The times., 1898-09-05
England or where else they please, and

England or where else they please, and
well they need II.
Mr.. Miller, however is a man of mil
lions and water is therefore no object.
Indeed, he has il brought over in boat
loads. and has in consequence 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 acting as boatmen. stevedores and
servants-they are half Portuguese. half
African. and speak Portuguese as their
native tongue. and as their fayorite 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 chambers 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 of the company's operators
once told the writer, with tears of whisky
and loneliness in his eyes, that he
thought he would surely go mad. living
on under the shadeless blue in the intense
heat. with nothing 10 breathe but air and
nothing TO see but sun and nothing TO
drink but impure water and so on
through the whole gamut of a disap-
pointed life. Even the very ships stay no
longer than they have TO, just coal l. e..
make all the dirt and dust they can, and
away
Such is St. Vincent at present, the So
Hal in aF
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
Canaries. St. Vincent itself could be but
the scene of a naval battle. for the only
yestiges of life, always excepting the mis-
rable lane OF street of houses already
described. are the ships riding at anchor
in the offiug. Nevertheless. the pace.
such as it is. plays the part of halfway
house In the worlds happenings. Steam
ers from South AfricA, from the River
Platte the Pacific coast of South Ameri-
ca, and from Brazil. al call there. and
the time-worn. hsat-weary rocks on the
African coast are after all a factor in
our civilization by virtue of the coal sup
plies and cable station.
AS 10 the interior of the island. there IS
none, simply rocks, ever higher and high
er. till they become mountains The
neighboring island of San Antonio is
equally steep and precipitous, but there
Is abundance of fresh water. and. as a
natural consequences. considerable vege-
tation. There is, however, absolutely no
offing. harbor or anchorage of any kind,
and consequently this land is quite use
less TO the wheels of commerce or morfi-
top-s of war The rest of the islands are
more or less of the same nature. but
smaller. and some of them are more fer
tile than San Antonio. hence their name.
Politically, the harbor. or coaling sta
ton. of st. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands,
gives one the impression of some cave
of winds whence issue from the empty
rocks. in painting gusts the storms that
rend the Atlantic west, south and north,
hut where itself there is a comparative
but portentous calm. The ships that pass
by day and night appear but as small
birds along the steep sides of the two
islands. and the sizzling heat, with the
perpetual puffs of hot air and accompa-
nying dust, make 1t a veritable entrance
to hades Curiously enough, at very
nearly the same latitude, and right across
the Atlantic. on the coast of Brazil. lies
Pernambuco meaning helrs mouth, but
of the two places the name most certainly
more aptly fits st. Vincent. Cape Verde.