The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-11
THE CAPE VERDE ISLANDS.
AN IMPORTANT. hut NOT INVITING
GROUP OFF AFRICA.


Calling Place for the Worlds Com
merce-Mr. Mincr's Home There.
From the Chicago Inter ocean.
one hears a 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. islands GER
tainly have few attractions; on the other
hand il has peculiaritIes which at times
make IL seem a part Of Dante's Inferno.
Long before ore 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 10 the Port
uguese settlements. In the meantime all
around is sweltering heat dazzling sun,
and unchanged blue the air clear to
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 fiat, dusky yellow picture
on blue canvas. Dusty brown rocks and
peaks, hard and without relief, stand
ing up against a bright blue background,
with a perfectly clear and deep blue sea
in front, a sea so clear that as the steam
Ners rest at anchor in the bay the half
breed boys swim from the shores 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
lance lends enchantment to the view for
though at long range and before landing
it is not half bad by way of a study an
bizarre effects-vivid ochre, browns, and
uitramarines blues-once on shore 1t IS aW-
fui. Dust and rocks, rocks and dust, here
and there small patch Of tropical shrub
or a half-grown tree, but all dust-covered.
The steamers and warships lie out in the
harbor, which Is excellent and is the rea
son of this veTtable hell's mouth becoming
one of the mouth pieces to civilizations
speaking tubes for the Eastern Gable
Company has a station here, and from st.
Vincent are the movements of ocean
steamers duly chroniced as they ceaseless-
ly come and go to take on coal But to
return 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 along
side a 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 owners
of the coaling station, for the enterprise
of a private firm is responsible for the coal
supplies of st. Vincent, which are brought
over from England in Golfers and then
stored on the island in very large quanti-
ties.
The head of the Miller family controll-
ing this trade is also the resident British
consul; 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 are
a few diminutve Portuguese officials,
brave in uniforms and gold lace, and the
employees of the cable company, the latter
of whom possess, besides their maddening.
clicking instruments, a rickety billiard ia
Die, few sorry horses, which they race
up and down the sandy stretches along the
shore, and large stock of good whisky.
Particular mention is made OF the spirits
because there is no water In this accursed
isle-it has to be brought across in boats
from neighboring San Antonio-and be-
cause sometimes no rain falls there for as
long as Two years at a stretch, then it
pours and dries up for another two, years
The Eastern Gable Company's young men
just manage to survive the nine months
they live there; fortunately for three
months they are allowed a furlough in
England or where else they please, and
well they need it.
Mr.. Miller, however, is a man of mil
lions, and water is therefore no object
Indeed, he has 1t brought over In boat
loads, and has in consequence quite a
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 favorite oc
cupation 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
a snip 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 companys operators
once told the writer, with tears of whiskeS
and loneliness in his eyes, that he though
he would surely go mad, living on undel
the shadeless blue i'm the intense heat
with nothing TO breathe but air and no
thing TO see but sun and nothing to drink
but impure water, and so on through tn
whole gamUt of a disappointed. life Ever
the very ships stay no longer than the!
have to, just coal, /. e., make all the dir
and dust they can, and away.
Such is st. Vincent at present, the so
called base for SPANS feet Of torped.
boats and warships. OF course, in realit,
this Is not the fact The islands belong q
Portugal, and the coal supplies are IN
property of an English firm Capt Verde
however is not so far from the Gran,
Canaries. ST. Vincent itself could be bu
the scene OF a naval battle for the onl
vestiges of life, always excepting the mis-
cradle lane or street or houses alread
described, are the ships riding at ancho
In the offng. Nevertheless the, place
such as il is, plays the part of a half-wa