MADEIRA TO CAPE VERDS, WITH A GLANCE AT THE CANARIES.
Oceanic Sailing again.—Halcyon weather, and modern steaming
to the _Fortunatæ Insulæ_ of the Ancients.—A stave on the
saffron-coloured singing birds.—Touching Teneriffe, and
Miltonic parallel to the Arch-Enemy.—Approach to Porto Grande,
and what we found there, especially its extensive accommodation
for steamers.—Deficiency of water the one draw-back.—Something
concerning Ethiopic Serenaders under the Line.—Promethean
Promontary extraordinary.—A memento of mortality midway
in the world.—Portuguese rewards honourably earned by
an Englishman.—Utility of Consuls in such places.—First
acquaintance with an earthquake.—Verd Grapes soured by a
paternal government.—Interchange of news between the Outward
and the Homeward bound.—A good propelling turn towards a
brother of the screw.
[Illustration: HOTEL, FORMERLY CONVENT, TENERIFFE.]
Or other worlds they seem’d, or Happy Isles,
Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old,
Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales,
Thrice happy isles.—Paradise Lost, Book iii.
This track is, generally speaking, about the most pleasant in the
Atlantic Ocean; fine sunny weather and fresh north-east trade winds,
which blow with tolerable regularity nearly the whole year round,
rendering it very easy sailing indeed, and proportionably agreeable to
passengers, who may be supposed by this time to have attained their
sea-legs. In our case the wind was, unfortunately too light to be of much
use, as a vessel going from ten to eleven knots, under steam, must have a
very strong breeze to get a-head of such speed and assist the machinery,
as well as obtain another knot or two. We pass the Canaries (or Fortunate
Isles, as they were called,) to windward, having in view the far-famed
Peak of Teneriffe, upheaving high its giant bulk 12,182 feet, and
keeping our course direct for St. Vincent. The Canaries are naturally
associated with our earliest school-boy notions, as the original home
of the charming little universal household songster,[37] to whom they
have given their name, but here called thistle-finch, and having for its
companions the blackbird, linnet, and others of the same tuneful and
now Saxonized family. The real Canary of these islands, however, the
_Fringilla Canaria_ of Linnæus, and which still abounds here, is not of
the saffron or yellow colour it attains in Europe; but is, in its wild
state, the colour of our common field or grey linnet, the yellow hue
being the result of repeated crossings in its artificial state amongst
us. The Canaries are amongst several other islands that were known to the
ancients, but not discovered by modern Europe until the middle of the
fifteenth century, when, after a brave resistance from the natives, the
Spaniards conquered and have since retained them.
Though not exactly in the route of the Argentina, nor intended to be
touched at by any of the company’s vessels, still being comparatively so
near the Canaries, and especially of that particular one whereof mention
is made by the great English bard, in verse as majestic as the phenomenon
he speaks of:
On the other side, Satan, alarmed,
Collecting all his might, dilated stood,
Like _Teneriff_ or Atlas, unremoved:
His stature reach’d the sky, and on his crest
Sat horror plumed.—Paradise Lost, Book iv.
we must present a souvenir of our proximity to so celebrated a vicinage;
and we cannot do so in a more graceful or welcome form than the sketch
prefixed to this chapter.
The Cape Verds consist of seven principal islands, and were tolerably
populous, but of late years have been subjected to a continuous
emigration to South America and the West Indies, where, like the hardy
mountaineers from Madeira, they are found most useful in tilling the
soil, and in other laborious occupations; thus demonstrating the
fallacy of the old notion, that laziness is the predominant element in
the Spanish and Portuguese idiosyncrasy. What appears to be a present
disadvantage, in regard to this human flight from the Verds, may prove
beneficial hereafter, when the Ilheos (as they are called) return to
their homes, possessed of a little money wherewith to improve their
social and moral condition. The islands produce wine, barilla, large
quantities of orchilla weed, and cochineal, the cultivation of which
is rapidly forming a more and more considerable item of export. Steam
navigation will ere long bring them into much closer commercial contact
with the world, and enhance the appreciation of their products and
natural advantages. The climate is fine, though subject to occasional
high temperature and frequent droughts. Despite the name Verds,
suggestive of Arcadian animation, nothing can be more desolate than the
appearance of the islands, as approached from the sea; bold, high rocks,
against which the surge breaks violently, with mountains towering in the
clouds, are general characteristics, to which those of the island of St.
Vincent offer no exception. On our arrival the weather was thick, with
drizzling rain, as we made Porto Grande; and only cleared up in time to
enable us to see Bird Island, a most remarkable sugar-loaf rock, standing
right in the entrance of the bay, after passing which we reached the
anchorage ground in a few minutes. A more convenient little harbour can
hardly be imagined, being nearly surrounded with hills (or mountains as
they may be called), which protect it from all winds save the westward,
where Bird Island stands as a huge beacon, most admirably adapted for
a light-house, and on which it is to be hoped one will soon be placed.
There is deep water close to the shore on most sides of the bay, that
where the town is built being the shallowest; and here some wooden
jetties are run out, having very extensive coal and patent fuel _depôts_
close at hand, where these combustibles are put into iron lighters, and
sent off to the vessels. So beautifully clear is the water in the bay
that you can see the bottom at a depth of from twenty to thirty feet,
literally alive with fish of all kinds, but for which the people seem to
care very little, either for home consumption or export, though there is
no doubt that, in the latter direction, a large business might be done
with profitable results.
Porto Grande must become a most important coaling station, situated as
it is midway between Europe and South America, and close to the African
coast. Several important steam companies have already adopted it, viz.,
the Royal Mail (Brazil), the General Screw, the Australian, as also the
South American, and General Steam Navigation Company, whilst occasional
steamers are, likewise, glad to touch at it. At the period of which I am
writing, the Great Britain was the last that coaled here, on her way
to Australia. In order to meet this increased demand, a proportionate
degree of activity and exertion is observable on shore; and a large
number of iron lighters, carrying from 15 to 40 tons each, are now
in constant requisition, loaded, and ready to be taken alongside the
steamers the instant they cast anchor. Unfortunately, there is a very
poor supply of water, the want of it having been the occasion of frequent
emigration in the history of the islands; but it is understood to be
attainable at a slight expense; and a small outlay conjointly made by
the steam companies might not only procure a plentiful provision of this
all-necessary element, but also other conveniences, essential to the
comfort of passengers. There is no doubt that, as the place progresses,
supplies of meat, fruit, and vegetables, will be forwarded thither
from the neighbouring islands, which are so productive that there is a
considerable export of corn; and the cattle are numerous. Until lately,
fowls were only a penny a piece; and turtles abound. Hitherto there has
been no regular marketable demand for such things; but one, and a large
one too, is henceforth established, from the causes assigned, and will
doubtless be regularly and economically supplied. The labourers here are
chiefly free blacks and Kroomen, from the coast of Africa, most of whom
speak English, and chatter away at a great rate, as they work in gangs,
with a kind of boatswain over them, who uses a whistle to direct their
toil—the movements of all the race of Ham to the days of Uncle Tom, being
seemingly susceptible of regulation to musical noise of some sort or
other; whether the ‘concord of sweet sounds,’ or what would appear to be
such to more refined ears, does not greatly matter.
But for want of vegetation in its neighbourhood, a more picturesque
little bay than Porto Grande can hardly be conceived. Towering a short
distance above the town, is a kind of table mountain, some 2,500 feet
high; and at the opposite side, forming the south-west entrance, is
another very lofty one, remarkable as representing the colossal profile
of a man lying on his back, _à la_ Prometheus. He has his visage towards
heaven, wherein there are generally soaring vultures enough to devour
him up were he a trifle less tender than volcanic granite. The features
are perfect, even to the eyebrows; and a very handsome profile it makes,
though it does not appear that any tropical Æschylus has yet converted
the material to the humblest legendary, much less epic, purpose. On the
shore ground, forming the right side of the bay, looking towards the
town, there is a neat little monument, erected to the lamented lady of
Colonel Cole, who died here on her way home from India. The spot where
she lies is, from its quietude and seclusion, most meet for such a
resting-place, there being a small, conical hill behind, with a cottage
or two near, and a sprinkling of vegetation on the low ground between,
serving to ‘keep her memory green’ in the mind of many an ocean voyager
in his halt at this half-way house between the younger and the elder
world.
This little town was thrown back sadly by the epidemic which afflicted
it in 1850 and decimated the population. During its continuance Mr.
Miller, one of the few English residents, did so much in assisting the
inhabitants, as to elicit from the late Queen of Portugal the honour of
a knighthood, in one of the first orders in her dominions. It requires
no small degree of patience and philanthropy to aid the development
of a place like this, labouring, as it does, under such great natural
difficulties, and where everything has to be brought from a distance,
there not being a tree or a blade of grass to be seen—nothing but dry,
arid sand, or a burnt-up kind of soil. Undoubtedly, the heat is very
great at times; and there are about three months of blowing, rainy
weather, which is the only period when vessels might be subjected to
inconvenience whilst coaling, as the southerly winds drive up a good
deal of sea into the bay. There is an English Consul resident here, Mr.
Rendall, who has done much to assist in bringing these islands into
notice, and into comparative civilization; and, by so doing, has many
times over reimbursed this country in the cost of his stipend of £400 a
year, saying nothing of the services he has performed to shipping, in the
ordinary discharge of his duties.
Cape Verds are a very numerous family of islands, called after a
cape on the African coast (originally named Cabo Verde, or Green
Cape, by the Portuguese) to which they lie contiguous, though at a
considerable distance from each other in some cases. All are of volcanic
formation—one, that of Fogo, or Fuego, once very celebrated as being
visible, especially in the night time, at an immense distance at sea.
The islands generally do not possess any very attractive points, being
unlike Madeira and the Canaries in this respect, as well as in extent of
population, that of the latter being four or five times more numerous
than the others—say about 200,000 in one, 40,000 in the other case,
though some statements make the inhabitants of the Verds considerably
more. The islands are occasionally subject to shocks of earthquakes;
and there was rather a strong one at Porto Grande the night before we
left, supposed on board our vessel to be thunder, from the noise it
made, though we were not aware until next day that a shock had been felt
on shore. The chief product is salt, a valuable article for vessels
trading to South America, though it is here manufactured by the somewhat
primitive process of letting the sea-water into the lowlands, where
the sun evaporates it. Though Porto Grande, in St. Vincent, is the
great place for shipping, and as such almost the only place of interest
for passengers in transit, Ribeira Grande, in St. Jago, the principal
island, and most southerly of the group, is the chief town, though it
is at Porto Playa, (often touched at by ships on the Indian voyage),
that the Governor General resides, particularly in the dry season. The
island second in importance, in point of size, is St. Nicholas, where
are some small manufactories, in the shape of cotton-stuffs, leather,
stockings, and other matters. The orchilla weed, however, is the great
object of governmental interest, and its monopoly is said to yield some
£60,000 per annum; the same wise policy that grasps at that interdicting
the manufacture of wine, though grapes grow in profusion, and are of
excellent quality for the production of a very acceptable beverage.
Before leaving Porto Grande we had the satisfaction of seeing the General
Screw Company’s fine vessel, the Lady Jocelyn, arrive on the day she was
due from India and the Cape of Good Hope, on her way to Southampton, with
mails, and upwards of one hundred passengers. I went on board to give
them the latest news from England, which was of course very acceptable,
and the columns of the leading journals were eagerly devoured. In
exchange I received the ‘Cape News,’ which did not contain anything very
particular, all being quiet there, our old perturbed friend, Sandilli,
and his ebonized insurrectionists of the hills having apparently subsided
into lilies-of-the-valley of peace and philanthropy. The fine steamers
belonging to the General Screw line appeared destined to convey a large
portion of passengers between England and India, in preference to the
overland route; and, certainly, when one could make the passage in about
sixty days, direct, without change of conveyance, and with such splendid
accommodation and such conveniences as these vessels afford, it was only
natural that they should fill well; and a more comfortable, happy-looking
group of passengers I never saw in any vessel.
But, alack for the worthlessness of such moralizings and anticipations
as these. This enterprising company have been obliged to abandon their
Indian contract, owing to their coaling expenses being out of all
proportion to the small sum they received for conveying the mails.
The Cape of Good Hope contract, too, will most likely be given up, to
the great detriment of that important colony, and at the rate we are
progressing, steam communication to Australia does not promise to require
the coaling facilities of St. Vincent; still we are of opinion that this
island must increase in importance, and that whenever coal freights
revert to a moderate scale, steamers will gather there to and from the
Southern Ocean.