Portugal,
and their flesh, after being salted and dried at St Jago, is exported to
Brazil. There are no fruit-trees in this island, except a few wild figs
in the interior; besides which, it produces colocinth, or bitter apple
which is a very strong purge.[134] This island has a very dry climate,
except during the rainy season, which begins in August and ends in
February, but is not very regular.
[Footnote 134: Cucumis Colocynthis, a plant of the cucumber family,
producing a fruit about the size of an orange, the medullary part of
which, when ripe, dried, and freed from the seeds, is a very light,
white, spongy substance, composed of membranous leaves, excessively
bitter, nauseous, and acrid.]
The island of St Antonio is inhabited by about 500 negroes, including
men, women, and children, who subsist chiefly on goats, and also
cultivate a small quantity of cotton. On the sea-side they have
extensive plantations of lemons and oranges, whence they gather great
quantities every year. These were very readily supplied to the Dutch by
the negroes in exchange for mercery goods, but they saw neither hogs,
sheep, nor poultry in the island.
Sailing from St Vincent's on the 25th July, they anchored in the road of
Sierra Leona on the 11th August.
