Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-08-30
A MYSTERIOUS RACE.
A SETTLEMENT OF WHITES WHO
 HAVE LIVED 300 YEARS UNKNOWN.


 Cut or From the World In Their Noun tain Home Beautiful, Falr Haired,
 White skinned Girls Clad In Snowy Linen Garments.
 That white races of mysterious origin and of an advanced grade of civilization exist in certain of the as yet unexplored plateaus of Africa has long been mat ter of tradition among all those who have devoted their attention to the eth biographical and geographical science Of the dark continent. and Rider Haggard and other English novelists have found i'll reports bearing upon the subject the theme of many of their most popular stories
 But no attention has been drawn as yet to the fact that i'll the interior of San Jago, the largest of the Cape Verde islands. which nestle in the Atlantic off the most westerly point of northern Africa, there exists a strange people known by the name of the Cantadas, who for 300 years past have been abso- lutely cut off from all intercourse with the outer world, and who are fair haired, light eomplexioned and blue eyed, whereas the remaining population of the Cape Verde islands consists of negroes and of Portuguese. who are almost as swarthy and somber ill color as full bloeded Africans.
 Clear and sharp against the sky line of San Jago the mountain of San An tonic towers aloft in pinnacle to the height of some s, GOO feet In form 1t conveys the impression of an ancient volcano, with its sharp slope on the side toward the sea, but on the inland side the declivity is broken by q sort of cup shaped interval, at the farther end of which there is the stump of what seems in times gone by to have eonsti- tuted q second peak, of equal height to San Antonio, but which, through some great cataclysm of nature, has been broken off some 4,000 or 5000 feet above the common base.
 Strangely enough, the peak of San Antonio is accessible to clever noun taineers. whereas the sister mountain that is to say, the broken off peak-is quite the reverse. From the point where it rises from the surrounding desert table land there is nothing but 9 steep wall of volcanic rock, not merely hun dreds but probably 8 couple of thou sand feet high Indeed the only point whence access could ever be obtained to the summit of the sister mountain of San Antonio would be from the euplike interval which divides the two, and mention of which has been made above.
 This cup, however, is filled with water and Is known by the name of the Gantadas lake. It is great sheet of water of marvellous depth and elearness.
 On this farther end Of the lake, and i'll the interior of this sister mountain of San Antonio, dwells the mysterious white race known as the Cantadas Dis trustful, apparently, of the gaze of stran- gers, these people of the mountain sell dom leave their habitations during day time, and on the slightest alarm of visitors they seek the shelter of the rock But by hiding on the opposite cliffs un- til evening and with the aid of glasses 1t is possible to get good view of them when they begin at sunset to gather on the grassy meadow which fronts the opening of the caves and extends down to the waters edge.
 Beautiful, fair haired, white skinned girls, clad i'll flowing white linen gar ments, which scarcely conceal the sinu- eus beauty of perfect grace and form, come out to wash linen ill the lake and to sport on the cool green grass. The men, too, are simply dressed in much the same way, their white linen gar ments being admirably suited to the tropic climate Many other signs of a high degree of civilization appear, and from certain points near the summit of San Antonio it is possible, with the aid of strong glasses, to catch glimpses through Assures here and there in the wall of rock of the twin mountain, of sheep and cattle grazing, Of green fields and trees and of white, flat reofed houses running parallel with one another, all brilliantly lighted by the sun, and there fore leading to the belief that the inte- rior of this sister mountain of San An tonic must be hollowed out into some valley, possibly the crater of an extinct volcano, which, through some freak of nature, has been converted from barren basalt and lava into grassy and fertile slopes.
 An intrepid explorer would not have great difficulty in reaching the Gantadas people. All that would be necessary would be to ascend the San Antonio peak, to descend on the other side until one reached tho cliffs that overhang the Cantadas lake, to have oneself lowered by means of rope to the surface of the latter and then to swim across the lake, which may be anywhere from four to six miles in length.
 Certain scientists who have investi- gated the tradition and rumors that ex- ist about the Cantaaas among the in- habitants, African and Portuguese, of the Cape Verde islands, are inclined to the belief that they are of Cornish origin. This theely is due to the fact