Cape Verde

“ 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. ”

“ 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) . ”

“ If there is any truth in Plato’s thrilling account, we must look for Atlantis off the western coast of Africa, and here we find that five of the Cape Verde Islands and three of the Canaries have rocks that are unmistakably like those common to the continents. Taking into consideration also the living plants and animals of these islands,21 many of which are of European-Mediterranean affinities of late Tertiary time, we see that the evidence appears to indicate clearly that the Cape Verde and Canary Islands are fragments of a greater Africa.... ”

“ XXX. Nevertheless, impressed with these legends and traditions, the early navigators of this country, when they first commenced to double the Cape of Good Hope on trading voyages, thought it most prudent to make the best of their way to the route from Europe, which had been often tried and was well known. They aimed to fall in with this route about the Cape Verde Islands. The winds there threw them back on this side of the Atlantic, upon the coast of Brazil, and so they had to cross the ocean again to reach the Cape of Good Hope. ”

“ Next day we hove up anchor and started off for Cape Verde. You’d hardly think a small ship so full of men could feel lonely, but the Quest seemed to me to miss our late shipmates. We still carried our passenger, however—Mr. Lysaght, who had intended to leave us at Madeira, but who was so well liked aboard that he was persuaded to stay on a little longer. Immediately on leaving Madeira we picked up the fine north-east trades, and with every stitch of canvas we could carry, bowled along nobly toward the South. ”

“ These differences are apt to create much confusion in the longitudes of places, when not explained by the writers who use these several modes of reckoning; on which account Lewis XIII. of France, by edict in 1634, endeavoured to obviate this inconvenience, by directing the first meridian to be placed in the island of Ferro, the most westerly of the [pg 73] Canaries.2 From these islands they directed their course for the islands of Cape Verde, so named from Cabo Verde, or the Green Cape, a point or mountain on the coast of Africa, called Arlinarium by Ptolemy. ”

“ In Africa numerous tribes and cities are marked even beyond the Equator, in regions inscribed as "Inhabitabiles propter calorem;" but the general shape of the west coast is hardly satisfactory. Fra Mauro knows nothing of the great bend of the Guinea coast; N.W. Africa appears not as a great projection, but only as a gently-sloping shoulder of land; Cape Verde is not the westernmost point of the Continent. This position is given to the traditional "Promontory of Seven Mountains" (north of the Western Nile) , which we have met with in earlier examples. ”

“ Cape Verde's low per capita GDP reflects a poor natural resource base, a 17-year drought, and a high birthrate. The economy is service oriented, with commerce, transport, and public services accounting for 65% of GDP during the period 1985-88. Although nearly 70% of the population lives in rural areas, agriculture's share of GDP is only 16%; the fishing sector accounts for 4%. About 90% of food must be imported. The fishing potential, mostly lobster and tuna, is not fully exploited. ”

“ The fishing potential, mostly lobster and tuna, is not fully exploited. Cape Verde annually runs a high trade deficit, financed by foreign aid and remittances from emigrants; remittances supplement GDP by more than 20%. Economic reforms are aimed at developing the private sector and attracting foreign investment to diversify the economy. Prospects for 2004 depend heavily on the maintenance of aid flows, tourism, remittances, and the momentum of the government's development program. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Some thirty years ago, when the Castilians in the West, and the Portuguese in the East, had begun to search after new and unknown lands, in order to avoid any interference of one with the other, the kings of these countries divided the whole world between them, by the authority probably of Pope Alexander VI, on this plan, that a line should be drawn from the north to the south pole through a point three hundred and sixty leagues west of the Hesperides which they now call Cape Verde Islands, which would divide the earth's surface into two equal portions. ”

“ Those Islands lie between Europe and America, between 36° and 39° N. Lat. and contain about 1200 square miles, and belong to the Portuguese; have a clear sky and a salubrious air, and are extremely fertile, producing wine and various fruits in great abundance; [34] are nearly free from venomous reptiles; are supposed to contain about 250,000 inhabitants. Our stay was short; stood for the Cape Verde Islands, about 15° N. Lat., off the African Coast 300 miles; are about twenty in number, though many of them are of small note, being only barren rocks uninhabitable ”

“ Portugal's density is tripled in the Madeiras936 and doubled in the Azores,937 but drops in the badly placed Cape Verde Island, exposed to tropical heat and the desiccating tradewinds blowing off the Sahara. Spain's average rises twenty-five per cent. ”

“ We took counsel, and resolved to navigate along the coast of this continent towards the east, and never to lose sight of the land. We sailed along until we came to a point where the coast turned to the south. The distance from the landfall to this point was nearly 300 leagues. 122 In this stretch of coast we often landed, and had friendly relations with the natives, 123 as I shall presently relate. I had forgotten to tell you that from Cape Verde to the first land of this continent the distance is nearly 700 leagues ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It was a common saying among Portuguese seamen, [64] that “He who should pass Cabo de Não, either will return or not.” [92] Beyond it was Cape Bojador, in 26° 12 ́ north latitude. This rocky headland, for a time, was also deemed perilous and impassable. “Beyond this cape” it was said, “there is no people whatever; the ground is as barren as that of Libya,—no water, no trees, no grass in it; the sea is so shallow that at a league from the land it is only a fathom deep; the currents are so strong that a ship passing the cape cannot return.” ”

“ As soon as taken, the fish are opened and salted, and serve as an excellent supply of provisions to navigators. All the coast of Africa, from Cape Bojador, otherwise called Cabo della Volta , as far as Cape Branco and even to Arguin, is low and sandy. At Arguin, which is inhabited by Moors and Negroes, and which is situated on the confines between these two nations, there is a capacious harbour, and a castle belonging to our king of Portugal, in which some Portuguese always reside with the royal agent. ”

“ The connection of Portugal with Africa is an old, and—at least it was at first—an honorable one. The voyages of the Portuguese were the first to enrich geography with a knowledge of the African coasts, and so early as 1497 they took possession of the eastern shore by founding the colony of Mozambique. This rule, however, though nominally extending from Delagoa Bay to as far north as Cape Delgado, was confined to two or three isolated points, and nowhere, except on the Zambesi, affected more than the mere fringe of land bordering the Indian Ocean. ”

“ In going from Europe to the western coasts of Africa, situated to the north of the line, it is better still, to pass between the Azores and Madeira, and not to come within sight of the coast, till you have nearly reached the latitude of the point where you desire to land. Nothing but the necessity of procuring refreshments can authorise vessels, bound to the Cape of Good Hope, or to the south of America, to touch at the Canaries, or at the Cape Verd Islands. ”

“ While at this opulent city, he learned from its merchants and traders that the continent extended far southward and was inhabited by many strange people. Fixing his residence on the promontory of Sagres, at the southwestern extremity of Portugal, he began to send the most experienced seamen in the service of Portugal to explore the western coast of Africa. For a time Cape de Não, in north latitude, 28° 45 ́ was considered the limit of safe navigation. ”

“ From Madeira's fair groves we passed barren Masilia, the Cape of Green, the Happy Isles, Jago, Jalofo, and vast Mandinga, the hated shore of the Gorgades, the jutting cape called by us the Cape of Palms, and southward sailed through the wild waves until the stars changed and we saw Callisto's star no longer, but fixed our eyes on another pole star that rises nightly over the waves. The shining cross we beheld each night in the heavens was to us a good omen. ”

“ As has ever been done by all wise people on that coast, a fort was expeditiously erected, overlooking in a peremptory way the native villages and the anchorage; since it is not, for a time at least, safe to trust in such affairs to the conscience of the natives.
Cape Palmas is well suited for such an establishment; the climate is as good as any in tropical Africa. The Cape itself is a small elevation or insulated hill, sloping down towards the continent, into the general expanse of wooded plain or forest ”

“ Antonio is a long low island, called Itaparicá, between which and the port is the channel for large vessels. The scenery near Bahia does not present the striking features that distinguish Rio de Janeiro; it has neither the well-wooded hills nor the lofty precipitous rocks that environ the capital of Brazil. It is, however, very pretty, varied by small hills and acclivities, and ornamented by the tall, graceful cocoa-nut and the usual luxuriant vegetation of Brazil. The Cape, like the coast generally of the province of Bahia, is surrounded by coral rocks ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The great ice current, flowing down the east coast of Greenland and diverted by the Gulf Stream, sweeps round Cape Farewell and is closely packed along this shore until late in the season. Almost the whole coast, with numerous islands and entrances to the deep fjords, may be taken in at a glance from Cape Farewell, or at least from Cape Christian to Cape Desolation. It comprises the whole of the ancient colony of the East Bygd. Great precipices face the sea, with black mountains, 3000 to 4000 ft. high, rising above them. ”