The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-01
THEY HAVE LONG LIVED UNKNOWN
Mysterious White Race of People
That Inhabit African Mountains.

That Inhabit African Mountains.
From the New York Journal.
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 a matter
of tradition among all those who have de-
voted their attention to the ethnographi-
cal and geographical science of the dark
continent, and Rider Haggard and other
English novelists have found in 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 in the interior of San
Jago, the largest of the Cape Verd islands,
which nestles 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 absolutely cut off from all
intercourse with the outer world, and who
are fair haired, light compexoned and
blue eyed whereas the remaining popula-
ton of the Cape Verd islands consist CT
| negroes and of Portuguese, who are al
most as swarthy and somber in color as
full-blooded Africans.
San Jago the mountain of San Antonio
towers aloft in a pinnacle to the hight of
some 5000 feet. In form it conveys the
impression of an ancient volcano, with It's
sharp slope on the side toward the sea
But on the island side the declvity is
broken by a sort of cup-shaped interval
at the further end of which there is the
stump of what seems in times gone by
to have constituted a second peak of equal
hight to San Antonio, but which through
some great cataclasm of nature has been
broken off some 1900 or 5000 feet above
the common base
Strangely enough the peak of San An
tonic is accessible to clever mountaineers,
whereas the sister mountain, that is to
say, the broken off peak, is quite the re-
verse. From the point where it rises
from the surrounding desert tableland
there is nothing but a steep wall of vol
canic rock, not merely hundreds, but
probably a couple of thousand feet high
indeed the only point where access could
ever be obtained to the summit of the sis
ter mountain of San Antonio would be
| from the cup-like 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 Cantadas
lake. II is a great sheet of water OF mar
velous depth and clearness.
on this farther end of the lake. and in
the interior of this sister mountain of San
Antonio. dwell the mysterious white race
known the Cantadas. Dstrustful, APP
parently, of the gaze of strangers, these
people of the mountain seldom leave their
habitations during day time, and on the
slightest alarm of visitors they seek the
shelter of the rocks. But by hiding on the
opposite cliffs until evening, and with the
aid of glasses, ii is possible TO get a
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 in flowing white linen gar
ments, which scarcely conceal the sinuous
beauty of perfect grace and form, come out
to wash linen in the lake and to sport on
the COO. green grass. The men too are
4 mpiy dressed in much the same way, their
white linen garments being admirably
suited to the tropc climate. Many other
signs of a high degree of civilization APP
pear, and from certain points near the
summit of San Antonio it is possible, with
the aid of strong glasses, to catch
gmpses 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-roofed houses
running parallel with one another al.
brilliantly lighted by the sun, and there
fore leading to the belief that the interior
OF this sister mountain OF San Antonio
must be followed out into some valley
possibly the crater OF an extinct vo.cano
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 Cantadas
people All that would be necessary would
be TO ascend the San Antonio peak. TO de-
scend on the other side until one reach
ed the cliffs that overhang the cantadas
JAKE, to have oneself lowered by means
OF a rope to the surface OF the latter, and
then 70 swim across the lake which may
be anywhere from four TO six miles In
length,
Certain scientists who have Investigated
the tradition and rumors that exist about
the Cantadas among the Inhabitants.
African and Portuguese, OF the Cape Verd
Islands, are inclined 20 the belief that they
are OF Cornish origin This theory he due
TO the fact that what IL stated TO be their
tongue resembles the dialect OF the natives
of Cornwall more than any other known
language.
Young Artist (who has had all his