leagues from the kingdom of Castile. This island has plenty of provisions, and abounds in wine and sugar. The north- west wind prevails most, and a great sea rages continually on its coast, particularly in the month of December[2].
[2] A description of the islands of Cape Verd, and an account of the supply of salt usually taken on board by the Portuguese ships at the island of Sal, for the purpose of laying in a sea store of salt fish, is here omitted.--Clark.
If the ships which are bound for the island of St. Thomas find it necessary to obtain a quantity of salt after having taken on board a sufficient supply at the island of Sal , they steer for the coast of Africa at the Rio del Oro; and, if they have calm weather and a smooth sea; they catch as many fish in four hours, with hooks and lines, as may suffice for all their wants during the remainder of the voyage. But, if the weather is unfavourable for fishing at the Rio del Oro, they proceed along the coast to Cape Branco; and thence along the coast to the island of Arguin. The principal sorts of fish on this coast are pagros , called albani by the Venetians; likewise corvi and oneros , which latter are only a larger and darker-coloured species of pagros . As soon as taken, the fish are opened and salted, and serve as an excellent supply of provisions to navigators. All the coast of Africa, from Cape Bojador, otherwise called Cabo della Volta , as far as Cape Branco and even to Arguin, is low and sandy. At Arguin, which is inhabited by Moors and Negroes, and which is situated on the confines between these two nations, there is a capacious harbour, and a castle belonging to our king of Portugal, in which some Portuguese always reside with the royal agent.
On leaving the island of Sal, our ships steer next for St. Jago, another of the Cape Verd islands. This island is situated in fifteen degrees on the equinoctial and thirty leagues towards the south [3].It is seventeen leagues long, and has a city on the coast, with a good harbour called Ribiera Grande , or the Great River, now St. Jago. From two high mountains, one on each side, a large river of fresh water flows into the harbour; and, from its source, full two leagues above the city, its banks are lined on each side with gardens, having fine groves of oranges, cedars, pomegranates, several sorts of figs, and the cocoa-nut palm, which has been long planted on this island. It produces all kinds of vegetables in great abundance and perfection; but they do not afford good seeds, so that it is necessary to procure these every year from Europe. The city is on the south coast of the island, and is well built of stone, being inhabited by about 500 families of distinction, Portuguese and Castilians. Its government is entrusted to a corregidor or governor, appointed by the king of Portugal; and two judges are chosen annually, one for the determination of naval and maritime causes, and the other for regulating the police. This island is very mountainous, and is very barren in many parts, which are entirely destitute of wood; but its vallies are fertile and well cultivated. In June, when the sun enters Cancer, the rains are so incessant that the Portuguese call that month La Luna de las Aquas , or the Water Month. Their seed-time begins in August, when they sow maize, called miglio zaburo . This is a white bean, which is ready to be gathered in forty days, and is the chief food of these islanders, and of all the inhabitants of the coast of Africa[4]. They also sow much rice and cotton; the latter of which comes to great perfection, and is manufactured into striped cloths, which are exported to the country of the Negroes, and bartered for black slaves.
[3] This geographical expression is utterly unintelligible, but may be a strange mode of denoting its latitude, which is 15° N. but I know not what to make of the thirty leagues towards the south, unless the author meant that it was thirty leagues in extent from north to south, and seventeen leagues from east to west.--E.
[4] The description in the text is not applicable to maize, and must refer to some species of bean, or kidney-bean.--E.
To give a distinct view of the commercial transactions with the Negroes, it is proper to inform you, that the western coast of Africa is divided into several countries and provinces, as Guinea, Melegote [5], the kingdom of Benin, and the kingdom of Manicongo. Over all this extent of coast, there are many Negro kings or chiefs, whose subjects are Mahometans and idolaters, and who are continually at war with each other. These kings are much respected by their subjects, almost to adoration, as they are believed to have originally descended from heaven. When the king of Benin dies, his subjects assemble in an extensive plain, in the centre of which a vast pit or sepulchre is dug, into which the body is lowered, and all the friends and servants of the deceased are sacrificed and thrown into the same grave, thus voluntarily throwing away their own lives in honour of the dead. On this coast there grows a species of melegete , extremely pungent like pepper, and resembling the Italian grain called sorgo . It produces likewise a species of pepper of great strength, not inferior to any of that which the Portuguese bring from Calicut, under the name of Pimienta del rabo , or Pepe dalla coda , and which African pepper resembles cubbebs , but so powerful that an ounce will go farther than a pound of the common sort; but its exportation is prohibited, lest it should injure the sale of that which is brought from Calicut[6]. There is also established on this coast a manufacture of an excellent kind of soap from palm-oil and ashes, which is carried on for the king's account. All the trade of this coast, to the kingdom of Manicongo exclusively, is farmed out every four or five years to the highest bidder. Great Negro caravans bring gold and slaves to the stations on the coast. The slaves are either prisoners taken in war, or children whom their parents have parted with in the hope of their being carried to a more fertile country. For above ninety years after the first discovery of this coast, the Portuguese merchants were accustomed to enter the large rivers by which the country is everywhere intersected, trading independently with the numerous tribes inhabiting their banks; but now the whole of this commerce is in the hands of stationary licensed factors, to whom it is farmed.
[5] Called likewise Maleguette, and named also the Grain-Coast and the Pepper-Coast. Manicongo is obviously the kingdom of Congo.--E.
[6] Some of this is smuggled and sold in England.--Clark.
This Guinea pepper is probably that now known under the name of Jamaica pepper; but the extremely pungent kind must be some of the numerous species of capsicums, usually called Cayenne pepper.--E.
On quitting St. Jago we steer southerly for the Rio Grande, which is on the north of Ethiopia, beyond which we come to the high mountain of Sierra Liona, the summit of which is continually enveloped in mist, out of which thunder and lightning almost perpetually flashes, and is heard at sea from the distance of forty or fifty miles. Though the sun is quite vertical in passing over this mountain, and extremely hot, yet the thick fog is never dissipated. In our voyage we never lose sight of land, yet keep always at a considerable distance, carefully observing the declination of the sun, and keeping a southerly course till we arrive in four degrees on the equinoctial [7], when we suddenly change our course to the south-east, keeping the Ethiopian coast always on our left hand in our way to the island of St. Thomas. On this coast, between the tropic and the equinoctial, we never meet with any hard gales, as storms are very rarely found within the tropics. On nearing the land, the soundings in many parts of the coast do not exceed fifty braccia , but farther out the depth rapidly increases, and the sea usually runs high at a distance from the land. When we arrived at Rio del Oro, as mentioned before, we observed four stars in the form of a cross, of an extraordinary size and splendour, elevated thirty degrees above the antarctic pole, and forming the constellation called il Crusero . While under the tropic of Cancer, we saw this constellation very low; and, on directing our balestra [8] to the lowermost of these stars, we found it to be directly south, and concluded that it must be in the centre of the antarctic polar circle. We observed the same constellation very high when we were at the island of St. Thomas; and remarked that the moon, after rain, produces a rainbow similar to that occasioned by the sun during the day, except that the colours were dim and ill-defined. On leaving the straits of Gibraltar, I did not observe any sensible change on the ebb and flow of the sea; but when we approached Rio Grande, which is eleven degrees to the north of the equinoctial, we observed a considerable tide at the mouth of that river, and the rise in some places was much the same as on the coast of Portugal, whereas at the isle of St. Thomas it was nearly
