The evening times., 1898-09-05
THE CAPE VERDE ISLANDS.
An important, But Not Inviting,
Group OF Africa
(From the Chlcago lnter Ocesn.l

From the Chicago Inter ocean.)
One hears good deal of ST. Vincent,
Cape Verde Islands these days but few
people have anything but very vague
Idea as 10 what manner of place it may
De- To speak the truth. the island GER
tainly has few attractions; on the other
hand. II has peculiarities which at times
make II seem a part of Dante's Inferno.
Long before one reaches the Cape Verde
Islands. III fact, from half a days steam
distant, the high mountain peaks away
off on the horizon appear misty and
vague and announce the near approach
10 land and the proximity of the Portu-
guese settlements. In the meantime all
around Is sweltering heat dazzling sun,
and unchanged blue, the air clear TO the
point of a vacuum, and this intensity OF
light has most peculiar effect as one
gets near the island-they seem to stand
out witout any relief in the way of lights
and shadows, fiat, dusky yellow picture
On blue canvas. Dusty brown rocks and
peaks, hard and without any relief, stand
ing up against a bright blue background,
with perfectly clear and deep blue sea
in front sea so clear that as the
steamers rest at anchor in the bay the
half-hreed boys swim from the shore and
dive for silver coins in and out under the
keels of the largest ocean vessels. and
bottom of the ocean catching the coin
and laughing up 10 the surface on the
other side of the ship.
As to the island. in this case surely dis
tance lends enchantment to the view, for
though at long range and before landing
il is not half bad by way of a study in
bizarre effects-once on shore ii is awful.
/ Dust ana rocks. rocks and dust here and
there small patch of tropical shrub or
. q ha n all InSI-cDVeTpu,
The steamers and warships lie out in
the harbor which IS excellent. and is the
reason of this veritable helrs mouth be-
coming one of the mOuthpieces to civili-
Zation's speaking tubes. for the Eastern
Cable Company has a station here. ana
from ST. Vincent are the movements of
ocean steamers duly chrOnicled as they
ceaselessly come and go to take on coal.
But TO return 10 the harbor-it is very
large and in shape like a hrOSeshoe. with
another and comparatively fertile island,
by the name of San Antonio. lying across
the open front and protecting II from the
Atlantic stormS-the ships coming and
going through the opposite corners. One
goes ashore in the inevitable small boat
which bumps alongside a low coaling
wharf. where the first person met with
will probably be the also inevitable En-
lishman, and most likely one of the Miller
family, the millionaire owners of the
coaling station, for the enterprise of pri-
vate firm is responsible for the coal sup
plies of 81. Vincent. which are brought
over from England in collers and then
stored on the island in very large quanti-
ties.
The head of the Miller family controll-
ing this trade is also the resident British
consul; he is married TO a Portuguese
lady and has lots of brothers and sisters
at the old home in Somersetshire, splen-
did country seat not far from Bath.
About the only other white men on the
island are a few diminutive Portuguese
officials, brave in uniforms and gold lace
and the employees of the cable company,
the latter of whom possess, besides their
maddening clicking instruments, a
rickety billiard table, a few sorry horses,
which they race up and down the sandy
stretches along the shore, and a large
stock of good whisky. Particular men,
ton is made of the spirits, because there
is no water in this accursed isle-it has to
be brought across in boats from neigh
boring San Antonio-and because some
times no rain falls there for as long as
two years at a stretch, then it pourS
and dries up for another two years. The
Eastern Cable Company's young men
just manage to survive the nine months
they live there; fortunately for three
months they are allowed a furlough in
England or where else they please, and
well they need it.
Mr.. Miller, however. is man of mil
lions and water is therefore no object.
Indeed. he has 1t brought over in boat
! loads, and has in consequence quite a
| luxuriant retreat and house on one of the
! spurs jutting out along the harbor. The
| natives do such labor as there is to be
| done, acting as boatmen, stevedores and
| servants-they are half Portuguese, half
| African. and speak Portuguese as their
native tongue, and as their favorite occu-
| patton do nothing. They somehow man.
! age to exist on the crumbs gathered from
the passing steamers. OF town there is
none, just a struggling T-shaped street of
low houses. here and there a drinking
place or filthy joint, and here and there
ship chandler's, 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 war boat taking on coal, but
there Is no diversity; the going 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 stu
pendous. One ef the company's opera tors
once told the writer, with tears of whisky
and loneliness in his eyes, that he
thought he would surely go mad, living