The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1898-07-02
CAPE VERDE ISLANDS,
AN IMPORTANT, BUT NOT INVITING
GROUP OFF AFRICA.

"aCeriess, Sun-ScOrched Calling
Place For the Worlds Commerce,
One hears a good deal of St. Vim
cent, Cape Verde Islands, these days,
but few people have anything but q
very vague idea as to what manner of
place it may be. To speak the truth,
the island certainly has few attrac-
tons; on the other hand, it has Pc
cullarltles which at times make it
seem a part of Dante's Inferno.
Long before one reaches the Cape
Verde Islands, in fact, from half q
days steam distant, the high noun.
tain peaks away off on the horizon
appear misty and vague and announce
the near approach to land and the
proximity of the Portuguese settle
ments. Dusty brown rocks and peaks,
hard and without any relief, standing
up against bright blue background,
with q perfectly clear and deep blue
sea in front, sea so clear that as 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 catch
ing the coin and laughing up to the
surface on the other side OF the ship.
The steamers and warships lie out
in the harbor, which is excellent, and
is the reason of this forbidding spot
becoming one of the mouthpieces to
civilizations speaking tubes, for the
Eastern Cable Company has station
here, and from St. Vincent are the
movements Of ocean steamers duly
chronicled as they ceaselessly come
and go to take on coal. But to re-
turn to the harbor-it is very large
and in shape like a horseshoe, with
another and comparatively fertile
island, by name San Antonio, lying
across the open front and protecting
it from the Atlantic storms-the
ships coming and going through the
opposite corners. One goes ashore in
the inevitable small boat, which
bumps alongside q low coaling wharf,
where the first person met with will
probably be the also inevitable Eng
lishman. and most likely one of the
Miller family, the millionaire owners
of the coaling station, for the enter
prise Of private firm is responsible
for the coal supplies of st. Vim
cent, which are brought over from
England in GOLFERS and then stored
on the island in very large quantities.
The head of the Miller family con-
trolling this trade is also the resident
British Consul; he is married to q
Portuguese lady and has lots of broth
ers and sisters at the old home in
Somersetshire, o splendid country
seat not far from Bath. About the
only other white men on the island
are q 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 in
struments, a rickety billiard table, a
few sorry horses, which they race up
and down the sandy stretches along
the shore, and q large stock of
whisky. Partiular mention is made
of the spirits, because there is no
water in this isle-it has to be brought
across in boats from neighboring San
Antonio-and because sometimes no
rain falls there for as long as two
years at o 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 q
furlough in England or where else
they please, and well they need it.
Mr.. Miller, however, is man of
millions, and water is therefore no
object. Indeed, he has it brought
over in boatloads, and has in conse-
quence quite 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, act
ing as boatmen, stevedores and SER
vants-they are half Portuguese, half
African, and speak Portuguese as
their native tongue, and as their fav-
orite occupation do nothing, They
sometimes manage 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 chambers and that is all.
The society events Of the station are
usually confined to entertainments
given by hospitable crew or passen-
gers of some steamer OF war boat talk
ing 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 stupendous.
One Of the company's operators once