The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-05-11

stretch. then it pours and dries up for
another two years. The Eastern Gable
company's young men Just manage to
survive the nine months they live
there; fortunately for three months
they are allowed to furlough in Eng
land or where else they please and well
they need it.
Mr.. Miller, however, is a man of mill
lions, and water is therefore no object;
indeed, he has it brought over in boat
loads, and has in consequence quite
luxuriant retreat and house on one of
the spurs jutting out along the harbor.
Natives do as much labor as there is
to be done, acting as boatmen, steve
dores and servants-they are half Por-
tuguese, half African, and speak Por-
tuguese as their native tongue, and as
their favorite occupation do nothing.
They somehow manage to exist on the
crumbs gathered from the passing
steamers. OF town there is none; just
struggling T-shaped street Of low
houses. here and there a drinking place
or filthy joint, and here and there a
ship chambers. and that is all. The
society events of the station are usually
confined to entertainments given by
the hospitable crew or passengers of
some steamer or warboat taking on
COAL but there is no diversity, the 60
ing of one ship is the coming of the
next, and there are always two or three
in the harbor. In fact, the monotony
and dust are stupendous. One of the
company's operators once told the
writer, with tears of whisky and lone
illness in his eyes, that the thought he
surely would go mad, living on under
the shadeless blue in the intense heat
with nothing to breathe but air and
nothing to see but sun, and nothing to
drink but impure water, and so on
through the whole gamut of a disap-
pointed life. Even the very ships stay
no longer than they have to, just coal,
|. e., make all the dirt and dust they
can, and away.
Such is St. Vincent at present, the
so-called base for Spain's fleet Of tor
pedo boats and warships. Of course,
in reality this is not the fact; the is
lands belong to Portugal, and the coal
supplies are the property of an English
firm. Cape Verde, however, is not so
far from the Grand Canaries. st. Vim
cent itself could be but the scene of a
naval battle, for the only vestiges of
life, always excepting the miserable
lane or street of houses already de-
cribed, are the ships riding at anchor
in the offing. Nevertheless the place,
such as it is, plays the part of half
way house in the worlds happenings.
| Steamers from South Afica, from the
River Platte the Pacific coast of South
| America, and from Brazil all call there
| and the time-worn, heat-weary rocks
| on the African coast are, after all, a
| factor in our civilization by virtue of
the coal supplies and cables station.
AS to the interior of the island, there
| in none, simply rocks, ever higher and
| higher, till they become mountains. The
| neighboring island of San Antonio is
equally steep and precipitous, but there
| is abundance Of fresh water, and as a
| natural consequence considerable vege-
| tation. There is, however, absolutely
no offing, harbor, or anchorage of any
kind, and consequently this land IS
| quite useless to the wheels of COM
| merce or monitors of war. The rest OF
| the islands are more or less of the same
| nature, but smaller, and some of them
more fertile than San Antonio, hence
| their name.
| Politically, the harbor or coaling
station of st. Vincent, Cape Verde Is
lands, gives one the impression of some
| cave of winds whence issue from the
| empty rocks, in painting gusts, the
| storms that rend the Atlantic west,
south and north, but where itself there
! is a. comparative but potentouS calm.