The age-herald., 1898-09-03
THE CAPE
 VERDE ISLANDS

have yt1ing but very vague idea as to what manner of place it may be- To speak the truth, the island certainly has very few attractions; on the other hand 1t has pe- culiarfties which at times make it seem a part of Dante's Inferno
 Long before one reaches the Cape Verde Islands, in fact, from half a days steam distance, the high mountain peaks away on in the horizon appear misty and vague and announce the near approach to land and the proximity of the Portuguese settleA ments In the meantime. all around is sweltering heat dazzling sun, and unA changed 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 without any relief in the way of lights and shadows, a fiat, dusky yellow picture blue can vass. Dusty brown rocks and peaks. hard and without any relief. standing up against bright blue background, with perfectly clear and deep blue sea in front, a sea so clear that the steamers rest at anchor in the bay the half-breed boys swim from the shore and dive for silver coins in and out under the keels of the largest ocean vessels, and one can see them down to the sandy bottom of the ocean catching the coin and laughing up to 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 1t is not half bad by way of study in bizarre effects-once on shore 1t is awful. Dust and rocks, rocks and dust. here and there fo6 nf fropioa1 or a holf- grown tree, but all dust-covered.
 The steamers and warships lie out in the harbor which is excellent and is the req son of this veritable hell's mouth becoming one of the mouthpieces to civilation's speak, ing tubes, for the Eastern Cable company has a station here, and from St. Vincent are chronicled they ceaselessly come and go to take on coal. But to return to the har- bor-it is very large and in shape like horseshoe. with another and comparatively fertile island, by the name of San Antonio, lying across the open front and protecting it from the Atlantic storms-the ships com- ing and going through the opposite corners. One goes ashore in the inevitable small boat which bumps along a low coaling wharf, where the first person met with will probably be the also inevitable Englishmen, and most likely one of the Miller family, the millionaire owners of the coaling sta- tion, for the enterprise of a private firm is responsible for the coal supplies of St. Vincent. which are brought over from Eng land in colliers and then stored on the is- land in very large quantities.
 The head of the Miller family controlling this trade is also the resident British con- sul; he is married to a Portuguese lady and has lots of brothers and sisters at the old home in Somersetshire, a splendid country seat not far from Bath. About the only other white men on the island and a few di- minutive Portuguese officials, brave in uni forms 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 mention is made of the spirits, because there is no water in this accursed sle--lt has to be brought across in boats from neighboring 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 East ern Cable companys young men just man- age to survive the nine months they live there; fortunately for three months they are allowed furlough in England or where else they please, and we'll they need it.
 MT. Miller, however, is a man of millions, and water Is therefore no object. Indeed, he has it brought over in boatloads and has in consequence quite a luxuriant retreat and house on one of the spurs juttihg out along the harbor. The natives do such labor as there is to be done, acting as boatmen, stevedores and servaflts-they are half Por- tuguese. half African, and speak Portui guese as their native tongue, and as their favorite occupation do nothing. They some- how manage to exist on the crumbs gath cred from the passing steamers. Of town there is none. just a struggling T-shaped street of low houses, here and there drinking place or filthy joint and here and there ship chander's, and that is all The society events of the station are usually confined to entertainments given by the hospitable crew or passengers of soma 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 ara always two or three in the harbor. In fact the monotony and dust are stupendous, One of the companys operators once told the writer, with tears of whisky and 1oneli- ness in his eyes, that he thought he would surely go mad, living on under the shade less 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 disappointed life. Even the very ships stay no longer than they have to- just coal, 1. e., make all the dirt and dust they can, and away.
 Such is St. Vincent at pfesent the so- called base for Spains fleet of torpedo boats and warships. Of course, in reality this is not the fact. The islands belong to Portugal, and the coal supplies are the property of an English firm. Cape Verde, however, is not so far from the Grand Ca- naries. St. Vincent itself could be but the scene of a naval battle, for the only tiges of life, always excepting the mlsera- ble lane or street of houses already de- scribed, are the ships riding at anchor in the offing. Nevertheless. the place, such as 1t is. plays the part of haf-Way house in the worlds happenings. Steamers from South Africa, from the River Platte. the Pacific coast of South America, and from Brazil, all call there, and the tme-worn, heart-weary rocks on the African coast are after all factor in our civilization by virtue of the coal supplies and cable station.
 As to the interior of the island. there is none, simply rocks, ever high and higher, till they become mountains. The neighbor- ing island of San Antonio is equally steep and precipitous, but there is abundance of fresh water, and. as natural conseQuence.