Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1860 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXX. CAPE VERD ISLANDS. The Cape Verd Islands--Origin--Droughts--Population--Climate--Mayo--Boavista--Sal--Fuego--San Vincent--Porto Grande--American Graveyard--San Antonio--Brava--St. Jago--Porto Praya--Untold Incidents--Homeward Bound--The U. S. Steamer Jamestown--Home Again--Adieu. The Cape Verd Islands, situate between 14 48' and 17 12' N. lat., and 22 43' and 25 23' W. long., have been long and favorably known to the seafaring and commercial men of Europe and America, as a half-way house, or caravanserai on the seas, between the ports of Europe and South America, and those of America and Africa. They are visited frequently also by the homeward-bound Indiamen of Great Britain, and by American whalers. In later years they have obtained some notoriety as being the rendezvous of the American African Squadron. The group (sometimes, but incorrectly, called the "Cape de "Verdes Islands") takes its name from Cape Verd on the opposite coast, 400 miles distant, and was discovered in the year 1450 by Antonio Noli, a Genoese in the service of the prince of Portugal. The inhabited islands are ten, namely: St. Jago, Sal, Boavista (generally called Bonavista), Mayo, Fuego, or Fogo, Brava, St. Nicholas, St. Vincent, St. Antonio, and Branco. Besides these there are several islets, barren and without inhabitants, remarkable only as the resort of fishermen and sea-birds, and for the grotesque beauty of their dark cliffs and foam-lashed shores, and the well-characterized types of their geological formations. These islands are all of volcanic origin; the fruit, no doubt, of the same subterraneous throes which gave the Madeiras and Canaries to the superaqueous world. There are, however, abundant evidences of distinct and well-marked periods of...
