Cape Verde Islands

“ Cape Verde Islands (110) , a group of mountainous, volcanic islands, belonging to Portugal, 350 m. from Cape Verde, on the W. of Africa, of which 10 are inhabited, the largest and most productive Santiago and St. Vincent, with an excellent harbour, oftenest visited. These islands are unhealthy, and cattle-breeding is the chief industry.
Capell, Edward, an inspector of plays, born at Bury St. Edmunds; spent 20 years in editing the text of Shakespeare, in three vols., with notes and various readings (1713-1781) . ”

“ They are distant from Cadiz about three hundred leagues; for, according to the masters of the art of navigation, each marine league is equal to four thousand paces. [3] In ancient times these islands were called Fortunate, because of the mild temperature they enjoyed. The islanders suffered neither from the heat of summer nor the rigours of winter: some authors consider that the real Fortunate Isles correspond to the archipelago which the Portuguese have named Cape Verde. If they are at present called the Canaries, it is because they are inhabited by men who are naked and have no religion. ”

“ The uninhabited islands were discovered and colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th century; Cape Verde subsequently became a trading center for African slaves and later an important coaling and resupply stop for whaling and transatlantic shipping. Following independence in 1975, and a tentative interest in unification with Guinea-Bissau, a one-party system was established and maintained until multi-party elections were held in 1990. Cape Verde continues to exhibit one of Africa's most stable democratic governments. ”

“ The island is a barren, treeless waste, surrounded by rocks. Its inhabitants, who live chiefly by the manufacture of salt, by cattle-farming and by fishing, are compelled to import most of their provisions from São Thiago, with which, for purposes of local administration, Maio is included.
São Thiago (63,000) is the most populous and the largest of the Cape Verde Islands, having an area of 350 sq. m. It is also one of the most unhealthy, except among the mountains over 2000 ft. high. ”

“ Item: From the Castilian and Portuguese sea-charts it appears that the said line of demarcation was neither drawn nor determined; because, in the model sea-charts deposited in the India house of trade in Sevilla, this line or meridian is found drawn from pole to pole so as to cut our hemisphere three hundred and seventy leagues from the island of Sancto Anton, the last of the Cabo Verde islands. It also cuts the coast of Brasil about two degrees from the equinoctial line through the land of Humos, the tropic of Capricorn, the Cape of Dospermitas, and the river of Sant Salvador. ”

“ Those who live there neither eat bread nor drink wine during four or five months, nor anything else except goat flesh or fish or turtles. All this they told to the Admiral.
He left there Saturday, June 30, at night for the island of Santiago, where he arrived on Sunday at the hour of vespers, because it is distant 28 leagues: and this is the principal one of the Cape Verde Islands. He wished to take from this island a herd of black cattle in order to carry them to Española as [326] the Sovereigns had ordered, and he was there eight days and could not get them ”

“ Had the cable parted in the night we should not have had room to have let go the small bower, and must have gone on the rocks.
In the afternoon we sailed, ran along the Canary Islands, and in five days afterwards anchored off the island of Goree. This small, tolerably well-fortified island is a few miles from Cape de Verde. It possesses no harbour, but the anchorage off the town is good. It produces nothing but a few cotton bushes. The inhabitants are very poor. They manufacture cotton cloths, in which they clothe themselves. ”

“ Brandan’s Island far west of the Cape Verde group and emphasizes it by showing Antillia independently in a more northern latitude and less western longitude and also of quite insignificant size and form. ”

“ After much trouble we ultimately selected two colleagues from the older universities. The arrangement with one of these, an anthropologist, was, unfortunately, a failure, and ended at the Cape Verde Islands. The other, a geologist, Mr. Frederick Lowry-Corry, took up intermediate work in India, and subsequently joined us in South America. The Admiralty was good enough to place at our disposal a lieutenant on full pay for 9navigation, survey, and tidal observation. ”

“ Cabral, discovery of Brazil, 34, 40 Cabral Bay, 40–1 Cairns: — legends re, 232, 278 — memorial, 232 Caldero: see Atalaya California: — history and descriptions, 328–32 — university, 330 Calvo, Señor, 61 Canary Isles: see Grand Canary Cannibalism, 173, 225–6, 259, 280, 283, 285 Canoes, 278, 283, 296 Canoe-shaped ahu: see under Ahu Cape Verde Islands, history and descriptions, 27–31 Caribbean sea, 368 Caroline Islands, 302 Carvings: — in stone: on Motu Nui, 261, 275 at Orongo, 262–3 see Statues, design on, and carvings incised on in wood: — human figures, 268–70 — objects, 268 see also under Ao ”

“ This is one of the most fruitful of the Cape Verd Islands, abounding in hogs, poultry, guinea fowl, monkeys, maiz, oranges, lemons, dates, water-melons, plantains, bananas, and other fruits, having good water, but troublesome to get at, and wood is very dear. The inhabitants of this island were formerly Portuguese, banished thither for murders, thefts, and other crimes; but are now mostly all black, in consequence of these men having issue by their female slaves, which were Guinea negroes. ”

“ Brandan’s Island is a neighbor on his map. Ortelius, in 1570184 (Fig. 10) and Mercator, in 1587,185100 represent Y Verde west of Vlaenderen in the region north of the Azores. In the eighteenth century it still held its ground west of France in the eastern Atlantic as Isla Verde, Isla Verte, Ile Verte, Ilha Verde, and Green Island. By the early part of the nineteenth century it had, after its kind, dwindled to Green Rock—Brazil Island similarly becoming Brazil Rock—as dubious rocks became easier to believe in than dubious islands. ”

“ We hope to see Antonio, one of the Cape Verd Islands, to-morrow. The anxiety with which we look for the smallest island is inconceivable to those who have not been exposed for many days to the monotony of time passed on the ocean. ”

“ Man, or Mayda, is frequently a more southern and western companion of Brazil Island on the old maps and may stand for Bermuda or for some jutting point, like Cape Cod, on the American coast. Some indications connect it with the Bretons, some with the Arabs. It has borne divers names. We cannot tell who first found and reported it.
The Island of the Seven Cities derived its name from a very credible Spanish and Portuguese tradition of escape from the Moors by sea early in the eighth century. It may first have been localized as St. Michaels of the Azores, where a valley still bears the name. ”

“ In 1461, a fort was erected in the isle of Arguin on the African coast of the Moors, to protect the trade carried on there for gold and negro slaves. Next year, 1462, Antonio de Noli, a Genoese, sent by the republic to Portugal, entered into the service of Don Henry, and in a voyage to the coast of Africa, discovered the islands which are known by the name of the Cape de Verd Islands, though they lie 100 leagues to the westward of that Cape. ”

“ The island was inhabited, from 1811, by American whale fishers. After them, English soldiers were installed there to watch the St. Helena seas, and these remained until after the death of Napoleon, in 1821. Several years later the group of islands populated by Americans and Dutchmen from the Cape acknowledged the suzerainty of Great Britain, but this was not so in 1839. My personal observation at that date convinced me that the possession of Tristan d'Acunha was not worth disputing. In the sixteenth century the islands were called the Land of Life. ”

“ To the south the bare peaks of Desolation Island, beginning from Cape Pilar, rose with terrific boldness, unscaleable shafts and towers of rock that recalled the shapes of the Coolin hills in Skye or the still loftier summits of the Lofoten Isles in Norway. To the north a mysterious fringe of islands and foam-girt reefs, grey and dim among their mists, hid the entrance to Smyth's Channel and the labyrinth of almost unexplored sounds and inlets along the Chilean coast beyond. ”

“ Continuing here for ten days, in hopes of meeting the Speedwell, but in vain, the crew of the Success became much disheartened, so that Clipperton had much difficulty in persuading them to persist in the enterprize. The Cape de Verd islands, called Salt islands by the Dutch, derive their name from Cape de Verd on the coast of Africa. The sea which surrounds them is covered by a green herb, called Sergalso or cresses by the Portuguese, resembling water-cresses, and so thickly that hardly can the water be seen, neither can ships make their way through it but with a stiff gale. ”

“ From hence westwards and towards the north, are the kingdoms of Gambra and Budamel, not far from the river Senegal; and from thence toward the inland region and along the coast are the regions of Ginoia or Guinea. On the west side of this region is Cabo Verde, caput viride, Cap Verd, or the Green Cape, to which the Portuguese first direct their course when they sail to the land of Brazil in America, on which occasion they turn to the right hand towards the quarter of the wind called Garbino, which is between the west and south. ”

“ The south-east trade blows almost ceaselessly for ten months of the year. Terrific storms sometimes break over the island; and it has been more than once visited by earthquakes. A profitable trade is done in coco-nuts, but there are few other exports. The imports are almost entirely foodstuffs and other necessaries for the inhabitants, who form a patriarchal colony under a private proprietor.
The islands were discovered in 1609 by Captain William Keeling on his voyage from Batavia to the Cape. ”

“ Though not as near the African coast as Fuerteventura, which is only about 60 miles from Cape Juby, the island is very African in aspect in places, the camels, the vast stretches of blown sand and the absence of vegetation being suggestive of the Sahara.
The few springs in the north of the island are utilised for growing crops of wheat and tomatoes, but are not of sufficient size to allow of any extensive plan of irrigation, and in the south the inhabitants depend entirely on rain water. ”

“ As “Illa Verde” on the Catalan Map of 1480
In another well-known map177 (Fig. 7) , an unnamed cartographer, said to be Catalan, probably about 1480, delineates an elongated Illa Verde (using the Portuguese name for island) , locating it southwest of Iceland, which bears the name Fixlanda, but is easily identifiable by its outline and geographical features. His Illa Verde runs nearly north and south, approximating more closely than Coppo’s island the true trend of Greenland. It also by its greater bulk seems founded on more adequate information. ”

“ Cape Verde, the Prasum Promontorium of West Africa, is the 'Trafalgar,' the westernmost projection, of the Dark Continent 'fiery yet gloomy;' measuring 17° 3' from the meridian of Greenwich. The coast is exceedingly dangerous ”

“ Its existence would shorten the time of receiving and transmitting news between England and Brazil very considerably, and the evils arising from such an event as the detention or loss of the Seine be greatly mitigated:—
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 ”

“ Now then as almost all the lands from the Cabo Verde islands to the Malucos, are, for the most part quite distinct from the equinoctial, it will take a much greater number of degrees when they are transferred and drawn on the spherical body. ”

“ They had familiarised their minds to plans of resistance and outrage, but had not the heart to carry them into effect, till, one daybreak, they found themselves off a cluster of small uninhabited islands fifty leagues to the southward of Madeira, and nearly in its longitude, the name of which the narrator did not know. The central island, about three miles round, was high, flat and green at top, but clearly uninhabited; the temptation was irresistible: here was a place where everything might be hidden; why run risks to avoid the English, in order to benefit their captain and the owners? ”

“ Fairfield encouraged the students to study up the geography and history of the Cape Verds, in the absence of Mr. Mapps.
Like some of the other islands they had seen, their appearance from the ship was that of barren wastes of rock and lava. Off Porto Praya a pilot was obtained; for the port has one of the best harbors to be found among the Isles of the Sea, though a heavy sea sometimes breaks in on the shore, which renders it almost impossible to land. It was necessary to coal the steamer here, and while the work was in progress the students were allowed to go on shore. ”

“ This island is entirely inhabited. It extends a long way from east to west, and little from north to south. Its south latitude is in 10 deg., and the longitude 174 deg. 30 min. from the line of demarcation.
In all these islands that we visited in this archipelago, the evil of Saint Job prevailed, and more here than in any other place, where they call it “for franki”, that is to say, Portuguese illness.⁠ [400]
We were told that at a day’s voyage, west-north-west from Timor, there was an island in which much cinnamon grows, called Ende;⁠ [401] its inhabitants are Gentiles, and have no king. ”