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

"A waterless Land of Sun, Rocks and
Desolation-A Sort of Halfway
Hous. For Worlds Commerce.
One hears a good deal of st. Vincent,
Cape Verde Islands, these days, but
few people have anything but a very
vague idea as to what manner Of a
place it may be. To speak the truth,
the island certainly has few attrac-
tons; on the other hand, it has certain
peculiarities 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 distant, the high noun
tain peaks away off ON the horizon APP
pear misty and vague and announce
the near approach to land and the
proximity of the Portuguese settle
ments. In the meantime all around is
sweltering heat, dazzling sun, and I'M
changed blue, the air clear to the point
of vacuum, and this intensity of
light has a 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 flat, dusky
yellow picture on blue canvas. DHS-
ty brown rocks and peaks, hard and
without relief, standing up against a
bright blue background with a perfect
ly clear and deep blue sea in front, a.
sea so clear that as the the steamers
rest at anchor in the bay the half
breed ooys swim from the shore and
dive for silver coins in and under the
keels of the largest ocean vessels, and
one can see them down to the sandy
Iot nf "a no
and suffering and laughing up to the
surface on the other side of the ship
AS to the islands, in this case surely
distance lends enchantment to the
view, for though at long range and be-
fore landing it is not half bad by way
of study in bizarre effects-vivid
ochre, browns and uItramarine blues
once on shore it is awful Dus. and
rocks, rocks and dust, here and there
small patch Of tropical shrub or half
grown tree, but all dust covered.
The steamers and warships lie out in
the harbor, which is excellent, and is
the reason of the veritable hell's mouth
becoming one of the mouthpieces to
civilizations speaking tubes, foI the
Eastern Gable company has a station
here, and from st. Vincent are the
movements of ocean steamers duly
cl1ronicled as they ceaselessly come and
go to take on coal. But to retdrn 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 At
lantic 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 in
evitable Englishman, and most likely
one of the Miller family, the millionaire
owners of the coaling station, for the
enterprise of private firm is RESPONSE
Bile for the coal supplies of st. Vincent,
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 a Por-
tuguese lady, and has lots of brothers
and sisters at the old home in Somer-
setshire, splendid 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 en-
ployees of the cable company, the lat
ter of whom possess, besides their
rnaddening, clicking instruments, a
rickety billiard table, few sorry
horses, which they race up and down
the sandy stretches along the shore,
and large stock of good whisky. Par
ticular mention is made of the spirits,
because there is no water in this ac-
cursed isle-it has to be brought across
in boats from neighhoring San Antonio
and because sometimes no rain falls
there for as long as two years at a