ried on in the interior parts of the island ; the best
soil is found on the flats and sides of the ravines, and
almost all kinds of Eurripean vegetables and fruits
are here raised in very great abundance and perfec-
tion. It is in such situations, where the alluvial soil
is tich and fertile, that the inhabitants have fixed
their principal residences, and have formed farms:
on their farms they rear cattle, sheep, horses, hogs,
and almost all kinds of poultry, which they dispose
of to the shipping upon very moderate terms in gene-
ral. In the mai ket-place of Porto Praya there were
daily exhibited for sale cabbages, sweet potatoes,
pumpkins, oranges, garli:, parsley, onions, Indian
corn, yarns, pegs, and water melons, in abundance,
and very cheap: 100 fine large oranges for a dollar;
fowls were dearer than usual, but four or five large
ones were offered in the country for a dollar. An ox
weighing 3601b5. cost thirty dollars; turkies were a
dollar to a dollar and a half each, and well grown
pigs were sold for six or seven shillings. There is a
breed of small horses, of not a bad description; their
average price appeared to be about forty dollars
each. Fine large jack-asses were offered for sale for
five and six dollars each; these animals are most useful
to the inhabitants in carrying the produce of their
farms to market. If any person would bring a hun-
riled or more of these useful animals into the colony
of Sierra Leone, he would be well paid for his trouble
and expense; and it is to be hoped tlfat the enter-
prising spirit of our merchants will soon be extended
to this speculative adventure, which, it is certain,
would be found as advantageous to the interest and
convenience of the colonists, as profitable to the per-
son engaged in the transaction.
It is asserted that the Slave Trade is carried on to
as great an extent at the Cape de Verde Islands as it
was in any former period ; and the constant and re-
gular intercourse which the inhabitants preserve with
the Portuguese slave factories of Bissao and Cached
fully warrant the strongest suspicions, if less evidence
of their transactions were unknown. Every free in-
habitant has a number of domestic slaves, and those-
who are fortunate in acquiring wealth ate said to
display their independence and consequence in their
domestic circle, by an increased number of Africa's
stolen children. There are a number of shops in the
town, but'they contain very little. There are only
two or three merchants on the island, and they are
supplied with goods chiefly from America. The ex-
ports from the island are not worth speaking of; the
inhabitants are principally supported by the shipping,
without which, indeed, they would soon be reduced
to absolute wretchedness.
The inhabitants of Bonavista, St. Nicolas, and the
other islands, with the exception of St. Jago, had pub-
licly proclaimed the " Constitution." A similar spi-
rit of independence had manifested itself among the
more respectable inhabitants of St.Jago : the respect,
however, they owed to their Governor only protracted
the public avowal of their intentions; but it now ap-
pears that they had grown weary of delay, and that
the Commandant (Colonel Medina) assembled all the
troops, and, in a formal and most solemn manner,
declared for a free Constitution. He was then im-
mediately solicited by the people and the soldiery to
proceed, as their Representative, to the Cortes as-
sembled at Lisbon.