The Bruised Canes Are Given To The Hogs, Which Hardly Get Any Other Food, Yet Fatten Wonderfully, And Their Flesh Is So Delicate And Wholesome As To Be Preferred To That Of Poultry.

Many sugar refiners have been brought here from Madeira, on purpose to endeavour to manufacture the sugars of St Thomas more white and harder than its usual produce, but in vain.

This is alleged to proceed from the extreme richness of the soil injuring the quality of the sugar; just as with us, wines produced in soils of too great fertility are apt to have a peculiar flavour. Another cause of this is supposed to proceed from the climate of the island being too hot and too moist, except in the month of June, July, and August, at which season a fresh dry wind blows from Ethiopia to this island; and they then make their best sugars.

The planters are obliged, to ship off their sugars as soon as they can procure shipping, because they would become liquid if attempted to be kept for a length of time. At present, not above two-thirds of the island are appropriated to the cultivation of sugar; but any person who comes to this island for the purpose of settling, whether from Spain or Portugal, or any other country, may procure from the royal intendant as much land as he is able to cultivate, and at a moderate price. The esculent root which is known in the Spanish islands by the name of _batata_, is here named ingame by the Negroes, and is their principal food, either boiled or roasted under the ashes. There are different kinds of this root produced on the island, but that which is known by the name of _igname cicorero_ is preferred by the merchant vessels, all of which purchase considerable quantities as a sea-stock for their homeward voyage, and the Negroes cultivate them largely for the express purpose of supplying the ships[11]. This island is distinguished by a high mountain in the middle, thickly covered by tall, straight, and verdant trees, and its summit is continually enveloped in clouds, whence water is diffused in numerous streams all over the island. A large shallow stream flows through the city of Pouoasan, supplying it with abundance of excellent water, which the inhabitants reckon of a medicinal quality, and allege that St Thomas would not be habitable if it were not for this river and its other numerous springs and rivulets. The native trees are chiefly barren, and though some olives, peaches, and almonds, were planted by the early settlers, which soon grew with great luxuriance, they never bore any fruit, and this has been the case with all stone fruits that have been tried. But the cocoa-nut palm, brought hither from Ethiopia, has thriven satisfactorily. Repeated attempts have been made to cultivate wheat, but always unsuccessfully, though tried at different seasons of the year; as the ear would never fill, but always ran up to straw and chaff only.

In March and September, the sky is always overcast with clouds and mists, and continual rains prevail, which season is considered by the inhabitants as their winter. In May, June, July, and August, which they call _Mesi di Vento_, or windy months, the prevalent winds are from the south, southeast, and southwest; but the island is sheltered by the continent from the north, northeast, and northwest winds; The summer months are December, January, and February, when the heat is excessive, and the atmosphere being continually loaded with vapour, occasions the air to feel like the steam of boiling water. The shores of this island abound in many kinds of fish, and, during the months of June and July, the inhabitants catch a kind which they name _le chieppe_, which are singularly delicate. In the seas between this island and the coast of Africa, there are prodigious multitudes of whales, both of the large and small kinds. - Should you, Sir, be unsatisfied with my ill-written and confused information, I beg of you to consider that I am merely a seaman, unpracticed in literary composition.

[1] Ramusio. Clarke I. 298. This voyage was communicated by the relator to Count Raimond della Torre, a nobleman of Verona. - Clarke.

[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. - Clarke.

[3] This geographical expression is utterly unintelligible, but may be a strange mode of denoting its latitude, which is 15 deg. 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.

[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. - Clarke.

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.

[7] This strange expression seems to imply 4 deg. of north latitude. - E.

[8] Called likewise Balestriglia, being the Venetian name for the cross- staff, or fore-staff, an astronomical instrument which has been superseded by the quadrant and sextant. - E

[9] In an after part of this narrative, the pilot informs us, that his first voyage to the island of San Thome was in 1520, and that he made five voyages to that place. If, therefore, the date of his present voyage were fixed to 1530, it would carry us back to 1450, or even earlier, for the date of this discovery, near thirteen years before the death of Don Henry.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 113 of 219
Words from 115123 to 116140 of 224388