The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-25
THE CAPE VERDE ISLANDS
THEY ARE OWNED BY PORTUGAL,
AND ARE NOT A SPANISH BASE.
Coal supply Owned and Controlled by
No Special Privileges.
NJ. C. H., in 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 to
what manner of place 1t may be. TO speak
the truth, the island certainly has very few
attractions; on the other hand. Is has GER
tain peculiarities which, at times, make it
seem a part of Dante's Inferno-a veritable
hell on earth. only approached in its utter
forlornness and desolation by Pocatello
Junction, Idaho. or, at least, so 1t seems to
the writer, after turning over in his minds
eye all the denominations of desolation he has
ever visited
Long before one reaches the Cape Verde
islands, in fact, from half days steam
distant, the high mountain peaks away off
on the horizon appear misty and vague, and
announce the near approach to land and the
proximity Of the Portuguese settlements.
In the meantime all around is sweltering
heat dazzling sun, and unchanging blue,
the air clear to the point of vacuum, and
this intensity of light has most peculiar
effect as one gets near the islands-they
seem to stand out without any relief in the
way of lights and shadows, a fiat, dusky
yellow picture on blue canvas-you know the
seashofe scene in the pantomime of Robin
son Crusoe-well, there you have it, only in
the real sense there are no palms. Dusty
brown rocks and peaks, hard and without
relief, standing up against a bright blue
background with q perfectly clear and deep
blue sea 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 catching the coin and suffering and
laughing up to the surface on the other side
of the ship.
AS to the island, in this case surely dis
lance lends enchartment to the view, for
though at long range and before landing 1t
Is not half bad by way of study. in bizarre
effects-Vivid ochre, browns, and ultrama-
rtne blueS-once on shore 1T is awful. Dust
and rocks. rocks and dust, here and there
small patch of tropical shrub a half
grown tree but all dust covered.
The steamers and war ships lie out in the
harbor, which is excellent, and is the rea-
son of this veritable hell's mouth becom-
ing one of the mouthpieces to civilizations
speaking tubes for the Eastern Gable Com
pany has a station here, and from st. Vim
ships duly chronicled as they ceaselessly
come and go to take on coal. But to return
to the harbor-it is very large and in shape
like horseshoe. with another and compar-
atively fertile island. by name San Antonio,
lying across the open 'front.' and protecting
it from the Atlantic stoTms-the ships COM
One goes ashore in the inevitable small
boat, which bumps alongside low coaling
wharf. where the first person met with Will
probably be the also inevitable Englishman,
and most likely one of the Miller family,
the millionaire owner Of the coaling station,
for the enterprise of a private firm is re-
sponsible 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.
COAL AND WATER SUPPLY.
The head of the Miller family controlling
this trade is also the resident British con-
sui; he is married to Portuguese lady, and
has lots of brothers and sisters at the old
home in Somersetshire, splendid country
seat not far from Bath. About the only
other white men on the island are a few
dminutive Portuguese officials, brave in
uniforms and gold lace, and the employees
of the cable company, the latter of whom
possesses, besides their maddenng clicking
instruments, a rickety billiard table, few
sorry horses, which they race up and down
the sandy stretches along the shore, and and
mention is made of the spirits, because
there is no water on this accused isle-it
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 Company's young men just man
age to survive the nine months they live
there, fortunately, Tor three months Iney
are allowed Through IN England or where
else they please, and we'll they need it.
Mr.. Miller, however, is a man Of millions,
and water is therefore no object: indeed he
has it brought over in boat loads, and has
in consequence quite q luxuriant retreat
and house on one of the spurs jutting out
along the harhor 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. Port
uguese as their native tongue and, like
Charles Kingsley, as their favorite occupa-
ton do nothing. They somehow manage to
exist on the crumbs gathered from the pass
ing sfeamers-the odd silver coins thrown
over the vessels sides. OF town there is
none; just struggling T-shaped street Of
or filthy Joint and here and there a ships
chambers, and that is all. The society
events of the station are usually con
fined to entertainments given by the
hospitable crew or passengers of some
steamer warboat taking on coal but
there is no diversity, the going Of one ship
is the coming of the next, and there are al
ways two or three in the harbor. In fact,
the monotony and dust are stupendous.
the writer. with tears of whisky and loneli-
ness in his eyes, that he thought he surely
would. 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 imported
water. and so on through the whole gamut
stay no longer than they have to, just coal,
l. e. make all the dirt and dust they can,
and away.
NOT A BASE OF SUPPLIES.
Such is st. Vincent at present, the So
called base for Spain's fleet of torpedo boats
and war ships. 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 Caparies. st. Vim
cent itself could be but the scene of naval
battle, for the only vestiges Of life, always
excepting the miserable lane or street of
houses already described, are the ships rid
ing at anchor in the offng. Nevertheless,
the place, such as it is plays the part of
halfway house in the worlds happenings.
Steamers from South Africa from the River
Plata 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 civiliza-
ton by virtue of the coal supplies and cable
station.
AS to the interior of the island, there is
none simply rocks ever higher and h,gher,
till they become mountains. The neighbor-
ing island of San Antonio is equally steep
and precipivous. but there Is abundance OF
fresh water. and. as a natural consequence,
considerable vegetation. There Is, now
ever absolutely no offing. harbor. or an
chorage of any kind, and consequently, TINS
land is quite useless TO the wheels or COM
merce or monitors OF war. The rest or the
islands are more or less of the same nature,
but smaller, and some of them mere FERTILE